Superguy Frequently Asked Questions

(last revised August 3, 1994)

Part 3: The Ground Rules

Contents Of This Part:

What are the General Ground Rules for Posting?
What are the Ground Rules for the Superguy Subtopic?
What are the Ground Rules for the Sfstory Subtopic?
What are the Ground Rules for the Metaworld Subtopic?
What are the Ground Rules for the Round Robin Subtopic?
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?

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.
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 Aardvarkby 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.
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?

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

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.
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.
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?

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.
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.
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.

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.
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.
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.
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.
When 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.

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