Isabelle Lightwood (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
seveninchmotto) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh_ooc2013-12-02 07:49 pm
seveninchmotto) wrote in fandomhigh_ooc2013-12-02 07:49 pm
Entry tags:
Your Pre-Christmas Fall BDE!
GREETINGS FROM PANDORA, CITIZENS OF FANDOM!
From December 9th until December 15th, the Hyperion Corporation (led by a man by the name of Handsome Jack) is going to be paying Fandom a visit, in search of a mystical Vault within the island's oh-so-conveniently Unexplored Wooded Area.
Now, they're not going to be any trouble. They'll just get what they came for – that is, the Vault and the untold mystical riches within it – and be on their way...
You sure about that?
Of course not.
Starting with Hyperion's purchase of Moobyland and Taste of Thai today, burly-looking and armed Hyperion personnel will be slowly filtering on to the island during this week to begin work on unlocking the secrets of the Vault. They don't want Fandomites getting too nosey so they are fairly low profile about it, and so in the lead-up week, they won't invite much attention beyond the suddenly lowered quality of service at their new businesses and the few strange machines they install around the island. There will be a random radio broadcast of a standard issue greeting from their leader Handsome Jack, but for the most part, life on Fandom goes on as usual.
But then on Sunday, December 8th, Fandomites may wake up to the sound of heavy machinery, as Hyperion find what they've been looking for, and establish an out-of-bounds digging site within the unexplored wooded area. But, that's perfectly normal, right? They're not actually doing anything to hurt or harass anyone. It is only with Handsome Jack's radio broadcast on the morning of Monday, December 9th and its name-dropping of this mysterious Vault as the purpose of Hyperion's presence on the island that the curious minds of Fandom begin to look into just what the hell is happening on their dear island. And that calls for...
Research? Research!
Yep, that. There's plenty to research the old-fashioned way at first: namely, where Handsome Jack and Hyperion came from, and what the hell is a Vault, anyway? The former will point them in the direction of a place called Pandora, and the latter towards a Pandoran Vault expert called Dr. Patricia Tannis. Contacting the latter in the former will involve hijinks such as stealing ECHO communicators (Pandora's own cell phone!) from Hyperion goons to do it in the first place… and convincing Dr. Tannis to help. You can't expect busy scientists to just help strangers out of the goodness of their heart, after all!
Also, it's going to turn out that Handsome Jack is really not a nice guy, and that Fandomites would do well to stop him from opening the Vault, both for the sake of the island itself as well as the rest of the multiverse. So they really need Tannis' help. After that Pandoran help is secured, then, attention will shift to using that help to stop Hyperion from getting the Vault open. This, as could be expected, will involve plans for fighty.
Did someone say fighty? FIGHTY! (And it's not just for the naturally superpowered and combat-skilled anymore!)
It's an event based on a FPS game (specifically, Borderlands 2). There is going to be fighty, yes. And how. On top of what Fandomites bring to the table on an average day, some of those machines Hyperion installs around town are gun vending machines, and the variety is great. Just check out this YouTube video. What you really need to know is that they will be readily available for a moderate fee, they are very easy to use, and some of them have bullets that light things on fire, or spray acid, or electrocute things. Because who doesn't want that? The people of Fandom will also be getting tips from their connections on Pandora on how to upgrade weapons and make them even more badass, blending research and fighty more than usual.
The main fighty elements will be against the equally heavily armed Hyperion personnel towards the middle and late parts of the BDE week, but there's also going to be a slight issue with a Hyperion worker leaving a portal to Pandora open, thus letting some new unpleasant things (like skags, bullymongs, and crazed bandit psychos) get through and set up shop in various parts of the island. So, good thing there'll be respawn machines around!
... Respawn machines, wait what?
No one's dying during this BDE! Not permanently, anyway. The Hyperion Corporation is installing a bunch of their New-U Stations around town. Should you find yourself at the wrong end of one of the aforementioned insane weapons, you will be teleported back to one of these machines and respawned! Although it will cost you 7% of whatever money happens to be in your pockets, because the machines are part of Hyperion's business empire. But it's a pretty low price for your continued existence, and luckily tiny lootable metal boxes with modest sums of cash in them will be appearing in nooks and crannies all around the island as the Hyperion presence on the island increases. Also, no cash? No problem! Hyperion will waive the fee if you have nothing on you, in the ever-greedy hopes that you will continue to be a paying customer in the future.
And yes, we imagine the first respawn may come as quite the pleasant shock to all. But it should also encourage people who wouldn't normally engage in battle to fight for their town, because the biggest thing they'll lose is a bit of money and the time it takes to hoof it from the nearest New-U Stations back to the battle field!
Okay, all that sounds nifty! But wait, it also sounds like there'll be many creatures and objects on the island that I've never heard of before…
Fear not! There will be a an infopost detailing all the Pandoran wonders coming up next week, filling you in on all you need to know about things like weapons, wildlife, and respawn machines, including the dates on which each of these things will appear on the island. There will also be a map to show the territories of the various creatures and people, as well as the locations of the various Hyperion machines.
Okay, so what about the grand finale? There's one of those, right?
At Dr. Tannis and co's insistance, there's going to be an attack on the Vault site on Saturday, December 14th!
… Which will achieve few things apart from pissing Handsome Jack off enough that all communication between Fandom and the outside world will be cut off, including the Fandomites' lifeline to Pandora. They will be on their own (but with all the info they've gathered over the week) to face the actual finale on Sunday, December 15th, when they are "invited" by Handsome Jack to the Vault's grand opening, where there everyone else will attempt to cause chaos while a RNGed finale team will take on Handsome Jack himself!
And how that goes? Well, you'll have to wait and see.
And one last thing, introducing side missions: because not everything done during a crisis directly moves the plot along.
In the grand tradition of video games (and the game this BDE is based on), we are offering side missions! These missions may range from finding lootable chests in the preserve to dealing with a psycho who thinks he's Mary Poppins to taking photographs of weird monstrous hybrid wildlife. They don't move the plot along, but they hopefully provide fun ways to interact with the slightly changed environment!
The side missions work thusly: A character signs up for one. A day or two before the mission's allotted time, if the RNG favors them, we will provide them with an IC prompt like one of the ones mentioned above (most likely in the form of an ECHO communication from one of the Pandorans helping Fandom), as well as any other necessary OOC information (such as "this is what the loot chest will look like, and here's what you will find inside"). The RNGed player can then gather up a group to play the mission out with, and get to missioning!
There will be posts provided for brainstorming during the BDE week for anyone wanting to put out an open call for participants in their side mission – or for anyone who wants to do non-plot things with the semi-Pandora environment. We encourage reveling in the ridiculousness!
Okay, that seems to be all the information! But, I'm not sure character X would enjoy this event – can he avoid this BDE?
Technically, the most oblivious of Fandomites could probably avoid most things by taking very strategic routes to get around town… But this is an island-wide event, so your best bet for total avoidance is to get off the island early on.
I don't want to avoid this, WHERE DO I SIGN UP?
Over in the sign-up post, which also has some extra info regarding all the things you can sign up for! Meanwhile, this post here offers a space for general questions and comments about the BDE!
Which we will get to now.
From December 9th until December 15th, the Hyperion Corporation (led by a man by the name of Handsome Jack) is going to be paying Fandom a visit, in search of a mystical Vault within the island's oh-so-conveniently Unexplored Wooded Area.
Now, they're not going to be any trouble. They'll just get what they came for – that is, the Vault and the untold mystical riches within it – and be on their way...
You sure about that?
Of course not.
Starting with Hyperion's purchase of Moobyland and Taste of Thai today, burly-looking and armed Hyperion personnel will be slowly filtering on to the island during this week to begin work on unlocking the secrets of the Vault. They don't want Fandomites getting too nosey so they are fairly low profile about it, and so in the lead-up week, they won't invite much attention beyond the suddenly lowered quality of service at their new businesses and the few strange machines they install around the island. There will be a random radio broadcast of a standard issue greeting from their leader Handsome Jack, but for the most part, life on Fandom goes on as usual.
But then on Sunday, December 8th, Fandomites may wake up to the sound of heavy machinery, as Hyperion find what they've been looking for, and establish an out-of-bounds digging site within the unexplored wooded area. But, that's perfectly normal, right? They're not actually doing anything to hurt or harass anyone. It is only with Handsome Jack's radio broadcast on the morning of Monday, December 9th and its name-dropping of this mysterious Vault as the purpose of Hyperion's presence on the island that the curious minds of Fandom begin to look into just what the hell is happening on their dear island. And that calls for...
Research? Research!
Yep, that. There's plenty to research the old-fashioned way at first: namely, where Handsome Jack and Hyperion came from, and what the hell is a Vault, anyway? The former will point them in the direction of a place called Pandora, and the latter towards a Pandoran Vault expert called Dr. Patricia Tannis. Contacting the latter in the former will involve hijinks such as stealing ECHO communicators (Pandora's own cell phone!) from Hyperion goons to do it in the first place… and convincing Dr. Tannis to help. You can't expect busy scientists to just help strangers out of the goodness of their heart, after all!
Also, it's going to turn out that Handsome Jack is really not a nice guy, and that Fandomites would do well to stop him from opening the Vault, both for the sake of the island itself as well as the rest of the multiverse. So they really need Tannis' help. After that Pandoran help is secured, then, attention will shift to using that help to stop Hyperion from getting the Vault open. This, as could be expected, will involve plans for fighty.
Did someone say fighty? FIGHTY! (And it's not just for the naturally superpowered and combat-skilled anymore!)
It's an event based on a FPS game (specifically, Borderlands 2). There is going to be fighty, yes. And how. On top of what Fandomites bring to the table on an average day, some of those machines Hyperion installs around town are gun vending machines, and the variety is great. Just check out this YouTube video. What you really need to know is that they will be readily available for a moderate fee, they are very easy to use, and some of them have bullets that light things on fire, or spray acid, or electrocute things. Because who doesn't want that? The people of Fandom will also be getting tips from their connections on Pandora on how to upgrade weapons and make them even more badass, blending research and fighty more than usual.
The main fighty elements will be against the equally heavily armed Hyperion personnel towards the middle and late parts of the BDE week, but there's also going to be a slight issue with a Hyperion worker leaving a portal to Pandora open, thus letting some new unpleasant things (like skags, bullymongs, and crazed bandit psychos) get through and set up shop in various parts of the island. So, good thing there'll be respawn machines around!
... Respawn machines, wait what?
No one's dying during this BDE! Not permanently, anyway. The Hyperion Corporation is installing a bunch of their New-U Stations around town. Should you find yourself at the wrong end of one of the aforementioned insane weapons, you will be teleported back to one of these machines and respawned! Although it will cost you 7% of whatever money happens to be in your pockets, because the machines are part of Hyperion's business empire. But it's a pretty low price for your continued existence, and luckily tiny lootable metal boxes with modest sums of cash in them will be appearing in nooks and crannies all around the island as the Hyperion presence on the island increases. Also, no cash? No problem! Hyperion will waive the fee if you have nothing on you, in the ever-greedy hopes that you will continue to be a paying customer in the future.
And yes, we imagine the first respawn may come as quite the pleasant shock to all. But it should also encourage people who wouldn't normally engage in battle to fight for their town, because the biggest thing they'll lose is a bit of money and the time it takes to hoof it from the nearest New-U Stations back to the battle field!
Okay, all that sounds nifty! But wait, it also sounds like there'll be many creatures and objects on the island that I've never heard of before…
Fear not! There will be a an infopost detailing all the Pandoran wonders coming up next week, filling you in on all you need to know about things like weapons, wildlife, and respawn machines, including the dates on which each of these things will appear on the island. There will also be a map to show the territories of the various creatures and people, as well as the locations of the various Hyperion machines.
Okay, so what about the grand finale? There's one of those, right?
At Dr. Tannis and co's insistance, there's going to be an attack on the Vault site on Saturday, December 14th!
… Which will achieve few things apart from pissing Handsome Jack off enough that all communication between Fandom and the outside world will be cut off, including the Fandomites' lifeline to Pandora. They will be on their own (but with all the info they've gathered over the week) to face the actual finale on Sunday, December 15th, when they are "invited" by Handsome Jack to the Vault's grand opening, where there everyone else will attempt to cause chaos while a RNGed finale team will take on Handsome Jack himself!
And how that goes? Well, you'll have to wait and see.
And one last thing, introducing side missions: because not everything done during a crisis directly moves the plot along.
In the grand tradition of video games (and the game this BDE is based on), we are offering side missions! These missions may range from finding lootable chests in the preserve to dealing with a psycho who thinks he's Mary Poppins to taking photographs of weird monstrous hybrid wildlife. They don't move the plot along, but they hopefully provide fun ways to interact with the slightly changed environment!
The side missions work thusly: A character signs up for one. A day or two before the mission's allotted time, if the RNG favors them, we will provide them with an IC prompt like one of the ones mentioned above (most likely in the form of an ECHO communication from one of the Pandorans helping Fandom), as well as any other necessary OOC information (such as "this is what the loot chest will look like, and here's what you will find inside"). The RNGed player can then gather up a group to play the mission out with, and get to missioning!
There will be posts provided for brainstorming during the BDE week for anyone wanting to put out an open call for participants in their side mission – or for anyone who wants to do non-plot things with the semi-Pandora environment. We encourage reveling in the ridiculousness!
Okay, that seems to be all the information! But, I'm not sure character X would enjoy this event – can he avoid this BDE?
Technically, the most oblivious of Fandomites could probably avoid most things by taking very strategic routes to get around town… But this is an island-wide event, so your best bet for total avoidance is to get off the island early on.
I don't want to avoid this, WHERE DO I SIGN UP?
Over in the sign-up post, which also has some extra info regarding all the things you can sign up for! Meanwhile, this post here offers a space for general questions and comments about the BDE!
Which we will get to now.
Questions [Fall BDE]
Re: Questions [Fall BDE]
So, considering the vending machine in the dorms has gotten a negative IC reaction from a lot of the students, is there anything that can be done to them? Vandalization, moving them, etc., or is it necessary to have them there?
Re: Questions [Fall BDE]
I'd say breaking it would probably be too hard. It's pretty heavy, so moving it won't be easy though it's doable with enough strong people, and general vandalizing it (like jamming things in the slot where the guns plop out of) is completely okay!
General Comments [Fall BDE]
Re: General Comments [Fall BDE]
Re: General Comments [Fall BDE]
OOC [Fall BDE]
Re: OOC [Fall BDE]