Some two weeks ago, I started posting my Vagabonds: a small series of small paintings, but with a little interactive twist. And I guess that little twist is what made it work, here on steemit.
The interactive twist was that anybody who commented could choose their own name of the character depicted; choose 3 random numbers, representing a random adjective for the character, a random profession, and a random origin; and then choose a relationship of the character to the next one in the series.
It was a game/experiment/interactive play and I enjoyed presenting my characters, giving everybody the opportunity to expand on them - and if I read the feedback from the players, it was a fun game for everybody involved as well!
For example, this was the first Vagabond I posted:
And I got these reactions:
Cyrus, 6, 9, 13, uncle by @winstonalden
Michna, 8, 13, 2, Guardian by @lenadr
Salt - 2 - 4 - 6, child by @deemarshall
Dudd - 13, 6, 9 - Watcher by @edward.maesen
Magnus, 9 7 8, Adopted brother by @bzaryp
These resulted in:
Cyrus, the Lively Freedomfighter from A Long Time Ago, in A Galaxy Far, Far Away..! The Uncle of...
Michna, the Philosopher from The Dead Man's Forrest, Guardian of...
Salt, the Cheerful Globetrotter from The Black Lagoon, the Child of...
Dudd, the Calm Antiquarian from Outer Space, Watcher of...
Magnus, the Reckless Detective from Nova Zembla, he's the Adopted Brother of...
For the adjective, profession and origin, I had made a list of 13 possble entries, of which the players could choose one randomly. With three random possibilities, this made for some unreal, unseen, improbable as well as very weird and fun combinations. After episode 2 (which only saw 2 entries), the Vagabonds really picked up the pace and saw between 6-9 entries every single time - for which I'm immensely grateful. It was a fun idea, but I didn't expect it to grow this big :)
Some of the unreal combinations made were:
Ian, the Mysterious Counterfeiter from the Shadowlands, being the Dog-walker of... (by @deemarshall in episode 3)
Dixie-ann, the Uncontrollable Sorceress from Liechtenstein, and also the Anesthesiologist of... (by @skippyza in episode 4)
Mark, the Delirious Monk from The Brewery, the Investor of... (by @mahmuliadi in episode 5)
Willibald, the Extraordinary Freebooter from Hell, being a Lawyer of... (by @w0olf, in episode 6)
Some players took this to the next level, and I have to especially mention @pv-p and @fraenk here, who went as far to write little short stories, and include jpgs and gifs to add to the character's development -- something I never expected to happen! It made for all the more intriguing characters, giving them depth, which I never anticipated. Thanks guys!
Despite all the fun and weird creative the entries, I knew I had to choose one "winning" entry, the one which would continue the line of the Vagabonds. For this game, I have always (save one special occasion) let a dice decide on the outcome who was the winner. Not that the winner would get anything apart from the bragging rights of getting the entry who would continue the heritage of the Vagabonds. There was one rule I imposed, which I didn't tell, and that was that any previous winner would be excluded from winning again, up till the point where there would be only previous winners. I didn't reach that point, though, thanks to the many participants!
Apart from receiving my full 100% upvote (worth $0.11 - $0.19 in a volatile market) every valid comment also received (after episode 2) the x'th share of 1 SBD (which x being the number of participants). I didn't request an upvote on the post to participate, nor did I intend to divide the actaul gained SBD of any particular post. That's how I did it, I consider it fair, some contestants appreciated that regularly (@youknowwhoyouare!), some contestans never bothered mentioning it (@idontblameya)
A next series?
Well, it was massive fun, so yeah, if you feel like doing another series of these, let me know in the comments!
What will change?
I already got some nudges to continue the series, or make a new one, so that's much appreciated! I would drop the number of choices from 13 to either 11 or 9-something-ish as many options weren't chosen. Also, adjectives weren't a problem to come up with; I had to put in a bit more time and thought to come up with professions and I really was sweating thinking of new origins after 8 times 13 possibilities. So that's a few changes that might be implemented. I never received any feedback, so along with your vote to do another round (yes or no!) feel free to let me know what particular input you can choose yourself, and what particular input could be randomized. I'm eager to learn and adapt!
Before commencing on Season II (for which your input is greatly appreciated!) I will now start tying the story of the Vagabonds Series I together, trying to make full use of everybody's comments, possibilites and probabilities, and I hope to see as much players for the next series as this one.
So, feel free to comment on how to go from here, thank you @deemarshall (being the only one to provide an entry for all 8 episodes, w00t!), @mahmuliadi (6 entries), @fraenk (6 episodes, including Lucius!), @pv-p (6 entries and tons of inspiration!), @skippyza (5 entries including some memorable ones!), @bzaryp (4 episodes, including the very first one!), @lintah (4, thank you!), @mellwe (3, nice!), @hazel420 (2 episodes, one winning entry!), @w0olf (2!), @joviandres (also 2!), and @fungusmonk, @j3cesar, @lenadr, @edward.maesen and @winstonalden (each one entry!)