Just me thinking again. I was wondering if it would be possible or advantagious for the matter to creat a sepperate gallery for NPC Character images? That would perhaps make it easier for other writers to find images of NPC's they desire.

I think that's an excellent idea, Dann.

Well there are a few ways we can do this:

1. We simply use the Gallery for the site. And either RPM or myself can make up a User, and we'll call that user simply 'NPC'. Then use it to make a gallery. We can increase the size of the Gallery but then to maintain the size it costs around $5 or $10 every few months, and that will eventually add up.

2. Lac and I talked briefly about this before. It is not difficult to get a site, and I know a place where the site would cost about $25.00 per year, and that's just to re-register the domain name, the site itself is actually like $3.00 a year. What this gives us is a site to hold all the images people could want. Tough thing (but not for a programmer) is to create a nice easy interface to make uploading images simple. If we went this route I think I could probably request the host to create the site.

I often use Fetch to just connect and upload and download to my site, but others may not find it that easy or convenient.

Those are just my ideas, someone else may have something better. Krakyn?

I have no problem contributing either way.

Here's my thoughts:

Why reinvent the wheel?

Photobucket is completely free, not to mention very reliable, and we can place the images on their site. Once the images are uploaded, we put the images in a topic specifically for NPC images, perhaps in the thread they are pertinent to, or in the gallery (if it's not too much of a burden). That way, they are available to any player at any time, just as they have been so far in our stories.

I already have a Photobucket account. I would gladly upload the images into an album specifically for NPC's then place thm in a thread here. If a player wanted to use them, they could simply look up the link in the image properties and use the BBC code for imbedding images in their posts.

This way it keeps us from having to pay any out of pocket expense on a yearly or monthly basis we need to be concerned with making sure we don't forget.

Sounds good to me. Just an addition thought. Why not create an account on Photo Bucket in the site (BifrostBridge) name. Then we don't have to be concerned with filling anyones photo bucket account.

An even BETTER idea.

Photobucket:
Limitations: 1 GB storage space; 25 GB/month bandwidth; 1MB (1024KB) file size limit; Extensions allowed: .jpg, .png, .gif, .bmp, .swf

Sounds good to me. I use my own site for my pictures, and I prefer because one thing I have noticed with the free photo sites is that once you upload a picture they create their own file name for it. If you modify the photo, the name changes and consequently all you links are broken when you upload the new picture and delete the old. A minor convenience, but for me since I love to constantly like modify my pictures it's annoying.

Photobucket is a great solution for everyone though, I think everyone should be able to fend for themselves. There is not really need for a community photobucket account. Once people have their NPC's uploaded, if you want to have large pool of graphics to draw from. Just create a Post, and call it NPC Pics or something, then everyone can set up links and even descriptions there. It would be nice to have little right-ups on NPCs so all writers can move them use them appropriately.

Every story forum can have an NPC thread. And each one can even be given a designation:

Community Property - This is an expendable NPC, anything goes
Personal NPC - Can be manipulated, all but the moderator have to ask permission for any major use.
Exclusive - This character may eventually be bumped up to a major character.

I guess that's gets a little over complicated but it would be nice to have NPC areas.

Community Property - This is an expendable NPC, anything goes
Personal NPC - Can be manipulated, all but the moderator have to ask permission for any major use.
Exclusive - This character may eventually be bumped up to a major character.

That is a great concept I agree. Like I eluded to earlier this is something we need to consider for the future as we grow. The on site gallery will work for now I suppose. But I likie to be prepared.

This could probably fall under an entirely new heading, but since we are somewhat on the topic.

Yeah, I just feel that as the amount of NPC's or Sub-character's increase in a story, situations arise where another writer may have to deal with them to realistically portray their own character. We can actually save ourselves some discussion, if there is a library of NPC's with a few tidbits of information to guide us. But this only is necessary if the NPC is reoccurring, we can easily give other people a heads up when a sub-character is just thrown in for effect.

When it comes to NPC's that have a larger part play, we could add them to library and easily let people know how important they are and even describe their personality, quirks, character flaws, etc.

The information can even updated to let people know what is happening behind the scenes, if the information really doesn't warrant a post.

Those are just some ideas, and I stress 'ideas'. The system works just fine, but if we ever had a thread that may involve up to seven or more writers, we may find that the extra bit of organization could help things along.

These are all good ideas. Members of a story thread should feel free to create a topic for NPCs if they so desire.

We may not have to create titles (expedible/exclusive/etc.), for--although it's a good idea--a creator can simply state in the post about the NPC exactly how they want other writers to treat the characer, including all shades of gray inbetween.

Otherwise, we should default to the forum rules and assume that all NPCs are the exclusive property of the creator until/unless the creator says otherwise.

Just a thought on the whole communal use of NPCs thing, and sorry if someone said this and I just misunderstood but why not store all of our own characters on our own photobuckets, NPC or PC, and just post the URLs to the pictures in the NPC thread? All you need to post a picture is the URL anyway so if there is a handy list of who's who then anyone who has gotten permission to use an NPC can just go into that thread and copy-paste it to be able to use the picture. Seems like it would work the same way basically as a gallery or a Bifrost Photobucket account.

What do you guys think?

Despite the interesting discussion above...

They aren't quite "NPCs" now are they? Calling them non-player (playable?) characters is rather idiotic. We should call them support characters or something, at least that makes sense.

True. The NPC would only apply in a thread with moderation, like RISUS Dungeoneers, where as the GM, I have NPC's that will have story specific plots and plans that would not be mutable by the PC's in that thread.

Maybe there should be a tiered level of Playable Characters as suggested above, but topped out with main characters:

Common Characters- Usable by all without limitations
Named Characters- "Give me a post or two and then he is all yours" types
Major Characters- Requires permission/discussion prior to use
Player Characters- Player only

And as they are introduced to a story a simple (CC) or (MC) after thier name would let the other players in the story know how usable they are.

For example:

Jim crouched behind his bed and watched the door slowly open. The massive figure outlined in the door frame could only belong to his old Uncle Biddy(NC). What was Biddy doing here at this time? Shouldn't he be in Spain with the rest of the family?

Basically Biddy would only be used for a post or two and then go back to Spain, but would be free to use by others in the story after his plot point had been expended by the person who introduced him. Maybe he needexd to deliver a message and once that was done he left, but another person in the story wanted to have him return as an alien clone trying to take over the world or something...

Anyway, just my thoughts on the matter.

Not to beat a subject to death, BUT.
It has occured to me that by storing the images off site it might make it easier to post them in the thread, as you write a post.