Qudditch is dumb. Can you do better?

Blade · Post by **Blade** » Thu Oct 01, 2015 9:15 am

hyzmarca wrote: I think this is borrowed from cricket, which also has variable length and usually lasts for 3-5 days.

I've been told that the reason why cricket matches take so long is because there once was a limit on times/days where alcohol could be served, but this didn't apply for sport events. So they made cricket matches last very long.
Not sure how true that is, but I like the story.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Thu Oct 01, 2015 9:24 am

It is almost certainly false, since cricket existed before laws like that existed.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Thu Oct 01, 2015 10:51 am

It's probably because in the 1800's traveling from town to town and over oceans was quite rare so might as well have it be a 3-5 day long event when you finally get there.

icyshadowlord · Post by **icyshadowlord** » Thu Oct 01, 2015 11:56 am

Didn't the Aztecs have their own brand of lethal Football or something?

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Oct 01, 2015 12:11 pm

Aztecs had some kind of game involving hard rubber balls, hoops, and the sacrifice of one of the teams to the gods at the end. I don't know if we've really learned anything more about it since I was a kid and first heard about our hazy knowledge of this thing.

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Thu Oct 01, 2015 3:01 pm

Ghosthead.

Ghosthead is played by two teams of six people on a rectangular field with two hoops on either end. There 1 grabber, 1 goalkeeper, and 4 other players.

At the beginning of　the game, the members of both teams are ritually decapitated via guilotine and their heads are mystically preserved.

During the games, the heads are stored on a shelf in the center of the arena. The ghosts of the players each line up on opposite sides of the field and rush towards the middle.
The grabbers of both teams attempt to be the first one to grab a severed head. Once a severed head has been grabbed it is in play, and the other players can touch it. Only one head can be in play at a time.

Throwing one of the opposing team's heads into their goal is worth 1 point. Throwing one of your own heads into their goal is worth 2 points. If you get confused and score on your own goal, the opposing team gets double points.

Once a goal is scored the head is removed from play and the grabbers go for another. Repeat until all heads have been removed from play.

Shrieking Banshee · Post by **Shrieking Banshee** » Thu Oct 01, 2015 6:42 pm

Shady314 wrote: If they had professional dodgeball where people dodged jets of water, goddamn rocks and fireballs on a platform a dozen or more feet above water I would fucking watch that.

Anyways the last season showed the world has underground cage fights too so Elemental MMA will probably become a thing in their future.

Thats very fucking stupid. In every possible way.

Because from a visual standpoint blasts of energy, is the visual minimum that Avatar has done so far. And its brilliant as well. Might as well make a game of hot potato of passing live grenades. They FACES aren't even protected but Don't worry "Please Firebenders don't aim for the face!" is a face roasting waiting to happen.

Also Korra is shit all the way down. Every single season is a massive fuckup in at least 1 major category (And Minor Fuckups in other categories as well).

Season 1 Introduced the worst characters
Season 2 Destroyed the Setting
Season 3 Had some of the laziest plot writing I have seen, which is so convenient.
Season 4 Is when it all comes together and just ends with lazy stupid crap and reminds you just how little (Or terribly) all the characters have developed. But don't worry. Its progressive. So all flaws can be dismissed.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Thu Oct 01, 2015 7:14 pm

Shrieking Banshee wrote:Also Korra is shit all the way down. Every single season is a massive fuckup in at least 1 major category (And Minor Fuckups in other categories as well).

Season 1 Introduced the worst characters
Season 2 Destroyed the Setting
Season 3 Had some of the laziest plot writing I have seen, which is so convenient.
Season 4 Is when it all comes together and just ends with lazy stupid crap and reminds you just how little (Or terribly) all the characters have developed. But don't worry. Its progressive. So all flaws can be dismissed.

I'm kind of genuinely impressed by your ability to give literally zero actual content in your breakdown of why Korra is terrible.

erik · Post by **erik** » Thu Oct 01, 2015 11:07 pm

I enjoyed all seasons of Korra. Not as much as first series but that was a high bar to meet. Season 1 introduced great characters.
Season 2 made interesting improvements to the setting.
Season 3 had more interesting developments to setting
By season 4 the characters have really changed and it remains entertaining throughout

I'm willing to argue these points even, not just snark.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Oct 01, 2015 11:10 pm

I don't demand a lot from my media, just that it entertain me. LoK succeeded in this, though Season 3 did drag a bit, and I'm tired of "Heroic BSOD" storylines, especially when our introduction to the character is this. Oh, and love triangles. Those are really boring and always have been. I like the way Girl Genius handles the Agatha-Gil-Tarvek triangle, and more series should do that.

Blade · Post by **Blade** » Fri Oct 02, 2015 10:25 am

All seasons of Korra had trouble handling the bad guys and their impact on the themes:

Season 1. You've got a legitimate concern (caste-based society where people are not born equal) but finally it's evil terrorist vs the free world.

Season 2. Bad guy starts as a guy with strong opinions, then you've got an introduction of something that could be Ying/Yang but turns out to be Good/Evil. And finally we discover that bad guy just supports Evil Incarnate.

Season 3. Bad guys are developed a bit and they're fighting something that we're shown to be bad with the evil queen. But finally the bad guys are just muderous assholes and chaos is bad. In the end, it's made clear that "chaotic evil (the bad guys at the end)<chaotic neutral (the bad guys before the end)<lawful evil (the queen)<lawful good (capitol city)<chaotic good (the heroes)"

Season 4. Once again, interesting premise with characters who seem to be quite developed, a setting that allows for some good questions. And once again, moral ambiguity is quickly thrown out of the window and bad guys are revealed to be just evil.

erik · Post by **erik** » Fri Oct 02, 2015 11:09 am

But in every case Korra does adopt some of their ideas and note that they weren't just bad guys. That is way more fucking nuanced than about any other supers or fantasy villain especially in cartoons. In most cases the bad guys aren't wrong, they are just going about things wrongly and often their plan requires a figure of the old world to be removed who happens to be Korra.

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Fri Oct 02, 2015 11:42 am

Here's a good article on what's wrong with Korra:

It's a sad thing to say, but it feels as if, by aiming at a more mature tone and subject matter than Avatar's, The Legend of Korra throws its inherent immaturity into sharper relief. When it comes down to it, the show isn't willing to say that terrorists are just people like you and me, whose abhorrent actions might be rooted in legitimate grievances, or that large-scale, violent persecution of minority groups can only be achieved through at least the tacit approval of most of the people, not just the ones wearing scary uniforms. You could argue that that's too heavy a moral for a children's show, but another way of looking at it is that for a story aimed at young people to stop short of this moral--to create a world in which people cry persecution merely because they resent the dominant elite, and social unrest is the work of supervillains and their armies of masked henchmen--is to send a very irresponsible message.

And it only gets worse in later seasons. I mean, the "good guys" seriously have secret prisons. Everything is hereditary, even the northern tribe CHIEF's position. Every time the problem of inequality/injustice rises, it is both shown to be a genuine systemic problem AND the people who try to fight it are enormous dicks by author fiat. You can't show a terrible world in need of a revolution AND have the good guys run everything everywhere. Fuck this setting with a rusty switchblade.

maglag · Post by **maglag** » Fri Oct 02, 2015 4:07 pm

Starmaker wrote: And it only gets worse in later seasons. I mean, the "good guys" seriously have secret prisons.

To be fair, the USA has plenty of secret prisons. That's probably just Korra's authors not wanting to end up on said secret prisons or/and a missile drone zooming into their family's homes.

Starmaker wrote: Every time the problem of inequality/injustice rises, it is both shown to be a genuine systemic problem AND the people who try to fight it are enormous dicks by author fiat. You can't show a terrible world in need of a revolution AND have the good guys run everything everywhere.

Yes you can. It's called nationalistic propaganda. Wouldn't want to teach the kids that rebelling against the big nice government is a good thing, even if said government has plenty of problems, would you?

Remember: the government ruling over Korra's authors has killed, maimed and burned for a lot less than inciting revolution.

Miniature Colossus · Post by **Miniature Colossus** » Fri Oct 02, 2015 5:40 pm

If I was writing a fantasy story with wizards and I needed a sport for them to compete in, I would probably have them play some form of Nomic. It seems perfectly suited for wizards trying to outsmart each other. Also if you're playing Nomic in the real world you still have to keep within the laws of the country you're in, as well as the laws of nature. But if you're a group of almighty wizards you obviously don't have worry about pesky things like that.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Fri Oct 02, 2015 5:49 pm

Golf.
The course is randomly selected, same for the position of the holes.
The Wizards have to complete the course, get their balls into the hole and carry teir own equipment. Oh, and deal with such things as critters or dangerous landscape or being in the middle of a busy city or whatever.
Place restrictions such as no teleportation to increase "fun"

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Oct 02, 2015 8:04 pm

Actually, golf is a pretty good idea. I remember the BGs mentioning offhandedly in an episode about analogies for gaming the idea of a fantasy variant of golf where someone designs the course for the game each time and rolls it out on a big mat.

It has the bonus of being relatively easy to turn into a minigame.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Sat Oct 03, 2015 12:41 am

Paradox Poker.

Hands are ranked like normal poker, but when you're dealt you can change your cards, by any means magically available to you--transmutation, teleportation, illusion, sleight of hand, whatever.

When the hands are shown, anyone not folded can declare 'paradox' and then they have to undo, or, in the case of physically switching cards via teleportation or sleight-of-hand, locate the cards and identify the means used to alter a hand..

Then hands are judged and the pot awarded accordingly.

Shady314 · Post by **Shady314** » Sat Oct 03, 2015 12:09 pm

Shrieking Banshee wrote:Thats very fucking stupid. In every possible way.

Obviously it's impossible in our world you stupid cocksucker that's why I would watch it if we somehow had it.

Because from a visual standpoint blasts of energy, is the visual minimum that Avatar has done so far. And its brilliant as well. Might as well make a game of hot potato of passing live grenades. They FACES aren't even protected but Don't worry "Please Firebenders don't aim for the face!" is a face roasting waiting to happen.

Benders have been made of iron since The Last Airbender, The sport makes sense in their world as it has been presented to us since the beginning. Saying the sport is dumb because it is too dangerous in the real world is to reveal yourself to be dumber than a bag of cocks.

To be clear what I was saying is that if we could somehow have a sport where people dodged rocks and fire to prevent falling off a cliff into water, without people being maimed and killed, that shit would be popular. In Avatar's world that shit is actually possible and so it is not surprising that it would be popular.

What would you have preferred?

Also Korra is shit all the way down. Every single season is a massive fuckup in at least 1 major category (And Minor Fuckups in other categories as well).

Season 1 Introduced the worst characters
Season 2 Destroyed the Setting
Season 3 Had some of the laziest plot writing I have seen, which is so convenient.
Season 4 Is when it all comes together and just ends with lazy stupid crap and reminds you just how little (Or terribly) all the characters have developed.

All the way down. The hyperbole of the internet is so wearisome.

But don't worry. Its progressive. So all flaws can be dismissed.

Oh for fucks sake. If I ask what the fuck you are talking about am I going to hear some pathetic homophobic rant? Seriously I don't know what that is supposed to be code for. Her skin color? That Republic City becomes a democracy?

I don't give a shit about how "progressive" Korra is. It is undeniable the show had problems, including the fact Korra spent way too long not growing as a person, but to say it was shit all the way down is truly stupid.

On topic: My Wizard "sport" would be something nerdy like the MIT Mystery Hunt and the ultimate result is some grand working based on the puzzles youve solved and items youve found.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Oct 03, 2015 8:32 pm

Yeah, the progressive thing is probably just homophobia on Shrieking Banshee's part. Because, yes, a ton of people basically couldn't care less whether LoK was shit or not because "holy shit a same-sex relationship on fucking Nickelodeon!"

You know why, SB? Because HOLY SHIT A SAME SEX RELATIONSHIP ON FUCKING NICKELODEON. Seriously, there is so little fucking representation of non-straight people on tv, and when it is there, it's usually patronizing at best, and there is none in cartoons (though its getting better, and LoK was the watershed point), that, yes, we fucking love LoK because it was an enjoyable, mostly non-problematic (in terms of themes and attitudes, the writing had problems, admittedly) show that ended with a same-sex relationship.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Oct 03, 2015 9:17 pm

Prak wrote:Actually, golf is a pretty good idea. I remember the BGs mentioning offhandedly in an episode about analogies for gaming the idea of a fantasy variant of golf where someone designs the course for the game each time and rolls it out on a big mat.

It has the bonus of being relatively easy to turn into a minigame.

I'm working through the Flow Sheet, and it occurred to me that the problem with golf is that its an individual sport. Since one of the obvious archetypes for a magic school game is The Jock, that means that a given party might only have one person who cares about [magic sport]. While this means that [magic sport] could be glossed over, I'd prefer to have a team game so that players could actually go through a game together. Six people is enough for a team in most games, so far as I'm aware (or rather, I think it's roughly the minimum of any sport), so if [Magic Sport] utilized six person teams, or could accommodate them, that'd be ideal.

So what about Team Wizard Golf? You have two teams competing in a course, each with the goal of sinking (number of players) balls into each hole, and a bunch of obstacles and monsters. I guess it's sort of a reverse capture-the-flag dungeon. You might just give the jock all your team's balls and let him make all the shots while everyone else holds off the obstacles and such, or you might have everyone take their shots while rotating through "hitter" and "guards."

And of course the opposing team gets to fuck with you too.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Sat Oct 03, 2015 11:10 pm

I refuse to believe that a single person watched and liked Korra because she it turned out in the very last episode of season 4 that there was a same sex relationship.

It was the very last episode of the last season, everyone had already made up their opinion by that point.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Oct 03, 2015 11:34 pm

Oh, yeah, no, I'm not saying it's the sole reason people like it. But I do think a lot of people are willing to overlook the bad writing in some parts because of that. But that requires them to be willing to overlook bad writing in the first place to get to that point.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Sun Oct 04, 2015 6:54 am

Prak wrote:
You know why, SB? Because HOLY SHIT A SAME SEX RELATIONSHIP ON FUCKING NICKELODEON. Seriously, there is so little fucking representation of non-straight people on tv, and when it is there, it's usually patronizing at best, and there is none in cartoons (though its getting better, and LoK was the watershed point), that, yes, we fucking love LoK because it was an enjoyable, mostly non-problematic (in terms of themes and attitudes, the writing had problems, admittedly) show that ended with a same-sex relationship.

Sailor Moon, if you were fortunate enough to watch it outside of America. Even then every lesbian I know who watched it in the U.S. Knew who was meant to be gay . Bubblegum Crisis also casually has gay men and women.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sun Oct 04, 2015 7:10 am

Ok, Western Animation, then.