> I think most everyone who's read DotA has probably been inspired to *attempt* their own version, I know I have. One major element that was not included in the forum threads is simply the conflict of one writer/character vs. the other. At the end of each chapter, I could easily visualize Sam or Dave sitting back in their chair, folding their arms, grinning to themselves, and saying "Let's see you write your way out of this one."

You hit the nail on the head. That's *exactly* what we were doing when we wrote that, and that's why it was so rewarding. Attempts Dave and I have made to recreate that writing bliss haven't done so well, because we already covered the ground that made it fun. We tried again, some years later, with a different approach: rather than trying to one-up the other, try to complicate a coherent plot -- remaining coherent -- with each new installment. That worked for a while, and I am convinced it could have been fun, but then we hit a point of contention about the "rules" of the game with the most recent installment, and we never finished. At any rate, that slightly altered approach still bears the same idea: it's more competitive than collaborative, the idea being to throw things back and forth that the other one has to get out of.

> Tra "I forget which one of them wrote the dream sequence, but, in retrospect, they'd probably agree." nio

I'm the lousy goober who used the dream sequence, but I had just cause: both Dave and I agree that the installment that I used it in was hands down the best and funniest of my installments. So there. :-P