The BDE and You: A User's Guide

[ismyhairout.livejournal.com]

Greetings and salutations, gremlins!

Next weekend (June 20-22) is our summer semester BDE! For those who haven't experienced a BDE before, that stands for Big Damn Event. It's an island-wide event that's pretty much impossible to ignore. We only do one per semester, and it's a great opportunity to get your characters out of their comfort zone and doing things they wouldn't normally think to do. Previous examples of BDEs include invasions (zombies, snow monsters, jello dragons), the plaaaaague and the angel statues from last semester.

This semester, there are a few different elements to the BDE and we'll be trying to incorporate all kinds of characters like last time, but hopefully in a simplified form over a weekend instead of a week. Interested? Couldn't care less? Either way, read on!

A few different things will be happening this weekend, but it all comes down to one thing. Or person, if you want to call him that. In an attempt to not have to go back to Tartarus, our very own Vice Principal Hades will be trying to take over Fandom in order to make it the new Underworld. He loves the island, not so much the people, so they simply have to go.

THURSDAY
On Thursday, the barrier between Fandom and the Underworld will be wearing thin and spirits will be floating through to the surface and will be flittering around Fandom. In an effort not to mod anyone's afterlife, these spirits will be non-descript and not actually anyone that anyone here knows. That said, in their ghostly and gaunt form, they will be available for interaction and freaking people out. The catch is that anyone who makes physical contact with them will lose all their strength and their life force will start fading. Don't worry, it's only permanent with prolonged contact. On Thursday, only a few of the first ghosts will appear.

FRIDAY
Come Friday, the place will be littered with spirits. Your characters are going to have to dodge every now and then in order to avoid walking through them all the time. Luckily, the dorms are a safe place and if you don't want to deal with the ghosts, don't go outside. Everywhere else on the island is free game for the ghosties to appear, even in classes if the teacher so decides. Anyone who feels like having their character be suspicious about the ghosts, wanting to figure out their reason for being here or just wanting to be ghostbusters are more than welcome to do so. They're not malicious though. They're just poor trapped souls who don't know what to do with themselves. Hades will mostly be hiding out through this time.

SATURDAY
Hades? Not so much with the hiding. The barrier between the Underworld and Fandom will be open in explodey spectacular fashion. On Saturday morning he's going to announce his plans in grand old fashion, declare himself grand pooba of Fandom and give everyone one chance to get off the island before he starts letting loose bad things on everyone. This will give your character one last chance to get going somewhere safe if you'd rather not participate. Saturday will then involve the splitting of everyone into their usual groups - fighters (who will be taking on some Greek mythological beasties), researchers (to the library, Batman!) and victims (who will be captured by Pain and Panic, Hades' demonic minions). More on that right now.

THE GROUPS
Fighters will have the opportunity to slash and hack and explode things until your heart's content. There will be any number of mythological creatures wanting to tear your heads off, so feel free to get in on the action. You don't need to sign up to be a fighter. Just go for it when the posts go up. Keep in mind that being out fighting will also involve dodging the ghosts, because they'll still be around unintentionally causing trouble and their numbers will be many, so the fight won't be all that easy.

Researchers will be doing the library research thing on gods and how the heck to defeat them. The problem is that Hades is immortal and nigh-invincible and can't get his butt kicked using conventional means. The researchers are more than welcome to think up a bunch of different ways to try to defeat Hades (or even some of the mythological creatures to cut down numbers there). The solution will involve trekking to Mount Olympus to get an artefact (or several different pieces of it) that will remove Hades' immortality, leaving him open to regular attacks. No need to sign up for researching, just show up as you know how.

Victims will be those who get rounded up by Hades' minions and trapped in good ol' Tartarus (now connected to Fandom). Those who sign up for this (and sign ups are essential so we can plan on having enough NPC attention for you) will be treated to a little bit of mental mindfrakkery in the form of having to live through scenarios involving their worst fears. I freely admit to swiping this partially from Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. Go with what works, right? Victims will be taken (either with or without a struggle depending on your choice) on Saturday morning and will stay as victims until the Sunday finale.

Away Team members will be those people wanting to go and face some ordeals on Mount Olympus. Similar to the away teams during the last BDE, they'll face a few trials and get their piece of the artefact identified by the researchers and then bring it home to unite the pieces and make Hades very annoyed. Also, vincible. The number of pieces required for the artefact will depend on how many people sign up for teams. If you sign up, we'll throw you into a team and send you off on your journey on Saturday night. Due to the Greek godly nature of Mount Olympus, transportation will only take you so far, so it's going to take until Sunday morning to get to the top where the ordeals will begin. The action will primarily take place on Sunday.

SUNDAY
So after a night of trying not to get the life sucked out of you by ghosts and not getting eaten by the remaining mythological beasties, Sunday will come. The victims will still be off being mentally screwed with. The researchers will have found their target but will still be trying to figure out ways to close the rift between the Underworld and Fandom (and means of helping the fighters take on the mythological creatures). The fighters can keep on doing their thing, but will also find out where the victims are being kept and will form a party to go and rescue them in the bowels of the Greek Underworld.

There will also be attempts to break into Hades' newly formed headquarters. This will lead to one-on-one fights with Hades (and getting your butt kicked by a Greek god) for anyone who wants one. You will get sorely beaten up, but Hades won't kill because he likes playing with his food/toys too much.

The victims will be rescued and the mythological creatures will largely be defeated.

The away team folks will return late Sunday afternoon with the pieces of the artefact. When the pieces are united, Hades will lose his godly shine and the finale team will be able to beat him to a pulp and get rid of him. They will then close the rift between the Underworld and Fandom, sucking all of the poor souls back to where they're supposed to be.

It's going to be a big weekend.

Let's move to the OCD, shall we?

NB: If you sign up for anything below, please read all of the requirements so you know what you're getting yourself into. Some groups can't double up. We've tried to let you know what availability you'll need for different things and what will be involved. Try not to take on too much if you have multiple characters as you will need to pay attention to the threads you're in to be fair to the other people involved and so as not to hold things up. You don't need to sign up to be a regular fighter or researcher, come and go as you please with that. If you sign up for anything and we need to limit numbers on a particular group, we'll let you know by Thursday if we have to drop you from that group.

Comments

Questions!

[ismyhairout.livejournal.com]

Because there are always some.

Re: Questions!

[always-damp.livejournal.com]

*gives offering of strawberry rhubarb pie along with dumb question*

Do I understand correctly that we don't have to sign up to have our life forced drained by a spirit? And that it sounds coma-tastic?

Re: Questions!

[saltandammo.livejournal.com]

Will these spirits react the same way traditional spirits will -- ie can be dispersed temporarily by salt?

Re: Questions!

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Will there be any safe spirit-free places for townies to hide, or should they be conveniently off-island?

Re: Questions!

[gimmemoreteams.livejournal.com]

How many roads must a man walk down?

Re: Questions!

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

I have a strange sort of question, if that's okay.

Alice has a history of severe mental illness and psychotic breaks from reality and all that good stuff. If she was a Victim on Tartarus, going through all of the mindfrakkery, could she (wrongly) assume that she'd just snapped and gone mad again, and start trying to handle things that way?

It's not really going to do anything, I mean, Victims can't rescue themselves and I wouldn't want her to, anyway. I'm just wondering if, after she's all smashed up with watching loved ones burn and blame her for it, etc., she can spend the last hour or two of her imprisonment going "hang on, I must be mad again, lolz" and looking for a big ol' knife so she can carve out some spleens.

But that's a weird sort of request and hence, me asking, and it's totally cool if that's off-limits. *bows*

Re: Questions!

[crazypilotman.livejournal.com]

Is it possible for members of the rescue party to find/free a particular person? Or will it be based strictly upon player availablity?

Just curious.

Sign Up - Victims

[ismyhairout.livejournal.com]

I want to be mentally mindfrakked by Hades' minions for two days. I realize this involves being separated from the rest of the action and not being able to escape, despite my best efforts, and that I will largely be responsible for coming up with my own scenarios and coordinating with my NPC buddy to help me out.
Victims cannot be part of any other group.
Please specify what your character's biggest fears are.

Re: Sign Up - Victims

[rebelheartalien.livejournal.com]

Ahahhaha, I feel like being mean.

Michael's biggest fear would basically be Max and Isabel turning on him/abandoning him. He says it isn't, but he lies.

Re: Sign Up - Victims

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

I'd be glad to have Lana be a victim.

Her biggest fears are that everyone she loves is seriously hurt, dies, or is taken away from her without warning and that somehow it is all her fault. Which means that eventually she will be left alone forever.

Re: Sign Up - Victims

[idontlooktired.livejournal.com]

Oh, Harriet would kick my ass for this. Definitely sign her up to be a victim. Her biggest fear is failing those for whom she is responsible. And, yeah, I may just have an idea here... *rubs hands evilly*

Re: Sign Up - Victims

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

Oh please victimize John with his fears! *bounces in excitement of using caaaanon against a teenager* Oh, his worst fear being that he cannot save the people he cares for.

And clowns.

Re: Sign Up - Victims

[minnesota-teen.livejournal.com]

Am signing up Amber for this!

And right now her biggest, real fear, is that somehow Gladys Leeman finds her, hunts her, and chases her down, trying to blow her away with that shotgun of hers.

Re: Sign Up - Victims

[imcalledandros.livejournal.com]

I can't resist.

Andros' biggest fears are, despite his denial, is that he's going to end up alone and that he's going to fail in his duty as a red ranger and a leader.

Re: Sign Up - Victims

[likethegun]

*cackle*

Sam's biggest fear is turning into something evil and hurting the people he cares about. And clowns. *high-fives John*

Re: Sign Up - Victims

[gameknowsgame.livejournal.com]

Victimize Blair please! Or as much as you can since she's not Serena Her biggest fears would be her dad hating her/disowning her, and losing her queen B status.

Re: Sign Up - Victims

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Victim me!

Bridge's biggest fear would be toast without butter being separated from his loved ones.

Sign Up - Away Team

[ismyhairout.livejournal.com]

I want to be part of an away team that will leave on Saturday night and not be back until the finale on Sunday. I realize this means that I will be off-island for most of the action, but can participate as a researcher or fighter for most of Saturday. I acknowledge that I will have to have good availability to participate in a group thread involving interaction. I agree that if something comes up in RL, I will do my best to let someone in charge know that I won't be around so no one has to wait for me.
Away team members can do other things (fighting, researching, other) until the groups leave on Saturday night. They can sign up for the finale group on Sunday, but preference will be given to others.
Please specify what your availability is for the weekend.

Re: Sign Up - Away Team

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

How can I resist wanting to have Anders try and scale Mount Olympus as part of his last BDE? Barring a couple of 20-minute coffeeshop commute times (I can sit in front of the computer all day but I need a change of scenery for a bit) I've cleared the calendar for this, 'cause :D.

Sign Up - Raiding Party

[ismyhairout.livejournal.com]

I want to be part of the group that goes into Tartarus to rescue the victims on Sunday. I realize this means I can be a fighter or researcher for the rest of the time, but that I will have to focus on this on Sunday. I acknowledge that I will need good US afternoon availability on Sunday in order to participate in group threads involving interaction. I agree that if something comes up in RL, I will do my best to let someone in charge know that I won't be around so no one has to wait for me.
Raiding Party members can do other things on Saturday (fighting, researching, other), but cannot be part of the Away Teams. They can sign up for the finale group, but preference will be given to others.
Please specify what your availability is for Sunday.

Re: Sign Up - Raiding Party

[armybrat-lois.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Sign Lois up for this. I should be available all Sunday afternoon and evening.

Sign Up - One on One Fights

[ismyhairout.livejournal.com]

I want a one-on-one fight with Hades on Sunday. I realize this means my character is going to get their ass handed to them. I acknowledge I will be available on Sunday afternoon to play this thread out, and that if something comes up and I am not around, I will miss out on the opportunity.
This is for members of the Raiding Party only.

Re: Sign Up - One on One Fights

[armybrat-lois.livejournal.com]

Aaaaaaaaand Hades is welcome to kick the ass of Lois.

Sign Up - Researcher (I Want to Be Special)

[ismyhairout.livejournal.com]

I will be playing as a researcher, but I want to find some piece of important information. I acknowledge that I have to be around at a set time to give my information out in order to keep the plot going. I know that my piece of information will be allocated based on my availability as stuff needs to be released in a certain order. I realize that this will probably be the only awesome thing my character gets to do this weekend so everyone can share being awesome and that I may need to team up with someone to find this information if too many people want to be special with me. I know I will be contacted separately with my piece of information at a later time. If something comes up in RL, I will do my best to let someone in charge know so that my piece of information can be passed on by someone else.
This is for characters who will primarily be researchers. They can sign up for the Away Team, Raiding Party and Finale group, but preference will be given to those who aren't doing anything else.
Please specify what your availability is for the weekend.

Re: Sign Up - Researcher (I Want to Be Special)

[ella-obeys.livejournal.com]

Ella wants to be a special snowflake, if my schedule isn't too complicated to work with. I'm available Saturday during the day (EST)except a few hours around lunchtime, will be off Saturday evening (though possibly on after 10, if babysitting doesn't kick my butt), and have a wedding to go to Sunday that means I probably won't be around that day except maybe in the morning.

Sign Up - Finale

[ismyhairout.livejournal.com]

I want to be part of the team that takes down Hades on Sunday night and close the rift. I realize that not everyone can be part of the finale team, so if selected I will be around all Sunday evening (until midnight EST at least) to participate in a coordinated group thread. I know I will need to be on AOL Instant Messenger to join a chat to coordinate this thread. I acknowledge that time will be short and I will have to pay close attention to this thread only to get things done. If something comes up in RL, I will do my best to let someone in charge know so that they can continue on without my character.
Finale group members can be involved in other things throughout the weekend (fighting, researching, away team, raiding party, other), but we will try to give a good mix of characters who have had varying levels of involvement throughout the plot.

Re: Sign Up - Finale

[cheminthehead.livejournal.com]

Gladys, please!

Sign Up - NPCs

[ismyhairout.livejournal.com]

I want to help out with NPCing. I realize this means taking whatever threads I can or am told to take and likely joining an AIM chat room to coordinate with other NPCers. I will be around for at least a few hours on the weekend to help out.

Re: Sign Up - NPCs

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

NPC me, baby! NPC me all weekend long!

Sign Up - Other

[ismyhairout.livejournal.com]

I want to help out at the clinic or be responsible for a common room for those who don't want to join in on the fight or I have an idea for something else I can be in charge of. Please specify what it is you want to do. General researchers and fighters don't need to sign up.

Re: Sign Up - Other

[spacepiratevala.livejournal.com]

Vala can take clinic shifts, if there's a need.

OOC

[ismyhairout.livejournal.com]

No world ending today. That's next weekend.

Re: OOC

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

I think you forgot something very important.

The pie thread.

COME ON.