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Welcome to the Lexicon Wiki[edit]
This is the main starting page for Malcolm Gin's Lexicon Wiki gaming platform.
To find out more about Lexicon games in general, see this article on Wikipedia.
Lexicon is a written, asynchronous role playing game for folks interested in writing a fictional, or at least partially fictional encyclopedia or dictionary (or lexicon). The idea is that a simple set of rules and the Wiki platform help you and a number of your peers put together a hyperlinked encyclopedia of knowledge about whatever world you derive or invent while you play. Each player plays as a scholar, and the scholar you play writes an article about at topic that is somehow related to all the other topics (present or future) already in the lexicon. Play proceeds over the course of days, weeks or months, each round in whatever frequency's decided by the game master(s)/misstress(es) and cycles through the alphabet. See House Rules below for more information on the particular mechanics for games on this Wiki.
For a list of active games, visit the Community portal.
House Rules[edit]
This Lexicon Wiki's house rules are as follows:
- Every player must know at the very least the Basics of writing and editing MediaWiki Articles
- Every players must know the Order of Play (below) (ref. copy of basic rules of lexicon)
- Every player must create an account on this Wiki (contact MalAdmin or email him at malcolm.gin@gmail.com to create an account)
- Every player must know his/her/eir/zir Game Master and how to reach em
- Every player must know his/her/eir/zir Game Prefix (ask your Game Master for this)
- In every game, each player should consider volunteering to help the Game Master process the turn's submissions or help out it other ways
- Every player is responsible to know the particular game's turn sequence, frequency of turns, and responsible to submit his/her/eir/zir submissions on time
Order of Play[edit]
For every game of Lexicon, there is a particular order of play. After the turn sequence is hammered out (e.g. A letter per week through the entire alphabet. 100 - 200 words. Submissions due on Fridays.), the order of play is as follows:
- The first turn is always special. On the first turn, all articles' topics or titles start with the first letter of play (usually A). You write the article you want, the length specified and you link to two other yet-to-be-written articles. These articles are phantoms and will display as red links. That's okay. On this Wiki, be sure to use the game prefix in your links to other articles. Also you may link to pre-existing phantoms that someone else initially linked to. See Sample Article A for an illustration.
- On subsequent turns, you write the same length article, an article topic or title starting with the next letter in the sequence (usually B, C, D, etc.) and you link back to at least one existing, already written article (e.g. for a B article, you link at to at least one existing A article) and then you link to two more yet-to-be-written (phantom) articles. A visual clue: the articles that are phantoms that should display in red until they're written or dibbed. Players may link to phantoms that other players have already linked, as long as the articles are phantoms during that turn. See Sample Article B for an illustration.
- On any turn where there are phantom articles for that letter, players MUST give preference to and write articles on phantom articles instead of creating and writing their own topic. Players can only write their own topic if there are no more phantom articles left to dib for that letter during that letter's turn.
- It's an academic sin to cite yourself. Players never cite their own articles.
- You must treat all your peers' (fellow players') articles as factual. You may argue the point and shade the interpretation, but if it's already written and in the Lexicon, you can't just deny it.
Notes:
- It is okay for article authors to link to more than the required 2 maximum phantom articles as long as those in excess of the 2 maximum were already linked by another author. So you can link to more than one phantom article as long as no more than 2 are entirely new (or "First Linked").
- It is also okay for article authors to link back to more than the required 1 existing, already written article in their new articles. The 1 existing article requirement is a minimum, not a maximum.
- It is also okay for article authors to link to external archives for additional context and information.
- It is technically okay for additional links (forward or back) beyond the minimums to link to your own works, but be aware that other scholars may give you trouble for it and call your academic integrity into question.
Turn Timeline[edit]
lex.malcolmgin.com Changelog[edit]
Getting started with MediaWiki[edit]
Consult the User's Guide for information on using the wiki software.
