Grand Battle Planning and General Discussion Thread

So I said I'd take a shot at answering my own questions, and seeing as it's been nearly a week, now seems like a good time.

I actually had a hard time picking a favorite thing I've written; generally, I tend to like the ideas behind my posts more than the specific words I used. That said, I think I'd go with Arkal in the Amalgam as my overall favorite; I think what I particularly liked about it was just how improvised it was. I didn't really plan to address it, and then I was struck by the idea and I really wanted to go with it.

For related reasons, one of my favorite moments was the end of Battleopolis in GB1. I don't just mean my own posts there, but rather that I did a crazy thing, and Draykon and Aryo followed up on it really well. And it wasn't pre-planned at all! We just read the posts before ours and went and did things. Which isn't to say I dislike planning, just that I'm still pretty pleased with the fact that we did such a great sequence with no planning at all.

Other particularly good moments: Glere's death at the end of EC. Konka Rar getting thrown around by the Organizer in GB2. I could probably name a favorite moment from every S1-3 battle, but then we'd be here all day.

As for what got me interested - well, since I joined the very first battle, it's probably clear enough. I saw a thread and it looked interesting, so I signed up. Then after a few months there was another battle, and then everything started going crazy and within a year there were twelve.

My favorite character tends to fluctuate; I think it tends to be Arkal or Parsley most often, then there are times it's Cole, and sometimes it's Sirius. If I had to narrow it down, I'd probably go with Parsley though.

As for favorites to work with, I would probably have to say the Broderburgs and Gamehost Six for that. Jen and Xadrez in GBS2 are also great to work with, but the nature of the battle lately has meant that I haven't done that much with them in a while - most of what I've been doing has been Arkal on his own.

As for other characters... I'm pretty fond of the GBS3 cast as a whole, as well as the ISS2 cast. Of course, I picked out those casts, so I may be a bit biased.

That said, I didn't pick out the cast of VD, and I'm pretty fond of that group in general. Especially Harmon, Cascala, Cedric, and Phere, in no particular order. PF also has a strong cast, as does Gradual Massacre. I guess this is turning into more of a list of "favorite battles I'm not in or running", so I'll leave it at that for the moment.

For NPCs, I'm very fond of what Message became after I introduced him in GradMass. The various gods in Acidity City were also fun, I particularly liked Name.

Favorite round... wow, I've been in a lot of these. I'm actually going to split this up a bit.
Favorite round I was in: This is a close one between New Battleopolis and the current round of GBS2, though I will give the edge to New Battleopolis because Round Five: Round Six built on it so heavily.
Favorite round I came up with: The Battlefield, definitely. I really liked the concept, and all the players came up with neat ways to use it. Old Salem was another one I was fond of, definitely my favorite round concept in IS.
Favorite round aside from those: I'd say Sable Masque is up there, palace intrigue is fun. For similar reasons, I like the current round of PF, even aside from the cameo fun.
GrandCon is also worth mentioning.

Rounds I would have handled differently: I think I would liked to have gone for a different sort of payoff from breaking nature in Eternity Plateau. To be clear, I'd still go with breaking nature because that was a great direction for the round, but the stadium was more of a goofy idea than a thematically appropriate one.

Rounds I would have liked to be in: This is actually a tough one, not because there weren't great rounds but because it's hard to think of how one of my characters would have fit into them. I think the Cathedral of Glass in PC would be one of my top choices, though - the story was intriguing once the round got moving, and I think I would have liked being involved with that.