However, Pantheon is different. If viewed a certain way, we are many authors writing the same story. My goals may or may not be achieved! There are surprises in my story, because it's not exclusively mine. Even when I'm annoyed when what I'm trying to do is messed with by someone or other, I'm thrilled about the interaction of it all. Because if I wrote a story about Zephyr or Bhakti, there'd be no surprises. Nothing could possibly prevent me from having them do exactly what I want them to do.
So I was thinking. Wouldn't it be interesting if our turns were somewhat long. Pam says she always writes huge submittals. What if we all did. What if what each of us attempted did succeed, much like in Purgatory, unless someone screwed with it. What if Xar's job was to edit the stories together each turn when two or more of us, intentionally or not, interacted. Xar would only have to write anything for those parts, and the rest of our results would simply say: "You succeeded in X. You succeeded in Y. You succeeded in Z.
We'd still play the game without knowing anything about each other that we didn't want known. My results wouldn't necessarily reveal the other deity's hand in things. Maybe I'd just know things didn't go right, and I'd have to try to figure out why not.
And at the end of the game, we'd put it all together, reading the entire novel by reading each others' results for the first time. Turn 1 would be Chapter One, etc. It would jump back and forth through all our submissions, and would include Xar's edits for the interactions. Aside from the different things happening in the different domains and different parts of the world, the chapter would contain all of our writing styles, as well as Xar's.
I'm not actually suggesting this.
It would be outrageously complex. Hideously so. But the idea intrigues me. In a way, we're all interactive authors as things are. It would be interesting if we were truly writing a story.
