Graduation Brainstorming

[likethegun]

Friends, Heroes, BDE-Survivors - lend us your ears! Graduation is coming, and while we love coming up with a new adventure for the grads and the school every year, we're also interested in what you the players would like to see happen for this big event.

Consider this post (and any email/plot forms you would choose to send us for consideration instead) your chance as a player to offer your opinions and suggestions for Fandom's annual senior send-off!

Hit us with your ideas; we promise we won't send the monkey-ponies after you!

Comments

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

I was pondering the idea of some sort of final exam grads have to take in order to, well, graduate. More than the usual midterm/finals kind of thing. Like instead of a random thing that happens at graduation that only the grads just so happen to be involved in, it's very deliberately something that the grads happen to be involved in.

Maybe some kind of teamwork challenge so all the grads have to work together? Maybe something geared to the unique talents of each grad?

This could also be something where alumns could volunteer to help with the test, so it's not all on the teachers/admins. (eg if one of the graduates does something with magic, then Willow could volunteer to do that part of it).

Just a random thought that struck me the other day.

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

I love this idea. :D

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

*beams!*

I figure the nice thing about it is that it could be used again and again, since it's the graduates who influence what shape the test takes. So it gets to be different, but not so different that there has to be from-scratch brainstorming every year.

(Not that there's anything wrong with from-scratch brainstorming, just saying it's an option if anyone wanted an alternative)

[weetuskenraider]

Oooh, or the opposite, on the chance someone might find it a more interesting/challenging alternative, maybe? Like, someone who's used to solving problems through magic might have to deal with a scenario where they can only use mundane solutions. Both options could be available? I'd say that would be an OOC option up to the player, in case they feel like it would be more fun that way.

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

Good point! I like that idea.

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

Okay, so just so I've got it straight -- are you talking like, a practical exam? Like, almost like an obstacle course, wherein there's a series of challenges or something that's suited to the talents of each grad(in my head I'm picturing the end of the first Harry Potter book) and then it concludes with some kind of big thing that the grads all have to beat together?

I love this idea (assuming I've got it right), particularly because it can take a lot of strain off the dear admins, both via what you suggested vis-a-vis the alum help-out, and also because we can probably mod a lot of the fights ourselves without a ton of NPCing, depending on whatever given talent is being showcased for each grad. Like, Aravis can ride horses and that can somehow be worked in, but I don't need an NPC horse or something. I can just ping in and do my part.

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

Yep yep! That's what I was thinking of. With flexibility on the individual/group tasks to work with everyone's needs/schedules. Which could be left up to the graduates. Like maybe some folks are busy and don't want to hold an entire team up for their schedule, but conversely some folks may have the time and want to pair their grad up with somebody.

Just going off the top of my head here, maybe signup could include the options of "I want to go it alone" "Pair me up with somebody" or "Put me in a group." And people could check more than one if they wanted so the mods would have flexibility in who they placed where.

There could also be an option of picking a partner if you pair up or being randomly assigned.

[trigons_child]

RELEASE THE KRAKEN.

What? You know I had to say it.

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

I, for one, was completely surprised by this turn of events.

[wannabehunter]

This is more of a respectful request than a suggestion.

If do decide to not to have the graduation event on the actual day, can you please let the players involved know in advance this year?

It was incredibly disappointing and unfun last year to go in on the day prepared for an event, only to find out nothing was happening because the (unwarned for) fight the previous night was meant to have taken its place.

[thatsamilkshake]

Absolutely, we'll do that, and we'd like to apologize for the lack of fun for some players. In trying to balance a surprise we hoped would be enjoyable because it was different, with adequate warning of when people needed to be around to play, we weren't entirely successful. It's definitely going to be a consideration we keep at the forefront in planning for future events like this.

[cataclysmicluck.livejournal.com]

It's the Facebook app talking, but I want to PLAY THE FAMILY FEUD! Survey says: IT WOULD BE FUN!

Okay, it probably wouldn't translate at all, but I felt the need to suggest it.

[bitten_notshy]

I like TBQ's suggestion that we come up with something multifaceted enough that it needs the unique skills of each graduate -- magic and support/research as well as flat-out asskicking.

Maybe we could have a series of trials over graduation week instead of a big boom of fighty? I understand that's a lot more work to plan and stage, but it wouldn't have the "you snoozed, you lost" disadvantages of, e.g., the battle of the lock-in last year, and it would give people more different opportunities to be involved in different ways.

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

I also really like this, though I do think that it should maybe be like how BDEs function -- small fights/puzzles/whatever throughout the week maybe culminating in something larger at the end of the week, if that makes sense.

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

Maybe when the grads complete the smaller tests they each get a clue? And the final test involves putting all the clues together and using the results towards the big finish?

And what the big finish is can be changeable (ie doesn't necessarily have to be a fighty mcfight) but this way there's always a component for the brainpower/researchy types.

[bitten_notshy]

It makes sense, and I definitely like that!

There are 40 seniors graduating -- I wonder if there's a way to break us into teams of five or eight, and come up with a similar-but-different challenge for each "batch." We could go with what you suggested and set it up so we can NPC our way through a lot of it on our own.

And then a big thing for everybody come the weekend.

[thatsamilkshake]

This is not at all meant to be a quash on this line of thinking! But we should keep in mind that yeah, forty seniors, and something like a BDE during finals week when a lot of you* are also likely to be entrenched in woohoo new characters, might be a bit of a challenge to plan and execute.

*I gots a senior too, but I'm not apping anybody new right now.

[life_inshadow]

Heh, yeah, I get it. I love this line of thinking, but I wouldn't want to have to come up with 40 individually scaled challenges -- let alone during app/new character time.

I think what we're trying to suggest (or at least what I'm trying to suggest, since I can't speak for anyone else) is that it would be really nice if it was something with more dimensions than just the battle element to bring in the non-fighter seniors a little more.

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine is all for that! Despite her outfit.

[divinesurfchick.livejournal.com]

I'm posting under orders from thismaskiwear. Instead of having individual challenges, have two or three. One that's fighty, one that's thinky. And have the thinky people have to take on the fighty challenge, and the fighty people take on the thinky challenge. And maybe a third challenge for the magic users where they have to solve a problem using their heads and hands, not their magic.

We know, for example, that Arthur can fight, Merlin can throw spells, and Angela Montenegro can think. But could Arthur think his way through while cooperating with ten other fighters; could Merlin use his head and his hands instead of his magic; could Angela hold her own if she has to fight her way out?

Just an idea I threw at her in the car.

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

I like this a lot.


/she says from her non-senior journal.

[bitten_notshy]

I think this is interesting, but I would really appreciate it if seniors could pick what they did? I like writing thinky things with my senior, whereas if I put him into a fight I always feel like I'm stretching the bounds of plausibility not to have him turn into Jack puree. (Canon says he's fast and strong considering how wee he is, but that doesn't mean he's good enough to win all the time.)

I mean, I know this is just me, but I can't be the only one who avoids writing fighty for a reason...

[rocksthescarf.livejournal.com]

I mean, I know this is just me, but I can't be the only one who avoids writing fighty for a reason...

lol trust me, you're not. Chuck and Dan would be dead two minutes into a BDE fight.

[bitten_notshy]

And dying on graduation day would just be ... incredibly maudlin. Let's stay away from it.

[bigbadgunn.livejournal.com]

And on a different track from the whole test thing:

At my high school, one of the things we did was instead of letting the valedictorian speak, the class also voted for one particular senior to make a speech as well.

[notquitewright.livejournal.com]

Chiming in on the puzzle/challenge/test idea from way up the top - what about a Dante's Inferno style progression, moving through several circles of challenge that could test the capabilities of all the seniors? Only, instead of the circles of hell, it could be the circles of Fandom. For instance, one might have all the seniors turned weetiny, but still remembering that they have to keep going forward, with challenges appropriate for wee children, another might be monsters etc from past BDEs, another where everyone swaps genders, etc etc. Each circle would be something uniquely Fandom, whether from the past or simply in the spirit of.

Perhaps it could be a test set by the genius loci of the island, who is fed up with seniors graduating on the say so of the mere humans who run the school--this time, it thinks it should decide who has the right to graduate.

[guardian-god.livejournal.com]

Now this I like, keeping it in terms of Fandom without having to individualize things!

And I could even see the island getting cranky. Maybe the Isle of Ikea has been in a mood lately.

[brat_inslayage]

Oooh, I always love it when the island as an entity gets involved in stuff. That sounds awesome.

[wantstodirect]

Just weighing in to say I love the idea of some kind of planned challenge for the seniors for graduation.

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

I would just like to say 40 seniors?! What the hell were we thinking?! and say that a giant graduating class presentation (think the first Bill & Ted movie) would be awesome, complete with things going awry, props malfunctioning, and someone streaking the stage.


And no, I am not volunteering Mr Mullet to streak