Brainstorming Post!

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Apologies, apologies, apologies! We've totally flaked on this for the past couple of months. I won't speak for willbedone as far as inviting punishment, but you can make indignant noises in my direction for it if you like. *shameface*

Anyway, this is the monthly brainstorming post, and I hope this means you guys have a ton of stuff to throw into the mix today, so have at it, in the appropriate OCD thread! And they are up, so go go go!

Comments

General Brainstorming

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

It's quite a step up from being Ensign Brainstorming, j.g.

Either way, this is where the broad ideas and suggestions go.

Re: General Brainstorming

[joan-notjane.livejournal.com]

I have long been advocating a natural disaster BDE. Something we can't fight, that we just have to endure and recover/rebuild from.

Fun fact: Maryland Renter's Insurance does not cover volcano damage. Who knew?

Re: General Brainstorming

[walks-two-paths.livejournal.com]

We do, now. :)

I second the disaster BDE... which has nothing to do with me spending the last couple of weeks watching disasterporn.

Re: General Brainstorming

[morpherboy.livejournal.com]

Actually, I don't know about other people, but I would have a severe problem with a natural disaster plot. I don't like natural disasters, I don't think they're cool, and I definitely don't think it's something I want to deal with in a game setting.

I pulled characters during the flood plot for a reason, and I'll do it again if I have to, but I do not find natural disasters fun in any way, shape, or form.

Re: General Brainstorming

[robinthefrog.livejournal.com]

I too have been longing for something like this. A big storm would make the most sense. Which I suppose means it should be something else. An Earthquake, or meteor shower or something.

Re: General Brainstorming

[trigons_child]

I'm a disasterporn aficionado, I have to admit, but I think a natural disaster plot could be fun if done right, especially with no fighty solution, more of a work together and deflect the brunt of it thing.

But I see how they can be triggering for some people if they've lived through something similar.

Re: General Brainstorming

[decoder-rings.livejournal.com]

Island becomes a labyrinth! Shaddup, it's one of my favorite movies and I always wonder if it could be pulled off.

Re: General Brainstorming

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

Becomes one? Or suddenly sprouts one?

Re: General Brainstorming

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

...you remind me of the babe.

Re: General Brainstorming

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

That would be awesome. I have nothing useful to share except Eeeeeeeeeeeee.

Re: General Brainstorming

[atreideslioness]

...Please. Yes. This. I'll help!

I have no idea how to pull it off, but I'm happy to enable.

Re: General Brainstorming

[withoutverona]

I keep poking at the idea of a prospective student weekend, but I'm not sure how we could do it so it wasn't just Launchpad writ large.

Also, we have a huge number of people from mythologies with vampires (either vampires, or humans who interact with them) right now. I'm trying to come up with something they could all DO together besides bitch about Maryland being too sunny, and coming up with pretty much zilch, but I wanted to throw that out there anyhow.

Re: General Brainstorming

[raspberryturk]

Oh my gosh, yes. Prospective student weekend convention open-housey idea for the win.

If you need any help getting a proposal together for this or anything, poke me. I'm always masochistic insane willing enough to throw in my two cents to coordinate things that I've been wanting for a while, myself.

Re: General Brainstorming

[joan-notjane.livejournal.com]

When I was in college, we did the visitiation weekend thing and it was generally a Sunday-Monday thing.

On Sunday, the prospies would arrive and they were paired up with a current student and there were some lectures/activities/etc.

And then they crashed in the dorms and got up and went to classes with their guide on Monday to get a taste of college life.

If we went for something structured like that, it wouldn't be much like Launchpad, IMO.

Re: General Brainstorming

[robinthefrog.livejournal.com]

I loved the Secret Invasion plot from Marvel becoming a BDE (or was it an MDE?). I'd love to see other people's canons become invasions or somesuch. There's plenty of bad guys out there to choose from.

Also I'd like to once more bring up the possibility of an Alumni plot.

Re: General Brainstorming

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

*does not volunteer a Lo Pan plot*

Re: General Brainstorming

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

Someone said to repost this in the next brainstorming thing, SO I AM. C&P AHOY.

I think that the island needs to be threatened with losing its teaching certification, and thus have some big evil assessment test handed out and most of the students have to do well on it OR ELSE FANDOM IS CLOSED! CLOSED, I SAY!

Cue much frantic studying and WTFing from the student body, who usually don't have to pretend to be scholarly. And then the test somehow introduces cracky elements anyway, in ways that I haven't figured out yet because this is a brand-new idea and it has enormous plot holes that you could drive a truck through. BUT STILL.

Re: General Brainstorming

[joan-notjane.livejournal.com]

Yessssssssssss I loved this when you first suggested it (wherever that was) and I still love it!!!!!

Which, admittedly is non helpful. Let me think.

Okay -- maybe something completely weird and Fandomy happens but the students have to figure out a way to keep the examiners from discovering it.

Like... the gremlins try to bite the examiners and the students have to run interference or we have an invasion of the wee hugging bunnies and the students have to keep them out of sight.

The mental image in my head is the scene from the movie Clue when the officer investigates the house and they all have to act like it's a perfectly normal party.

Re: General Brainstorming

[weetuskenraider]

I think that was me who said that, and yes, I still love this idea, and would totally be up to helping come up with ideas for it.

Re: General Brainstorming

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

. . . I actually have an idea, based on your comment about how the students don't usually have to pretend to be scholarly.

What if the assessment is geared toward, or at least has a component of, wanting to know if the academic curriculum is well-rounded/balanced enough? So then you have the kids who are there to learn how to be better fighters or whatnot desperately having to brush up on literature and math, and the kids from more normal worlds cramming on how to at least make a credible imitation of knowing how to put someone in a choke hold . . .

Re: General Brainstorming

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

And then there's this stuff! Which I am throwing in General Brainstorming for now, because I really don't have anything past the initial ideas.

Xena canon, as some of you may know, is absolutely riddled with crack. And Gabrielle's going to be (mostly handwavily) going through canon up through season 4 and probably a little bit of season 5 over the course of her time in Fandom. So I'd love to adapt some of the more cracky episodes as game plots.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (http://whoosh.org/epguide/girls.html) is the first one I'd love to take a shot at, not so much because it's a cracked-out spoof of vampires (they're totally vampires, except they're Bacchae and can only be killed by being staked through the heart by a shard of dryad bone) as because there is a RANDOM RAVE CLUB IN ANCIENT GREECE. There's also For Him The Bell Tolls (http://whoosh.org/epguide/him.html), which is itself a tribute to the Danny Kaye movie The Court Jester, and would basically involve wacky hijinks with an enchanted bell and a complete doofus who turns into a dashing hero and back every time the bell gets rung. A Comedy of Eros (http://whoosh.org/epguide/comedy.html) is an option too -- Cupid's arrows and wacky love-at-first-sight fun!

Then there's The Quill Is Mightier . . . (http://whoosh.org/epguide/quill.html), which I actually sort of did for a class activity (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/1013005.html?thread=55255309#t55255309) a way back, but would love to do in game. Although I think oops_mbad's powers can accomplish something similar so that may be off the table.

But then there's Fins, Femmes, and Gems (http://whoosh.org/epguide/fins.html), which could be a lot of fun -- basically involving a bunch of people who are trying to accomplish something, and someone trying to stop them by casting a spell that gets them completely and totally obsessed with the first thing they see after the spell is cast. So then they have to find a way to accomplish their goal anyway. :D

And dude. I haven't even touched seasons 4-6.

Re: General Brainstorming

[oops-mbad.livejournal.com]

Diana's powers are quite similar to that, yes, though I don't see how the two are mutually exclusive. :)

Re: General Brainstorming

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

I BLAME mouthy_merc FOR THIS.

Extreme Makeover: Fandom Edition

Re: General Brainstorming

[wantstodirect]

Career Day? Have we ever done this?

Re: General Brainstorming

[glacial_queen]

I mentioned this down in Specific Brainstorming, but it was suggested that I add it here, too.

I got this one while reading about the multicultural day. Karla's the only one from Kaeleer, and idn't good at cooking, or organizing anything fancy or cultural. What she can do is spin tangled webs, which act as really, really powerful illusions.

For something like this, she'd probably want to create and illusion of Kaeleer, one that the other students could interact with, probably based on some of her memories. Then either people can get trapped within it, or have it merge with the island temporarily. True it's all illusion, but while you're in the tangled web, it won't feel like an illusion. Then, no matter what happens, there's aren't any consequences because it was all an illusion.

Kaeleer is dangerous; so there could be plenty of things to fight off, but students will also have to figure out how to break the tangled web, figure out what happened (because for it to fail on such a grand scale as this, there has to be more than Karla simply screwing up the spell), perhaps even organize a rescue or protection detail.Good for fightery types and not-so fightery types.