Dr. Bluntfellow's Good Times Gang: The Beginning

One day, Alice and a studymate, Affan were working on a homework assignment. Alice’s mania was acting up, she had a great deal of energy and the idea of an interpersonal, multimedia book club came up. They forged a tight bond, and Affan crashed on the couch that night. In the morning she made him breakfast and gave him the other in a pair of bracelets that had meant a bond was formed in Alice’s past. That bond had broken, but the alliance between Alice and Affan had just begun.

            As they talked more and more, Alice realized she wanted two more elements to be involved in the book club: real world events to raise awareness for personal philanthrpoic causes, and a pretend, fantasy reality where people have become a superhero, supervillain, or a hybrid. Everyone would develop their own background, abilities and characters. Alice and Affan agreed on the number of pairs of teams as twelve, meaning a what she called a “thought club” of twenty-four people.

            Immediately names came to mind came to mind and she began listing them. She proposed that Affan and she split and pick their own partners. Alice was interested in partnering with Jacob Johnstone, a guy with the technology and seemingly the intensity of interests to help her kick off with an awesome reading list and curated exhibit-blog. The game was to start in December.

            Obviously, Alice realized she had to start creating her own character, but to name her anything but Alice felt so strange. She decided on Temple, for now…

            …Once Alice named Temple, she realized that Temple had dualing identities: she is Temple Turner, but when her powers take control for the worse she can become Temple Tantrum. When this happens her power of creating ideas that help others warps and misfires and Temple’s life turns disastrous.

            Alice realized immediately that a mission back to when she was seventeen, back in time, was a good idea to try to confront Temple Tantrum, to help her character understand her own dangerous side before she had fully gained use of her abilities. Alice knew that she gained her superpower in April of 2008, when she had her first psychotic episode.

            She needed a time turner…how could someone go back into their own past and warp it such that negative qualities about herself never came to exist? Realizing this was impossible, Alice knew she needed a way to turn her life into a kind of shrine to Temple. She had to flesh out Temple’s imaginary skeleton by forming a group of others interested in creating characters of their own, willing to listen, teach and learn. Why not a book club, a multimedia book club?

Thought Club: Prototype Instructions

The groups that will begin in December of this year will be groups of twenty-four, comprised of twelve partner teams of two, 24 total members of each multimedia book club. The partners present on their reading list and add to a blog the group shares with one team posting each month for the month they are assigned. Each cycle of the project runs a full calendar year. I am open to groups being able to form outside of the Houston area.

Please announce yourself to myself via email at alice.c.alsup@gmail.com if you intend to participate in the prototype version of this game starting this December.

I believe that the Heroes, Villains, and Hybrids Idea should stay true throughout all teams; however the details of what cards are drawn and how characters are created should be up to each group. Ask yourself why the world has become such that heroes, villains and hybrids now exist. What has happened to change humanity?

Thought Club: Explanation, Rules and Criteria

These are the rules I’ve come up with for my thought club/group.

Game limitations and restrictions will be discussed, revised, and agreed upon by the whole party of pairs.

12 Monthly Meetings 
24 total members per group: 12 pairs of 2 partners

·      self-selecting partnerships, at the discretion of the moderator.

·      rules will be in place for if partnerships change
Each group will have a backstory to their own game, at the discretion of each moderator
Partners first choose a theme together
They then send out a reading list of three mandatory things--short stories, book

chapters, movies, anything.

·      The group will agree on length limits, to enable everyone to participate time-wise
The pairs will also for one month curate a blog in which they share other pieces of media with commentary.

·      The commentary can be analytical, personal, but ideally the person or pair will explain the relevance of the clip, website, article, or whatever.

·      Everyone in the group will have access to this blog or website, but only the two partners will have the ability to post entries for the month.

·      Anyone can comment in response to the posts

·      The moderator will also know the password. They will not post except during their own month, unless it is necessary. We set the terms of when something becomes necessary.
Each pair shall host a presentation & discussion group

·      In it they can be as personal or analytical as they choose

·      No one has to reveal their SuperCharacter, but also no one brings in drama from the outside world.
The partners' backstory, as well as the backstory of the group as a sum total, must be related. They interact, at least once, in some capacity. I see this as the potential comic book stories that will each person will carry of their characters' comic books.
As a group, we host events that raise money to benefit the cause each partner group agrees upon.
In this group, as a game, everyone will also be developing their own SuperCharacter

·      Prior to the start of the game, everyone will draw two cards:

o   Hero, Villain, or Hybrid

o   Impairment or Ability

§  Those with impairments design their own ability, and vice versa

Next December, we the groups will host a party all together in which we make our characters come to life, by dressing up and/or by sharing materials that detail that characters’ histories, abilities, and just basically some idea of the story of their lives.

I would like every pair or everyone in the group to choose a philanthropic organization of their own to try and raise awareness and contributions for at this end of the year party.

Doesn't this sound like a whole lot of fun?

Thought Club: Invitation

This project is a sizable commitment. I emphasize now that it IS a project... not just a game, or a club. You have to be willing to read up to X pages of text, non-fiction or fiction, you need to commit to watching any movies another pair puts on their mandatory thought list. You should frequent the presenting partners' blog or website to see the exhibits they have curated. Everyone will also participate in the event the partners choose to raise awareness for.

You have to understand that this is, on one level, a Multimedia Book Club with a LARP twist.

You will initially be given two randomly drawn cards that give you statuses as Hero, Villain, or Hybrid, and your  impairment or gift. As we go through thought club, you will be creating your superperson's character. The more intense and compelling the character's backstory becomes the better.

That comes secondary to the actual thought club, in which each of us partners with someone and leads one monthly presentation with the theme of our own choosing as well as a philanthropy project both agree on.

I will be the first moderator for my incarnation of the game, but I am also a player and I hope to have as many other 'leagues' join me in my prototype as wish to.

There will be twelve initial pairs in this prototype thought club, 24 people in total.

SEE Explanation, Rules and Criterion.