Topics

I figured I'd make a post here in case Discord goes down for a while or something (??)
it seems like the site is having more issues than usual...



Hopefully it goes back up soon though

once again... (Drumroll please: and drumpitch and drumyaw if you are feeling lowkenuieourous [:apology:])...! ive got another Game Idea!


Here's the premise: every post on the topic is someone's notes on the previous post, or a complete rewrite of the previous post in some kind of genre or format (e.g. myth, poem, romance novel, creepypasta, et cetera!)!

And... that's it! Honestly im just kind of throwing things at the wall and seeing if i can make something both interesting and adhesive, like the word "mucilage". This particular instance of aforementioned wallchucking could be chalked up to choking on the literature-shaped shadow i seem to have acquired after reading the (little? well?) known (?) book (?) House of Leaves, which I really liked even though I know I by no means have properly pieced apart lots of it. The structure of footnotes and then toenotes and then toenail notes all the way down, and nested layers of inaccuracy and interpretation is just really cool, especially when disparate parts of the reinterpretations connect back to previous ideas and points in lower levels and vice versa. (Callbacks to previous edits would also be cool but i couldn't figure how to shoehorn that into a probably actually fun premise, so...)

But anyways: the game needs to start somewhere! I'm not really sure what sort of text would be best for the start though. Does anyone know any good poems or very short stories or quotes or excerpts or other pieces of text-containable information and idea that could well fit here? I think starting the game on that could be fun!

Okay!!!! I had a new game idea! hopefully this one is good:

Every response to this topic should be a plausible rarity ranking in parenthesis, and then a somewhat interesting and witty description of the previously titled and Uncommon Unique item. For instance, :

START: The Mace of Doom

PERSON 1: (Rare) A rare mace forged in the crucible named Doom, from the land of the Crucible-Namers. Bartholomews Contraption

PERSON 2: (Uncommon) An all-in-one gadget, made by, of, and for Bartholomew. Mystical Dough

(And on and on.)

These interactions describe the following items:

• The Mace of Doom (Rare) - A rare mace forged in the crucible named Doom, from the land of the Crucible-Namers.
• Bartholomews Contraption (Uncommon) - An all-in-one gadget, made by, of, and for Bartholomew.

I think that's most of the idea, so I'll start the chain!

The Pocket Potion

I've been meaning to say a few things here for a while, so I'm putting it all in one topic for the sake of organization. I specifically am essentially irrelevant to CalRef given at least my current and rather unfortunate historical relationship with the community existing only in the most glancing of engagement, but im still posting this just cause. :}

Calamity Refuge has existed for like seventeen years now (?!?), and currently the community is very small (outside of Nationstates for the most part, of course.) Relatively recently, and for tiered reasons that seem fairly complex and inappropriate for external speculation, Luca (The Arch-Administrator) and Emily (another administrator) have wholly withdrawn from NationStates, the CalRef discord server, and seemingly this forum [last accessed on April 02, 2025 and May 21, 2025, respectively]. I don't know how the server system for this forum is organized but this likely kind of puts this community's infrastructure into a weird place: the only people who have historically maintained it are absent, and really shouldn't/can't be expected to reappear. They have put a truly inspiring amount of work into this community, and I'm really sorry that I haven't spoken on this forum or much on the discord server sooner to express that.

Now, I don't really know anything at all (this is a recurring theme) but from my veiled (and likely biased) understanding of Calamity Refuge there are many very cool people in this community, and I feel like I should do or say at least something because I've mainly appreciated this place externally since my fairly convoluted discovering of it. The idea of making a community of real people, who work together creatively to spin fanciful tales and just Make A Place, or places, for eachother, feels so important and real to me, especially now when there are so many places where the internet is becoming an inhospitable and predatory slop silo. Even if Calamity Refuge disappears, I will keep the idea of it because I do really believe it is special, to work together and make a safe place - but I really hope and am willing to help to make sure that it doesn't!

So far this topic message has been kind of poorly organized but please do not worry it will be over soon! I mainly wanted to mention these things to communicate some context to be able to ask these questions, for any prospective readers who could happen by this forum again.

• Is it appropriate for people use this forum?
• How do you think I can help this community?
• Should we just "start over"?
• What do you think about the recent events in Calamity Refuge?
• Does anyone want to start a new roleplay topic? I have some world ideas but I'm not really sure how/where to post them onto the forum.
• What happens next?

Apologies for the eventual absolutely poor organization and inco[her/nsist]ent phrasing/prose. if this topic sucks let me know! I want to learn

[responding to this topic with a described object, and then the objects they could be said to consist of.]

Hello denizens of Calamity Refuge!
I have been exploring this forum and its history quietly for some time now and I wanted to post something to see who is here and actually use this forum that I have been reading so much about!

Given my substantial inexperience with eloquent wordwrightery and conformation to traditional English syntaxes, I have decided to post a new topic to the Spam board in hopes I do not anger any lexical or grammatical entities of wrath.

Apologies for the somewhat out-of-place introduction. With hopefully little further ado, here is the Game:

In the world, there are various objects. These objects consist of other objects. A sandwich consists of Bread, Sandwich Contents, and Bread. A teacup consists of some sort of a quaint cup and a handle. There are also abstract objects, which still consist of other objects. This is the base concept of the game.

The method of playing this game is responding to this topic with a described object, and then the objects they could be said to consist of.

Over time, as more objects are described, an extremely detailed ontological picture of a collectively developed world will (hopefully) form!
To make this game more interesting than top-down structures like Orteil's "Nested", the system of breaking objects down into their constituents will be extended so that a door frame would consist of the door, the components of the frame, and the room/place beyond.


Here is how a response could be structured:

Insert explanation, conversation, and/or clever joke here.
OBJECT OF CONCERN (Underlined) ->

An object that is a piece of the object of concern, and potentially another object that is as well, and more if you so wish.
OR
An object that could also be a piece of the object of concern, and the other part(s).

And maybe insert an explanation, conversation, and/or wry play on the words here.

Hopefully these instructions (?) (rules?) are somewhat clear; I will try to clarify them in this topic. Please post something if you want to!