Subject: Eh, the 'art' side's no problem.
Author:
Posted on: 2012-09-15 06:20:00 UTC
Taking a bit longer now I'm back to work, but it'll get done. It's just the potential 'coordinating 17 people's moves through email' aspect that's a bit intimidating...
hS
Thanks to the brilliant commentary and ample help from IntelligentAirhead, I bring to you all the death of Tabitha Watson.
Fandom: BBC Sherlock
Rating: PG-15 for dirty mouths and Sherlock discussing post-coital refractory periods. We often seem to find him in his plothole around the time of Suvian sex scenes, I'm afraid.
Agents: Eledhwen Elerossiel and Christianne Shieh, as well as intern Cale Serfe from the Modern Baker Street Fanfiction Academy
Target: Tabitha Watson and Stulock Holmes
Word Count: 11,699
Things added to continuity:
-The PPC sometimes takes in interns from OFUs who shadow Agents on missions. Oftentimes the interns end up joining post-graduation. (Chances are that's how they got Karen DuLay and Agent Kitty Smith, both of whom are IAHF alums?)
-BBC!Holmes, due to his access to the internet and powers of deduction, becomes extremely aware of his situation and of the PPC when he is plotholed away to be character replaced. This was suggested last mission with Alexis Gilmore, but now is confirmed because he recognises Eledhwen. Neuralysation and Bleeprin can cure him of this newfound meta-knowledge until the next replacement.
-Glopsnerch also blocks annoying Author's Notes.
-Some types of Character Analysis Devices find the presence of Mary Sues by measuring the amount of Aura of Smooth emitted by characters, and sometimes the residual amounts of Aura of Smooth hovering around plotholes will also be picked up. Perhaps that's also how litmus strips work?
Hmmm... I always thought litmus strips were measuring the amount of stomach acid that sues produced in the agents, the continuum, and anything else that was handy. Good to know.
and it's a bit hard to measure the acidity of stomach acid without putting the paper in the acid. So yeah, that's my take on it.
I'm not sure whether anybody's written about it yet, but I'm sure it's been mentioned that in the worst of the bleepfic and the Legendaries, litmus paper has been known to spontaneously combust when you try to use it. These are the fics where a CAD will explode on entry, so you can't even take one with you. Usually litmus strips are the solution, but if you want to turn it up to eleven, even the litmus strips won't last long.
You usually use them by touching them to the canon or OC in question, but if it's gotten bad enough, just exposing them to the nearby air would start to turn them funny colors. Of course, by then the agents are half-insane and probably have bumps and bruises from scene shifts, punctuation storms, and flying bits of bad writing; so a few burnt litmus strips are the least of their worries.
Holmes being able to re-deduce everything was really a great idea. It helps making canon characters more people and less dummies thrown around by the whims of a writer.
If he keeps going this way, however, it will not take long before we have to add him to the "Canons who know about the PPC" list.
First and foremost, I love some of the description you've got floating around. 'despite Tabitha being about as interesting as a bar of soap' caught my eye for some reason (oh, wait, I know the reason: because it's funny). I also enjoy Cale's occasional cluelessness - and the 'discussion' over the portal was hilarious.
On the other hand, sometimes 'clueless' charges directly into 'exposition' without looking back. I could almost see some of the discussions they have (the naming of the Remote Activator, the thing with the DORKS, and the discussion of CADs all come very close together) as acceptable if you were writing this as an 'introduction to the PPC for new readers'-type mission - which the intern format would work very well for - but for someone who already knows what's going on, I don't think you handled it quite gracefully enough. At times the two experienced agents come across as little more than encyclopaedias.
That said (am I allowed to keep shifting back and forth on every subject imaginable? I rather think I am), I enjoyed the references to all the heaps of things that make up HQ. PPC Cluedo will have me commenting further down the thread (seriously, like I was ever going to be able to resist a board game), and it makes me grin to see Nurse McKay making a snide appearence.
So, overall: good mission, you two. The excerpts make it very clear why you killed this one, without turning it into an MST. Nicely done.
hS
I'm still recovering from the shock of being complimented, never mind the fact that you cited one of my sarcastic tirades.
Yeah, I need to work on the whole 'infodump without really infodumping'; that's kinda a side effect of writing so many OFUs. Heh.
Anyway, thanks! And you should thank Intel for that bar of soap observation. She's good at things like that.
Congratulations on another dead Sue - and also on the discovery of new things to add to the continuity! -hearty pat on the back-
-Oh, and one for IntelligentAirhead, too!-
Now I am extremely curious as to what exactly are the rooms, murder weapons, and suspects in the PPC version of Cluedo. Heh.
Cafeteria food as a murder weapon?
But is it a weapon or a suspect?
Obviously the suspects should include:
-Jay Thorntree
-Acacia Byrd
-Lux
-Makes-Things
-Dafydd Illian (idek, he's pretty well known isn't he?)
-The Mysterious Somebody
-The Sunflower Official
and ten others, because seventeen suspects.
And then there need to be at least seventeen weapons (two of which are, as I said, tiny plastic dinosaurs and unicorn blood) and seventeen locations, but knowing the PPC there will be way more weapons and locations than suspects, to mess everyone up.
And the layout of HQ on the game board would be highly inaccurate. It'd be a rendition of what someone wished HQ was laid out like, but obviously HQ, being more or less quasi-sentient, would seek to not conform to the layout delineated on the board.
(And can I recommend Jaycacia Thornbyrd as a suspect? Because I find her highly suspicious)
hS, because someone mentioned PPC board games and picture manipulation in the same sentence
And these look fabulous, haha.
Yeah,the risk board looks like a good place to start for the cluedo board, and there is probably a mid-game shifting thing for the layout, perhaps in lieu of secret passages.
(I'm more satisfied with the dinosaurs than the blood, actually)
As to the rules, I've come up with one 'house rule' (in addition, of course, to standard Cluedo rules) that would make it very PPC:
-On rolling a 1/double 1 (depending on number of dice), you fail to distract yourself sufficiently, and are moved to a random location on the board. (In practice, this would either be decided by the other players, or make it 'a random room' and use a random-number generator)
For board-changing... probably the easiest way would be to make the board from four square sections, which are arranged to form a larger square, and shuffled when a player is enabled (or every third turn, or whatever). But I think the fail-to-distract rule actually takes care of that aspect well enough...
hS
Jay – well-known DMS Agent
Acacia – well-known DMS Agent
Dafydd – well-known DOGA Agent
Lux – infamous DBS Agent
Trojanhorse – well-known DBS Agent
Tawaki – were-penguin, well-known DTO Agent
Boromir – the Team Phoenix version, popular lust object in LotR division
Architeuthis – well-known DoI Agent
GreyLadyBast – PPC Goddess
Jaycacia – Mary Sue daughter of Jay and Acacia
Makes-Things – the techie guy, head of DoSAT
Marquis de Sod – Head of Personnel
Mysterious Somebody – attempted to take over HQ
The Sunflower Official – come on if you don’t know him shame on you
Grammer – Head of Grammar division,
The Uncommon Comma – Head of Department of Technical Errors
Otik – Head of Postal Department
And the weapons list (knowing the players, they'll keep on adding to the list of weapons):
Unicorn blood
Small plastic dinosaurs
Cafeteria food
Flamethrower
Punctuation rain
Avada kedavra
Extra ring of power
Punjab lasso
Curare tipped arrow
Ye olde poisonous poison
Revolver
Sting
Dalek
Sword
Throwing knives
Poisoned apple
Marley the giant king cobra
Numbweed
Australian Indoor-Rules Quiddich bat
And as for the rooms, I think the failure-to-distract rule beats having to arrange the board, which disrupts play. So yeah.
(Not finished yet; I got tied up making a layered version of the board with all the suspect heads as playing pieces, for potential email-based play)
hS
Christmas has come early and I love you.
I'm vaguely planning how it could be done (involving me doing most of the legwork, naturally); I think it's workable, but it depends on getting enough players...
hS
More for photoshoppy things but still. Send me an email if you need help because I certainly can't have you doing most of the legwork (it doesn't seem fair).
Taking a bit longer now I'm back to work, but it'll get done. It's just the potential 'coordinating 17 people's moves through email' aspect that's a bit intimidating...
hS
Board now.
It seems Photobucket can't handle the full-sized version, so in case it's hard to read, the portals link:
-The Lobby to the HQ Pool
-The SO's Office to Room One
-DoSAT to the Cryptomusic Archive
-DIA Central to the Tomb of the UPA
Anyone who cares to spot any errors in this or the cards is most welcome... although if you flag up either of the jokes the board contains, I will laugh at you.
hS
These are amazing! Permission to glomp?
That was quite tiring. I think I'm going to take a break and do something less intensive - like building that Minecraft superdreadnaught...
hS
You are amazing and I think I may be in your debt.
Unfortunately, he doesn't get any say in that; if he wanted an input he shouldn't have quit. :P
I'm going to try and make some suspect cards (well, of course - this is me, here) for the ones you suggested - and maybe weapon cards for two of those - but for the board, might I suggest it be based on (but not identical to) my PPC Risk board? Obviously it lacks some key characteristics of Cluedo (secret passages, actual spaces in the corridors), and losing the need for 'continents' would let some of the less interesting rooms drop out (India's RC is only in there because I needed more for DAVD), but it seems confusing enough...
Or, of course, a modular design whereby it's never the same setup twice. I can even imagine rules for rearranging the board mid-game...
hS
