Terra Altan Lexicon Wiki

Welcome to the Terra Altan Lexicon Wiki
This wiki is for a Lexicon game played by the MSPA Fora. Lexicon is a wiki-based worldbuilding RPG invented by Neel Krishnaswami.

Link to Forum Thread: The Celesterran Lexicon

The Game:
You are all historians and explorers in the Age of Reason after the fall of the Chrome Empire. Your mission is to discover the secrets and plain truths lost in the Obfuscation, to collect, catalouge, and collate knowledge of Terra Alta and the Shadowlands, so that we may at last have a definitive reference of knowledge, a great Encyclopedia of Celesterra!

The basic idea is that each player takes on the role of a scholar, from before scholarly pursuits became professionalized (or possibly after they ceased to be). You are cranky, opinionated, prejudiced, and eccentric. You are also collaborating with a number of your peers -- the other players -- on the construction of an encyclopedia about this world. Despite the fact that your peers are self-important, narrow-minded dunderheads, they are honest scholars. No matter how strained their interpretations are, their facts are as accurate as historical research can make them. So if you cite an entry, you have to treat its factual content as true! (Though you can argue vociferously with the interpretation and introduce new facts that shade the interpretation.)

Some Important Pages:
- The Great History : A timeline of everything we've worked out.

- Who's Who : When you mention somebody, stick them here and give them a sentence or so.

- Where's Where : A catalouge of geographical and aerographical facts about Celesterra.

- The Table of Contents and the Phantom Index : Invaluable to any scholar, these pages hold all existing entries, and all phantoms, respectively.

- Celesterran Classifications : A list of the category pages.

Just what is this, exactly?
Lexicon is what is known as a "worldbuilding RPG," designed by Neel Krishnawimi in his blog "20' by 20' Room." (sadly, the original post has been deleted.) The rules are below: Here's a play example, taken from the successful Lexicon game called Ghyll:
 * 1) Scholars shall dib (reserve), and then write, one entry per turn. Entries are something like 100-200 words, although that's no more than a rule of thumb and there's no upper limit. Turns loop from A to Z back to A.
 * 2) Entries shall cite at at least two phantom (unwritten) entries and, after the first turn, one existing entry.
 * 3) Scholars shall neither cite themselves, nor write phantoms they were the first to cite. After all, it's an academic sin to cite yourself!
 * 4) After the first turn, all phantoms for a letter shall be written before new entries are created.
 * 5) Of your required two phantom citations, only one cited phantom can be new. All other phantoms must have been used first in a previous article. (Note: In the first turn, where there are no previously-cited phantoms, you may have two new phantoms.)
 * 6) The required per-turn citations must not be to entries or phantoms created in the current turn.
 * 7) Rule of A: During turn A, scholars may write new A entries instead of defining an existing A phantom.
 * 8) Rule of X: If no turn X phantoms remain, you may write a previous letter's phantom instead.
 * 9) Rule of Have Fun: Have fun!

Example of Play (first turn)

 * 1) On the first turn, Sean B. Palmer defines his one entry for the letter A: Andelphracian Lights (Rule 1).
 * 2) In Andelphracian Lights, he creates two phantoms: Bysted Timperton and Quester and Phorrus (Rule 2).
 * 3) Sean B. Palmer may never define Bysted Timperton and Quester and Phorrus now. (Rule 3).
 * 4) On the next turn, all phantoms for the letter B (like Bysted Timperton) must be defined (Rule 4).

Example of Play (all other turns)

 * 1) It's turn 2, letter B, and scholars must first define all phantoms starting with that letter (Rule 4).
 * 2) Sean B. Palmer wants the Bureau of Forgotten Knowledge and commits an edit saying so (Rule 1).
 * 3) He searches for the expression/term in the "search" box to find any unlinked mention of his entry.
 * 4) He writes the entry, and cites two phantoms (existing or not) and one previously written entry. (Rule 2).
 * 5) His citations, however, must not be those he's previously created (Rule 3).
 * 6) His citations must also have been created or defined before the current turn of play. (Rule 5).

Some Important Pages:
- The Great History : A timeline of everything we've worked out.

- Who's Who : When you mention somebody, stick them here and give them a sentence or so.

- Where's Where : A catalouge of geographical and aerographical facts about Celesterra.

- The Table of Contents and the Phantom Index : Invaluable to any scholar, these pages hold all existing entries, and all phantoms, respectively.