bluegargantua

Hi,

I'm thinking of doing another Lexicon game (or a Lexicon-like game). Here's the brief:

The New American Mythology

Many longstanding nations have a national myth cycle. Britain's King Arthur is the most famous, but they exist for other countries as well (Charlemange or Alexander the Great for example). These myths generally follow a pattern of a young leader slowly imposing order over a chaotic land, building himself and his followers up to a Golden Age of power and then the inevitable fall back into darkness.

America (along with most other New World countries) don't have such a myth cycle. They haven't been in existence long enough and modern science and technology reduced the fantastic and weird from the world. Plus, the great democratic experiment allows for any number of great men, but no single heroic ruler. George Washington could've been an Arthur, but he handed in his crown after two terms and went away quietly.

America does have a rich heritage of folktales and a number of folk hereos were drawn from real life (Daniel Boone and David Crockett), but these tales and legends are all piecemeal and hardly part of a larger, national narrative. The New American Mythology aims to provide that larger narrative.

Unlike most Lexicons, this game does not move forward alphabetically, but rather it moves forward through time. The game starts in 1765 with the formation of the Sons of Liberty and the first stirrings of American nationalism. It ends in 1865 with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (last Master of the Sons of Liberty) and a shattered nation left to heal itself.

The game would consist of 10 rounds. Each round is a 10 year period. Each contributor selects a person of note from that 10 year period and writes a tale about that person. As usual, each story is connected to one previous entry and two future entries. Stories can be, say, 500 words or more.

Since we're allowing for longer entries (it's a story not an encyclopedia entry) and since there is likely to be a bit of research involved to track down historical personas and connections, the game might advance one turn a week (or possibly once every other week).

The game would start probably in early September.

Do I have any takers?
Tom