Clarifying Mosaic (especially in regards to ttrpgs)

[silvercat17]

I'm trying to write a clearer description of Mosaic that doesn't exclude things that were previously included and doesn't make it overlap overly much with Collage or Interactive Fiction.

I'd really appreciate input from people who've been here longer than me on how it's worked before.

Previous Mosaic definition: A piece that is a crossover between canons; you may write a crossover with a media source, but this may not be your canon - it must either be AU or a very minor aspect of the main canon, since we're not a fanfic comm

My latest update: A crossover. This can be a crossover between your different canons, between your canon and a media source, or between your canon and a friend's canon. See the Q&A below. (the q&a is a wip)

And for reference:
Interactive art: Create a piece with another person
Collage: Borrow another person's canon; be sure to ask first! This is meant for interaction between RainbowFic members, but you can collaborate with any writers you know. (It'd be nice if they popped in to say hi)

So Interactive Art is collaborations / co-writing, etc. Collage is writing in another canon and consensus was it was designed with RainbowFic members in mind. To me, that seems like Collage would include settings from media sources like tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) and series and using original characters designed for that setting, but I'm not sure that's been included before.

Mosaic is meant for crossovers, which implies original characters created for something else interacting with characters or settings from another canon* and from everything I've seen is supposed to be the only way of using a media source in a piece. But there are some scenerios that I'm not sure fit the definition of crossover and I don't know if we want to jam them into Mosaic or allow them under Collage.

* some crossover types: fusion crossover (characters replace the original characters), amalgam crossover (characters are merged into new characters), team-up

Examples of complicated scenerios (some of these are examples I came up with before, some of them are specific things that have come in regards to the discussion):

• Felino is a Thunderian (commoner of the same species as the Thundercats, who are nobles) running around in a setting that may or may not be in the same universe as Thundercats - nothing from the show is mentioned
• Sam was created for an original, non-published Dungeons and Dragons campaign and has connections to things from the sourcebooks in their background (novelizations of one's original campaigns goes back to the beginning of TTRPGs - the earliest one I can think of is Record of Lodoss War - and are not generally considered fanfic)
• Sam was created for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign and is running around a fantasy world that's obviously using Dungeon and Dragons sources but the story and all the major characters are original
• Similarly Bob and Alice are random characters inspired by Star Wars in the background of Coruscant with their own story going on. Jedi and Sith never come up or are only slightly mentioned.
• You're using the setting as inspiration but writing about things far in the past, future, or otherwise away from the canon events, expanding things to the extent that very little of the original canon is mentioned (I've written a couple of Thundercats culture myths - we have no evidence in the show that the different Thundercats even are from different cultures and nothing about folklore, mythology, religion, etc)
• A minor character from a media property is dropped into your story (Christine Chapel from Star Trek the Original Series is Bob's doctor)
  - A. Bob sees her every chapter but she doesn't influence the plot
  - B. Bob and Christine get romantically involved
  - C. Bob sees her once and it sets off a major event. She otherwise doesn't show up
• Main or minor character in your story is a media property species but has nothing to do with the media story or any of its characters and are called something else (Bob is an Andorian- Star Trek species with blue skin and antenna- in a modern New York filled with non-Star Trek non-humans and humans, but is called a Rodna)
• You're rewriting a fairy tale or using one as inspiration - all the characters are created for this story

Which of these are fanfic and which are also crossovers? I'd allow all of these and let the writer decide whether or not they want to count it as a mosaic.

These are the current q&as for Mosaic

• If I write something with someone else using both of our canons, is it a Mosaic? Yes, and it would also be Interactive Art.
• So I can write fanfiction, right? Not exactly. This isn't a fanfic community, so while you can write a crossover with a media source (book, movie, series, video game, or tabletop rpg, etc), it needs to either be an alternative universe of your story/series or the crossover should be a minor aspect of your story/series. We have examples of what is and is not acceptable (including specifics for tabletop role-playing games) (the examples are currently empty)
• What if I'm using open-source settings or characters like The Free Universe or Jenny Everywhere? (linking to the TVTropes page for Jenny Everywhere instead of JennyEverywhere.net as the latter's style is hard to read). As these are established characters, it would still count as a crossover and so a mosaic. Follow the rules that the open-source requires and you're good to go (these don't count as a media source).
• What about public domain stories? While Pride and Prejudice and Zombies proved you can legally publish crossovers, it's still (more or less) fanfic, and we're not a fanfic community. You can write them, but they're the same as any other crossover with a media source.
• What about mythology, folklore, etc? Go wild, but keep an eye on what interpretations are influencing you. Writing about Thor is cool, but writing Marvel Comics' Thor is not. (this is going to get clarified - I don't think this has to be a mosaic - and it'd include fairy tales and historical figures)

Comments

Mosaic Examples, assume all characters were created for that story

[silvercat17]

1. Your characters in the main part of the setting of a media property (Bob and Alice in the Star Wars universe)
- A. Bob is a Jedi and argues with the known characters on the Jedi Council (AU only)
- B. Bob is a Jedi (AU only) but none of the story involves characters we know
- C. Bob is a Jedi and Alice is a Sith (AU only) but none of the story involves characters we know
- D. Bob and Alice are random characters in the background of Coruscant with their own story going on. Jedi and Sith never come up or are only slightly mentioned. (borderline on required to be an AU)

2. Alt Universe story only - Your characters acting out the plot of a media property (Bob replaces Crowley and Alex replaces Aziraphale in the Good Omens story) (borderline if allowed at all)

3. Alt Universe story only - Your characters interacting with the plot of a media property (Bob in London while the plot of Good Omens is happening in the background)

4. Your characters are doing their thing in a corner of a media property (Bob and Alice live on Tattooine)
- A. Bob and Alice live on Tattooine decades before anything we know about
- B. Bob and Alice live on Tattooine during events depicted but far away from Mos Eisly, Jabba, or anything else we know about. Jawas and Tuskens might be mentioned or show up briefly.
- C. Your story is mythology from a desert planet. Jedi, the Sarlaac pit, Tusken warriors, Jawas, and other Star Wars concepts aren't mentioned. Other creatures, like the giant riding lizards, might show up. (borderline whether needs to be marked as mosaic at all, depending on how many Star Wars specific details show up)

5. Your characters go on Jeopardy or Antiques Roadshow. (could be AU or in the main canon, depending on how long it lasts and how much influence it has on the story)

These last ones, in my opinion, could be marked as mosaic or not commented on at all (...if not acceptable then everything I posted has to count as mosaic), as most of them happen in properties often with no issues:

7. A major character from a media property is used as inspiration for characters, but the story is completely different. (Luke in New York is based on Luke Skywalker. He grew up on a farm in Arizona with his aunt and uncle. He works in a coffee shop and solves mysteries)

8. Characters are obviously inspired by a media property character, but their name, life, etc are substantially different. (What TVtropes calls either an Expy or Captain Ersatz) (Superman -> Captain Marvel/Shazam and, uh, dozens others - Samaritan, Statesman, Plutonian, Hyperion, Supreme, Sentry...)

10. Minor character is obviously a media property character or named after a media property character. (In a short scene, Bob buys a book from Mr. Fell, aka Aziraphale from Good Omens, but nothing Good Omens related happens)

TTRPG specifics:
There's a long tradition of turning one's role-playing game into stories, and many tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) draw from a variety of sources (see 1st Edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons' famous Appendix N, as well as the inspiration page in many sourcebooks)

TTRPG examples of things that are acceptable for mosaic, either as AUs or not. I'm going to use Dungeons and Dragons and the Gothic horror campaign The Curse of Strahd here:
Your story is set in Waterdeep (a major city in Dungeons and Dragons, aka DnD), but no characters that are well known from related video games, actual plays, novels, etc show up.

A character is a specific DnD race or uses the specifics of a generic fantasy race like elves that are exclusive to DnD

minor NPCs show up as companions or minor characters, for example your characters have their fortune read by Madame Eva (minor would be anyone besides Strahd and possible von Richten, the monster hunter)

Significant objects, weapons, or concepts are part of the plot (characters use a tarokka deck or a sunsword or are part of the Emerald Enclave, a druid organization)

Your character's back story has a lot of involvement with NPCS, organizations, etc, but it doesn't show up as much in current events

Things that are AU for your story only:
Your characters going through the events of a published adventure

Your characters interact with a major set piece of a campaign (your characters take go through the Death House or things happen in Strahd's castle)

Your character is one of Strahd's brides or was recently turned into a vampire by Strahd

Your characters fight or interact with Strahd, but it's not the same as the published campaign

Things that don't need to be marked as mosaic depending:
NPCs show up as cameos

Significant weapons, objects, places, organizations, or concepts are mentioned

Your character is a character you've played in a campaign but the story doesn't use major elements of the ttrpg, or they're genericized

A map from the adventure is used as a blueprint for something else (you use Strahd's castle as a castle in your story, but it's specifically not Strahd's or in Barovia)

Your story uses the same generic setting type (fantasy, wuxia, cyberpunk, etc) as the ttrpg but it doesn't have any of the ttrpg's specific elements for it (in DnD things like spellslots and spell categories, specific spells like Cure Wounds or Detect Magic, chromatic dragons, Waterdeep or other locations, etc)

Re: Mosaic Examples, assume all characters were created for that story

[nisima]

...I am now imagining writing one of my ideas for a TTRPG crossover using Exalted characters in a Pathfinder adventure path- things would obviously go way the hell off the plot rails- and wondering whether that would be allowed and what it might look like.

[ilthit]

"Sam was created for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign and is running around a fantasy world that's obviously using Dungeon and Dragons sources but the story and all the major characters are original"

+ any of the examples of original characters created for a media setting, still appearing in that media setting

These are not crossovers. There is only one canon involved, which is being expanded on.

If I saw the definition of Mosaic now without any further clarification, I wouldn't consider it suits the style or should go on Rainbowfic.

Maybe that should be a different style? One that would specifically cover OC-centric fanfiction and TTRPG settings? I agree that a story that happens to be set in, say, Star Wars, but has its own characters and plot, is not really what I think of as fanfiction, and long TTRPG campaigns, even if they're set in Forgotten Realms, have expansive canons of their own that deserve to be recognized as original writing. But they're not crossovers.

Like, the RBRB rulebook gives us one paragraph on Shi Jia, the brilliant young agent of Bureau Eight, and his (unfinished) statbloc. I added his physical description, family, his attitude towards his superior, his driving ambition, his status as a reputed exam cheat, his specific method of information gathering, pretty much his entire personality based on what was in the book, and one of the arcs in our adventure was defeating Shi Jia's evil uncle, who I also came up with. It doesn't seem right to say that if I write about the evil uncle or his faithful assassin, it is not original writing because they are related to Shi Jia! And tbh I would also like to write about Shi Jia interacting with OCs...

[silvercat17]

Agreed! It really feels more like Collage to me, if anything.

I have a list of possible style or supply names that I like if we decide to go that route (if AUs are erasers, no reason this couldn't be a supply - heck worldbuilding is being supplied)

I very much don't want to declare anything using ttrpg settings/etc to be fanfic considering the long tradition, within reasonable limits.

But I also, as the new moderator, don't want to do something that's against precedent or tradition of RainbowFic, if that makes sense.

[azzandra]

What about the distinction between what's in a TTRPG's source book and what is homebrewed? Like, would using the setting from the source book be a mosaic, but using the setting as modified and/or homebrewed by a DM would be more like a collage? I'm not sure I'm explaining this well, but the premise of my argument would be that a DM or other player would be a "fellow creator" whereas a source book would be a "canon".

[silvercat17]

I see where you're going with that, but I'm not sure how likely it is to come up. It'd come down to whether Collage is solely for using stuff from people you actually know or not.

[ilthit]

I would be super excited to see a new TTRPG specific style!