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                           Frequently Asked Questions
                         (Last Modified August 2, 1994)

                            PART 3:  THE GROUND RULES


CONTENTS OF THIS PART:
     1).  What are the General Ground Rules for Posting?
     2).  What are the Ground Rules for the Superguy Subtopic?
     3).  What are the Ground Rules for the Sfstory Subtopic?
     4).  What are the Ground Rules for the Metaworld Subtopic?
     5).  What are the Ground Rules for the Round Robin Subtopic?
     6).  What are the Ground Rules for the Author's Altiverse Subtopic?

1)   What are the General Ground Rules for Posting?

     In general, follow the guidelines listed in Part II of the FAQ (Subtopics
and Posting Guidelines).  Don't mess up other people's plotlines, don't use
other people's characters without permission, and so forth.
     Furthermore, this mailing list is more or less family oriented.  Mature
and Adult Plotlines are not usually posted here, and it isn't what the audience
expects.  If you feel your storyline needs explicit sexual depictions or
otherwise mature themes, it is polite (at least) to indicate such at the
beginning of the post, to avoid offending people.
     This having been said, it should further be made clear that no censorship
has ever taken place on the Superguy Mailing List.  It is not the intent of
this list to Censor anyone.  Therefore, Tad Simmons, the University of Central
Florida, and the Superguy Mailing List as a whole do not take any
responsibility for anything posted on this list.  All legal culpability lies
with the authors who write the posts in question.
     Finally, although this is a Super Hero oriented list, please bear in mind
that Copyrighted and Trademarked characters (such as those owned by Marvel
Comics, DC Comics, the BBC, and so forth) cannot be used by any Author.  The
one exception is temporary use for Satirical purposes.  Thus, when Bill Paul
("The Man with Two First Names") has the Muppets flying the Enterprise in a
Television Dimension Story, he is not violating any laws, as this is obvious
Satire.  However, if a person decides to write a series starring Spiderman,
Captain America, Superman and Batman, he is legally in trouble, as all of these
characters are Trademarked by Marvel and DC -- a regular series writing serious
fiction with these characters is in violation of Trademark and Copyright.
     In any event, the responsibility is the Author's.

2)   What are the Ground Rules for the Superguy Sub-Topic?

     A.  Superguy is Super Hero fiction:  If your story does not in some way
reflect super hero fiction, the Super Hero subculture, or otherwise put one in
mind of Superheroes, then the post doesn't belong on the Superguy subtopic.

     B.  Superguy is based on Humor:  Many people have noticed the darker trend
that Superguy has taken in recent months.  More serious fiction is being
produced on the Superguy subtopic than ever before.  Be that as it may, the
basis of Superguy is satirical.  Every series on Superguy is somehow based on
humorous assumptions, somewhere along the line.  For example, the Adjusted
League Unimpeachable and CalForce both began as straight comedy series.  Both
have had plots that were deadly serious.  But in the end, the humor will come
back in them.
     In ways, the evolution of Superguy is similar to the evolution of "Cerebus
the Aardvark" by Dave Sim.  This was a series that began as a straight parody
of Conan the Barbarian.  It later developed into a sophisticated satire and has
sometimes become deadly, disturbingly serious.  But the humorous touches always
remain.  For example, there is a non-graphic but very disturbing rape scene.
This is *immediately* followed by Cerebus running around with panties on his
head.
     The Superguy Analogy is this.  Team Cynical may have an adventure that is
dark, serious, and downright frightening, but when they get home they're still
going to stoke the cow.

     C.  Superguy is a Shared Universe:  When characters run around the
Superguy Altiverse, they tend to make changes.  Do things.  Muck stuff up.  As
a result, we assume that there is going to be continuity between series.  For
example, if Rip Taylor gets run over in an Adjusted League Unimpeachable post,
he shouldn't appear the following week in CalForce without explanation.
     This isn't to say mistakes don't happen.  They do.  It's simply to say
that after mistakes happen, we have to explain them.  The classic example is
the Five Billion George Bushes.
     After Dangerousman blew up Washington D.C., one author made reference to
George Bush escaping through a `Save the President' Plan.  Another author, not
having seen that, made reference to another escape plan and another George
Bush.
     Two George Bushes.  We had a continuity flaw.
     It was finally explained that every Save the President Plan went off at
once, combined with the excess mass that a villain named Surplus Man gave off
when the explosion happened.  As a result, there were five billion George
Bushes running around.  Eventually, they were all recombined.
     Therefore, paradoxes can be paradoctored, and should be when they are
found.

3)   What are the Ground Rules for the Sfstory Subtopic?

     A.  Sfstory is a Single Story:  where Superguy is a shared universe,
Sfstory is one story, with different facets of that plot being explored by
different authors (to the point where they seem unrelated -- but they
*aren't*).  Therefore, it is assumed that sooner or later, the different plots
and twists of the different storylines will find their way back together again.
     Believe it or not, it has happened before.

     B.  Sfstory is neither serious nor dark:  Sfstory is a straight humor
subtopic.  There has been no evolution towards straighter fiction in Sfstory to
match up with Superguy's.  Serious fiction doesn't really belong here -- there
are better outlets for it.

     C.  Careful attention should be paid to Sfstory's history:  There is a
long history to Sfstory (which will be synopsized in full over the summer).
Great effort should be made to not contradict it.

     D.  Sfstory *must* be based in Science or Pseudoscience:  In the old days
of Sfstory, before Superguy had even been created, there was a lot of magic in
Sfstory.  It culminated in a War in Heaven.  At this time, a Moratorium was
called on non-science fictiony type stuff.  This is referred to as the Jeff
Smith Accords.  This is a rule that gets bent a lot, but lip service (at least)
should be paid to it.
     This is one reason why Hell in Sfstory is a fleet of Battlecruisers.  They
can't have straight demons and hellfire, anymore.

4)   What are the Ground Rules for the Metaworld subtopic?

     A.  Metaworld posts are copyrighted by their authors very strictly:  Any
Metaworld post is self contained.  Any use of someone else's characters
requires explicit written permission (E-Mail is acceptable).  Take the general
posting Guidelines about other peoples' characters and multiply them by about
twenty.

     B.  Metaworld posts should have a serious basis:  Metaworld is for serious
fiction.  This doesn't necessarily mean dark or forbidding.  It means that the
fiction should have a logical basis, however.  The extremes are probably "Mind
Trekker" by Ken Cooney ("Duke da Duck") or "Anomaly" by Gary Olson ("the
Swede") -- which are about as  serious and dark as it gets, and "Rubicon," by
Eric Alfred Burns ("Lord Sabre"), which is about as lighthearted as Metaworld
gets.

     C.  Writers can either set their adventures in the Shared Universe of
Metaworld or their own Universe:  There is a specific Shared Universe on the
Metaworld Subtopic called The Metaworld Project.  This Shared World contains
"Crystyl," "WarHammer" and "Rubicon" by Eric Alfred Burns, "The Swamp" by John
Bankert ("CHAOS Engineer"), "Mind Trekker" and "the Merc" by Ken Cooney,
"Anomaly" by Gary Olson, and will contain "Paragon" by Eric Alfred Burns and
Gary Olson, if they ever get around to writing it.  At this time it is not
known if "Pariah" by Greg Fishbone (no nickname) is in the Metaworld Project or
not.  If an author chooses to participate in the Metaworld Project, he agrees
to allow large scale events to be referred to by other Authors, although any
character interaction is still by strict permission only.  If a writer wishes
his Metaworld Story to be in its own Altiverse, that is his right, although he
should explicitly state that.

5)   What are the Ground Rules for the Round Robin Subtopic?

     A.  Round Robins are by invitation only:  Any Round Robin story or
altiverse is by invitation only.  As the order is set and the story is
(generally) self contained, each Round Robin story requires that it not be
`crashed.'  To participate in an ongoing Round Robin, you need the permission
of a majority of current participants.  Any group can start a new Round Robin
at any time.

     B.  Round Robin characters are assumed to be copyrighted by the entire set
of writers as a whole.  When new writers join in, they share copyright from the
point they enter on:  This should be self explanatory.  In a shared story with
shared development, the characters cannot easily be separated by Author.

     C.  Each Round Robin Altiverse is proprietary.  New stories can only be
started if you have a legitimate claim to part of that Altiverse:  Altiverse
000RR, the basic Round Robin Altiverse, is the property of the original Round
Robin authors, with subsequent authors having shares at the point in which they
entered.  As a result, new authors cannot leap in and just start a new story
set in the same Altiverse.  They may start their own altiverses, of course.

6)   What are the Ground Rules for the Author's Altiverse Subtopic?

     In the old days, there were no ground rules for Author's Altiverse.
Today, experience has led us to set a few up.

     A.  No Author who declares himself not part of the Author's Altiverse
shall be used or referred to in any way in Author's Altiverse posts.  This does
not mean Authors who are still part of Author's Altiverse but choose to leave
temporarily will not be referred to.

     B.  No Author who has not declared himself in the Author's Altiverse shall
be used.  This refers to Authors like Greg Fishbone, who to date has not
written an AA post of arrival.  As a result, it is not the place of the other
Authors to just write him in.

     C.  Any Author who is declared as a member of the Altiverse is fair game.
Let's face it, stories about omnipotent beings are dull.  Stories about
omnipotent beings looking like idiots are fun.  As a result, any Author in the
Altiverse looks like an idiot at some time or other.  It's why we do it.  If
that sounds stupid to you -- don't play.

     D.  No Authorial Character will be made to `willingly' do something that
offends that Author in real life.  This is serious -- this doesn't mean Pickle
(the Author's Altiverse character of Bill Dickson) being made to say he loves
Budwiser.  This means Pickle will not be made by another Author to abuse
another person, for example.  Or made out to be a pervert.

     E.  Then a large scale plotline is going on in the Author's Altiverse, an
Author must call "next" on the Superpen Superguy Author's Mailing List to call
a position in the posting order.  In the case of simultaneous `nexts,' the
order in which the posts are received by Superpen will be the order the AAs go
in.  An Author's Altiverse post that does nothing to the overall plot may be
sent at any time.