This is gonna be the thread where we talk about stuff

wow there was a lot of stuff in that post I didn't know!

(someone explain grand battles to me now because I always feel like I'm the only one here that never got into them)

Stolen from someone else:

SpoilerShow

The gist [of a Grand Battle] is that eight people come up with interesting characters and then write about them interacting and they die off one at a time based on who is the worst or most inactive writer.

:: Woah wait hold up what’s this about dying

Yup! This is an eight-man battle to the death. You will probably die!


:: But I don’t want to die!

Well then you’re gonna hafta write well.


:: …Write? I thought we were fighting.

Despite their trappings as slaughterfests, Grand Battles are all about story and character development. Each round, the contestants are put in some bizarre locale and muddle along until an arbitrary point at which the round’s end is announced. I’ll solicit opinions as to who ought to be offed, and once I’ve made up my mind, someone (usually the to-be-deceased) will send up a deathpost and the game will move on to the next round.


:: How do you decide who’s going to die?

Contestants are eliminated based on how well (or how poorly) they write. Judging writing quality is not always the easiest of jobs, so I may ask for others' opinions at that time. Frequently, though, players are eliminated for not writing anything. At all. Really ruins it for everyone. Don’t feel bad if you want to forfeit, though! Life intervenes, or it stops being fun, or whatever; I understand! But don’t just drop off the face of the round if you can help it.


:: So, I can’t just kill other players?

Killing other players before the end of the round is strictly forbidden. Hell, doing anything that would seriously impair another character without the permission of that character’s author (chopping off their limbs, destroying their weapon, etc.) is Not Cool. If everyone could just kill everyone else, then the game would be short and boring. This is not a combat-oriented thing. This is a story-oriented thing. I cannot say that enough.


:: Must take a while to get going, if you have to wait on everyone to advance the plot.

Ah, but that’s one of the great things about Grand Battles! Unlike in traditional roleplays, you can write what other characters are doing, so long as it makes sense. I’ve seen posts where an author barely even mentions their own character, but does a bunch of stuff with the other characters. Hell, one time an inactive player was carried through, like, two rounds on others’ writing alone! …Then they died. But that’s not the point.


:: That's cool and all, but what if someone puts up a post before me that ruins all my plans?

Never fear! Just post a... post containing RESERVE or some clever variant thereof and you'll have four hours in which no one else is allowed to post. Beyond those four hours, though, it's fair game again.


:: Four hours? That's not really much time.

Well, it's not really Four Hours as much as it is "four hours." Most people understand that writing takes time, and are willing to be lenient. Frequently those four hours will extend into four days, or (if you're in round three) four weeks. Bear in mind that these "extended reserves" are a gentleman's agreement, i.e. if you've gone well over four hours and someone wants to post, you'd better bet they're going to post. Best to be certain you can finish your post within the reserve limit.


:: Oh, I see how this works. One guy reserves, and then another guy, and then another guy-

Lemme just cut you off right there. Consecutive reserves are not allowed. Nobody like waiting indefinitely for posts which may or may not come. The only time concurrent reserve posts should appear is if the earlier ones are void. Nor can the same person try to cheat the system and repeatedly reserve multiple times in a row. That's just being mean.


:: Right, okay. So what’s this about rounds?

The game is divided into rounds, which have two basic criteria: Each round must end with the death of at least one player, and each round must take place somewhere new. There will be seven rounds, barring any multiple-eliminations. The description of each round will be pretty vague, so be creative!

You could easily have found this by looking though!
It is always mildly annoying to have to answer questions that have already been answered in pretty obvious places.

(someone explain grand battles to me now because I always feel like I'm the only one here that never got into them)

The only Grand Battle stuff I read were the first couple pages of The Grand Tweet or whatever the name is.

I also read the "Which Grand Battles updated this week" thread for some reason.

I also read the "Which Grand Battles updated this week" thread for some reason.

You are not alone in this kind of stuff I once read an OOC thread for an RP without reading the RP itself.

Wheeee so I did that thing again where I find a certain colour of yarn then promptly make a pokemon out of it.

Wheeee so I did that thing again where I find a certain colour of yarn then promptly make a pokemon out of it.

aaaaaaaaaaaayarnkipaaaaaaaaaa

Stolen from someone else:

SpoilerShow

The gist [of a Grand Battle] is that eight people come up with interesting characters and then write about them interacting and they die off one at a time based on who is the worst or most inactive writer.

:: Woah wait hold up what’s this about dying

Yup! This is an eight-man battle to the death. You will probably die!


:: But I don’t want to die!

Well then you’re gonna hafta write well.


:: …Write? I thought we were fighting.

Despite their trappings as slaughterfests, Grand Battles are all about story and character development. Each round, the contestants are put in some bizarre locale and muddle along until an arbitrary point at which the round’s end is announced. I’ll solicit opinions as to who ought to be offed, and once I’ve made up my mind, someone (usually the to-be-deceased) will send up a deathpost and the game will move on to the next round.


:: How do you decide who’s going to die?

Contestants are eliminated based on how well (or how poorly) they write. Judging writing quality is not always the easiest of jobs, so I may ask for others' opinions at that time. Frequently, though, players are eliminated for not writing anything. At all. Really ruins it for everyone. Don’t feel bad if you want to forfeit, though! Life intervenes, or it stops being fun, or whatever; I understand! But don’t just drop off the face of the round if you can help it.


:: So, I can’t just kill other players?

Killing other players before the end of the round is strictly forbidden. Hell, doing anything that would seriously impair another character without the permission of that character’s author (chopping off their limbs, destroying their weapon, etc.) is Not Cool. If everyone could just kill everyone else, then the game would be short and boring. This is not a combat-oriented thing. This is a story-oriented thing. I cannot say that enough.


:: Must take a while to get going, if you have to wait on everyone to advance the plot.

Ah, but that’s one of the great things about Grand Battles! Unlike in traditional roleplays, you can write what other characters are doing, so long as it makes sense. I’ve seen posts where an author barely even mentions their own character, but does a bunch of stuff with the other characters. Hell, one time an inactive player was carried through, like, two rounds on others’ writing alone! …Then they died. But that’s not the point.


:: That's cool and all, but what if someone puts up a post before me that ruins all my plans?

Never fear! Just post a... post containing RESERVE or some clever variant thereof and you'll have four hours in which no one else is allowed to post. Beyond those four hours, though, it's fair game again.


:: Four hours? That's not really much time.

Well, it's not really Four Hours as much as it is "four hours." Most people understand that writing takes time, and are willing to be lenient. Frequently those four hours will extend into four days, or (if you're in round three) four weeks. Bear in mind that these "extended reserves" are a gentleman's agreement, i.e. if you've gone well over four hours and someone wants to post, you'd better bet they're going to post. Best to be certain you can finish your post within the reserve limit.


:: Oh, I see how this works. One guy reserves, and then another guy, and then another guy-

Lemme just cut you off right there. Consecutive reserves are not allowed. Nobody like waiting indefinitely for posts which may or may not come. The only time concurrent reserve posts should appear is if the earlier ones are void. Nor can the same person try to cheat the system and repeatedly reserve multiple times in a row. That's just being mean.


:: Right, okay. So what’s this about rounds?

The game is divided into rounds, which have two basic criteria: Each round must end with the death of at least one player, and each round must take place somewhere new. There will be seven rounds, barring any multiple-eliminations. The description of each round will be pretty vague, so be creative!

You could easily have found this by looking though!
It is always mildly annoying to have to answer questions that have already been answered in pretty obvious places.

Jac at this point we should all know that if there is any way to describe me, it's mildly annoying.

SpoilerShow

i am sorry please don't hurt me

Hey, don't worry about it, it's not always clear where to look for information. We're admittedly bad at including the rules in opening posts.

I had to explain it to somebody on MSPA a little earlier this evening myself.

I'm still kind of proudly confused that I summed up Grand Battles pithily enough to be forever quoted in OPs now.

Okay guys can I ask if there is an eagle time IRC or wherever everyone hangs out because i always see chatlog post things in signatures and on various tumblrs and i'm just sort of hoping that it isnt #mspafa because there are a lot of people there that i am adverse to so yes ok

It's usually #grandbattle rather than #mspafa
There's a bit of overlap but most of the people who are here and in #mspafa also go to #grandbattle

We do obviously spend a fair bit of time talking about grand battles though
If there's some other Eagle Time channel nobody invited me

Well that's because we hate you Jac.
OOPS I SPOILED THE SURPRISE
Sorry.

EDIT: No wait I meant /Sorry/
Ha ha ha yea

Why is there not more SAM EAGLE in this forum.


SAM EAGLE makes everything better. 100%

SpoilerShow

I hate new youtube.

Not because they changed it, because it is the same with minor cosmetic differences. I had to adblock plus element hiding helper away all of the recommended video bullshit on the homepage again because you still don't have an option to hide it in your account settings, and you still can't turn off autoplay (which I have a greasemonkey script for, also one to hide comments because ya can't do that either).

Jesus christ, Google. WE DON'T HAVE TO HAVE FEATURES OR BASIC DISPLAY OPTIONS, WE'RE THE MOST POPULAR VIDEO HOSTING SITE.

If you could point me towards that Greasemonkey script for disabling autoplay I would be eternally grateful.

And somehow, when you post a reply, it still can't post a working link to the comment you're replying to.

I'll consider your story the next time i stumble upon a magic lamp.

Wheat why do you have to hate the upper class, you commie ableist pinko hipster oppressor!!!!!!

I got to hear about some chick's life story on the bus today! I didn't really have a choice because she was so damn loud, much to the adoration of most of the bus's other patrons. I learnt her star sign and employment pre- and post-earthquake, the bach her family own near Akaroa, what type of seafood she likes, the friggin' works.

The best part of it was the one moment where the dude sitting across from me glanced back at her and her incessant yammering at the same time and he caught me rolling my eyes (I don't just roll my eyes, I really throw my whole face into the action when I want to). I love little moments of wordless solidarity like that.

Superfreq.

1. That video was basically everything i love.

And

2. I gave up long ago on making authentic onigiri. I replaced the rice with hamburger meat, gave it a cheese filling and used bacon instead of seaweed.

IT WAS AMAZING.

2. I gave up long ago on making authentic onigiri. I replaced the rice with hamburger meat, gave it a cheese filling and used bacon instead of seaweed.

Anime dubs

Ok I'll be over here expanding my tastes while you guys "lol anime".

Refusing to watch anime is expanding your tastes?

Ok I'll be over here expanding my tastes while you guys "lol anime".

Refusing to watch anime is expanding your tastes?

"A study revealed that watching anime-styled animation desensitizes your savory senses, 80% of the volunteers reported experiencing after being exposed to heavy doses of generic, trope filled animes what experts denominate as "The un-sugoi food syndrome" which they describe as everything tasting like unsavory white dough."

Moving forward on the food chat, i now have an intergalactic space stomach-ache caused by this buffy douchebag's cereal.



What are you even doing in space you asshole, bring back fucking Jose the choco-chimp.
I'm so calling my space lawyer for this.

The good thing is that i got this cute little racing car, look at it go over my dusty keyboard



wheeeeee

Man, Japanese food is like the exact opposite of my tastes. I hate vegetables and can't stand fish. But that seems to be most of what they eat over there. :x

Ok I'll be over here expanding my tastes while you guys "lol anime".

i am pretty sure the joke was "bad anime dubs/video game translations remove all the references to japanese food and culture in a half-assed effort to americanize it"

not "you are a bad person for trying onigiri"

Riceballs are an immoral life choice the east is trying to force on good cracker-fearing americans!