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

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

[17andinfected.livejournal.com]

There's such a thing as disasterporn? O.o

Re: General Brainstorming

[walks-two-paths.livejournal.com]

To me there is?

Cheesy disaster movies or docudramas done like "Supervolcano" and "Super Comet After The Impact"

"Life After People" is on that list too. :D

Cole's player introduced me to that term.

Re: General Brainstorming

[17andinfected.livejournal.com]

OH. I thought it was something like "A huge comet is hurtling towards Earth! HOLD ME!"

"OK!"

bowchickabowbow

Re: General Brainstorming

[walks-two-paths.livejournal.com]

...

Uhm... I have been encouraged to write fic like that...

*hides*

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

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

Well, for me it's more about having a plot where we have to endure/survive. I'm quite tired of the "something bad happens and we save the day" plots.

Re: General Brainstorming

[carsexual]

But what purpose does "bad things just happen" serve besides making everybody angsty and emo?

Re: General Brainstorming

[joan-notjane.livejournal.com]

Making people work together to survive/rebuild?

Re: General Brainstorming

[carsexual]

People work together to survive and figure out the BDEs already.

We already did something where most people were essentially helpless to fix the problem with the plague plot. Some people really liked the plague plot. Some people didn't, especially those of us with characters who are unspeakably frustrated by helplessness. Playing Steve Rogers when he can't help fix something is not fun, let me tell you.

And I tend to agree with Alanna that natural disasters pretty much are no fun whatsoever.

Re: General Brainstorming

[joan-notjane.livejournal.com]

Right. We did one BDE where people were essentially helpless. As opposed to the dozen or so that were fighty in nature.

I'm not saying one or the other is right or wrong. I'm simply suggesting that we do something that might be fun for those who don't enjoy the fighty stuff.

Re: General Brainstorming

[saveyoulater.livejournal.com]

Playing Steve Rogers when he can't help fix something is not fun, let me tell you.

Heh. Try playing a woman who pretty much is her job and can't really work on the island. Soooooo much sympathy for you on this, Z.

Re: General Brainstorming

[morpherboy.livejournal.com]

The problem with that is, for me, Fandom High is a place where I can unwind. Where I have fun. "Something bad happens and we save the day" is fun. "Oh shit a volcano just exploded and covered half the island in ash" is not only not fun but is also traumatizing.

Re: General Brainstorming

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

Well, fighty stuff isn't fun for me. I know it is for other people and I'm not trying to say we should never do it again, but I would like more variety.

Re: General Brainstorming

[morpherboy.livejournal.com]

The catch is, fighty stuff is pretty easy to ignore. And it's relatively temporary. Over and done. A natural disaster? Not so much. The repercussions continue for a while and for people who don't want to play with it? Not fun.

Re: General Brainstorming

[bitten_notshy]

I think we have to admit people have fun different ways. For me -- and I fully admit this is on the weird side -- a fight I know I'm going to win isn't all that interesting. I'll do fighty scenes, and they're fun the first time I get to play them out with a new character or from a new angle or whatever, but for the most part, if I know I'm going to triumph, why bother? (I also fast-forward past filmed fight scenes if the main character's obviously going to win. I'm special.)

THAT SAID, I do kind of agree with you but for another reason. A volcano exploding (or whatever) is a huge, semipermanent-to-permanent change in the game. Thus far, we've avoided having plots in the game that last longer than a summer, and even the long ones were on a simmer most of the time. I don't know if I'd find the game as enjoyable if we did devote six months to being about a volcano and the aftermath; I think there are other settings to play with things like that, and Fandom High is the place for random clouds of glitter.

Re: General Brainstorming

[morpherboy.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I think you made my point far better than I was managing it.

Re: General Brainstorming

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I'd find the game as enjoyable if we did devote six months to being about a volcano and the aftermath

I'm not sure we'd have to. I think it would all depend on how it was planned. I think it could be done on the same level as the aliens blowing up the school a few years ago was.

Because I do agree with you that making the entire game focus on it for months on end would be boring. But I think a balance could be struck.

Re: General Brainstorming

[walks-two-paths.livejournal.com]

Just to throw out suggestions, if there was a volcano going off, there are plenty of magic users on the island who could possibly work together to create some kind of magic or spell to change the lava flow or turn it into something else so it's not as time-consuming of a plot or that it doesn't permanently change the structure/design/landscape of the island all together?

Also, we could do an earthquake or something like that, instead. The flood BDE was pretty cool because everyone was trying to figure out how to save the island and the buildings/each other before it was revealed that it was angry sea people causing all of the problems.

Re: General Brainstorming

[wantstodirect]

What if it was more a magic-y sort of disaster to deal with? Like, the Valdemar books have mage storms that come in waves (which some of Karal's friends have already dealt with in game). The mage storms feel like earthquakes and mess with magical abilities (and things created by magic) but don't affect the mundane items. As the storms grow, they start having magic effects in small circles. Like, a rabbit gets caught in a circle and turns into some kind of rabbit-sized magic-mutant beast.

It doesn't have to be mage storms in particular, but suppose we did some kind of magic/sci-fi unnatural disaster plot? Dealing with it could be similar to the way characters would deal with a real natural disaster but it'd be more of a metaphorical thing than a real-life correlation. Would something like that be easier to deal with?

Re: General Brainstorming

[morpherboy.livejournal.com]

On a totally unrelated note, the rabbit example reminds me of something out of Cimorene's canon...

That does sound somewhat more feasible.

Re: General Brainstorming

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

Natural disasters aren't ... hrm. 'Triggery,' if that's the right word, for me? But I agree with you in that I would rather the game stay away from things that go places like that. Not 'dark and serious,' but 'things that some of us might have very painful and very real experiences with, and ones we don't especially want to relive.'

This is why I was so upset about the plague. Watching someone get sicker and then die while you're helpless to do anything ... it's gut-wrenching. My family refused to place my grandmother into a nursing home, so we provided hospice care for the next several months. And it sucked. And it breaks people into little pieces, and you don't bounce back in days, or weeks, or months. And I come to the game not to think about things like that, especially not in a tidy, clean "and then in two weeks, everything is fine again" fashion.

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.