Kill this Thread

[Ailith]

Devor, thanks for the advice. I think that’s a great idea - I’ll work on revamping it a little and hopefully introduce it as a trigger challenge some time this weekend.

Sidekick and Phil, glad you’re on board!

 

[Philip Overby]

I'm always open to any new challenges, typically. I think it's always a good idea to train your "writing muscle." When I'm not steadily working on something, it helps keep my writing up to snuff.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

I finally saw the picture for "a challenge for all." (The picture doesn't show up on my computer at work. I work at a school, so there's a funky block-out-everything feature in the network.)

As in my Year of the Dragon entry, my source of inspiration is a combination of the Chinese zodiac and something personal.

 

[Ailith]

This thread: (if it were a one-eyed alien from the 70's)

 

[Philip Overby]

It is a one eyed alien from the 70s.

 

[Ailith]

Oh good, that makes me feel a little less guilty about trying to kill it. One eyed aliens from the 70s are the worst. Three eyed aliens from the 80s... different story.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Wow... 20+ hours from my post to "I Will Survive." Quite an accomplishment.

More than I can say about my fight today. I came down with the flu yesterday, so I guess not vomiting on my opponent is worth a bronze medal. But my non-vomiting strategy was to not eat at the tournament, which would have been fine if I fought less than seven hours after breakfast.

Despite being hungry and pukey, I got the first scoring hit in the match. Would have been the first two scoring hits if my leg would cooperate. First thing in the fight, I hit my opponent with a sidekick. That would have been great if I didn't kick him below the belt. I don't mean in an America's Funniest Home Videos way. I kicked his hip. That has nothing to do with being sick; I'm not as flexible as I was in the '90s. Next time I see an open stomach, I'll aim my kick at the face so it will actually hit the stomach.

PS- Quest of the Week is up a day early.

 

[Kaellpae]

I'll be posting second. I don't want to decide where in the quest that we start.

 

[Philip Overby]

I'm a little confused how Quest of the Week works. Could I get a tutorial?

 

[Kaellpae]

For the sake of this thread I will attempt to tutorial you, but Sidekick will probably have something to fix for my tutorial-ness.

Each Sunday, Legendary Sidekick will post a quest that we will flesh out throughout the week. One person starts and sets the tone that each other person will write with. Each person will tell the story through their hero's eyes, building on what previous heroes have already done. When I wrote my introduction I was slightly confused, so my introduction involved things that the previous writers had done, but it still worked because I added more action to the end.. I think.

I think it's something like everyone working together one post at a time to complete a short story through out the week.

And now that I have you thoroughly confused.. Legendary Sidekick, come save the day!

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

For the sake of this thread I will attempt to tutorial you, but Sidekick will probably have something to fix for my tutorial-ness.

Each Sunday, Legendary Sidekick will post a quest that we will flesh out throughout the week. One person starts and sets the tone that each other person will write with. Each person will tell the story through their hero's eyes, building on what previous heroes have already done. When I wrote my introduction I was slightly confused, so my introduction involved things that the previous writers had done, but it still worked because I added more action to the end.. I think.

I think it's something like everyone working together one post at a time to complete a short story through out the week.

And now that I have you thoroughly confused.. Legendary Sidekick, come save the day!

The day doesn't really need saving because this is exactly right.



If I were to add anything, I could give an example of how this week's quest COULD work:

(POST #1) Quest of the Week prompt:

Location: The West Pole

Situation: A shipment of non-lethal Hand Cannon ammunition is being transported here via horse drawn carriage. However, Stealin Hood and his Fairy Men prefer to use non-lethal weaponry when they steal from the rich so they can sell to the poor.

Quest Goal A: Make sure the shipment safely departs the West Pole and arrives here at Castle Justice.
Quest Goal B: If Hood and his men show up, try to take the bandits alive. None of them are killers, so lethal force could lead to a wrongful death suit.

(POST #2) Let's say Phil is the "first responder." He can start the quest with his character complaining about the mundane task of guarding a shipment of Hand Cannon ammo. Maybe his character is a samurai who thinks the Hand Cannon is a coward's weapon. Or maybe he just hates the sound of horses.

(POST #3) While Phil's monologue was funny and revealed a lot about his character, Kaellpae wants action. That's fine. He can just jump straight into an encounter with Stealin Hood and his Fairy Men. Are the fairy men big, hairy guys who wear pink tutus? Are they little fairies who can be captured easily in butterfly nets? I have no idea what these people are like. Whoever writes these characters first makes that decision.

As far as collaboration with Phil goes, Kaellpae could simply have Lord Frenard mention how "Samurai Phil" finally stopped complaining when Stealin showed up and started swatting Fairy Men out of the sky with his sheathed katana.

So now I read these entries and I like what I see. I'm thinking the odds are well in your favor. I roll a 6, the bandits beat you up. I roll anything else, you capture them. But I've got a class to teach so I'll roll the die and post later.

(POST #4) However... Ailith comes along and posts before I get a chance to respond. She has Sir Crowyn, Samurai Phil and Lord Frenard defeat the bandits! She's not breaking any kind of a rule by doing this. She just thought that was a natural direction for the story to go in, so she wrote it that way. Not a problem.

Now I roll the die and a 6 comes up. Great. You guys already defeated the bad guys and I just rolled a number that means something has to go wrong. No problem.

(POST #5) I write that it turns out that Stealin Hood had a smoke bomb with him--which he normally uses to create the illusion of appearing out of nowhere or vanishing. It explodes near an ammo crate, causing ice bullets to go off. One of the playing characters is hit.

I didn't specify who is hit, so...

(POST #6) ...Kaellpae decides that it's not gonna be his character. He describes the chaos as ice bullets freeze Stealin Hood, several Fairy Men, and Samurai Phil. Stealin and three fairy men, who are bound to the fast-moving carriage, slide from their ropes and shatter when they hit the ground. Lord Frenard and Sir Crowyn, both on horseback, quickly veer to either side of Samurai Phil's horse and prevent him from sliding off of his saddle and sharing the bandits' fate.

(POST #7) Phil doesn't like his guy being frozen, so he writes about how the Fairy Men offer to thaw him out with their traditional fire dance in exchange for their freedom...



I guess my example ran a bit long, but I hope you get the idea. Each post is essentially a prompt for whoever writes next.

 

[Philip Overby]

Oh ok, I get it now.

 

[Caged Maiden]

Wow after a solid five hours of political debate tonight, I'm exhausted and feel sort of horrible. 2AM huh... nice.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Not to complicate things too much... (especially now that Phil already gets it. The last thing I wanna do is make him go back to not getting it!) I worked out a system so Quest of the Week characters "level up." That was actually planned from the beginning, but I didn't want to info dump. Basically, you're trying to promote your way from Sidekick to Hero. The "hero" level is actually halfway to the max level, in case the game dies before anyone can max out. Instead of experience points, there are "week points." I think the term is self-explanatory.

Even-numbered level-ups will make your character more powerful. Odd-numbered level-ups will unlock more difficult types of quests, starting with a personalized quest when you reach level 3.

 

[Philip Overby]

When I have some time I'll have to delve into this. It sounds like something I'd like (considering anything resembling an RPG is cool).

 

[Caged Maiden]

Yeah, the structure is what Shenoka is missing. It's sort of a free-for-all.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Well... the MFMA was structured, and look how that went.

I'm hoping that by keeping the quests as a weekly thing, people can commit without being overwhelmed or really being "held" to a commitment. As long as somebody is in the quest, there will be more quests. If I get two consecutive weeks with no reply, I'll probably give it up for dead.

If you think it sounds fun, join the quest and keep the game alive.


Or should I follow the reverse psychology of this thread, and challenge everyone to kill it?

 

[Philip Overby]

The MFMA is an example of why you can't get too many writers working on one project (unless they're getting paid.) I really wished that would have worked out because it was an awesome idea.

 

[Caged Maiden]

There've been a lot of good challenges here. I'm not a member of any other sites, so I have nothing to compare to, but I love the great work that has come from the challenges on MS.

 

[Devor]

There've been a lot of good challenges here. I'm not a member of any other sites, so I have nothing to compare to, but I love the great work that has come from the challenges on MS.

I was looking at a few other writing forums a few weeks ago, and there's some big differences. I don't understand why some of them have so many more members.