Episode 9 Format

Following a number of complaints, we have combed through this week's script for any offensive language. One Crew Member in particular, does need to use rather a lot of gruff vocabulary or as my mother would put it, "Scottish language" - which will be censored throughout. Also, unusually this week, we have hit a minor snag. Tonight's American play is entitled 90 Degrees, in relation to the Tennessee heat. Unfortunately, when the set builders saw "90 Degrees" written on their technical drawings, they took it to mean they should build parts of the set at... Well, you'll immediately see what they've done, to be honest. But do not fear, we have corrected the issue by repositioning the cameras.

It has however made our entire Tribal Council set untenable. If it were only falling apart slowly and unpredictably, we'd let you all in and trust our Lawyers to deal with the (literal) fallout of crushed Actors, props, etc. But right now we can't even enter the Voting Booth. So there will be no Voting this Episode.


All we have left is a Challenge. A potentially lucky Challenge. Or perhaps a very unlucky Challenge. The key is that it is going to come down almost entirely to two things: your speed, and your luck. Because this Challenge is going to eliminate one of you from this Game.


But this isn't a luck-based elimination. Because you'll be playing the Challenge in a specific Order*, and those who play it earlier will have more time to complete it than those who are later in the Order, and will face higher Degrees of Difficulty:

- The first player to do the Challenge, on the first Degree of Difficulty, will have so much time to complete the Challenge that they'd have to be extremely unlucky and/or slow to not finish it in time.
- The second player, at the second Degree of Difficulty, will have a bit less time to complete the Challenge, so they'll probably manage it... but there's still a chance they may not.
- And so on, with more time reductions down the Order for each successive Degree of Difficulty, making it less and less likely that the Challenge will get finished in the time limit.
- Up to the eighth and final player, on the highest Degree of Difficulty, which makes it essentially impossible to finish the Challenge in time, even with all the speed and luck in the world on their side.


But here's the critical point:

Whoever fails this Challenge, at the the lowest Degree of Difficulty, will be eliminated.

Here's an example Order which could help:

- Special Defects played first at the lowest Degree of Difficulty, with the most time to finish the Challenge,
- Made Up Artist played second, with slightly less time to finish the Challenge,
- etc etc etc,
- Doom Ops played seventh, with not enough time to finish the Challenge unless they were very lucky and/or fast, and
- The Flaw Runner played last, at the highest Degree of Difficulty, with no real chance to finish the Challenge.

If the Flaw Runner, as expected, failed to complete the Challenge in the short time allocated. He might still be safe, if Doom Ops also failed to finish the Challenge within the (slightly longer) time allocated to them. Or if anyone else ahead of Doom Ops failed at a lower Degree of Difficulty, with a longer time limit.

Made Up Artist is reasonably likely to finish the Challenge in time, but if they do fail it then their only chance to avoid elimination is the (unlikely, but still possible) chance that Special Defects also failed. And if Special Defects failed to complete the Challenge at the first Degree of Difficulty, then nobody else's Challenge run matters - everyone after them in the Order could fail, and Special Defects would still be the one eliminated.


In essence, this means that the less time each player gets to play the Challenge (at higher Degrees of Difficulty, later in the play Order), the more likely it is that they can get away with failing at it, as others may have failed ahead of them. And the more time each player gets to play the Challenge (at lower Degrees of Difficulty, earlier in the play Order), and the more likely they are to complete it, but the more likely any unlucky failures could result in their elimination - because there are fewer people ahead of them to potentially take the fall at a lower Degree of Difficulty.

And remember, the Challenge has a component of luck. So theoretically, anybody could fail to complete it



Which means the main focus of this Episode will be determining the play Order - who will attempt the Challenge at what Degree of Difficulty.

This will work a little bit like the Safety Chains way back when, except that playing the Challenge could risk your elimination instead of keeping you safe. It's also a bit like competing to be the favourite child at the exact moment your wealth-and-fortune-probably-stemming-from-a family-history-of-slave-owning father passes away. So we're calling it the Inheritance Order.

As the maker of the randomly decided 82nd post in the 'For Love of Posting' thread, Sir David Suchet as Narrator will be starting off the Inheritance Order. They'll get to play the Challenge first, at the lowest Degree of Difficulty (if they want to). They'll also get to decide who goes next in the Order. That person will choose who goes third. And whoever is chosen to go third will pick somebody else to go fourth. And so on until only one Actor remains to play the Challenge at the highest Degree of Difficulty, with failure all-but-guaranteed.

There is only one part of that decision chain which could work differently, and it comes right at the start. Because they are, after all, a winner, Suchet will have a choice - if they do not wish to risk playing the Challenge first, even at the lowest Degree of Difficulty, they do not have to. So they can choose to join the normal pool of unselected players, who could be named to go next in the Inheritance Order at any time. And then would need to kick us off by naming whoever they want to see go first in the Inheritance Order, instead of themselves.




*I put the asterisk next to 'play order' above, because to keep things fully non-live, you do not actually have to make time to play the Challenge in the assigned Order. So the Inheritance Order is deciding how much time each of you will get to complete the Challenge, and the Order of potential elimination - but just because you've been deemed as the 'first player' of the Challenge does not mean you need to drop everything and attempt the Challenge instantly, so that the round can move on.

Instead, here's how the process will work:

- Everyone can discuss the Challenge and the Inheritance Order freely...

- But once you actually start playing the Challenge, you won't be able to talk to anyone at all until the end of the Episode. In fact, just joining the Member Group for the Challenge will block you from most of this board. (This is because we can't allow your knowledge of whether you completed or failed the Challenge to impact how the rest of the Inheritance Order plays out.)

- Whenever you do begin the Challenge, whether you finished it in time or not will be assessed based on your place in the Inheritance Order.

- So once you've been assigned a place in the Inheritance Order and know your Degree of Difficulty, you are free to begin the Challenge at any time...

- But you should probably hold off on starting the Challenge, until the latest time you can be online to play it. That way you can participate in the discussions about the Inheritance Order all the way through, and potentially influence who else gets chosen in which spot.

- No matter where you are in the Inheritance Order, you should still play the Challenge to completion. And afterward we'll tell you what your time limit was, and whether you finished within that time.



Finally, here is how communication will work during this Episode: there will be no PMs.

Instead, there are four Opt-In Chatrooms. These are named: 90 Degrees Celcius, 90 Degrees Farenheit, 90 Degrees Clockwise, and 90 Degrees Anticlockwise.

To join a Chatroom, add yourself to the Member Group with the same title. And then you'll be able to both see and post in the Chatroom. However, you can only be in one Chatroom at a time. So if you want to switch Chatrooms, you'll have to leave the Member Group for your current Chatroom, as well as joining the new one. If you try to be in multiple Chatrooms at once, you will see none of them.

There is one restriction on moving between the Chatrooms: you must wait at least an hour before leaving Chatrooms. If you join a Chatroom, you must wait at least an hour before you try to join another one. This board logs every time anyone joins or leaves a Member Group so we'll be able to tell, and anyone caught breaching this rule will be removed from all the Chatrooms. So don't do it.

Once you are in a Chatroom, you can talk about anything you like... but you probably should talk about the Inheritance Order as it is settled, negotiating who should be selected at every step along the way. Some people may beg to go next in the Order, others may beg to avoid selection, and still others may struggle to track down the right Actors in the right Chatrooms to make their voices heard in time. You should be aware though that we won't be removing any posts from any of the Chatrooms. So whatever you say could eventually be seen by those not present, if/when they join that Chatroom later on in the round.








This is yet another round where the schedule will depend on all of you, and the pace you set in discussing and deciding the Danger Chain. If it happens quickly, we'll have the results as soon as everyone has played the Challenge and we'll move into to the next Episode straight away.

But if you take your time, well there's only so much time you can take. So the latest possible deadline for completing the Danger Chain and everyone playing the Challenge is:



But I do think you all will need prefer a longer weekend. So I'm encouraging you all to keep this round moving as efficiently as you can. If it's your turn to pick who goes next in the Inheritance ORder, don't feel like you need to decide immediately - take the time to consult your Chatroom, etc - but do try to pass it along before you need to go to work, or bed, or any other offline activity that will keep you away for a long stretch of time.



So! If you have any questions, please type them upside down so that the Crew can see them properly.

Otherwise: The actors are prepared. The stage is - in some sense - set. Please enjoy 90 Degrees!