What do you want to see?

Now that everyone seems pretty comfortable and settled into the site, I'd like to bring up some ideas that have either been brought to me or I've wanted to do.

CAMP COUNSELORS:
I'm letting Ace explain this one (sorry for throwing you under the bus) because I cannot explain it how you told me. xD I had this at first on my site but later took it down, and I know in other RPGs CHB related have had "Camp Counselors" but it was a "grab and go" kind of thing. Now, this is what I think about when it comes to Camp Counselors. . .

Camp Counselors should be the campers from each cabin that have been there longer or have fought with the right regulations (that are on the wiki) for that spot.
They will not have mod spots, but it might give for that more "realistic Camp" feel. The books had camp counselors.
I will have to approve fights and I will probably make a thread for it in The Arena where only the two members can fight. Just because I'd rather not have too much random clutter beside from the fight between the two.
Camp Counselors will not be grab and go.

Some things I'm not sure about. . .
Should we make it the Olympian Gods/Goddess only? Or minor gods too?
What about those who have multiple counselors?
How exactly will we know who's fit for the Counselors or not?

Again, I'm leaving Ace to explaining it more in depth, I've never really had a solution for any of these. PLEASE give me feedback on this one, it's a super debatable topic.

CAMP EVENT:
Camp Events were on my last site, but I'm putting it here just to make sure everyone likes them and stuff. If you don't know what a camp event, it's basically an "OOC" roleplay that can last from a few days up to a month depending on the theme and activity. Some of the events may affect camp itself and the characters (such as holiday parties) while others may just be fun things to break away from camp. Camp events are optional, allow you have your characters in two places at once, and are just supposed to be something fun.

Holiday parties (Thanksgiving (haven't done this one yet!), Christmas, Valentine's. . .)
Field Trips (That usually don't go the right way. . .)
Random BS~ ("Hunger Games" spin-off, etc. . .)

If you have any ideas for future ones please leave them below and I'll sort them into a topic/take them into consideration!

CAMP MUSICAL:
Yea, JJ and I came up with the idea in a call yesterday, because it was just brought up. Now, I know what you're thinking "How the hellhounds will this work?" Well, it would probably be listed as a camp event, however, there will be actually preparation, roles given out to those who want to participate, and it will not be word for word acting of the musical itself. There will be a ton of improv, a lot of silliness, and it'll probably be one of those things were it'll be mostly for the shits and giggles. (This is easier thought then said omg. . .)

Ideas for Musicals:
The Phantom of the Opera
Lion King
Wizard of Oz
Legally Blonde
Wicked
Harry Potter
Percy Jackson

CAMP BEADS:
I've always wanted to do something like this, but because of how many people/characters my sides have had I've been turned off to do it. But, now that the site is smaller, and there's less characters I'd like to see how you guys would feel about me (or others who want to participate) to make your character's summer bead. It would be given out at the end of August making it the 31st.

Beads will be ordered.
If beads are wanted I will see if other people want to make them too, so we can split work and make it easier.
Only one bead per character, they would be revealed all at once on August 31st.
Beads will probably be ordered in the sense of "Requested" (which would be you tell us what you want on the bead and the meaning behind it) or "Random bead" (which "we" will find something significant that happened to the character in the RP and make it their bead, along with giving a description with why they got that)
Beads will have descriptions no matter what.
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That's about it for now! If you have anything pertaining to any of the above topics do NOT be shy about talking about it.

Also--have something not on this list? Put it below!

My replies:

Counselor stuff:
Should we make it the Olympian Gods/Goddess only? Or minor gods too?- I say minor gods too :3
What about those who have multiple counselors?- They could do rock paper scissors to decide? Or there could be multiple. Not sure.
How exactly will we know who's fit for the Counselors or not?- I say experience, quality, and how active they are on the site.

I say yes to the events!

AND OMG YES TO THE MUSICAL

And the beads sound really awesome!!!

Eh, my stance on counselors is 'Sure, I guess.' If it's not grab and go, that improves my opinion on it a lot. Overall, I guess so? xD

Syd pretty much answered your concerns tbh.

Events are silly, and haven't really posed any real issue in the past, and any weight have had would be pretty much gone in this community. Easy yes.

The musical thing sounds like a blast. Much yes!

Beads I'm all for. Also willing to help out with creation. c:

I'm all for everything listed here. As for specifics...

Counselors: I think that the minor gods should have counselors as well--they do in the books, after all. I do think there should be only single counselors for each cabin unless there's a compelling reason to decide otherwise. As for choosing who gets to be the counselor, if multiple characters have been put forward for the position, preference should be given to whichever has the fewest counselor characters already. If that's a tie, then all players with a character in that cabin should be allowed to vote via anonymous PM to Lyssy (or Wishie, if Lyssy's one of the ones hoping for the spot). If that's also a tie, then voting should be opened to the whole forum via a poll like this one. If that's also also a tie... Yeah, rock, paper, scissors works.

Camp Events: This sounds fun to me; I have a lot of my characters wrapped up in Lyca's arc or otherwise unable to just generally hang out at Camp and be, so this sounds like a good chance to show them in a different sort of situation.

Musical: I wholeheartedly approve. However, Diddy J is reminding me that we'll absolutely need to write a rap part in for him. We probably shouldn't do that, since Diddy's raps are nearly as bad as his dad's haikus, so proceed with caution.

Beads: Sure, why not? That sounds like fun.

Anyway, completely off topic, but since I'm already posting here, I'm still alive, just busy. I'll be rounding people up for the not-a-quest shortly. I've had some wonderful ideas for things to try to kill us.

Idk how to bead but it sounds cool

Musicals would be fun to RP xD

Events were awesome (tbt Valentine's Event... never forget)

And last but not least, cabin/camp counselors, something I've been hoping for since long before the old site got rebooted.

Basically, what I had in mind was a sort of CHB Olympics that would decide which the characters on the site would become the Head Counselor for the cabin. The events would be open to everyone, but you'd be competing against the people of your cabin. Even if no one else is competing in your cabin, I still want you to post during the event (if you can) because the point of the Counselors is:
1. To add a new (or, more correctly an old but now possible) element to the site that will add something that can potentially be pretty cool to work with.
2. To give people who would like to have their char(s) be a counselor the opportunity to show that they are dedicated to the site and are well-rounded RPers. This is how the decision for who gets the spot will be made, and is why I'd appreciate if, no matter what, if you'd like a character of yours to be up for a spot to please RP in the event which will be planned.
3. To have fun! That's the point of RPing, and I think the Olympics as well as the site as a whole can be improved by having Counselor spots since it'll motivate some characters to step up and take charge, and also provide opportunities in RPG for conflict and such.

That covers the criteria of how exactly we'll know who is fit for the spot. Again, as Lyss said, if there are two people who both have the same drive and passion for a Counselor spot, and both are active and excellent RPers, it may just come down to the logical vote of which character is older/more mature and/or has been there longer. For example, it'd be weird to have a 14 year old Counselor in a cabin with 18 or 19 year olds, but still possible if they were the only one to try for the spot.

In any case, since the CHB Olympics would be a one-time thing, to keep a spot from becoming stale (say, if another camper would like to become the Counselor), there will be the opportunity, as Lyss said, to duel in the Arena. Realize that the Counselor probably has their spot for a reason, so it's not going to be cake, but if there's a will, there's a way. Also, in the case that someone whose character has the Counselor spot becomes less active, there's also the chance to take the spot by challenging their character to a fight. They have two weeks to fight you, otherwise you win by forfeit (unless they have a very good excuse or left notice beforehand for a reason that they would be gone so long, in which case the they will have one week to organize the fight unless there are extreme circumstances which warrant more time).

As for multiple counselors, I've (just now) come up with a quick and easy rule to limit the amount of Counselors one person can have while making it fair for everyone. Just divide the amount of characters you have by 2, and that's the number of your characters that can be Counselors (round up for odd number division). Since the maximum amount of characters is currently 8, the maximum amount of Counselors one person could have would be 4. I think this system is fair because it's checked and balanced by the facts that:
1. A person with many characters would (hopefully) be more devoted to the site. Also, with many different characters, it makes sense that at least half of them might want to be Counselors.
2. Even if the maximum is 4, people will still most likely be having less than that because no one has 8 characters as of yet, and with the whole competition and fighting aspects, there's always the opportunity for someone else to take one of their spots if they would like to. It's more likely that even if someone had 8 characters and 4 Counselor availabilities, they would likely not have 4 Counselor characters due to the fact that others of us would be up trying for the spot too. Of course, Lyss can make an exception to this rule if she sees fit.
3. If anything, the person with less Counselor-characters who has shown as much effort as another person would probably be considered higher than the logicality of what I said about maturity and time at camp, but we'll see how that works out.

Finally, I've thought of an idea that might be interesting for how the whole Counselor system works with children of Olympians and those of minor gods and goddesses. Seeing as how the Summer and Winter Soltices are important times in the world of CHB, I was thinking that there would be a separation between Counselor children of Olympians and Counselor children of minor gods/goddesses and that during the soltices, just as how Hades is invited to Olympus (as least during the Winter Solstice, but I digress), the two groups would convene to have a big meeting of sorts. For this system at least, a Hades kid would be part of the Olympian group. The pros to this system is to keep the mythological hierarchy present with gods and such, but also allow for interaction; it'd also keep everything from getting messy with too many Counselors in one group. It'd basically divide them into two bodies that govern Camp, with the Olympian group having a bit more power, just to make things not all peachy all the time. However, I'm open to just making it one group if you guys think that's a better idea; it's not a huge thing either way, but I do definitely think that children of minor gods and goddesses should have cabin/camp counselors because that's fair to everyone.

Anyways, let me know what you think and if you see any flaws in the idea, thanks!

With regards to Ace's ideas... I think the Olympics sound like a fun idea, however I don't think that they should initially determine who the counselors are. I think that should be decided out of game, mainly because of my experience with the Hunger Games RPs back on Central. Mostly those went fine; however, especially once things got down to the last few Tributes, things sometimes got a bit ugly as everyone tried to be the last one standing. If there was an actual prize for winning the Olympics, like counselorship, I could see them ending up a lot like that and turning into an unnecessary source of drama. So, while I can see the Olympics as a fun event, I think that something with as much lasting impact as which characters get to be counselors should be decided as fairly as possible out of game.

As for how many counselors each player can have, four seems a good upper limit, but I stand by saying that priority should be given to people with fewer counselors for already as we proceed past the first few cabins.

As for the division between major/minor cabins... I'd personally prefer the versatility of having only one body of counselors, as that allows for more character interaction. However, the idea of a rift between the major and minor cabin counselors also appeals to me as a source of conflict. My suggestion would be to treat it like the United Nations Security Council. Everyone's part of the same general assembly, with one vote per cabin. However, the general assembly can only discuss things and make recommendations; they can't order any cabin to do anything. By contrast, the Olympian counselors can have their own meetings and vote on their own, and their decisions can be binding on the camp as a whole; however, they have to be careful not to alienate the minor cabins and as a result avoid having such meetings except in emergencies.

Agreed with Omni. I've seen stuff like that become a mess when it's not all for fun (occasionally, even when it is).

Four sounds like a good upper limit, but I think I'd prefer it be a set limit rather than it being determined by number of characters. Limits like that encourage people to make a lot of characters just to fill up their spots, and I don't think that's necessarily good, or that number of characters is any indication of a member's dedication or quality as a roleplayer.

As for the limit, since I honestly just came up with it without thinking of the fairness, I totally agree that we should simply cap it out at 4 instead of penalizing people for not having many characters. That being said, it's simply a fact that with more characters there will be more opportunities to have Counselor spots, but I agree that simply capping it at 4 is the best idea in any case.

As to the separate groups, that's a great idea Omni. I was hoping someone could think of something because I honestly had no idea what to do; I just knew that making two separate groups would make for a nice, constant conflict to have that would be fun to RP, and I think your solution does that well.

As to how the spots will be decided, don't get me wrong: I'm all for equal opportunity; I don't think one person should necessarily hoard spots. However (here's the but), I also believe in people having to work for what they want, which is where I disagree with just giving people who have less Counselor characters the spot. The whole idea that camp/cabin (I think it was cabin in the books but I can't remember, if someone would like to find out I will give you a cookie :3) counselors revolve around is that they're the most qualified to lead their cabins for one reason or another, and can be replaced if someone else is more deserving (ex. Drew Tanaka and Piper McLean). So while I definitely encourage people to try and have their characters fight for a spot after the fact, I would hope that they would show that they really want the spot during the event. As I said earlier, if two people try equally as hard and one has less Counselors, then give it to that guy. However, I don't think someone who barely tries but, because he barely tries, has less Counselors should simply be given a prize while denying that the other person wanted it more. Does that make any sense? I just don't think giving people something they haven't worked for is fair if someone else worked harder and wanted it more, unless of course you have a really good excuse for why you can't RP and such in which case I'm sure Lyss will be able to figure something out. As to the HG RPG, I think it comes down to that basically if your character died, you were out. The CHB Olmypics, on the other hand, would have multiple opportunities for your characters to shine, and it'll also be a good place for Lyss to judge the worth of the character and RPer. For example, if someone godmods or does something OP with a character, it would be show that the person has no restraint and probably reduce their chances just because they aren't fair. Knowing a character's limits, both in strengths and weaknesses is always a sign of a good RPer, and it's not hard to show that you want to win while not going overly overboard in the competition. I also don't like the idea of opening it up to voting because that could possibly be somewhat (at least) biased, and I don't think that's fair at all.

In the end, the point I'm trying to make is that people should really want the Counselor spot. If one person types up one or two sentences for all the events while someone else is clearly thinking out what their character would do and would be able to do and showing an effort, I don't think the spot should go to the one who barely tried simply because he has less Counselors. Of course he has less Counselors, he's not trying. I suppose a solution to this would be to give people time to come up with a post and then PM the final hardcopy to Lyss before anyone posts. This would ensure no one tries to one up anyone else, making the competition fair by clearly showing what people can do themselves. If everyone could stay away from trying to one up another person, I think we could simply post normally, but if you guys want to make it as fair as possible I think Lyss knowing what you were going to post beforehand would be good. Of course you could make changes afterwards, but they would have to be approved to ensure fairness. However, since that's a lot of work, I think if we all agree to just give it our all, try to make this a friendly competition, and have Lyss judge to see who is trying their best but also not becoming OP, then I think the whole thing would work out. Let me know if you have any questions because it's early and I'm sure at least half of those sentences aren't structurally correct xD

I wasn't sure if I was supposed to have an opinion, but I'd just like to say that I like all those ideas.

Gosh, everyone's so dang creative.

Personally, I think Ace is right when he says the bit about having fewer counselors shouldn't merit a spot. I think Omni probably meant that as a deciding factor between two candidates who were otherwise fairly equal.

I still don't like the competition idea as the way to decide. The fact is, this is a small site where we all know each other. We all know our general roleplaying skill level, maturity, so on. We should be pretty able to determine it in general roleplay, if not. That's where it counts, after all. What good does it do if a person shapes up for the Olympics only to be a one-sentence-roleplayer the rest of the time? I also believe voting might not be the best route. Perhaps if mutual agreement can't be found for a cabin's counselor, Lyssy would be the ultimate word. I don't really have a great solution for this at the moment, honestly.

That's definitely true, people should be active and attentive on the site and not just during the games. For example, although we shall all hope this never happens, if Mallory/Sierra happened across this site and joined in and made her characters and wanted to have them be Counselors, since we already know her character it would probably be a major part of why she doesn't get a spot. However, I also would like to give people the benefit of the doubt, and if someone decided to shape up and planned on being active, then who am I to say they aren't as deserving of the rest of us? In any case, there's also the important factor to consider that the Counselor spot can switch to another character through the system of the Arena, which I'll try to clarify now. If someone becomes inactive, it's the simple matter of someone else challenging them and taking the spot.

After the Games I think we should go a month without any challenging, just to allow those who earned their spots (at least primarily, but, as we might see, not forever) to enjoy it for that time. After that, I think challenges will be open, but to keep from things getting frustrating, after a challenge has been completed, if the challenger loses they cannot ask for a rematch until a month has passed (30 days time). The challenger system will be key in order to remove any inactive Counselors and also provide the opportunity for others to vie for the spot if they believe they deserve it just as much. However, the person with the spot has a good chance at keeping it just because they warranted it in the first place, which means that it would be decided by who wants it more, with priority given to the character who is more mature/older and/or has been at camp longer, which is just based on the logical aspect of having a young Counselor (usually with less experience and maturity) surrounded by older, probably stronger siblings. I know that doesn't seem fair, but if two people want a spot equally as bad but the challenger has a character of 13/14 while the Counselor is 18/19... I think you see where I'm going with that. Hope it made sense!

I still have to stand by what I said before. I'd prefer counselorship be earned through normal roleplaying and interacting with others. A competition in combination with something like this just doesn't seem practical. People can 'plan on' being active, but that doesn't mean they will be when it comes right down to it. Sure, we have the duel option for inactivity, but wouldn't it be better to just get the people who have proven they care about the roleplay for what it is, without fancy competitions or whatever? If the intent of the counselors is to provide assistance in-game, wouldn't it be best to judge them in that environment?

Also, I think camp experience should carry more weight than age. In the books, it's implied Annabeth is counselor from around the age of twelve, simply because she's been at camp for five years. If counselors are mentors, leaders, and advisory sources, I think that age should be a factor, but camp experience being above that in terms of precedence.

I personally don't really like the idea of counselorship being a competition. I don't think it's a big deal either way but I agree with Es that it should be about how long your character has been at camp and who they are and stuff. I think the best way to decide would be to at some point soon go cabin by cabin and see who was interested in being the counselor and then have some sort of committee decide who it should be ( favoring giving everyone at least one spot in a cabin if they want it and their characters qualify) just to make things fair....

The other things seem really cool as well