Terminal

The Twelve Labours: General Discussion

... I have a day left. Can I perhaps whip something out?

... Maybe, if I quit writing fanfiction.

@RomanAria

Technically speaking you only have 17 hours and 34 minutes.

The Twelve Labours: General Discussion

@Terminal but we all know that if the other judge selects the story and does NOT harp on the sciency bits you're going to throw them out for lack of attention to detail.

@RomanAria

I guess that judge is just going to have to take a crash course in everything™ then, in time for the reviews.

The Twelve Labours: General Discussion

It's not, I swear. I mean, the 'cowboy' angle might be a little hard to read. I just *did not* have time to flesh out the setting.... so it's gonna be hyper-confusing hard scifi. My real-life obligations really sabotaged the contextual detail.

@mdk

Speaking as one of the few hard-sci-fi experts here on the guild, I will now be sure to include critique on the scientific aspects of your story, if the other judge does not select it.

Good thing you mentioned that, huh?

The Twelve Labours: General Discussion

I'm getting more and more curious about the 8th labour, but let me focus on the 7th first. Although, what's the point? Apparently I'm going to fail the 8th anyway :P

@WiseDragonGirl

My efforts to subconsciously ingrain the idea that it is impossible for you to clear the Eighth Labour have clearly worked. My mission is at its end.

TTL: The Seventh Labour

The Twelve Labours

The Seventh Labour rises. For those of you who are just dropping in and have no idea what this is, take a peek at The Twelve Labours Introduction Thread (it's a quick read, I promise).

If I am being perfectly honest, I am vibrating in place out of anticipation for the Eighth Labour. Not that I did not put forward the same effort for the Seventh as I did for all the others, but it is inevitably standing in the shadow of a Titan. A callout to @Holmishire and @WiseDragonGirl. Right now you two may think that you are sitting pretty with just one last Labour to coast through before the Eighth comes around to kick you both back down the mountain, but do not be lulled into complacency by your winning streak. Pride precipitates a dizzying fall and all that jazz.

Let the Seventh Labour commence. Submission ends at Objective Midnight, March 13.

Entry Rules:

1. Jaffar's (left) thumb.
2. Follow the standard guild rules.
3. Obey the Dark Lord Sauron's rules as well (just to cover all the bases).
4. Follow MY rules too. Let it never be said we did not warn you.
5. Send your entry to @Terminal by March 13th.
6. Be sure to include whether or not you want your story to remain anonymous! I will add your name only if I am given your permission!
7. Any explicit/mature material must be kept off-site. I will only post links to them with NSFW notices.
8. I reserve the right to simply toss out any story if it doesn't possess a basic modicum of good sense and taste. Don't make me.
9. All stories must adhere to a certain standard of quality expected of good storytelling.
10. You must use your own characters. Preexisting characters from franchise settings may only be alluded to.
11. If your setting is borrowed from a franchise, make sure to include a disclaimer and credit the original inventor of the setting used.

Prizes:

All winning entries will receive a forum trophy as well as a unique, custom forum title which they can activate and deactivate at their leisure. Additionally, winning entries of particularly exceptional quality will be awarded Challenge Accolades.

All winning entries will also be saved to a public archive, a link to which will be permanently available in my signature! I personally post in the News and Discussion subforums of the guild to congratulate and announce the winners as well. As a reminder, unless you specifically give me permission to include authorship of an entry, every posted story will remain anonymous (awarded trophies can also be hidden in your user profile, so you will not show up if people are examining the trophy groups).

The Seventh Labour

"Great fortitude and personal conviction are oftentimes the greatest flaws that might reside within the souls of men."

Elijah Baley

The Seventh Labour

The Seventh Labour

The labour demands the use of a character beholden with kindred ties - surrounded by ancestry and descentry alike. Muse upon the nature of obligation and accountability, given freely and accepted devoid of cognizance in the time before sight. Mark how such fetters might be broken, fortified, compounded and disjoined - as with all things the nature of a link, or its absence, shall define the motion of power across time.

The Challenge

Write about your character's family being placed in mortal peril, their lives placed in the hands of a merciless foe. If your character should choose to take up the role of heroism, end the whole of their lineage. If they should accede to the desires of their foe, permit the family their freedom - and punish your character accordingly.

Clarification of the Challenge Parameters

This section exists specifically to ensure there is no ambiguity or ambivalence in what, precisely, the challenge requires of each participant. If you have any specific questions which are not addressed here, please send them to @Terminal for resolution.

For The Seventh Labour, I have asked you to write about a character having to choose whether or not to rescue their family - with unfortunate results.

Q. My character needs to be beholden with kindred ties?
A. They need to have a family. Not necessarily blood relations, but people whom they perceive as family. Family being plural, as in more than one person.

Q. The family needs to contain ancestry and descentry?
A. Both the old and young need to be amongst their number. This restaurant will turn away parties of four filled only with twenty to thirty somethings.

Q. The family needs to be placed in mortal peril?
A. Idiots flock together. Or was that birds? Doesn't matter. The entirety of your character's family must be in imminent danger of being killed.

Q. Mortal peril at the hands of a merciless foe?
A. The foe need not be wicked nor unprincipled. Merely opposed to your character - and, at least within the specific context of your story, devoid of any notion of mercy. They should not hesitate to slay every last member of your character's family, or the character themselves for that matter.

Q. If my character tries to play hero, I have to end their entire lineage?
A. Hostage situations are very rarely tidy, after all. If your character should try to save their family - kill them all. Your character alone should be permitted to live, if they should happen to still be alive at the end of their ordeal.

Q. Can I revive or otherwise bring back the deceased?
A. Absolutely not. All Deaths Are Final. Feel free to bring them back outside of The Seventh Labour, and use them in RPs and such, but for the purposes of this contest they must die and stay dead. They can return for future contests, of course.

Q. My character's family is made up entirely of immortal and invincible reality warping gods who are already dead zombie ghost liches!
A. That's nice. END THEM.

Q. What was that about my character acceding?
A. If their mortal foe took their whole family hostage, clearly they want something. If you feel like having your character do as they are told, you may.

Q. If my character accedes I have to punish them?
A. The punishment could just be whatever their foe intends to do to them, by way of example. However, presuming their foe did not see fit to inflict any undue pain upon your character - see that their acquiescence nonetheless leads to a darker, harder existence. No slaps on the wrist.

Q. How long can my story be?
A. As long as you feel is necessary. I will read any and everything submitted, irregardless of length, and write a review on it. Do not let the short three-day judging period dissuade you. If you have a 800,000 word brick for me, I will take it. Similarly, extremely short stories are also welcome. It is entirely possible for segues as short as three paragraphs long to clear the challenge.

Credits

Thanks again to @mdk, and the entire RPGC crew for helping with scheduling for The Twelve Labours!

Great thanks to @mahz and the other members of the guild staff for helping to renovate the guild and enabling the features that allow us to reward contestants and to advertise our presence.

The Twelve Labours: General Discussion

Poking in here to announce a slight delay in the start of TTL#7. Still starting on the first of March, kind of, except it will be starting on Objective Midnight...for the NEXT day rather than the previous. Meaning that for all of you, there will be an extra six hours added to the Twelve Day clock. Woo. A scant few of you get an extra TWELVE hours. Woo hoo.

RPGC #7 -- Loyalty/Resistance Voting AND Discussion

Just dropping in to remind everyone that it is a leap year.

Unsure how that affects the voting deadline vis-a-vi @mdk's 'end of February' statement contrast with the sidebar deadline, but the Twelve Labours will be starting on the First of March.

That is all.

Biggest Rp Pet Peeve

<Snipped quote by Terminal>

Why do these bother you? And is this a three way tie? (If not, pick one.)

@Lady Amalthea

Tricky one there. All three make me feel different mixtures of rage, disappointment, and disgust. I suppose the biggest MAGNITUDE of all of those would count for the purposes of your question.

Which would mean my biggest pet peeve in this specific context would be Casual Roleplayers, because that disappoints me far more than the other two do, in addition to how much the other two make me angry and disgusted.

One of the biggest flaws I perceive to exist within the framework of RPG is the way in which people use the three two different 'level' subforums. More specifically, that the posted guidelines for each subforum are at best misleading. Most of the people on this forum write as a hobby, even in advanced - which in my opinion is detrimental and contrary to the spirit of that subforum's purpose. I would like to think that the Advanced Subforum should be a place where one strives to only put forward their best effort and nothing less. People look at Advanced and think that the only qualifier for posting there should be technical ability and skill level for writing, but the fact of the matter is that a lot of Advanced Threads suffer high turnover more because of posters who treat roleplaying as a hobby, post twice, and then vanish into thin air never to be seen again.

In that framework, I would define Casual Roleplayers not only as posters who have not yet reached an advanced level of writing proficiency, but also those who lack the motivation and commitment to actually take the effort seriously. By that metric, a significant percentage of the Advanced Roleplay population - perhaps as much as 75% or more - would qualify as casual roleplayers rather than advanced.

That is my problem with casual roleplayers. Either they fail to perform at an advanced level, or else they behave below an advanced level to the detriment of people who actually take roleplaying and writing seriously, while publicly projecting the exact opposite. The disappointment I feel at how much wasted potential is present is overwhelming. Throw in some disgust comes from how their behavior in the advanced subforum damages the advanced community as a whole.

So in a way, my problem is not even with people who actually frequent the Casual Subforum. If they think they are not quite up to advanced standards or else only go there because of concerns over time and commitment, that's absolutely fine. That's exactly the reason the Casual Subforum exists, and there is no shame in pursuing a hobby and building skill over time in a (somewhat) consequence free environment. What I dislike are the Casual Roleplayers masquerading as Advanced Roleplayers who refuse to take the concept seriously. As I said earlier - if they are not prepared to put forward their best effort, then they should not be in the Advanced Subforum! We have another Subforum for that! It's called Casual!

Part of the problem is due, in my opinion, to the listed guidelines for each of the subforums. My entire rant here is based wholly on an opinionated viewpoint of what the guidelines should be, not what they actually are - and so my problem is baseless in the sense that the people I accuse of being Casual roleplayers are, by the definition of the suggested guidelines, actually Advanced. The reason I see this as a problem at all in the first place though, is because the issues I describe above are (again, in my opinion) caused in part by the inadequate guidelines.

DPRPGC #7: Hail the Glorious Leader

Admin Burn

The only way they could get a date was if hot lunch was provided.

Biggest Rp Pet Peeve

Casual roleplayers.

The assertion that the alleged 'Free' RP subforum actually exists, and is not a filthy MYTH.

Grammar-School levels of soft science in Science Fiction roleplays.