New to OA, what's a good way to "get into it"?

[Drashner1]

No, that looks like a useful entry point, thanks a lot! Didn't expect the TV tropes link, but I agree... TV tropes is usually a great place to go for coarse summaries, can't believe I didn't think of that myself!

Nifty!

Still, since you're asking for my opinion, I think a similar approach might be useful. The wiki probably wouldn't even need any reworking. You could make "source books" focusing on certain aspects that consists mostly of glue text and structuring with copious links to wiki articles for all the details. I mean, the history primer is effectively already something like that, just that it doesn't emphasise any kind of focus. Which again, I get why, but it also left me hanging somewhat...
In general I think the "documentation" is great from what I saw, all newcomers like me need is some structure, some way to progress smoothly from one point to another that brings them ever closer to an understanding of the setting, and it might not be a bad idea to focus on one particular period, possibly even a certain region that you consider especially interesting or newcomer friendly. Once a newbie groks a certain part of the setting, they will be a lot more confident to go on excursions to other places or other points in time. Rather than trying to give a grand overview over the whole thing, give new readers the chance to establish a "beachhead" in the setting. Right now it feels a bit like getting Planescape dropped on you when you just wanted to "check out that D&D thing" :lol:

Hm. Interesting. The end of the current backstory/primer consists of a fairly in depth overview of the setting (the table of contents at the end). Are you saying that's still a bit too abstract and 'Planescape like' to really work for a new person?

It sort of sounds like you're suggesting something similar to what a couple of other folks have suggested in the past, but which never quite got off the ground. Basically a sort of 'Narrative hook sub-setting' that works to introduce new people to the setting in a less dry and more approachable (and less overwhelming perhaps) manner. Is that sort of what you're thinking here?

In terms of creating a 'beachhead' (and presupposing I'm not totally offbase on my idea of what you're suggesting here) - One thought that comes to mind would be to use Sol System in the setting 'present day' (since that is more or less the primary focus of the setting - it's a long story).

Just to throw out an example (and please don't be afraid to take shots at this particular 'clay pigeon' - this is just brainstorming) :

What if we were to take the 'Solar System in 10,600AT' article, or a portion of it, and maybe combine it with a number of the 'Snapshots' (mini stories each describing some aspect of the setting) that we've started adding to articles as a way of making the setting more approachable? Basically a mix of mini-stories, perhaps connected together in an overarching narrative (maybe a tourist visiting the solar system?) and some parts of the existing article above, as well as some others that get into details or the like that we want people to understand about the setting.

Solsys has the advantage of likely being familiar to most SF readers, and is sufficiently developed and diverse in the setting, that people can get exposure to a lot of the ideas that are to be found here. It has various types of worlds and habs, lots of different races, an archailect in residence, wormhole links, etc.

Anyway - what do you think? Good idea? Bad idea? I'm totally missing what you're talking about?

Coming at this from another direction - regardless of where we might end up setting such a beachhead, what sort of setting elements would be good to include?

We have a lot of irons in the fire right now (but then we always do), so if we decided to do something like this it wouldn't happen instantly. But we can certainly talk it through and - if we decide to take a shot at it - work it into our ongoing updates and improvements to the project.

Thanks for this suggestion!

Todd