Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Rejects (but not THE Reject)

ZFRP is a huge and varied place with many interesting original characters and strange but wondrous adaptations of characters from established franchises. Seeing all these characters on parade, of course, gets the mind racing, but sometimes, the mind should just be warming the benches. Character ideas have swirled around my head wildly during my three year tenure at Zoofights, but so far only a select group of ghosts and old people have managed to make it out of the starting gate. Many characters I come up with never see the light of day, mostly because I just see a character I like but either can't think of what to do with them or decide against it in the end. Here you shall see a bit of my mad character grabbing and half-formed ideas, but I do not remember them all, nor am I willing to tip my hat about characters who might appear soon or were once rejected and now have been repurposed for future possible appearances.

2012 Rejects

Johnny Steps
From Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series

Intended to be a mix of a Capoiera fighter and a duelist who could summon Duel Monsters (but just as holograms), Johnny Steps was intended to be a 2012 character before I decided on things like Q as a returning cast member. Johnny Steps would of course never use personal pronouns, always insisting on saying Johnny Steps, and would probably talk about dancing more than Tierno does in Pokemon X/Y. Hence, the explulsion from the FUTURE! folder, where all my ideas for future ZFRP biz fester as they wait for their day to shine.

Hakuho Sho
Real life Sumo Wrestler and Yokozuna
I had a sumo phase, okay? Like... a day long one, so it wasn't so much a phase as "look at that! neat!" Still, the idea behind Hakuho would be he came to test his might against the famous Kobbers after finding the sumo circuit too weak for him. Hakuho would have been strong as a believable human could be, and might have had a sort of crisis where he realized he couldn't keep up with these crazy kobbers. He was supposed to be my "Action" character, although my personal attempts at avoiding space-marine-strong characters often leads to me gimping a character to the point of limited usefulness.

Chocodile
From American Dad/ Chocodile brand product
Mostly it was the design I fell in love with, but I was also tempted to RP as someone as laidback and chill and a crocodile in a pimp suit. Of course, he would be easy to anger, but not in the normal way. Insulting him or his fashion would be the way to get him to go crazy croc on you, giving him some combat utility but also allowing the calm, cool, and collected aspect of his character to persist during regular bar interactions.

Rock Knight and Parrot Grass
From Cobra/ Retsupurae
During their Wrongpurae of Cobra, Slowbeef and Diabetus fell in love with these two guys, and so did I. Rock Knight would have fought with the power of rock and also be a knight, no surprise there. I could never nail down a personality for him besides something too similar to Eddie, so that's one reason he never made it. Parrot Grass would have eventually been roped in by Rock Knight in some way, probably just as something he might have brought with him. Parrot Grass would be loud and constantly repeats himself but with different words. Squish Wheatley and Mojo Jojo together and give him Iago's voice and you get the idea. Just like in the game, at some point Parrot Grass would be replaced with a fake that would transform into a monster and serve as a small battle for the bargoers. Rejected because I could never nail down a personality that fit Rock Knight and Parrot Grass was just a tag along for that character.

Beetleborgs
From... Beetleborgs
The Beetleborgs were not going to be protagonists. They would attack the bar, and at some point during the fight, one would drop their suit and reveal they were actually kids. They would also have been just as intolerable as they were in the T.V. show. The Beetleborgs would have kicked off the Bill Clinton plot I had mucking around in my head, which was somewhat initiated with Sailor on Oprah but never went anywhere because it seemed intrusive. Basically, there would have been a president-ordered hit on the bar, or at least a quarantine of sorts. The Beetleborgs, trying to be heroes, would try to stop those evil Kobbers, even though we're good yadda yadda yadda you know the deal.

2013 Rejects... excluding Reject himself
The Black Baron
From Madworld
Somewhat alluded to during the BBB3, the Black Baron was one of the two people considered to host Fite Yer' Mates after JRM's inevitable death in the brawl. Dr. Satan ended up getting the position because of the potential for a plot, but the Black Baron was somewhat skipped over because of my somewhat uneasiness with accusations towards the character being racist. He was fun on a bun in Madworld, and his over the top personality would have definitely been appropriate for my arena, but I went with the safer route and took a character from a movie with rampant nudity and sophomoric humor instead. Although not likely, maybe some day Black Baron may end up hosting Fite Yer' Mates, but that would probably involve the retirement of JRM himself.

Zuizen and Keiun
From G Gundam
Originally considered as additional Orvance characters before Kalisha (who was originally going to be a generic old lady in a black robe who through weaponized diseases before I realized such attack methods would be prohibitive to tractor based battles), these two monks would be trying to spread the Shaolin temple and its ways to help it be restored. Despite being old men, their martial arts prowess would be exceptional, and they would have likely used daggers if they ever considered weapons necessary. It would have eventually come to light that they were not native to Porphyrion, but off-worlders from the G Gundam version of Earth trying to spread the Shaolin temple throughout the stars. Sai Saici might have eventually made an appearance in his Dragon Gundam, but it would have been like James Bond was to Q.

Merasmus
From Team Fortress 2
Halloween was coming soon, and I wanted a character for the holiday. I eventually settled on bringing back Phantomon, but I had two ideas for characters I was going to bring in before settling for the Digimon. Merasmus was one of them. He would have pestered the people of the Drunken Gryphon in an attempt to both revive the dying Orvance topic as well as give us a little halloween fun by having a new spell every few days during October. For example, BIG HEADS! The spells from the TF2 event would have pretty much been the ones used, as well as some of the ones that were found in the files but not actually used in game. But don't worry, there would have never been a Jarate day. He would have been mostly harmless, and gone away after Halloween in a huff if he hadn't been kicked out sooner.

Smoke
From Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue
The second considered character for Halloween would have been a villain. Smoke would have set up the Hot Drugs Stand in the ZFS and start pestering people with known past addictions or present bad habits and try to get them to relapse. People like Dirk and Jonesy would have likely been targeted do to their past with drugs, and Ignazio would have been heckled for his cigars, and maybe even everyone would get bothered about booze or the Snaptures of old. I figured such a targeted approach to a villain might be either annoying or require planning with the person who owned the character, and I had no real idea of how Smoke could end up being defeated, or if he could, because of some poignant message on how you can never really shake the urge to relapse or something dumb like that.

The Winter Warlock
From Santa Claus is Coming to Town
When I though we were gonna do a 2013 Christmas in the same vein as our 2011 Christmas, I had the Winter Warlock planned in pretty much the same vein as Merasmus. The Winter Warlock would hate the Space People and their Star Festival, and try to ruin their Christmas festivities by creating snow and freezing lakes. However, instead of harmful snow storms, he would accidentally make a winter wonderland with activities for the bargoers to participate in. However, since we didn't have a Christmas celebration, the Winter Warlock was going to be repurposed into a bit character into my version of the Christmas Carol. When Christmas came and I realized I didn't have time to finish the story, I scrapped the whole thing and so with it the Winter Warlock as well.

2014 Rejects

Characters I was considering but I am no longer.



Ivan the Space Biker
From Early Builds of Half Life
He would have been a space biker. Named Ivan.

Doggy
From Toons These Days
A disillusioned cartoon character who hates the modern day shows, Doggy would have been a confrontational character and quick to lampoon any RP character from a recent cartoon or be chummy with someone from an old one. He would have, no doubt, have something to say about them My Little Ponies. Doggy was scrapped due to perceived uselessness and his adversarial nature, which is a personality that I do not enjoy RPing much. Besides, Tallish already chews out everyone, so I didn't need a character who was the same but a black and white dog.












Bely Mishka, Yoggl, Schuss, and Schneemann
Olympic Mascots
Izzy is slated to return eventually with the Fite Olympics, and once I planned out the possible events in my head, I wanted each one to have a host. Izzy would have hosted one, but since 2014 is the winter olympics, he wanted to prove his olympics better, and he needed some help. Schneemann, a real old olympic mascot, Schuss, an unofficial one but technically the first one, Yoggl, a mascot, but only for the Youth Olympics, were all willing to help. Bely, on the other hand, is slated to be a mascot for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, so Izzy would have kidnapped him and forced him to host an event to try and get more attention for the New Better Olympics. Bely would have hosted his event with a defeated tone, asking for someone to save him but not in a desperate way. Yoggl, who wants to prove himself to be worthy of being a real olympic mascot, would be a bit overeager and have a bit of stage fright. Schuss, being unofficial in every way, would have long since gone crazy, and would pepper his lines with twitching and laughter. Nothing evil though. Schneemann would have sounded German. This idea was abandoned because it seemed like I was overcomplicating what should be a straight-forward event, and when ideas for 2014 characters came up, Izzy returning seemed less like the event I planned it to be and more like a necessity for the Olympics to actually go down.

2015 Rejects
Juan Carlos Rivera
Original Character
One of the few original characters I've come up with that I have completely rejected thus far without either keeping them in reserve or repurposing them. Juan Carlos is a Gila Monster cowboy whose morals would be loose and often contradictory to the bar's usual mentality. While most people gave the Society at least the chance to talk, the moment one walked into the bar Juan Carlos would have just shot them. He was mostly rejected because Harpy ended up naming two of her characters after the two parts of his first name, but also because it seems like our 2015 theme will be less Wild West than I thought.

Billy Bob Joe Hansen Carlsbad Elegant James William Tonner Smith Junior the Third
and Wilford Drake
Original Characters
The prospector with an overly long name and the donkey with a surprisingly sophisticated one were also scrapped due to the setting seeming less Wild West than I thought. Billy Bob would appear to be an insane and rather cliche prospector and Wilford a regular pack mule, but neither character is as they seem. Billy Bob was once a scientist who discovered a rare element after receiving a call from a digging site. Accompanied by a then humanoid and well-respected author Wilford Drake, the two were working together on writing up a paper on the discovery when the element's true nature became apparent. Billy Bob (whose name was originally just William Tonner the Third) went insane from the radiation and believed himself to be a prospector since the mining site was indeed filled with them. Wilford didn't go insane, but instead found his mind forced into one of the miner's pack mules. Still able to speak and incredibly refined, Wilford leads Billy Bob around to try and find a way to reverse the radiation's effects, but the radiation also had another side effect. Whenever Billy Bob sleeps or faints, his body shifts into an eldritch creature from the dimension the element originated from. The creautres would not be hideous masses of tentacles so much as absurd and illogical creatures. Wilford would be the voice of reason, with Billy Bob mostly shouting nonsense. The need for new creatures every time it happened + shifting setting ideas + characters who might not blend well with the bar anyway= rejected characters.

Rejected Big Bar Brawl Mystery Fiters

Although the first Mystery Fiter was always intended to be Mac Tonight, the later ones had a few rejects as well. I can't remember all of them, and again some may be used in the future, but here are two who didn't make the cut.

Poochie
From The Simpsons
I've mentioned it before, but for the BBB2, I was having second thoughts about the Monstars. They were pretty much planned from the moment it was apparent year 2 would probably be the 90s, but Chet's Space Jam reference-filled blog posts got me nervous the Monstars might make an early appearance before the Brawl. I also worried that people might not recognize the Monstars, although if you just said "the aliens from Space Jam" most people would at least imagine the right characters. Poochie was the back up plan, and similar to how Mac Tonight was useless, Poochie would have probably contributed little as well. Sadly, Poochie died on his way over to the arena from his home planet.

Mr. Clean
From the Mr. Clean line of products
Somewhat considered for future brawls, Mr. Clean seemed to have the oddity factor, but little in the way of fighting besides being buff. I considered him using cleaning products as weapons, but as I was watching Venture Bros, a character named The Cleaner appeared and did pretty much that. The Cleaner was rolled into my idea for the OSI plot, and Mr. Clean was subsequently scrapped for being too similar.

Although these two aren't the only one's to have not been scrapped, many never made it out of the "wouldn't it be cool" phase or are still up for consideration for the future. Also, the B-Rex was not the only Zoofighter considered for BBB3, but most of them were skimmed over rather quickly before settling on the T-Rex.

Now, THAT'S all the guys I can remember ever considering RPing. Like I said, some I've forgotten, some have been repurposed for the future, and some I just cant bring myself to reject. Most OCs still might make an appearance somewhere down the road, even ones I cooked up in 2011 might have a future. Whatever the future may hold though, expect to not see these guys in it.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Fite Yer' Mates Card Game

That's right folks! Your old pal Jumpropeman here with yet another card game based around ZFRP and the crazy characters it brings together! The old King of Beasts card game was plagued with problems. Over-reliance on luck, pressure to have the maximum number of players, awkward rules, and busy cards all made the first card game hard to play, but this new one seeks to avoid all that!

The Fite Yer' Mates card game is a fun one-on-one experience based around games such as the Pokemon TCG, Hearthstone, Magic:The Gathering, and Yu-Gi-Oh! Rather that bore people with resource management, this card game goes for a much simpler method of a set amounts of actions that can be taken per turn. For more detailed rules, just click the link here:

Fite Yer' Mates Card Game Rules

If you took the time to read it, you will see its rather simple. Kill the opponent before they kill you, using whatever cards you got at your disposal! What might those cards be? Well I've arranged them into 7 pre-made decks for ease of access! The decks were assembled with some thought at synchronization, but only testing will show what cards really work together well! There are 300 cards, 235 of them being fiters, and 65 of them being Effects. I also created reference "cards" for the Bartenders and some Theoretical fiters that are created by certain characters' attacks. Although they aren't actually found in decks, its good to have visual references!

Any, without further ado, here are the cards, arranged into groups based on the pre-made decks!

Sheryl (Robot Deck)

Alex the Gundam    Beatbox    Browny    Carol    Construct 8    Friend Computer    Hater    Hephaestus    Hypotenuse    Jack    James    Jewel Man    Mega Man    Oceanus    Optimus Prime    Owltomaton    Refbot    Reject    ROB    Roomba    Shana    Skeiron    Starscream    Wheatley    Waspinator    Ulrika    X Demolition    Yahoo Bot    Zephyrus    Faith    IronicHide    Rizzrack    Dr. Bulgrave    Power Surge    Regeneration Core    Star Festival    Super Charge    CP Stunner    Virtual Reality    Earth Crystal

Tallish (Magic User Deck)

Carla     Celestia     Claxxon     Crunk Wizard    Dirk    Garnet    Gloria    Helios    Lennard    Hubert    Jeremiah    Josephine    Kalisha    Lucky    Pozzo    Marisa    Monk the Druid    Rain    Sarah    Shroud    Siren    Sonia    Sophia    Stella    Tak-Sin    Utsuho    Victor    Harg    Edyth    Ricard    Scorpion    Briar    Glacius    Divine Blessing    Elixirs    Mana Storm    Synchronized Spell    Romance Plot    Black Legend    Wind Crystal

Barbon (Physical Fiter Deck)

Aiden Thane    Alexander Triden    Alocyn    Artemis    Clint    Conehead Brigade   Constantine XI    Eddie    Electra    Erebus    Grutz    Ilsaria    Krieg    Ksar    Leonardo    Lightwing    Kusamochi    Major Failure    Nepeta    Nightwolf    Baltan    Beheeyem    Gust    Dr. G. Nerique    Fumes    Chester    Mac Tonight    Blake Caden    Burton Cummings    Captain Haddock    Kirby    Cliff Clavin    Theodore Rex    Whitey    Battle Rage    Temper    Unremarkable    Big Bar Brawl    RIOT!!    Rally for Reality

Stormtrooper B (Weapon User Deck)

Ariel    Chet    David    Delmond    Doktor Hanz    Father Squid    Flu    Harry    Herzog    Santos
Hunter Gathers    Ignazio    Ivar    James Bond    Jaxx    Morgan    Pech    Pit    Rebecca    Samus
Red Spy    Ronnie    Saguaro PI    Sam & Max    The Borax Kid    Q    Saxton Hale    Richard

Gezora (Animal Deck)

17    Alex    Antoinette    Barkle    Blue Collar Beaver    Ceadeus    Chamberlyne    Cleptopod
Stag Beetle    Tapogrepogo    Tribbles    Wheeler    Wukong    Widow Maker    Draco
Tapogre Spam

Carlos (Superhuman Deck)

August Caine    Blackbird    Bluejay    Cataract    Conall Herriot    Daniel    Gemini    Gemma
Jonesy    Jumpropeman    Looker    Maddie    Marvin    Masterpiece    Mikey    Platinum Blonde
Raw    Robbie    Sammy    Scorched Earth    Stanley    Tony Chu    Lyall    Desdemona    Sine
Fire Crystal

Walter (Unnatural Deck)

Aevar    Bastardsaurus Rex    Bill    Deadhead    Designate_5    Devil Ed    Doomrider    Dr. Satan
Eshe    Forscythe Puddingshins    Gluttony    Hella Jeff    Kayle    Lotta    Mathias    Missingno
Morgana    Mr. Daniel    Phantomon    Samhain    Satoshi    Shuma-Gorath    Silf    Sister Alice
T. F. Meagher    The Sheep    Tut-Tut    Meat Boy    Blik    WALL!!    Purnima    Xrumer    Biollante
Reincarnation Wave    Bimp

Loose Cards

Zoofight    The Flaw    Silence    Outgunned    Holyga    EMP    Beatdown    Sifter

Theoretical Cards
Painted Warrior (Mikey)
Robot Minion (Shana)
MOCK-R-REE (Friend Computer)
Stormtrooper (Stormtrooper B)
Matthew (Clint)
Hannah (Clint)
Wukong Clone (Wukong)

Sunday, October 20, 2013

The Ditto Experiment

As I was browsing GTS to try and round out the Kalos pokedex, I noticed quite a few people asking for Ditto. Now, Pokemon like Charmander or Froakie can be churned out at a daycare, but Ditto is a Pokemon that would have to be caught every time before trading, meaning that these requests would probably not be met for quite a while, if at all since they may be lost in the midst of other trade requests.

Well, thanks to the wonders of Wonder Trade, I decided to do an experiment. Spending around 70,000 pokedollars on Quick Balls and Dusk Balls, I went out and caught a full box of Ditto: 30 Pokemon. It took nearly 2 hours to get the full box, and immediately I went to wonder trade to see what I would get for these useful breeding balls of slime. Here are my results:

3 Bunnelby (one holding an Antidote)
Noibat
2 Pikachu
Sentret
Litleo
Metapod
Flabebe (Yellow Flower)
2 Ralts
Panpour
Honedge
Caterpie
Weedle
Shelmet
Skrelp (which I actually needed, as an owner of Pokemon X)
Psyduck
2 Pancham
Hawlucha (with the awesome nickname Brutalibre)
Helioptile
Flabebe (Blue flower)
Ursaring
Mr. Mime
Magikarp
Sigilyph
Gulpin (nicknamed Nom)
Slowpoke

Overall, what you'd probably expect from a Wonder Trade. Sure Ditto isn't the most valuable pokemon, but hopefully these thirty trainers will now be able to breed their pokemon and get some eggs of some useful guys for wonder trade. The pokemon came from Japan, Germany, France, the USA, and Germany, with Japan being the most represented country of origin.

I kind of hoped for the Ditto experiment to produce more interesting results. The Noibat is quite a prize considering the usual fare, and it was nice to see some people at least offering Pokemon that aren't from the first few routes. Perhaps this experiment would be better conducted with a Pokemon that is difficult to obtain but not in high demand. The ultimate breeding Pokemon is always desired as soon as the day care is found after all.

Monday, September 2, 2013

Mr. Walrus, or how I once destroyed an RP bar

/rolldie 21: This is the story of how one man giveth and that same man taketh away
/rolldie 21: of both how he helped an RP community flourish into greatness
/rolldie 21: and how he utterly destroyed another
/rolldie 21: This is the story of Jumpropeman, once known as Mr. Walrus
/rolldie 21: and as Mr. Walrus, he once destroyed an RP bar
RubyChao: but how
/rolldie 21 changed name to Mr. Walrus
Mr. Walrus: Back on Gamefaqs, probably in the mid-2000s, the Star Fox Assault board was actually quite active
Mr. Walrus: there were topics discussing the game, but quickly many things emerged from that board related to Star Fox only tangentially.
Mr. Walrus: In fact, as Mr. Walrus, I was involved in a fan fiction thread about Star Fox characters waking up in bed next to each other
RubyChao: oh, i know that sort of thing! reminds me of the ttyd board of old, where there were lots of fanfics and such
Mr. Walrus: although mine had a humongous lead in that didn't involve sex at all
RubyChao: ...not quite that kind of fanfic though
Mr. Walrus: It was General Scales waking up to someone, I can't remember who
Mr. Walrus: but it was an Enemy Mine situation where the two were forced to share a bed in a spaceship that was pretty much doomed
Mr. Walrus: anyway, that's not important or worth remembering
Mr. Walrus: I was Mr. Walrus, an account my brother gave me after he posted inappropriate topics on my other account and got it banned
Mr. Walrus: and a bar topic was growing in the SF:A boards
Mr. Walrus: I never really got into it, and it was pretty much like our old RP before the boom
RubyChao: talking heads, basically?
Mr. Walrus: I did do this weird side thing where I "rated" topics as Mr. Fish the Businessman, but no RP
Mr. Walrus: indeed, Chao. Talking Heads, no adventures, just beer guzzling and discussion
Mr. Walrus: well, one day I had a headache
Mr. Walrus: A REALLY bad headache
Mr. Walrus: and as it turned out
Mr. Walrus: the SF:A board had rules against "Off-Topic Posting"
RubyChao: they all dooo
Mr. Walrus: I reported the thread, and it lead to a mod crackdown on the entire board
Mr. Walrus: thing is, I also ANNOUNCED my reporting of it in the Bar thread
RubyChao: dun dun DUN
Mr. Walrus: my fanfictions, their bar, this guy called f-zero's really creepy but hilarious Krystal threads
Mr. Walrus: all gone
Mr. Walrus: just discussions of multiplayer mostly
Mr. Walrus: well
Mr. Walrus: these guys HATED me
Mr. Walrus: understandably
RubyChao: well dun
RubyChao: *duh
Mr. Walrus: so some of the more ardent Bar people went and created the STARFOX SUPER ULTRA MEGA BOARD
Mr. Walrus: it had so many subforums
Mr. Walrus: some for Starfox, some for Mario, some for Mega Man, and most never saw any use
Mr. Walrus: but there were two popular ones
Mr. Walrus: The new Bar forum
Mr. Walrus: and the "Mr. Walrus Hate Forum"
Mr. Walrus: where they ranted about how much they hated me
RubyChao: oh my god
Mr. Walrus: I infiltrated the forums many times to observe this strange phenomenon
Mr. Walrus: some attempts more obvious than others
Mr. Walrus: but eventually, it seems they calmed down, and they even thanked me for the new forum
RubyChao: Mr. Surlaw
Mr. Walrus: and when the hate died
Mr. Walrus: so did their interest in it
Mr. Walrus: the forums died, the board was deleted, and now there seems to be little evidence of that saga
Mr. Walrus: a few years later
Mr. Walrus: I found a new forum with a bar topic
Mr. Walrus changed name to Jumpropeman
Jumpropeman: called Zoofights
Jumpropeman: and as if in redemption
Jumpropeman: my actions propelled this one to great heights
Jumpropeman: the Big Bar Brawl ignited a spark that burns brightly even now
Jumpropeman: and with no Mr. Walrus to hate
Jumpropeman: hopefully we won't die anytime soon

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

83 images, 40 fiters, 1 night: Behind the Big Bar Brawl 3

Before we begin this behind the scenes look behind the 3rd year of the big bar brawl, let me just preface it by saying I will be using an interviewing format so I can remain focus. I will be answering hypothetical questions and, if you think I left a question out, just put it in the comments and I can respond to that. Here we go!

Q: First and foremost: What did you think of this year's fiters?

A: One thing about the Big Bar Brawl people tend to point out is how it draws in characters we've never seen before, but I kind of like that aspect. Even in a small town bar you will never meet everyone who goes there, or at least know them by name. I do enjoy having recognizable faces in the battle and prefer a higher established character to newly introduced character ratio, but I think it is more believable that a huge event would draw in people you don't necessarily know.

On a more specific level, I was pretty satisfied with this year's lineup. A lot more electricity and water present in the brawl itself than I would have liked, but that's more a fault of mine I believe. I was super happy to see Widow Maker back partly because I can't imagine a brawl without her. Even if she ends up driving around Manhattan during one, it still feels weird if she doesn't sign up. Only Rainbow Dash can match that perfect attendance record.

When I see entrants I tend to think of them more as potential than as the character themselves. When I saw Saxton I thought, "Oh, just a boring muscle man," but his over the top strength became one of the most enjoyable parts of the brawl for me to write, and custardkittensrock's art of him really made me love the character much more than I intended to. A lot of characters who just pop up for the brawl also take a bit of work off my back, since they are pretty blank slates and I can do whatever I like with them. But that's a mixed bag too, because the stakes are smaller amidst a bunch of strangers. Again, that's why I like the mix: A bunch of characters I can use however I like and a huge bunch of guys who they can act off of.

So far there has not been a character I absolutely did not want in the brawl actually IN the brawl. Even if you enter a Pet Rock I wouldn't object to it if it had potential. I liked Spider-Pig solely because he is such a joke, but too much of that may lead to a slow actionless event.

Overall, it would be hard to discuss an entire cast of forty characters without droning on, so if you want me to discuss and individual character, just ask me.

Q:What made you decide on the Bastardsaurus Rex as the mystery fiter?
A: I don't quite remember when I decided on it, but with the forum switch I figured this would be the most timely time to include a Zoofighter. I think the idea floated around my head even back on the old forum, but I don't think I would've done it in the end if we weren't right on the heels of leaving the original ZF forums.

The specific Zoofighter was much harder to decide on then the inclusion of one though. I toyed with popular ones (popular as in Gooper Blooper talks about them a lot) but pulling from something too recent might overshadow our other competitors. A champion might be too much, because killing Croctopus is not something that could be taken lightly. Instead, I chose to dig far back, and 1 and 2 were my main choices. Problem with Zoofights one is how primal most Zoofighters were. Gibbons with club arms do not a good mystery fiter make.

When I decided we'd give ZF2 some of the love it deserves despite falling apart (like Fite Yer' Mates 2, amiright?) it came down to who it would be from the bunch. I wanted to give someone the chance to shine they never got, and the old pic Gooper Blooper drew of Grapplesaurus as reference for my own art as well as the ease of bringing a devil dinosaur back for a brawl made B-Rex the prime pick.

B-Rex also offered quite a bit: Hellish power, fire, two heads, grappling arms. This dinosaur would not be just brutish strength. Initially, B-Rex almost had wings or jetpacks added to its design so it wasn't trapped on the ground, but this was before the walkways and gravity boosters were dreamed up and I decided an almost pure callback design was in order. I only added the collars because of my respect for the old rules, but as you could see I quickly had those collars broken. They were going to play a bigger role at first: Widow Maker almost used the shock collars to her advantage to pretty much fry B-Rex without it being able to strike back, but it seemed out of character, so I went with the two ZF veterans fiting like they should.
 
Q:What made you choose the arena this year?
A: I think it started with me watching Space Jam on TV one day and realizing Swackhammer was a bit of a missed opportunity. The Monstars all got their time to shine, but Swackhammer could have contributed in some way. I enjoyed his different design than the hulking brutes of the Monstars, so my mind began to spin an excuse to get him in.

Thus, the minor detail of Swackhammer seeking monetary compensation was born, and we went off to Moron Mountain for this year's brawl. It also freed up JRM so he could enter. JRM and Yahoo Bot were entered because of a perceived lack of potential characters, but the lotto saw that we got quite a lot more than I had expected. Anyway, I got Swackhammer in and he was always destined to get involved, it was only the inclusion of Forscythe and the Mystery Fiter getting high enough standing to justify delaying the reveal that gave me the idea for his inclusion. I don't want zombies every year, but it just keeps being so dosh garn convenient.

The walkways weren't even intended to enter until brawl signups were getting close to being opened up. I googled Moron Mountain to get some reference pics so I knew what it was like, and one picture:
gave me all the inspiration I needed to include walkways. Adding the walkways alone opened up huge potential. Not many people had long range weaponry this year and the slender walkways would be underutilized realistically, but they opened up a huge door to a lot of the arena abuse that ended up happening. Flooding would have been too catastrophic if the guys who literally couldn't survive it didn't have an area to escape too.

Speaking of flooding, it really was the big event of the match. It gave puny people like Carla the ability to be a powerhouse and crippled the stronger guys who were hard to take down otherwise. The brawl would have been drastically different if the water couldn't be brought in, and thanks to WALL!!'s "do what you want" weapon I was able to get the water flowing in.

English needs more synonyms for water by the way.


Q:What made you decide to introduce non-fiter characters like the Aboleth or Arthur Bishopfish?
A: Another huge reason the water was introduced was to bring in the non-fiters. Mac Tonight had to show up because he is BBB's de facto mascot, so the Pentajulum opened that portal up literally. It also allowed me to bring in the Aboleth, who if you want to thank someone for its inclusion you should thank Cornwind Evil. He reintroduced me to Spoony's series on RP shenanigans and in one video Spoony talks about how going near water is a death sentence because of how many beasts are in bestiaries for water and how DMs are itching to use them.

When he mentioned DMs build entire campaigns around Aboleths, I was intrigued. I did some research and found it to be an interesting monster, but as I spun the idea around in my head for an RP plot involving it, it just wasn't turning up with anything good. People would not be keen on the idea of having their guys mind-controlled or losing the ability to breathe air, so without it the Aboleth was just a three-eyed ball of tentacles.

But in a Brawl, I control all. The Aboleth was pushed in with the idea of draining Atlantis, and I can't recall which one proceeded the other, although my interest in the Aboleth was probably first. It had a lot of potential, but I dialed it back because of its non-user entered nature. It just keep Royal Guard around longer and crippled some of the heaviest hitters of the brawl. Hale seemed almost too indestructible and I figured a believable death would take more than simple damage or the go-to disintegration method. Gamera, on the other hand, was a bit of me playing with an old mistake of mind. Gamera fought WALL!! in some water and I made the mistake of thinking he couldn't breathe underwater. Well, I got corrected and fixed that fite, but in what might be called irony I turned it over onto Gamera where instead of drowning he could only breathe water.

Plus, the space cool seemed like a rad idea and the counter opposite of the core kills. The hole to the core was setting up the deaths of the two most indestructible guys: weakening Hale and setting up the fall of Aevar, but I felt Deadhead needed a strong death too so he got to be the one to open the hole. Those spooky undead guys always need to be murdered 1000% unless you want them coming back in a sequel.

Bishopfish, on the other hand, was a more tame inspiration. I just remembered the bishopfish from myth and thought it would be cool to rope one in some time during RP, and the idea of a delayed Mystery Fiter reveal allowed me to bring one in just to allow the B-Rex to stay hidden longer. his resurgence as a Demon was another idea where I intended to do more but dialed it back to keep focus on the entrants rather than my silly walk-ons.

Q:What role did the pre-fite show play this year?
A: After the first year, pre-fite shows became a bit harder. The first one we had established guys mostly, but they were still pretty blank besides a few character traits. The past two years its been about setting up rivalries, alliances, obtained knowledge, or throwing a user off. I threw out quite a few hints for the mystery fiter this year as well, more than I am usually comfortable with, but no one seemed to get it prematurely so I guess it paid off more to let on more.

Unfortunately, with 40 guys some guys can only cameo and be red herrings. Wheeler's showing in the pre-fite show was just for show, but the same scene set up the national anthem book, Commanderson's teacher attitude, and the strangeness of Mr. Daniel and his acquired knowledge of the beast's he would control later. Some things are just goofy or for fun, like the invasion of the Society base (that set up Scorched Earth's heavy focus on tough guys until the little guys like Gunter and Bishopfish showed him they are too be feared) but overall I think you can usually glean the purpose behind a pre-fite show. Deadhead breaks the scanner because he's just SO evil. Grutz's greed is established, Aiden's murder of Clint is foreshadowed, Aevar challenges JRM instead of the nearby Forscythe due to the truce between them. Rereading them will probably allow you to glean their purpose now that you've seen the brawl.

Q:What did you leave out of the brawl you wish you could have included?
A: Mostly: a lot of pictures. We were tipping well beyond 100 pictures at some point. Some scrapped pictures included Ulrika flicking Tak-Sin away (deemed a bit too similar to Lucky flicking Gunter's eye), a picture of the walkway folks looking over the Gunter invasion (was meant to establish who was on the walkways, but drawing even six guys and a gunter filled arena seemed to time consuming), Carla punching Lucky's side and a follow up picture of her holding her hand in pain (my biggest regret on pictures I had to cut, just would have been a humorous one after the other thing to nail in how weak the punch was). Some images I wanted to look better, like I would have Ulrika in the Samus KO pic if she wasn't so complicated in design, and at that point we were close to the posting deadline anyway so we had to make due.

In non image news, Aevar was going to use his cone of chestfire more, but it fell by the wayside because of his more interesting powers. He almost used it to kill Utsuho, but I liked the idea of him crushing her arm a lot more.

I don't think there is a fiter I necessarily feel like I wanted in who I didn't get. I can only think of one year where I absolutely wanted someone and didn't get them, and that was year 2 with Zephyrus. I wanted him to brawl soooooo bad, but I had fun denying Oceanus punches in the face and I kinda got Zeph in this year with Ricard's illusion. Still, he hangs over my conscience as the only guy I feel I needed I never snagged. I've wanted people like Jonesy in of course, Stanley would have been interesting and I was hoping Saberwulf would return to arena (still have trouble just calling him David :I)

Q:How do you decide who kills who/Why did this guy do nothing big for so long?
A: Every year after I run the tractor, I get out a piece of paper and write everyone's names on it in a column. Then, I draw lines to indicate who KOs who. I usually try to make sure everyone gets to do something, and if someone ends up getting shafted I don't mind it being my guys (Yahoo Bot, Mac when he was Mystery Fiter, introduced walk-on characters). But I try to make sure everyone gets to show off, which sometimes leads to the unfortunate kill-a-guy-then-be-killed sequence. 18 characters in the first brawl made it a lot easier to balance things, 26 things got more hectic, but with 40 guys it was hard to logically justify everyone getting a murder in.Scorpion was unfortunate enough to not get a KO, and although I didn't realize I did it Hypotenuse got none either. Neither one I was picking on, it just turned out that way when all the lines were drawn.

With 40 guys, you also encounter the issue of having to account for all those people. That's why you may hear about a fite but not see much of it. Sure it was going on, but what was happening was not as important. Not every fite will be a swift start-to-KO match, so people will get locked down in stalemates until they are interrupted or something changes the playing field. This leads to an unfortunate "my guy's not around so he'll probably be placing high up!" mentality, which I try to quash when I can. Aevar's early kill on JRM was to keep Marduk on his toes and lock Aevar where we'd need him later. 17 and Clint worked to take down Permafrost long before either went down, and sometimes I just toss someone in to aide a bit to keep them in your mind.

Q:How much is preplanned?
A:Not a whole lot honestly. KOs, big events, those are the first things decided, but when it comes writing time is when I decide most of what happens. Grutz and the Custard Kittens weren't even planned to help take down Permafrost, but it was an idea I had so I ran with it. Leonardo de-arming Hypotenuse to the level he did, Cleft trapped beneath the rubble, what spider sausages actually DO all were things I pretty much came up with as I wrote. I make an outline and then I let myself run wild. To tell you everything I hadn't planned but included would be such a huge task it's best done on a case-by-case basis. I still have my sticky note program open with all the pre-writing notes open though, but even then some of those old notes changed so they don't even reflect the final product.

Some things bends or twist when the art comes in too. The tablet and pre-writing have made it less likely to happen, but there are still adjustments or just dichotomies between the art and the writing. Yeah, I know Wheeler lost his glasses before he was boiled, and I know B-Rex's collar is missing in the Scorpion KO pic. Just like the plethora of typos, they are annoying but come with the territory of trying to make such a huge event happen. I'm cleaning up the typos in my spare time, but I don't think I'll tinker with the art unless something glaring shows up or if I think I can clean it up a bit.

Q: Who did you wish you could have voted for? Were there characters you wanted to do better?
A: I am a sucker for patriotic characters, so the moment Cleft did his ad I was sold on the guy. When he came up the winner I was left extremely happy but unable to tell anyone. He would have been my number one vote, and although I would have probably had a lot of fun writing any winner, Cleft winning was something new for me. I didn't single out ROB or Doomrider as my prediction to win the last two years, so seeing Cleft come up was quite ethereal.

As for who else I might have voted for, 17, Permafrost, the Custard Kittens, and WALL!! would have been my choices. I do enjoy the less "likely" winners of the brawls, and these guys captured my heart in one way or another. 17 is a cool crab dude, Permafrost is my old frozen mammoth I lost in a bet turned full fledged character, the Custard Kittens would have been poetic (as CKR said, "born in a brawl" and all), and WALL!! is just hilarious. If I could have actually voted it would have been a lot different I bet, but these are the guys I decided I might have voted for.

I would have liked to see Yahoo Bot win. I knew JRM was doomed, but I had hopes for Yahoo because of his fite record, but in the end he got last so he was demoted from an undefeated fiter to a spambot who really isn't interested in fiting, he was just really good when he was forced to fite before.

I also think it would have been cool for the Mystery Fiter to win, especially that it was a Zoofighter this year. I also think it might suck for the secret entrant to beat everyone else though, so I have mixed feelings on it. I would like to see Widow Maker win some day too, just because perfect attendance deserves reward. I can't say the same about Rainbow Dash, but mainly because she's tied to my sister and it definitely keeps her coming back. Plus, who doesn't love picking on their younger siblings? :P

Q:How about that workload?
A: Every year this proves to be an issue, but this year I never felt the deadline so hard. We had more time, but to end it on a day besides the 4th (although it was probably only the 4th still for me by the end of it) would be doing a disservice to Cleft. The uber-patriot just had to win on this day, so I pushed myself much harder than usual. That's why I couldn't screen for typos and some of my art wasn't up to my standards. I keep putting too much work on myself and only accept my sister's help when I bog myself down to the point of breaking. Next year I hope to be more calculated, and hopefully real life won't be as busy around this time.

More importantly, next year voting will be shorter and sign-ups will hopefully been done more quickly. I want people to have time to think, but I need time to work. Until we can find a proper balance it will just continue to be experimentation. 40 might be our plateau though, since pushing further might just be too ambitious. I wouldn't mind scratching 42 or 45, but to push up to something like 55 would be insane. Unless I got a lot more artists that is an impossibility.

Still, I only work so hard because I want people to enjoy it. I never put so much effort into projects for myself, because I quickly give up on them or find something else to do. There may be only 15 or so people who ever read it, but those people are all awesome enough that it is worth it to put on such a huge show.

Q:Plans for next year?
A: Not much yet. My brain is still cooling down from this one. My sisters are already talking about their entrants for next year, and I can say I have one planned myself, but things like the mystery fiter, the venue, and any other set ups are still far on the horizon and not something I will be thinking about for a while. Right now, we'll just go back to regular fites for a while to give me time to stabilize, and then I can drum up crazy brawl ideas again.

There are probably lots of stuff I addressed or maybe I repeated myself a bit, so please ask questions if you have them. I will try my best to answer them. I hope this behind the scenes look was interesting and informative, and until next year, this has been your fitemaster Jumpropeman, and thank you again for watching the Big Bar Brawl 3!

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Can you name every fiter to enter the Big Bar Brawl?

I was dicking around on sporcle and made a quiz where you can see if you can name every fiter to ever enter the Big Bar Brawl. IT has every entrant from 1,2, and 3, but none of the surprise people like Professor Hector, Helluva Jeff, or Swackhammer. I might add those as hidden answers at some point, but for now let's just see if you can even name all the people who have entered, organized into columns where they are ordered first to last depending on their performance.

http://www.sporcle.com/games/jumpropeman/big-bar-brawl-contestants

It's 12 minutes so you got time, but it's hard to remember some of the more unusual entries from users who didn't RP much. Tell me how ya did when you finish!