Anyone Can Die

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

...Which was demonstrated with Tara's death, and the very real possibility of Adell's.

So if Agora hadn't solved Deanna's cypher in time, would Brad have died? Considering how major Brad was in the latter part of Quixote's storyline, that would have changed things a lot. If Brad died, how would the story have progressed differently?

...Also, was there ever a real danger if we missed the deadline or pushed the wrong buttons that we'd have to refic Quixote dead?

[Rick Healey]

I'll leave the others to Ben. But the last question, I can answer.

Since we already knew what kind of output you guys were doing on the 'fics, we knew that someone would submit something that would work in time to make sure Quixote would get sent back alive. That said, yes, we were all ready to kill Quixote if you guys suddenly had a massive amount of writer's block.

[Tom]

...Also, was there ever a real danger if we missed the deadline or pushed the wrong buttons that we'd have to refic Quixote dead?

This, and a question from Dil about not realizing Adell could have "died", lead me to a broader point about game design.

You didn't realize Adell could have died because it was never a serious risk; that was because of you. Less than two days after the requirements for fighting Cthulhu were described, they were met.

I don't believe in showing the players their scorecard. "20 points" is not meaningful in a story. But I do believe in giving the players feedback they need in order to understand the situation they're in. If you had been two points short with two days to go, Mr. A would have been tweeting his ass off about how he didn't have enough fics.

Likewise, with Quixote, if he were going to die, you would have learned this and had a chance to avert it.

The danger was real, but as the possibility approached, the danger would have been made more and more apparent until you did something to avoid it.

[Scarab]

...Also, was there ever a real danger if we missed the deadline or pushed the wrong buttons that we'd have to refic Quixote dead?

This, and a question from Dil about not realizing Adell could have "died", lead me to a broader point about game design.

You didn't realize Adell could have died because it was never a serious risk; that was because of you. Less than two days after the requirements for fighting Cthulhu were described, they were met.

I don't believe in showing the players their scorecard. "20 points" is not meaningful in a story. But I do believe in giving the players feedback they need in order to understand the situation they're in. If you had been two points short with two days to go, Mr. A would have been tweeting his ass off about how he didn't have enough fics.

Likewise, with Quixote, if he were going to die, you would have learned this and had a chance to avert it.

The danger was real, but as the possibility approached, the danger would have been made more and more apparent until you did something to avoid it.

Soooo in other words it really was a combination of the power of love and us writing, filking, and singing our lil' hearts out?

Because if so, it sounds far more badass in my head than it does when I try to explain it to non-TWWF players. (It WAS badass. I defy anybody to say that was anything other than complete badassitude. Hell, we are so cool we coutneract global warming. With WRITING.)

[Tom]

Soooo in other words it really was a combination of the power of love and us writing, filking, and singing our lil' hearts out?

Yes. It was really important to us that our finale be something anyone could contribute to, regardless of age, geography, smartphone availability, etc.

[Ben Plante]

Brad was always going to live. Had the tri-puzzle thing not been solved in time, Deanna would've given more hints, and if somehow it just wouldn't be solved, she's eventually just get exasperated and give away the answer. She was constructing a story in her mind, remember. In her planned 'story', the puzzle was solved. So it had to be solved.

I probably would've had her do something harsh had she had to give the answer herself though. Maybe Brad would've been injured permanently, yet survive, instead of being fine. But he would always live.