Friday, November 19, 2010

Proposal: The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Self-Killed. -Purplebeard

Adminned at 20 Nov 2010 01:27:41 UTC

Add a new rule to the ruleset, entitled BATs:

The 26th of any month is Finals Day, on which the Students will sit their BAT (Baccalaureate of Advanced Thaumaturgy) exams.

The BATs start at midday on Finals Day. As soon as possible after midday, an exam post shall be made for each Subject by any Student, with a title in the following format: [SUBJECT] Exam with [TEACHER]. Each Exam post is open for 48 hours; if it has been open for more than 48 hours it becomes closed. A Student must successfully perform an exam action and make a comment to the open exam post detailing that action in order to pass each subject.

Valid exam actions are as follows:

* If a Student has an A+ or an A in a subject then their mere presence in an exam is sufficient to pass it, and that Student may pass the subject simply by making a comment to the exam post saying “Ace the exam.”
* If a Student has a B or a C in a subject then they must make a practical or theoretical demonstration of their competence in a subject. If such a Student casts a spell that requires that Student to meet a difficulty level in that Subject while the exam post is open then that constitutes a successful exam action. Alternatively, if that Student proposes a new Spell which requires the caster to meet a difficulty level in that Subject, and the proposal is enacted, then that also constitutes a successful exam action. Note that, while the Student in the second instance can perform the action and make a comment to the exam post detailing it while it is still open, it will not be clear whether the student has passed or failed the exam until well after the exam post closes.
* If a Student has a D or an E in a subject then they must become the Pet of the Teacher responsible for that subject, and then perform one of the actions detailed for students who have attained a B or C in that subject, in order to perform a successful exam action.
* If a Student has an F or Ungraded in a subject then they cannot pass the exam.

When a Student passes an exam, they may add BAT-[SUBJECT] to their list of Titles, where [SUBJECT] is the three-letter acronym denoting the subject in which they have passed their BAT. They must then reduce their Grade in that subject to Ungraded. When an exam post closes, any Students who have not passed (and who do not have pending proposals that would enable them to pass) have failed. A Student who fails an exam in a subject gets a Grudge with the Teacher responsible for that subject and must decrement their Grade in that subject, to a minimum of F.

A Student who has passed their BAT in all Subjects has achieved victory.

Add a new sub-rule to this rule, entitled Student Assistants:

A Student who has passed their BAT in a Subject and who does not have a current open Study Group may, as a weekly action, start a Study Group by making a new post entitled “Study Group: [SUBJECT]”. Provided that no more than five other Students have already done so, any Student who is Free can join the Study Group. A Student who joins a Study Group may once increment their grade in the relevant subject, to a maximum of C. If 6 Students have joined a Study Group then the Study Group closes. Joining a Study Group does not cause a Student to stop being Free.

Add a new sub-rule to rule 2.8, entitled Explosive Cramming:

Difficulty level: LAT 3, [x]0 (If [x] is LAT then the difficulty level for this spell is LAT 4)
Effect: The caster may increment their grade in [x]. The caster does not have to decrement their grade in any subject as a result of casting this spell.

Add the following to the end of the spell entitled “Revive”:

Upon casting this spell the caster must decrement their grade in all subjects.

Comments

Blacky:

19-11-2010 11:11:50 UTC

imperial In principle I like mechanics, however, what happens if two students receive their last missing BAt in the same Exam, would be unfair if it then would be a first post leads to win situation.

Purplebeard:

19-11-2010 12:26:36 UTC

against Excessively harsh on Students who happen to be unavailable during the exams.

Josh: Observer he/they

19-11-2010 12:35:32 UTC

@PB: Do you not think that 2 full days is long enough? I accept that structuring the game for those with restricted access is good practice, but 48 hours seems like a more the equitable unit of measure for this kind of mechanic.

Roujo: he/him

19-11-2010 12:40:47 UTC

against Per Purplebeard and Blacky, plus the only way I see a D/E Student becoming a teacher’s pet is to Snitch on another Student - and I haven’t seen many disruptions lately.

I like the mechanics, though. Exams are nice, and being able to help other students is cool. I’m not sure about the “They must then reduce their Grade in that subject to Ungraded” part, though. You just passed an exam, possibly acing it, but suddenly you can hardly cast any spells in that subject? I find that odd.

Roujo: he/him

19-11-2010 12:42:50 UTC

Come to think of it, I retract my “Per Purplebeard” comment, as Josh makes a pretty valid point. Also, worst case, they can catch up next month - unless the game was won, but then again that’s the game. My vote is still AGAINST, though.

Purplebeard:

19-11-2010 12:45:59 UTC

I don’t have an issue with specific time windows for certain actions, but I’m not fond of the idea of forcing the people who missed it to wait a whole month for the next opportunity to perform an action, especially when that action is (partially) achieving victory.

Josh: Observer he/they

19-11-2010 12:51:19 UTC

I’m disappointed, I liked this proposal :(

@Roujo - I want to create more mechanics for both Grudges and Pets. The lack of movement in these areas, and with Conditions, is a bit distressing. Re: the grades - dropping back down partly reflects the idea that grades are an abstraction for ability (passing your BATs, even with an A, would still leave you ungraded from whatever the next qualification is - A-BATs?), and mechanically I’ve always found that it’s a nice balancing mechanism to have some measure of demerit attached to moving ahead and attaining goals. How about if holding a BAT gave a persistent +5 modifier to spell power in that topic?

@PB - Most victory mechanics are to some extent contextual. The existing one can have even smaller windows - a Student can be eligible for victory for only as long as it takes a rival to cast Revive. At least this has the virtue of being transparent; 48 hours is quite a big slot and it’ll never come up by surprise, and if you miss one then (so long as no-one wins in the interim) you’ll be in a much better position to do well at the next.

Blacky:

19-11-2010 13:17:21 UTC

As I said the underlying idea is great, what about weekly exams in only one subject, respectively?

Josh: Observer he/they

19-11-2010 13:23:00 UTC

That seems like a lot more administration.

Kevan: he/him

19-11-2010 13:54:38 UTC

I really like the idea, but the once-a-month window does seem a bit harsh, particularly when it falls mostly on a weekend, this month. I’d be happier if it were an automatic effect - on exam day, the Headmaster can go through and mark everyone based on their GNDT contents (with spellcasting and spellcrafting being noted in advance).

(And trivially, there is no such thing as a “list of Titles”, there’s just a single “Position” which is tracked in the GNDT’s “Title” field.)

against

Alecto:

19-11-2010 14:10:50 UTC

against

Josh: Observer he/they

19-11-2010 14:30:50 UTC

against s/k

macgeorge:

19-11-2010 21:19:32 UTC

against