Here's my issue with the stuff being IC - Obviously, credits are the motivation for entering into bardics. Otherwise, you'd just enter stuff into the library. But, there is a limit to the scaling credit reward. So, realistically, if you're after credits, its much better to simply stop submitting once you reach the highest rank, create an alt you hardly play, and begin raising them through the ranks.

What this does though, aside from aiding the skilled person's credit-flow, is stifle them a bit. Everyone loves credits, but this person is actually penalized for their skill, as after a certain point, they have to have their character suddenly stop submitting once they're at the very peak of their writing career.

I honestly think that after a person reaches the highest rank in the Bardics/Artisnals, that the scaling credit prizes should loop around again, so that they have the motivation to keep writing on their main character. I don't really see it as causing any issues either, since there is already a way to manage it, given that the credits are freely transferable.

Has anyone actually reached the top rank?

Hasn't Ialie? And isn't there someon at the top of the Artisnals too?

I actually don't think that Bardics should be considered IC. You've already hit on how to make it IC-- but if, say, I wanted to write an OOC bardic about how neat city life is, it would be from my OOC perspective, not from Xen's.

If you want it IC, copy/paste it to a book and publish! The library system is wonderful.

But doesn't reward credits.

Feyrll and Kaileigh have both reached the highest Artisinal rank.

Psst. You can do both at the same time.

OOC bardic for credits, publish to be IC, prestige for power for your organization. Rewards all around.

If that's what you think "using a scribe" means, then you're right back to having the huge limit on creativity that says your character has to be the one to do all the writing -- to determine the style and subject and the drive to create. In which case, adding a scribe adds nothing to the equation, except in the hypothetical case of a character who is a good writer but can't hold a quill for some reason.

I have. And the motivation for me to keep writing is rather low...unless as said, I make an alt and have them rise through the ranks.

EDIT: Which I very well might do since I'm not quite out of stories yet!

Now I feel dumb... what else would it mean?

You're thinking like a post-enlightenment activist here. Throughout most of history, and in a lot of cultures even now, "scribes" do quite a bit of the writing while the dictator gets the credit. A person had an idea (or needed to write a letter, etc), so they shared that idea with the scribe. They wouldn't dictate word-for-word in most cases, just general ideas and allow the scribe to write them in the best way possible. In the end, the scribe was paid for their service, the dictator got all of the credit.

This whole concept of 'intellectual property' is a new one, and shouldn't necessarily be projected onto our characters. I think it would be perfectly IC to admit that you were not very literate and so you hired an intelligent scribe while still expecting full credit for the work.

I'm not sure if you're talking to me or Noola, but it doesn't matter. Adding a scribe doesn't change anything about the point in contention here. Either your character is the one who decides to write, and what to write about, and gets credit for the creative process, or he isn't. A midway point is just half-wrong in both directions: you still get most of the artificial and stupid limits to creativity, and the amount you free yourself from those is precisely the same amount you're already breaking the stupid rule. If you're willing to half-break the rule and still have pointless limits to creativity, why not just do away with the rule entirely? Having to suggest the scribe workaround is just an affirmation that there's a problem with the rule in the first place.

Arix, this is your cue to say something not-funny about dead horses.