Strowlers

Strowlers is a show produced by Zombie Orpheus Entertainment and created by Ben Dobyns.

WORLD BIBLE IS CURRENTLY BEING REORGANIZED. PLEASE HOLD ON CONTRIBUTIONS FOR THE MOMENT.

WORLD BIBLE

The Strowlers World Bible is an evolving, collaborative, and worldwide storytelling reference and platform. All contributions are considered Creative Commons Sharealike-Attribution, which means that derivative and original Strowlers works of any kind must clearly credit creators and the Strowlers project. Additionally, they must be released under the same open license.

When creating new entries in the World Bible, please be sure to view the World Bible Categories Page and tag your entry with the proper category in order to make your contribution searchable within this particular shared cinematic universe.

Psychodynamics and Magic

Modern Arcanology

Controlling Talent

The Strowlers

Strowlers

Bispell

The Labyrinth

The Changing Lands

The Alternate Now

World History

Emipre And Magic

How to Talk about Magic

Strowlers takes place in a world that takes powers we would call magic for granted. It’s important to use terminology consistent with the attitudes and prejudices of the individual characters and their understanding of the realities of magical power in the Strowlerverse.

It is also important to keep in mind that as the main series begins, the percentage of people in the general populace with talent is quite small: easily less than 2%.

Storytelling in the Strowlerverse

Glossary

Guide For Filmmakers

So you want to make your own Strowlers movie. Fantastic!

Your job now is to write a story unique to your experience and perspective, one that you can shoot where you are, with the resources that you have. Keep it small and manageable. Rather than non-stop CGI, if you need to show something magical, imply as much as possible, then use a single effect, be it practical or digital. Make small, targeted changes to your existing environment. Create one monster rather than an army. Focus on a child with magic in Peoria, rather than constructing an entirely new city. Make the local police deal with a threat because no arcanologists are stationed nearby. Or if they are, add a single sign to one building on a busy street. Ask yourself what tiny changes will evoke a mysterious world of scientific sorcerers, magic-users on the run, and supernatural creatures hiding in the shadows. Remain small in scope, accessible, and focused on the everyday people who are called to become heroes for their friends and neighbors.

Our own team uses the following guidelines internally when developing Strowlers scripts:

1. Utilize existing locations

2. Avoid large-scale construction or manufacturing

3. Feature a small cast

4. Limit special effects — one fantastic practical effect is better than 20 mediocre CGI ones

5. Focus on stories that are personal and character driven

Also, filmmaking is hard. Our original team has been making movies together since 1998, and we’ve made countless mistakes along the way. Even when you plan perfectly, everything can still go wrong. It takes time to build the necessary skills, connections, and audience.

This bible is not intended to provide a comprehensive guide to filmmaking, but luckily, countless free resources exist on the Internet to help new filmmakers learn the craft. Take advantage of them!

And remember that sometimes the best way to learn and grow is through failure: it’s an opportunity to assess what worked, what didn’t, and to improve the next project.

Experienced filmmakers may also feel that low-budget, high-quality work is nearly impossible to achieve. In order to put our methods to the test, we developed and produced a twenty-minute Strowlers film set in Ireland. While the final product is not perfect, the following case study illustrates how $5,000 (including flights, food, and lodging!) was enough to create a period piece in an extraordinary location.

Naming Conventions

The Strowlers License

There are a few official rules that every Strowlers creation must follow. They represent our best effort to balance freedom, collaboration, and the values of the Strowlers: that the best projects are the ones worth doing together and that the right stories can change the world. We want Strowlers to grow into something larger than we can imagine. We want you to have the freedom to engage in storytelling dialogue and worldbuilding with people from every country imaginable. We also want to support the incredible Strowlers Story Team, which has spent years preparing to help you tell Canon Strowlers stories. And we want that support to help them manage the daunting task of keeping Canon Strowlers stories within official continuity, which is why we ask for a reasonable hourly rate if you want to work directly with Strowlers Story Team members to develop your Canon stories.

Also, as disappointing as it might be not to acquire Canon status, some stories may never work officially within the framework of the narrative that we are telling for the Strowlerverse. (For example, stories featuring visitors from an alternate Earth, aliens from outer space, or similar world-breaking elements won’t be approved.) The Story Team and Strowlers super-fans will do their very best to help you overcome these challenges! Regardless of Canon status, however, we encourage you to tell the stories that bring you joy, share them, and let them grow in the telling. Make a roleplaying game. Paint a mural. Compose a symphony. Start a wilderness commune. Perform an aerial acrobatics act. Shoot a movie. The possibilities are endless!

Strowlers is our gift to open culture. We hope that it inspires you, brings together a global community, and evolves into forms that we can’t begin to imagine. And with your help, it will!

Here are the basic guidelines that we expect creators of Strowlers works to follow, but be sure to check out the following complete license as well!

THE GUIDELINES

1. You may tell any story set in the Strowlerverse that you want, in any medium, as long as it doesn’t break the law. You may call it a Strowlers story. You may sell it, give it away, or lock it in a time capsule for the next eighty-seven years. It’s your story! (Com- mercial Rights)

2. Any of your creations that you put the “Strowlers” name on are available for other people to use as inspiration for their own works, under the same Strowlers License. (Share-Alike)

3. You can’t just copy someone else’s work and label or resell it as your own. Remixes must be transformative, as determined in cases of conflict by the Strowlers Story Team, whose decisions are final. (Transformation)

4. You must, to the best of your ability, credit and link to the works of any other Strowlers creator or creators that appear in your own creation and must always link to the official Strowlers website. (Attribution)

5. OPTIONAL: If you want your work to be labeled “Canon” (that is, an official part of the story universe), you need to work with our Story Team to make sure it fits the overall narrative. If your Canon work generates any profits, you agree to dedicate a small percentage of those profits towards supporting the overall Strowlers project. Only the Strowlers Story Team can declare a work

    “Canon” and the use of the “Strowlers Canon” logo is protected. (Continuity)

REGARDING EXISTING CHARACTERS

It is inevitable that some third-party creators will want to tell Strowlers stories that feature existing characters. For the writ- ten word, this poses no problem whatsoever, but film, of course, requires actors! Should the circumstance arise where a filmmaker is asking, for example, to cast Trin Miller to play Amanda Darrow in their own Strowlers show, as a general rule we will: a) require that that show go through the Canon ap- proval process; and b) expect the film’s producer to make an offer to the actor in question (or their agent), whose decision to partic- ipate or not is entirely their own. Additionally, third-party works featuring existing characters from the core Strowlers storyline who are played by recast actors may face additional hurdles from the Strowlers Story Team if seeking Canon status. We would strongly prefer not to have multi- ple people playing the same roles in Canon works, unless they are significantly younger or older, and can plausibly be played by a new actor.

License and Agreement

Acknowledgements

Editors and Syntax

All entries in the Strowlers wiki should use the Strowlers namespace as follows:

[[Strowlers:Pagename | Pagename]]

All Strowlers entries should also make careful use of associated categories:

[[Category:Strowlers]] for general information
[[Category:Strowlers_Bible]] for world bible
[[Category:Canon]] for canon content (use of this tag is limited to showrunners)

See Strowlers Bible Categories for world bible subcategories.