OK, the rules has originally been in the JOC1 thread, however, since I wanted a small update of them, I will put them here so they get noticed.
The original ones mostly remain, though I have made some additions to them, please read!
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Each character must be played for at least 3 rounds. That’s because I feel like it won’t be any “journey” with less than 3. One round would only be a CSR ripoff, two rounds not enough to build a story. Three rounds feels like the absolute minimum needed to build up a story about someone’s car life. Of course, more rounds are both allowed and encouraged. It is ALWAYS up to the new host to decide if he/she wants to continue with the old character or start over with a new one, as long as three rounds of the same JOC has passed! Don’t for example kill off the character without permission from the next host!
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About threads and naming. My thought is that all the parts of JOC1 can be held in one thread, then when moving to a new character we post a new thread for JOC2 etc. About naming, my idea for a standard is that we name the first entries for JOC1 “JOC1A-yourname”, then for the next round “JOC1B-yourname”, “JOC1C-yourname” etc. and then when we change character it becomes “JOC2A”, and so on.
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Of course we don’t need to start with a teenager with a fresh license. Some people might have taken their drivers license later in life, some might have bought their first car many years after their license etc. - be creative there, just keep in mind that there should be room for at least three vehicle purchases in that person’s life.
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Turnaround times. I don’t think that they should be so heavily regulated, but I feel that many people buy new cars after between 3 and 10 years. Sure, there is cars that are traded after six months, as well as ones that are being kept for 30 years, so all I can say is - if you are moving too far out of what could be considered “normal”, just have a believable reason for this, not “duhhh aliens confiscated his new ride after 2 months so now he needs a new one again”.
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Not a rule, but keep in mind that people change over time. If you don’t like the character’s current needs and personality, see it as a challenge to change him/her in a realistic way in the next round. Also, maybe the vehicle chosen may affect the brief next time? (For example: “I thought a sports car could be fun but the lack of practicality was so much of a hassle so the driving experience could not make up for that” - hence maybe a sedan in the next round?). Just keep in mind to pay respect to the makers of the earlier cars. Don’t bash too hard on the character’s previous car without talking to the previous winner about it. Sure, saying that “this 2 seater has to go because we need to fit a child seat” is one thing, but “I hate everything about this car, it sucks” isn’t a worthy way to treat the last round’s winner, at least not without it’s author’s permission.
AND NOW, SOME ADDITIONS…
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JOC rounds has a potential to evolve to stories around a character’s life. I do a lot of play-by-post role playing myself, and the golden rule there is to never, ever take over another player’s character. That’s of course not the case with JOC since the main idea IS to take over another player’s character. However, to show some respect to the people that created the character, and that helped the character evolve, I would strongly suggest every host of JOC to talk to, at least the original host of the round, but preferrably to every previous host of it, about the ideas. I can understand that giving them the advantage of knowing what type of car the character wants is not very tempting, but for the part regarding the character’s life, I strongly suggest it. Now, keep in mind that you don’t have unlimited freedom as a previous host either. I don’t want to see fighting about “my character would never put ketchup on his burger, change your story”, but on the other hand, if a previous host created supporting characters, and don’t like your idea of killing them off, please respect it. It’s a bit of give and take here.
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The idea of running two JOCs at once came up, for example, after JOC (X) C, someone starts up JOC (X+1) A, while someone else keeps on with JOC (X) D. I would like to say no there, at least for now. On the other hand, nothing is stopping you from doing a spinoff standalone challenge, featuring your old JOC character. But having multiple JOC rounds running at once feels like something that will easily become a mess, easily becomes something that will result in fighting, salt and drama. I will say no, at least for now.
So, now (31st of July 2023), I have ironed out some bugs I have found after little over a year with JOC, and I hope that the changes will help making the challenge fun for everyone even in the years to come.