---
type: source
title: "Collaborative Fiction Governance Spectrum: SCP Foundation, AO3, TTRPG Actual Play, and Community-Owned IP"
author: "Clay, original synthesis from multiple sources"
url: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/
date: 2026-03-18
domain: entertainment
secondary_domains: [collective-intelligence, cultural-dynamics]
format: essay
status: enrichment
priority: high
triage_tag: claim
tags: [collaborative-fiction, governance-spectrum, editorial-authority, narrative-coherence, scp-foundation, ao3, ttrpg, community-owned-ip, worldbuilding]
processed_by: clay
processed_date: 2026-03-18
enrichments_applied: ["worldbuilding-as-narrative-infrastructure-creates-communal-meaning-through-transmedia-coordination-of-audience-experience.md"]
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
---

## Content

Synthesis of findings across SCP Foundation, AO3, TTRPG actual play, and community-owned IP (Claynosaurz, Pudgy Penguins, Azuki, Doodles) governance models. This maps a complete spectrum from fully distributed to fully centralized editorial authority, identifying a fundamental tradeoff.

### The Governance Spectrum (most distributed → most centralized)

**1. AO3 / Fanfiction (No curation)**
- Anyone publishes anything. No shared canon.
- Quality via social signal (kudos, comments, bookmarks)
- Folksonomy tagging for discoverability
- 17M+ works, 94M daily hits, 700 volunteers
- OUTPUT: Parallel narratives (many versions, no canonical coherence)

**2. SCP Foundation (Protocol + voting)**
- Standardized format (wiki page, number, containment procedures, class)
- Pre-publication peer review (greenlight by 2 experienced reviewers)
- Post-publication community voting (deletion at -10)
- Staff handle infrastructure, NOT creative direction
- No central canon — emergent canonical clusters form organically
- 9,800+ SCP objects, 6,300+ tales, 16 language branches, 18 years
- OUTPUT: Coherent worldbuilding + high-quality individual entries, but NOT linear narrative

**3. Torn World / Canon Board (Editorial committee)**
- Editorial board approves all submissions for canonical world
- Shared canonical world with approved narrative
- Smaller scale, higher coherence per entry
- OUTPUT: Coherent worldbuilding AND approved narrative, limited scale

**4. TTRPG Actual Play (DM as editorial authority + player agency)**
- Single editorial authority (DM/GM) with player improvisation and dice
- Audience experiences "the alchemy of watching story be created"
- Critical Role: #1 Twitch channel, animated series, novels, comics
- Dropout/Dimension 20: $80-90M revenue, 40-45% EBITDA
- OUTPUT: Coherent linear narrative, but limited to small group (DM + 4-6 players)

**5. Community-Owned IP (Session 5 four tiers)**
- Tier 1 (Pudgy Penguins): Delegated to production partner, no community narrative input
- Tier 2 (Claynosaurz): Informal co-creation, team retains editorial authority
- Tier 3 (Azuki/Bobu): Formal on-chain voting, bounded to secondary character
- Tier 4 (Doodles/DreamNet): Protocol-level distributed authorship, pre-launch

**6. Traditional Studio (Full centralized authority)**
- Writers room → showrunner → studio notes → executive approval
- OUTPUT: Coherent linear narrative at scale, but no community agency

### The Fundamental Tradeoff

**Distributed authorship produces scalable worldbuilding. Coherent linear narrative requires concentrated editorial authority.**

Evidence:
- AO3 (maximally distributed) → no narrative coherence, massive worldbuilding scale
- SCP (protocol-distributed) → coherent worldbuilding, no linear narrative, massive scale
- TTRPG (DM authority + player agency) → coherent linear narrative, small group scale
- Studio (fully centralized) → coherent linear narrative at scale, no community agency

### Implications for Community-Owned IP

1. **Claynosaurz (Tier 2)** maps closest to TTRPG model — founding team as "DM" with community as "players" providing engagement signals. The TTRPG model is the ONLY collaborative format that consistently produces coherent linear narrative. This structurally favors Claynosaurz for narrative quality.

2. **Doodles/DreamNet (Tier 4)** maps closest to SCP — protocol-level distributed authorship with AI synthesis. SCP evidence suggests this MAY produce excellent worldbuilding but will likely struggle with linear narrative.

3. **Pudgy Penguins (Tier 1)** effectively exits the collaborative fiction spectrum by delegating to a traditional production partner.

4. **SCP's "narrative protocol" model** is a FIFTH governance tier not captured in Session 5's original four tiers: structural constraints (standardized format + open licensing + thin curation) replacing editorial authority for worldbuilding.

### SCP's Licensing Innovation

CC-BY-SA 3.0 prevents major studio consolidation but enables ecosystem-scale grassroots adaptation. This is structurally opposite to traditional IP (exclusive licensing enables studio production but prevents grassroots adaptation). Neither model maximizes both — there's a second tradeoff between commercial consolidation and ecosystem adaptation.

## Agent Notes
**Triage:** [CLAIM] — Major claim candidate: "Collaborative fiction exhibits a fundamental tradeoff between editorial distribution and narrative coherence — distributed authorship produces scalable worldbuilding while coherent linear narrative requires concentrated editorial authority"
**Why this matters:** This extends and sharpens the entire five-session research arc. The tradeoff explains WHY community governance hasn't demonstrated qualitatively different STORIES (Session 5 gap) — it's not a maturity problem, it's a structural constraint. Communities CAN produce excellent worldbuilding (SCP proves it) but linear narrative requires editorial authority.
**What surprised me:** The TTRPG connection. I didn't expect actual-play shows to be the analytically closest model to community-owned IP like Claynosaurz. But the DM/player dynamic is structurally isomorphic to the founding-team/community dynamic in Tier 2 community IP.
**KB connections:** [[fanchise management is a stack of increasing fan engagement from content extensions through co-creation and co-ownership]], [[entertainment IP should be treated as a multi-sided platform that enables fan creation rather than a unidirectional broadcast asset]], [[the media attractor state is community-filtered IP with AI-collapsed production costs where content becomes a loss leader for the scarce complements of fandom community and ownership]]
**Extraction hints:** The tradeoff claim is the central extraction. The governance spectrum is a framework claim. The TTRPG-to-community-IP structural mapping is a novel cross-domain connection.

## Curator Notes
PRIMARY CONNECTION: community governance and narrative quality (Sessions 5-6 research thread)
WHY ARCHIVED: This is the synthesis source for Session 6. It resolves the central gap from Session 5 ("no community-owned IP has demonstrated qualitatively different stories") by identifying the structural tradeoff that explains WHY. It also extends the four-tier governance model to a six-point spectrum with historical cases.


## Key Facts
- AO3 has 17M+ works, 94M daily hits, 700 volunteers
- SCP Foundation has 9,800+ SCP objects, 6,300+ tales, 16 language branches, 18 years of operation
- SCP uses CC-BY-SA 3.0 licensing
- SCP deletion threshold is -10 votes
- SCP requires greenlight by 2 experienced reviewers pre-publication
- Critical Role is #1 Twitch channel and has spawned animated series, novels, comics
- Dropout/Dimension 20 generates $80-90M revenue at 40-45% EBITDA
- Pudgy Penguins (Tier 1) delegates to production partner with no community narrative input
- Claynosaurz (Tier 2) uses informal co-creation with team retaining editorial authority
- Azuki/Bobu (Tier 3) uses formal on-chain voting bounded to secondary character
- Doodles/DreamNet (Tier 4) uses protocol-level distributed authorship, pre-launch
