Fourth Omake: Special Anniversary OOC

It's that time of year again! Our forum's anniversary will be on June 11, roughly two weeks from now. And it has become (I've made it become!) tradition(?) to have an omake every year. It is a non-canon thread, meaning that nothing that happens within it has any effect outside the thread. Essentially, 'what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas'. And that also means anything goes. Everyone gets teleported to a strange island? Gender swapping? A crossover? It's all fine!

Well, when I brought it up the other day, a couple people said they didn't think they wanted to hold it this year. It's not like everyone was on the chatbox at the time, though, so I figured I'd open this so everyone can give their opinion.

If I recall correctly, Iva noted that if we did have an omake, it would be best if it was small (3-4 people, I think he said?), and Natsumi mentioned something about wanting to focus on other threads... And I can't really remember what the others said. Well, it was a few weeks ago at this point, so cut me some slack~ At any rate, those're the opinions I remember, so I figured I'd jot them down. Personally, I see where the first comes from, but not really the second.

At any rate, please vote, and post your thoughts. Should we have the omake, or should we not? Why, or why not? If we do have an omake, what should we do in it? And Natsumi, Iva, if I mis-remembered what you said, please post and correct me.

EDIT 5/28/2016

So, I've taken the poll down. From now on, if you have an opinion, then you'll need to post about it. This seems kind of harsh, but I'm learning from my mistakes of the last year, so be kind. The reason is essentially this. We don't need opinions from people who only care enough to press a quick button. If you care enough about the subject, whether you want it to happen or not happen, then you should post your reasons. Otherwise, well. You probably don't have enough stake in this for your opinion to really matter much.

---

As for my own thoughts, I think we should have one. They've always been fun while they lasted, and their success rates have been increasing every year... I also don't want to give up on my quest to continue the omakes, and also, it's not often that we get to have a chance to go completely wild with fun ideas. Every fun possibility is a plus to me, so the omake is brimming with pluses.

---

• Vita Vesta Caesar
  
• Kira Kohaku or Kumokawa Maria
  
• Erin Lightheart
  
• OPEN
  

I thought we was going to skip it this year to actually focus on SS after ARC 3. But even so I do enjoy the idea of Omake and should avoid last years result if possible this time. Making sure there's only 1 thread this year around would make the possible completion rate more realistic.

I'm all for a fun Roleplay which isn't series that results in such discussions FE was plagued with.

So I voted Yes.

@Alex

Well, that's what some people ended up saying when I brought it up on the chatbox a while back. But as I mentioned in the opening post, not everyone was present at the time, so it was hardly an accurate portrayal of the forum's consensus as a whole. Not to mention that we've had new people join since then. So that's why this I made this thread; to obtain that consensus. Though, considering what I remember Iva saying about it being best if we make it a small thread, it may not matter if we get the majority opinion so long as we have enough people to participate...

Also, the two of you who've voted but haven't posted! I'm looking forward to you elaborating on your opinions!

I voted yes as I personally think it's better to have the omake thread than not. As it's removed from the main/side story plots it doesn't hurt the timeline in the same way a random side story thread potentially could. If the success rate for completing these omake thread has been improving over the years then I think there's all the more reason to hold it again this year and allow members to have a breather away from the main/side story threads with something creative.

As you pointed out the number of participants would be limited to few which should help keep the thread running more smoothly without MIAs.

I'll expand on the reason for voting yes if need be but for now I think I've expressed my intentions.

Let me just drop my 2 cents here. I would personally rather have the omake than not. Honestly, they were pretty fun, even if they did end prematurely. Demon King Kohaku, huzzah!

That being said, I do agree with what was said on the box. As long as we keep the cast small and not have it get crazy bloated, then the omake should run smoothly. After all, that was the main flaw with the omakes before.

I'll put in my THREE cents in. Skipping the omake would be quite the bummer. I rather have one then wonder what madness would come up this year.

I don't mind what we do, somewhat wishing we can return to destroying the demon lord but i feel it would be too difficult to fodo. Lets just goooooo!

Some random keywords that popped in my head regarding Omake.

Musashino Milk

Survival Camp

Halloween

Rebellion of the Cleaning Robots

A notice to all concerned parties. All votes regarding whether we decide to do the omake this year will be closing on this Saturday, June 4. With that, we'll have had a bit more than a week for people to drop their opinions, and we'll have a week to brainstorm actual ideas to use for the omake proper in what seems to be the likely event that Natsumi doesn't stealth edit all of your posts to make them 'no's just to spite me.

So, whether you want the omake to happen or not, drop your vote in by June 4! Though I think the yes voters have obtained a majority already, all opinions are still welcome, especially for any input you have on ways to ensure that the omake is even more successful than before. That was important, so I'll repeat it.

We would appreciate any ideas you may have to ensure that this omake is even more successful than the last.

---

So, I'm thinking that we'll have to restrict the cast. One of the pitfalls of the previous omake was the large (and extremely unstable) cast. So, I suggest that we limit the participants to a small number. I'm thinking four. Also, priority should be given to people who voted on whether we should have the omake or not, due to them having already displayed some degree of investment. Though, there's also keeping options open for new members, so we could prioritize that as well. We tried that with the last omake, and it went badly, but we seem to have a better quality wave this time. But then again, there's that definition of insanity...

Anyway, what do you guys think?

It is June 4th! Voting is over! With a GLORIOUS WONDERFUL FANTASTIC score of 5 to 0, the results are a resounding YES YES YES!!!

So. Now that it's been decided to actually have an omake, there are now two more things we must vote on, or else decide through group discussion, as well as one additional topic I'll address at the end. The first, of course, is what we'll be doing for the omake. It's time to spout all of your ideas, everone! And the second... Is somewhat less cheery. We'll need to decide on what ideas, rules, or restrictions we should implement to ensure that the mistakes of omake past are not repeated. The previous issues were as follows:

• The cast disappearing.
  
• The GM disappearing.
  
• Too large a cast.
  
• Too large a plot.
  

We can really just narrow them down to just that. So, any ideas you create should be small scale. Nothing large. An omake is like a beach episode. Lovely non-serious comedy, where everyone just messes around and has fun, ignoring all issues regarding the fate of the world and the like. So, my first suggestion is that we limit any ideas to those that fit those standards. That eliminates the final issue.

As for the second issue, there's not much we can do but try and pick someone who is willing and who has the free time to GM. So, if you're willing to GM, raise your hand! I am of course willing, but if anyone else would also be, raise your hand anyway. I created the omake OOC because I want the omake to happen, and because I want it to be fun. But that doesn't necessarily mean I have some attachment to GMing it. So if one of you has the will and desire to GM the omake, then announce it! We'll don our top hats and settle the discussion of who is better fit to receive the role with good old fisticuffs.

The first and third, for a change, are actually fairly easy (in theory) to get around. I propose that we have a limit of four participants (which may or may not include the GM). With that we can avoid bloating the cast and it also makes it harder to create a plot of too large a scale, whether purposely or otherwise. A fairly easy solution, eh?

So, with that all said, I'll move on to my idea suggestions. I propose we have a test of courage! Boys and girls (or girls and girls, or boys and boys) steel their hearts in the night, and go on a heart-pounding, exciting, SUPERB adventure through the night, where terrors stand in their path! Mwahaha! What better fun is there?!

---

And now for the final topic.

Who wants to join? Announce your intent and intended character now. I'll now add a roster to the opening post. It'll just have four slots now, but I will of course increase or decrease them if the rest of you decide my suggestion of four is either too much or not enough.

Anyways, here are my omake ideas. Feel free to judge.

Murder on Closed Circle Island: This is the omake idea I got from Umineko. Doesn't necessarily need to be an island but basically, a string of murders begins to occur in a closed circle of some sort. So, a bunch or murders happen and it's up to the PCs to determine the culprit. Or, perhaps on of the PCs is the culprit.

Escape from the Sinking [Insert sinking vessel here]: You're all trapped on the sinking underwater amusement park/boat/submarine. What the hell are you still doing here? Get out before the water pressure breaks the walls and drown y'all!

Pokemon crossover: Welcome to [Insert Region here]. Battle your way to the top with your Pokemon. Length and story type to be determined.

Beach/Test of Courage Episode: Just because.


Oh, and I will be joining the omake. As to which character I'll be playing...that depends on the omake we end up picking.

I suppose only Erin could participate as she's all I have. Now, onto ideas...

The main one I had in mind involves a mixture of concepts for the purpose of comedy and insanity. Namely, I was thinking about starting as a Beach Episode that devolves into some serious event in which the participants must go on a quest to obtain special ingredients to make a legendary food item to appease a being of great power, and it is only through teamwork and creative use of their talents that they will succeed. Focus will be on comedy and silliness.

A secondary idea, which i've put less thought into, is a sort of jailbreak scenario. The participants have to work as a team to get out of a prison together as one without alerting the guards. No violence permitted, only wits.

A third idea would have ended up being similar to the Umineko-inspired one mentioned earlier. Though perhaps Erin would be a bit broken in that scenario,

So, I was on the subway and since sleeping on the subway in NYC is never a smart idea, I decided to start rereading NT7 and I got inspiration for an idea.

Battle of the Underground Sewer Gator: A white alligator has been set loose in Academy City's Underground. A team of reluctant, intrepid explorers has been hand-picked (via RNG) to capture the gator as soon as possible!

Okay, so it looks like we have the bare minimum number of participants required to make the thread, and we also have several ideas to choose from. However, there's a big problem. Quite a big problem, really.

We need to decide and elaborate on which of the ideas we will use for the omake. We need to decide that before the end of day. ...Yeah. If we don't start it at the anniversary, it's not an anniversary omake. So we need to have it ready by the date of the anniversary. 

However, if we're going to do this, we're going to do this well. If we end up rushing and just doing everything we can to ensure it's ready, valuing speed over quality... Well, it'd be better to just give up on doing the omake.

Well, on to cheerier topics. It's time for idea voting. Please give yes votes with reasons to the ones you'd like to use, and no votes with reasons to the ones you think would be unsuitable.

For Kohaku's ideas: the Escape from the Sinking X seems too vague, and too serious. There's not enough intrinsic comedy value. The Murder on Closed Circle Island would be too complicated to set up with our limited time, and again, be too serious. His Pokemon Crossover... Maybe. No solid opinions on that one. And the Battle of the Underground Sewer Gator... At a glance, that one seems too serious, but maybe we could put a comedic spin on it...?

As for Erin's ideas: the Jailbreak Scenario. That one could possibly be fun, but is it really an entire thread's worth of material...? And my thoughts on the Umineko style scenario are the same as Kohaku's.

In the end, the one I'll be casting my vote for is a beach episode/test of courage. After all, we all came up with the same general idea, didn't we? With this, we'd just need to decide whether to switch on or off the following three variables: Beach Episode, Test of Courage, and Food Quest.

Well, since I just happened to stumble on fanart of Erin's faceclaim character at the beach, I'd say that's a sign to go with the beach episode idea. I'm honestly open for any of the other two variables being added on, perhaps even combined in some way. However, i'm uncertain as to the definition of "Test of Courage" here, could someone elaborate on this?

As for my food quest idea, I was thinking that the typical day at the beach would be interrupted by the arrival of some influential, weathly, or powerful character, group, or being who is threatening the beach and the surround land's closure unless the beachgoers prove that the land produces something of quality. It would then become known that this person or group has a soft spot for great food. Therefore, all sorts of inexplicably comedically dangerous and even fantastical areas around the land must be explored and conquered to find the legendary ingredients contained within to produce the best meal that person has ever tasted. Each one wacky and requiring teamwork to succeed, with some allowances for unrealistic damage being sustained thanks to the hazards and threats contained in each (but treated as more cartoonish damage, such as a character being turned into a dark ash colour and returned to the rest of the group after falling into an inexplicable lava trap.)

They're staying at an unfamiliar locale, and it's late at night. There is an old path in the woods, and rumors of ghosts and ghouls assailing travelers in the darkness are commonplace... So youths must take up the challenge, souls burning bright, to traverse that perilous stretch of the woods! If you scream, you're out. Now, do you have what it takes to test your courage...?

That's the test of courage, basically. If we had four people, we could split off into pairs, but that's out. 

Hm, that food quest idea sounds like it could be plenty of fun. Sounds like it could potentially have more content than the test of courage, too. Neither of them conflict with the beach scenario, but they do conflict with each other, so... Well, as of typing this, Kohaku has just returned, so I'll be leaving my vote for after he gets a chance to toss his however-many-cents-are-needed-to-pass-up-the-last-guy in.

Edit: Since the topic was brought up on the chatbox. Additionally, though we can make the thread with three people, there's another question we should ask. Should we?

So, let me elaborate on a couple of things.

The Sewer Gator idea was going to be mostly comedic and heavily inspired from the Patlabor episodes where SV2 goes into the sewers.

Escape from the Sinking X was...fine...it would either be too serious or the comedy would be too long.

So much for the closed circle idea...though I guess that makes sense since we don't have enough people...

As for my own 23 cents....eh, Beach episode is fine. I do wonder how we would do the Food Quest and the Test of Courage with just three people, though.

Okay, voting on the chatbox has resulted in a 'no, we should not have the omake' upon reconsideration after taking into account the cast size. Thank you for your thoughts and opinions, and goodbye!

The theater is closed. Put that popcorn away, Kohaku.

Thank you for making the literally most useless OOC thread ever, guys. Really good to know we can now brag about an OOC discussion for a non-existent thread.