Writers Discussion Thread: "Breakfast at the Whitney"

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1. First, I am simply going to post thoughts about the role play, much as you would see in an OOC thread, to ensure that the writers -- those who have already said they're in and those who might want to be -- know exactly what they are getting themselves into.

2. I will, over time, organize all of these little posts -- mine and yours -- so that they are more easily perused by all.

3. And, when appropriate, I will transfer information posted here in the Discussion Thread to the OOC thread ... where no one but the Host is to post!! (The OOC thread must remain neat and easy to use by all, so please, I beg of you, don't ever post there.)​

1. Each Competitor -- that's your character(s) -- is a convicted criminal serving a lengthy (if not life) sentence in a Federal Penitentiary. Prerequisites to being a Competitor are:

2. You have been given an opportunity to compete, knowing that violence -- including beatings, torture, rape, and death -- are possibilities. (BATW has a way around the whole violation of your basic rights issue concerning all of this, which will be explained shortly.)

3. You have been promised a full pardon, a million dollar prize, and a new start (with a new identity if you choose it) if you survive. (This is not like in "Running Man" when no one ever survived and those who supposedly did and were living it up on a desert island were actually privately executed. There have been survivors and winners: roughly 2 out of 3 survive, and 1 out of 10 win, with the winners going off to live their new lives and the others returning to prison ... or, more often than not, the prison hospital.)

4. (More later).​

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1. Create a character at this link.

2. Remember, you are a criminal, either guilty but with a sham trial or innocent and wrongly convicted.

3. PM it to the host and get ready to rumble.​

1. Do not spend a bunch of time making your profile perfect. Your host is one anal SOB and will edit the format (and maybe even a bit of content) in an attempt to make all profiles look the same ... so, don't fret over perfection.

2. Block and copy the profile sheet into a PM. DO NOT post the profile to the OOC or the Discussion thread.

3. Make your answers brief and leave some mystery concerning your character. As the game is played, we will learn more about your character.

4. PM the completed form to the Host, AnotherOldGuy.

5. After his OCD allows him to edit it properly, he will post it to the OOC and -- once we have enough characters -- we will get started.

6. OldGuy, as I will sometimes refer to myself -- to prevent confusion between the "RP Host" and the "BATW Host" -- recommends that each writer submits at least 2 characters. People are going to die; and at other times, people will simply be inactive, with nothing to post. If you want to have fun, have multiple characters.​

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1. There is a possibility that you may have to have Google Earth downloaded to the computer you are on. I'm not sure about this; I had GE long before I learned about Street View, so I don't know if it's a prerequisite.

2. Depending on your computer and software, you may have to allow Google to know your current location; a prompt will ask "Share Location?", to which you have to say yes. It's no biggie; there is no such thing as privacy anymore, so who cares if Google knows where your sitting right now anyway.

3. The easiest way to use Street View to find the Arena the first time is:

4. Zoom in on the map (using your mouse's roller or the plus sign below the compass in the upper left of the map, below the compass) until the name of the street running east-west in front of The Whitney appears; it is Canfield Street, btw.

5. Notice the little yellow icon on the left of the map that looks like a man. I call him "Yellow Man".

6. To see a tour of the borders of the Arena:

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Athena
Chica
Harlequin
... and the others are coming today.​

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-- Facing a death penalty allows them to sign a BATW contract forfeiting their right to a humane execution in exchange for a more brutal one ... BATW. In exchange for facing that more brutal death, they are given a chance at freedom, which they wouldn't have under any circumstance otherwise.

-- Not requiring them to be guilty of their crimes -- or even admit at this point whether they are guilty of their crimes, even if they are -- allows for Convicts who the audience can feel loathing for and Convicts the audience can feel compassion for, too.

-- Make sense?​

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IC Thread -- Obviously where the action concerning the characters and competition as a whole occurs.

OOC Thread -- where the profiles, maps, and very significant details are at. PLEASE DO NOT POST HERE!

Writers Discussion Thread -- this thread you are in now. If you have a question, comment, and concern that you feel everyone should see, post it here. If you are not sure whether you should post it here, feel free to PM it to the Host and I will deal with it, either by PMing the appropriate writers and/or posting it to the WDT with an answer/response. (The point is this: please don't flood the WDT with a bunch of short posts that others don't need to see.)

You all should be subscribed to the above three threads.

Personal Threads: Personal Threads will be used extensively throughout the RP. The reason for them is to allow a pair of writers the ability to exchange a series of short replies -- sometimes one and two liners -- whether it be combat, conversation, or sex, without cluttering the IC thread with posts that make it impossible to follow. We will make great use of these Personal Threads, and I recommend that you subscribe to them as follows:
BATW Clarifications Thread -- Where the Host puts a lot of the FAQs and other clarifications. There is no need to subscribe to this thread, therefore I have not included a link to it here. It is more of an FAQ, and a great deal of the information in this thread will be out of context if you simply read a stand alone post ... so don't. Click on the links in the other threads and you will go to the appropriate post in the Clarifications Thread ... then go back out to where you were and you'll be better informed. (I will include a lot of Street View Maps in this way, to give you a clear view of what your Character is looking at.​

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1. "Is the silver car in the right of this image actually in the Arena at the time of the battle?"


(There are more to come, but I am currently out of time.)​

1. The "battle" is more or less a turn by turn "game". This means that at times, some of the writers will be waiting on another writer to post.

2. Usually, that would be a pain in the ass for all of those waiting, however...

3. By creating some additional threads -- I've been calling them "Personal Threads" because they are usually between two writers -- that don't necessarily follow the IC thread timeline or have to wait for the action to be completed in the IC thread, the writers who are waiting on the turn by turn portion will still have something to do.​

1. Get the rest of the Profiles posted. (I missed 2 and I apologize to those writers profusely.)

2. Get the rest of the Interview Threads (for the above missing Profiles) started and up to speed. By the end of today (RL), I would like to have all of the Interview Threads up to, oh let's say, 4 May 2028, at which time I will begin to introduce all of the convicts to one another.

3. Get the "Convict Tour" started. (This is where the writers begin to get a feel for how to use Google Street View (GSV) in the battle phase.)

4. And, personally, have the rest of the Cops posted for you to look at. (More on this below.)​

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1. The 1x1 threads going on now (The Interview Threads) are all taking place during the same time period (early April to early May), but they are not, obviously, all synchronized with one another. That is exactly why these "interviews" and the follow up settlement and training at "Home" are done in 1x1s, because it allows one thread to proceed at a snail pace and then jump ahead several days, while the other one moves ahead consistently, one day after another.

2. This is important!! Every writer should be reading every Interview Thread. I know that it may look like a lot of reading, but imagine if all of this writing was being done in the IC thread; you would still read it, because if you didn't, you would likely miss important information, right? Well, each of the 1x1s has some little bit of information in it that all writers will want to have for the future. I do not repeat back ground information again and again in each 1x1. A good example is the Security Cuffs; I explained them in one Interview Thread, but I talk about them in all of them.

A note about rape threads: If you don't want to read the threads where a combatant is raped or otherwise forced into sex, don't. But, you have to let me know that you aren't following that particular thread so that I can update you later on any vital information that you may have missed, such as "Hey, your team member just got a gun", or "Hey, your team member just died!".

3. When we get into the battle phase, the action will begin in the IC Thread. Remember how I explained that all convicts will have headsets that are linked, so that all convicts can see and hear what all other convicts are seeing and hearing? Well, when we first start, all posts by writers will go into the IC thread. However, if a particular convict gets entangled with a cop and there are going to be lots of short "fighting" or "sex" posts, it's better for them to be conducted in a 1x1 that is linked into the IC thread.

I learned about how to use linked 1x1s from a writer on another site, and she liked to describe the process as squirrels climbing a Maple tree in autumn. The trunk of the Maple is the IC thread, and if all of the squirrels -- that's you writers -- just climb the trunk straight to the top, they are "climbing" the IC. But, you know squirrels; sometimes they get all crazy and start jumping around and climbing in circles (i.e., posting lots of replies), and the IC gets crowded. So, two or more squirrels go off on another limb to play for a while; that's a 1x1. When those squirrels go off on their own, all of the other squirrels know it because they can see them running off through the leaf-less tree (or, in our case, because the writers posted a link in the IC to the 1x1). And, of course, the other squirrels can still see their buddies off on their branch and know what they're up to (in our case, by reading the 1x1.) When those maverick squirrels get to the end of the limb -- complete the 1x1 -- they just leap through the air back to the trunk/IC thread, and voila, we're all back together again. (I had to tell that story. I love that explanation.)

What this does for us is allow us to read the action taking place between two characters, between a small group of characters, or between the entire team of characters without all of the confusion of having everyone posting in the IC.

The other MAJOR benefit of using these 1x1s is that if the action -- for example, in a fight between two combatants off on their own -- is dependent upon one character and that particular writer is absent for a couple of RL days, the entire thread doesn't come to a screeching halt! As long as all of the 1x1s are linked to the IC in the timeline, we maintain the timeline and writers who have multiple characters can continue to write even if they are waiting for an absent writer to return. Make sense?​

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1. I can have him come in now and take the roll of one of the Breakfast elite sponsors who will have sex with one of the female convicts and provide her with some sort of benefit that can be used during the battle.

2. Or, I can bring him in now but "post date" the action until later, meaning that the 1x1 thread you are writing takes place later during the battle phase, but you can be writing it now and post a link when the time line catches up.​

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1. Before a battle phase, I will pre-determine where the Cops will make their entrances into the Arena. Then, you all will post where your convicts are going. If paths cross, they cross, and action occurs. That's the luck part of it ... or bad luck, depending upon the outcome.


2. However, there are some writers who have specific directions for their characters; some of the female characters are already destined to be raped, some of the male characters won't participate in rape, some of the innocent convicts need a way to show that they are still good guys, and even some of the cops are good guys, not bad cops who are just one step above the nastiest of the convicts on the evolutionary ladder.

My point is, by not disclosing to you writers when and where a specific cop may show up, I can control which cops and convicts meet and therefore control a bit of the role play portion without giving up the gaming portion of it.

Does that make any sense?
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1. I am going to continue working on the "Convicts Tour".

2. I will look for a way to do this RP without the necessity of GSV, but I honestly don't see any other way to do it. I can try to put images in the tour in such a way that all of the major Arena locations can be viewed without GSV, but I don't currently know how to do that. I tried to save GSV images, Google Satellite Maps, and Google Street Maps to my computer so that I could use Paint to add the grand stands, Sky Bridges, etc., and I couldn't figure it out. (I can print them just fine, but I can't seem to save them.)

3. After I have played with it a while, we will decide how to continue. I don't want to "dump" any writers -- we have all committed time and mental energy -- but GSV (or a suitable equivalent) is a must.​

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-- Convicts will have a variety of safe insertion points to access the arena from, each one with an equipment (weapons, etc.) cache. But, they aren't simply told "here it is, go get it"; instead, they are given a clue of what to look for, and to use that clue you have to be able to look 360 degrees about you and solve the clue. And you can't do that without GSV.

-- And the battle phase depends upon the same ability, looking about you for the Enforcers. Without being able to do that... well, you have to.​

1. Those writers who already know that they can use GSV, we can continue onward with the interview/pre-battle threads and, once we get more characters, begin the first battle phase.

2. Those writers who can't use GSV, there's really no reason to continue our Interview/pre-battle threads. sure, I'd love to write with you, but the goal is the battle phase ... which you can't do. ​

1. It took me some trial and error to create it and organize all of the links. I believe that they all work. If you discover a link that doesn't seem to go to the page it wasn't supposed to, PLEASE PM me so I can fix it.

2. From the very first post -- sort of an index page -- you can access:

3. Now, this is important. There are more pages in the thread that are not important. Some are errors, some are for future use. You don't need to read them ... and, in some cases, reading them will ruin the "game" portion of the role play. What I am saying then, is begin with the link above, and from that page access the links within it and, of course, the links within those. But don't go navigating around to look at other stuff.

4. This is the most important part though: Please, each time I announce the availability of a new Tour Stop, will you: