Re[3]: A Radical Idea

Okay, I think we've got it figured out.

I think.

Man, this just underlines how good you have to be when writing the rules for board games and role-playing games, even really simple ones. It doesn't take much to cause a misunderstanding.

So:

1. We will continue the Spitball! Tourney of Story Ideas through Heat #2, which consists of the following rounds:

Rasputin the Translator v. Time to Die

Little Black Stray v. Terminal Connection

La Commune Planet v. The Scabs

2. In each round, we will each present a character bio, and then we will discuss each story. We will then vote Y or N on each story. However, these stories are no longer pitted against each other; instead, what is being voted on is whether the story is worthy of being a Spitball!-approved story idea. Both stories have the possibility of advancing.

3. Once Heat #2 is finished, then we each order our favorites from #1 to #whatever, take an average, and the story with an average closest to 1.0 is the Winner; the other stories become Runners-Up, and may get the script treatment in the future.

4. If, during Heat #2, there is a split vote, then the person that voted Y may try and convince the person who voted N of the idea's worthiness; if the N voter is convinced, then the list that was generated in Step 3 is re-generated.

Assuming this is correct, I vote "yea" on this plan, with the caveat that I may want to Needlessly Complicate how the winner is generated in Step 3; but that idea's for another post.

Also, in a previous post, I wrote this:

One more thing: During the iChat, Burley and I were concerned about how this will play with one of the elements of our Mission Statement: that the scripts developed here are released into the public domain. Do we really want to commit our best ideas to that? (It was one thing when it was only one idea, one script; it feels different when it might be more like three or four.) It's true that we feel like we can come up with ideas at the drop of a hat, and that it's about execution and not ideas. Yet, a few of these ideas seem, to me at least, very commercial, and it's not like we plan to make a living putting screenplays into the public domain (if we even knew how!); in fact, we'd like to, you know, get paid one of these days. I had the idea of voting to "Vault" certain ideas -- meaning, removing them from the Spitball! Tourney of Story Ideas, but keeping them for ourselves for later development.

Here's the new version:

One more thing: During the iChat, Burley and I were concerned about how this will play with one of the elements of our Mission Statement: that the scripts developed here are released into the public domain. Do we really want to commit our best ideas to that? (It was one thing when it was only one idea, one script; it feels different when it might be more like three or four.) It's true that we feel like we can come up with ideas at the drop of a hat, and that it's about execution and not ideas. Yet, a few of these ideas seem, to me at least, very commercial, and it's not like we plan to make a living putting screenplays into the public domain (if we even knew how!); in fact, we'd like to, you know, get paid one of these days. I had the idea of voting to "Vault" certain ideas -- meaning, removing them from the Spitball! Tourney of Story Ideas, but keeping them for ourselves for later development.

Short version: Fuck That Noise. Let the best ideas come forward and be worthy of the prize.

(Last night, I finished Getting Real, and something there made me change my mind. Of course, I can't really remember what, now.)

And finally:

What's a magic penny song?