091202 Plotline--The Plot Thickens!
Allen, Erik, Sean, & Wei-Hwa enjoyed a special in-person appearance from U.K. team member Lisa Long...and special guest Ian Fraser of The Go Game.
We wrestled more with the plotline. Five key questions took most of the attention:
1) What are the states of mind of Doctor When and Kitty *before* the high school "incident"? The two leading contenders were
a) Doctor pines for Buffy the cheerleader and Kitty pines for Doctor When, and b) Doctor pines for Buffy and Kitty pines for Biff, the quarterback.
2) Where does the incident take place?
3) What exactly is "the incident" for the Doctor and for Kitty?
4) Why does the time machine first fail? (Incompetence or sabotage?)
5) What year does the "incident" take place?
Here's a chart to illustrate the first question:
OPTION A
| Past | Phase I Present Day | Phase II Present Day | Phase III Present Day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doctor When | Pines for Buffy | Pines for Buffy | Bad marriage to Buffy | Pines for Buffy (learns to love Kitty in past) |
| Kitty | Pines For Doctor | Pines For Doctor | Pines For Doctor | Pines for Doctor (gets Doctor in past) |
| Buffy | ? | ? | Bad marriage to Doctor | ? (gets slimed in past) |
OPTION B-1
| Past | Phase I Present Day | Phase II Present Day | Phase III Present Day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doctor When | Pines for Buffy | Pines for Buffy | Bad marriage to Buffy | Pines for Buffy (learns to love Kitty in past) |
| Kitty | Pines For Biff | Bad marriage to Biff | Pines For Biff | Pines for Biff (learns to love Doctor in past) |
| Buffy | Dating Biff | ? | Bad marriage to Doctor | ? (gets slimed in past) |
| Biff | Dating Buffy | Bad marriage to Kitty | ? | ? (gets slimed in past) |
OPTION B-2
| Past | Phase I Present Day | Phase II Present Day | Phase III Present Day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doctor When | Pines for Buffy | Pines for Kitty | Bad marriage to Buffy | Pines for Kitty |
| Kitty | Pines For Biff | Bad marriage to Biff | Pines For Doctor | Bad marriage to Biff (learns to love Doctor in past) |
| Buffy | Dating Biff | ? | Bad marriage to Doctor | ? (gets slimed in past) |
| Biff | Dating Buffy | Bad marriage to Kitty | ? | ? (gets slimed in past) |
[Damn...now I'm using a matrix to do this plot...it's starting to sound like a puzzle itself!]
Sean pointed out that choosing option b) could lead to a clever "super symmetry": in present day Phase I we would have the Doctor still pining over Buffy and Kitty in an unsatisfying marriage to Biff, and then in Phase II we could have Kitty still pining over Biff and the Doctor in an unsatisfying marriage to Buffy.
Then we would have to create an "incident" such that if happens to the Doctor it prevents him from winning Buffy's heart and if it happens to Kitty it prevents her from winning Biff's heart. (And we have to create a way that preventing the incident from happening to Doctor When *accidentally* causes it to happen to Kitty and vice versa. The accidental part is important because we want the lead characters to remain sympathetic...and to retain a good enough relationship that they're willing to work with each other in the present day.)
With this set up it might be that present-day Doctor When has still been pining for Buffy after all these years... Or it might be that present-day Doctor When is no longer pining over Buffy. Instead, he's (finally) realized that he and Kitty are perfect for each other, seen that Kitty's relationship with Biff is horrible, and wants to fix the past to slap some romantic sense into his teenage self.
Such symmetry is both intellectually satisfying...and may help the players figure out what is going on.
We were still left in a quandary about how the Doctor or Buffy could *ever* win the hearts of these popular kids. Especially since we were also considering making Buffy and Biff rather unsympathetic...at the very least snotty, elitist, inconsiderate kids...and possibly even the very people who cause the "incident" out of pure malice.
The love triangle of option a) does not enjoy the symmetry. But it is, in a certain sense, simpler. It is easy to believe that teenage Doctor When would be distracted by Buffy's beauty while even a nerdy teenage girl such as Kitty has such superior emotional intelligence compared to a boy that she can see that they would be a great match.
Concerning question 2) of where the incident takes place, we brainstormed some options:
- Prom
- Enchantment Under The Sea dance (rhythmic movement)
- Science fair (ripe for disastrous "mad science" experiments gone awry!)
- Talent show (ripe for public humiliations! Plus we could limit players' access to backstage while the humiliation takes place on stage)
- Football game
- School assembly
- Band rehearsal
- Fire drill Homecoming party
- Basketball game
- Summer camp
- Generic house party thrown by the cool kids
- Detention
- Gym class (a classic source of nerd angst)
- Science lab (great excuse for high-/low-status kids to be assigned to work together)
- At the local premier of "Back To The Future" [an addition to the list]
Some of the criteria we discussed to pick the locale:
- Is there a good reason kids of different social strata to all be there?
- Is it fertile grounds for a dramatic embarrassing incident?
- Can we pull it off? Cost? Number of extras required?
- Is it in a bounded (protected from present day outsiders) location that we can make look like the past?
- Could the players blend in (if we send them to the past)?
Concerning the third question, we pondered
- What kind of incident would be so traumatizing to the Doctor and to Kitty that they devote their life's work to reverse it?
- What goal does it prevent each from achieving, if any? In Option B above both Doctor When and Kitty think that the incident prevented them from connecting with their desired mate.
- Does the incident have to be traumatizing in the same way? Perhaps Doctor When thinks the incident prevented him from getting the girl...but Kitty is merely shamed in front of all the popular girls. Would that be OK? Believable? Maybe with the differences between boys and girls it is OK for it to be different.
- The event could be different for different characters...but it might be fun if it's the same.
- What kind of event would be fun to portray to the players?
We brainstormed a list:
- Most of our ideas included some sort of being "slimed," i.e., some sort of event that causes a mess. That's always fun to watch people get covered in go (and our actors will probably enjoy acting it out). Sort of reminiscent of being doused with a bucket of blood in "Carrie." Wei-Hwa suggested that if we do the science fair, then perhaps his project is on "Chemical Properties of Mentos" and hers is on "Gas Production By Diet Pepsi"...then if their displays are set up next to each other then trouble is bound to happen! (Or maybe the projects are on chocolate and peanut butter...)
- Being "pants-ed"
- A deep, dark secret being revealed in public
Finally the question arose of whether the event was merely an accident (or some sort of accident that symbolized the "chemistry" between Doctor and Kitty)...or maybe sabotage. Maybe Biff noticed that there's some flirting going on between his girl and the Doctor...and he tries to embarrass the Doctor. Maybe there's sabotage in both the past and present (by the same person?)! Or maybe the sabotage/prank is just a spiteful prank by the alpha kids.
Concerning question 5), we all sort of gravitated towards the 80s for the "incident." Perhaps even 1985 as a homage to "Back To The Future."
Finally, Sean suggested that at least some of the puzzles be similar between Phases I and II except for a change in "polarity." This should indicate that the issues are the same except for a change in sex from male to female.
Also, we might want to make Doctor When's plan to fix the past be very circuitous, a la Rube Goldberg...since boys often make things needlessly complicated. While Kitty's solution is much more direct. The contrast might be fun.
Finally, we might make some of our puzzles revolve around the love notes placed (and misplaced) in school lockers. Not only is this a classic comedy of errors, it might lend itself to puzzles.
