Community

Very nice Szat. Too bad you lost your work, i think i would have enjoyed reading your analysis.

I don't see anything i object to, really there aren't too many ways these stories can be arranged. I do wish we had an upbeat story to end Naya with, but i guess Last night does that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Turning now to the prelude stories...

Akrasan Squire:
Bant's the closest shard to traditional fantasy. I think we should start there, as someone who never played during Alara would most latched onto it. This story hits home the virtues of Bant, and shows it off in the best light. So this story should be first.

The Contract:
Being the only Grixis story, it has to be in the first five stories. It hints at the problems of the shards, so should be fifth.

On the hunt:
There are three stories that involve Jund. This is the best at illustrating the life and death nature of the shard (Technically Jund Nursery Rhyme does that as well, but isn't really a story).
The story is a bit light hearted, i think it should go second. Jund is a nice contrast to Bant.

Behemoth's Herald:
A serious story. I think this should go third or fourth. It might do better after Crafter, since crafter already gets you into a downtrodden mood.

Crafter:
Twist ending! Yeah this story sets you up and knocked you flat on your butt. This story could be third or fourth, I'll have to sit down and read Herald and it back to back both ways to see which way works better.

So that's the first five stories... what about the remaining four...

Tidehollow
This story needs a little TLC. There's no real point to it at the moment. This story could be used to introduce the Sphinxes, and the sewers (which are mentioned later on in the anthology). This should go first since there's no other story that can go there.

Jund Nursery Rhyme
Simple little poem. I think it should go second. it will be a nice break between tidehollow and the price of freedom... both stories being extremely long. And since it deals with Jund, it can't be placed next to violent ultimatum.

Violent Ultimatum:
I'd put this story last. It expands Jund a bit more, but also introduces the idea of jumping from one plane to another. Which is what the reader is about to do.

The price of Freedom:
by process of elimination, this story should be fourth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So that's my assessment on the order of the stories.

Dec 30, 2010 -- 2:44PM, KeeperofManyNames wrote:

Aaauuuhh... is Behemoth's Herald really our only option for the first Naya story? I mean, it's good, but it's so diametrically opposed to the vision of Naya that Wizards has presented... I think that's a real problem for the first five. I feel like it really belongs later in the collection.

Yes, it's the only option. Unless you want to write a new story for the anthology. Naya has basically no stories about it.

I guess Godtoucher might have been a good fit to introduce Naya... it focused on the behemoths. But that story was UNVOTED. 

YOu know what i'll do, i'll rewrite it quickly, and resubmit it for a vote.  Then Behemoth Herald can move down to the latter half of the stories.

Okay, so it appears Godtoucher is going to be voted into the anthology, so we can move along.

So let's power through this. The original proposed list was:

Akrasan Squire
On the hunt
Behemoth's Herald
Crafter
The Contract
Tidehollow
Jund Nursery Rhyme
The price of Freedom
Violent Ultimatum

Godtoucher bumps Behemoth's Herald out of the top five, I think Godtoucher is a good story to go between On the hunt and Crafter. It's somber, but not really sad. And is a good contrast to the comedy of On the hunt.

Behemoth's Herald is a bit tougher to place... i'm not sure right now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What do you think guys? And as a side question, do you think we should include a second story for Grixis in the mix? I'm not sure if we rejected any, but if we did we might be able to rewrite it to work.

This looks like a good lineup to me. Excellent.

For the stories where just Skibo and I voted, are their any objections to their final inclusion/exclusion? I'm just a little wary of their presence hinging on how I, in particular, voted.

Well Tidehollow is going to need to be rewritten as right now it has no real point. (Literally it was just me taking as many Esper cards as i could and write a story around them).

Once Tidehollow gets rewritten it's going to be mostly an introduction to Esper, so i think it and crafter should switch places.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm also thinking about writing another Grixis story just so we have two per shard. This would just establish Grixis as a plane, and would bump "the contract" from the first five stories. (The other three do a good job of establishing the shards)

My only problem is... each of the stories play up a different aspect of each shard. I can't reallly think of any other perspective of Grixis. Maybe something along the lines of "no happy endings?"

If anyone else would like to do a short establishing story for Grixis, that would be grand. (I'll work on thinning down Tidehollow and giving it a point)

~~~~~~~~~~~

As for the order of the stories... i'd rather pick them by contrast, not by the color pie. We don't really need to figure this out until later.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally, Jund Nusery rhyme is kind of throwing things off, it gives Jund an additional story. Perhaps it could be used at the very end of the anthology next to the credits to liven up that page. Or perhaps in the very beggining with the table of contents.