Ghyll:Main Page
Welcome to the world of Ghyll. 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 Ghyll.
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 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.)
The core of the game is based on the principles of Neel Krishnaswami's "Lexicon: an RPG".
Game Status
- Next deadline: August 31st, for letters A and B.
- Current events: News and further information about the state of play.
- Lexicon discussion: Talk about the game, rules, questions, and OOG concerns.
Game Rules
New players may join in at any time (see "Using the Wiki" below for more information on how to get started). The game rules are defined below and vary from the original Lexicon manifesto, primarily to handle an ever-changing player base, as well as to increase the length of game play indefinitely.
- On the first turn, each player writes an entry starting with the letter 'A'. Entries MUST refer to two "phantom", not-yet-written, terms.
- On subsequent turns, players write entries for subsequent letters. Entries MUST refer one (or more) existing terms, as well as two phantoms.
- It's an academic sin to cite yourself in your required per-turn citations. You MUST intermingle with entries not your own.
- "Dibbing", i.e. reserving a phantom, is to prevent two players from writing the same entry. You may only dib on the current letter.
- All of the phantoms for a letter should be defined (or have dibs called) before any new entries are posted for that letter.
Ghyll is different from previously played Lexicons (like The Toothpaste Disaster and Nobilis) primarily because there is no pre-existing world for the Lexicon entries to take place, conceptually, in. Ghyll doesn't exist. We don't know if the world of Ghyll is fantasy, cyberpunk, sci-fi, horror, or all four and more. Ghyll is a blank slate, and will be defined and finessed by our entries. Anything goes until everyone knows.
Using the Wiki
To participate in Ghyll, create an account, and login to it. Defining a new entry (of the current turn's letter) is as simple as going to its URL. For example, to create Crab apples, simply go to http://gamegrene.com/wiki/Crab_apples in your browser, click "edit", and begin typing your entry. More information about wiki syntax, (creating headers, links, bold, italic, etc.), can be found at Wikipedia:Help:Editing. Note that this link takes you to a third party site -- be sure not to edit or test your skills on their nicely honed pages.
Each defined entry automatically has a "discussion" page. When discussing a current entry (in-game or not), do so on this "discussion" page and not the actual entry itself. Think of the "discussion" pages as the place to write your own little footnotes in the encyclopedia's margins. Be warned though: other scholars will see your footnotes and may take heated issue with your judgments!
Here are some helpful links to enhance your use of the wiki:
- All pages: Every page created so far.
- Phantom pages: Entries which have yet to be defined.
- Short pages: Minimally defined entries that could use fleshing out.
- Special:Listusers: Users of this wiki, with their own discussion pages.
