Telephone Pictionary: The Ramen Years - complete!

[Telephone Cat]

And we're back!

My main account is Ether. Feel free to contact me on AIM at CaffieneDeity at any time. (PMing her to reach me is a bad idea, though; I won't be signing into that account every day while this is running.)

Amrun has the password to this account in case of an emergency, but she hasn't specifically agreed to do backup duties this time around. But ideally you can still use that information if I vanish!

Status:

Telephone Pictionary: The Ramen Years is complete!

Round 13 entries: 20/20

• 1. sword_of_omens
  2. DrippingGoofball
  3. saporovirus
  4. StrangerCoug
  5. Amrun/xtopherusD
  6. Xalxe
  7. izakthegoomba
  8. ChannelDelibird
  9. Scigatt
  10. Fujiko
  11. Equinox
  12. RedCoyote
  13. N
  14. Empking
  15. petroleumjelly
  16. Cheery Dog
  17. Kimor
  18. Thor665
  19. Kcdaspot
  20. Robotnick2

[Telephone Cat]

tl;dr: Don't slack. Don't you dare.

• Game Flow:
  
  
• Everyone signed up should start by PMing me with a sentence. It shouldn't be incredibly long, but it can basically be as silly as you want it to be. Some good examples can be found in these chains, but please don't copy those exactly.
  
• When the game starts, each of these sentences will be sent out to a different player.
  This player will have 72 hours
  to portray that sentence in picture form and send me the result.
  
• At the end of those 72 hours, the picture will be sent to a third person, who hasn't seen anything from that chain before. This person will have 72 hours to send in a sentence summarizing the picture.
  
• Each chain will continue for 13 of these 72-hour rounds: 7 sentences and 6 pictures. Chains will be posted on the wiki as they are completed.
  
• The thread title and status will note the round number. Without some...really, really major lag, the game shouldn't continue past 13 rounds.
  
• If you cannot meet a deadline, please notify me as soon as you've received the sentence (or picture)--or, better yet, tell me before you receive one. I will find somebody else and send it there. I will also do this automatically if you have not drawn it in 72 hours. In this way, it is possible for one player to have more than one sentence to draw (or more than one picture to summarize, or one of each) at once.
  
• Somebody who consistently fails to meet deadlines will be kicked out of the game at my discretion. Especially somebody who doesn't announce V/LAs beforehand. So don't do that!
  
  
  Picture/sentence standards:
  
  
• Any drawing program--Photoshop, Flash, MS Paint--will do. Drawing pictures by hand and scanning them will also do. Making a diorama with paper cutouts and silly putty and sending a photograph of that will do. The sky is pretty much the limit here. In fact, if you can get your hands on one of those airplanes that draws pictures out of fake clouds, then the sky is literally the limit here.
  
• Having said that, please draw everything from scratch. You can use Google Images as a reference, but don't paste other people's pictures into your own.
  
• Words are completely banned. English letters used to denote words, and codes (camel octopus dinosaur eagle snake), will also be sent back with a stern warning, although if it's relevant you can use them to portray the alphabet. Numbers and symbols and math are all fine.
  
• Please don't intentionally mislead anybody--do the most accurate non-legalistic picture that you can. The chain will find a way to mutate anyway.
  
• Pictures should be 800 by 600 pixels, although honestly I don't really enforce this rule very much. Photographs are best saved as JPGs; otherwise, if in doubt, you should probably save as a PNG. Do not save as a BMP under any circumstances or I'll have to ask you to reformat it before sending it onward, and nobody wants that.
  
• Please be mindful of where you upload your pictures to. Tinypic deletes its pictures without warning, and anything uploaded to the wiki is accessible by other players. Photobucket's a good bet, if you have that.
  
• When you upload, don't save it under a name that will hint at its origins. This is something else that you'll need to reformat over.
  
• Okay, on to sentences. Keep it to one sentence and don't be too legalistic about what you are summarizing. If you don't think the picture is about the fourth wall, don't break the fourth wall.
  
• Please don't break the site rules. Keep it reasonably safe for work.
  
• I am one of those spirit-of-the-game type hippies. If I'm forgetting a rule, I'll let you know. You might be asked to resubmit in light of this.
  
  
  Miscellaneous:
  
  
• Please don't talk to other players about the sentences/pictures you got. If somebody tells you anything about a chain you haven't seen yet, please let me know.
  
• I will note in-thread if somebody is behind.
  
• If you haven't sent a link in within 48 hours (but not the full 72), I'll send you a prod. Other actions may be taken if you're inactive for the full round.
  
• Have fun! If you aren't having fun, you should talk to me about it, and I'll do my best to find you a replacement. You can also talk to me when you are having fun, of course.

[Telephone Cat]

I dunno, that video sword_of_omens posted was kind of icky.

[Telephone Cat]

Received, but please send all Telephone Pictionary-related stuff to this account (at least as long as this game is running).

[Telephone Cat]

Well, it's not really necessary; I still have both accounts.

[Telephone Cat]

/confirm

Well, I'm still gonna need your sentence...

[Telephone Cat]

Since you're new, I'm gonna twist this around a bit: are you confident that you'll still be around in a month?

If so, and you're clear on the rules, you should probably send me a sentence!

[Telephone Cat]

Oh, that works!

Still gonna need his sentence, though.

[Telephone Cat]

If this doesn't fill by Wednesday, I'll reroll the map and make a new spreadsheet, and run this with a smaller set of players. Ideally it won't come to that, though.

[Telephone Cat]

I've decided that this account is now an anthropomorphic cat with cyborg bits.

And she is such a badass.

[Telephone Cat]

I am so sober. I am more sober than I have ever been in my life.

[Telephone Cat]

He is so playing.

Robotnick, could you send me a sentence before Wednesday so I can distribute things properly tomorrow even if no one else signs up?

[Telephone Cat]

I'll start Round 2 in an hour and a half. If Robotnick doesn't give me a sentence by then, I'll insert one of my own. If he really doesn't have the time for this, he should tell me while I still have time to remake the spreadsheet.

[Telephone Cat]

All sentences have been redistributed. One of them was mine.

Please send in your pictures by Saturday, October 6th at 3:00 pm EDT!

[Telephone Cat]

Words are completely banned. English letters used to denote words, and codes (camel octopus dinosaur eagle snake), will also be sent back with a stern warning, although if it's relevant you can use them to portray the alphabet. Numbers and symbols and math are all fine.

Please note that this is still a thing.

[Telephone Cat]

Prods sent out.

[Telephone Cat]

The time has come to distribute pictures for Round 3. I still don't have Equinox's; does anybody want to take that?

[Telephone Cat]

All right. Standing by!

(Slightly belated EDIT: all pictures have been sent out.)

[Telephone Cat]

This is a sentence round. It had better not take until Tuesday.

[Telephone Cat]

Yeah, I'd bring the maximum time up to ten minutes before looking the other way for vigilantes. Even that is pretty silly, but maybe there was a reference you wanted to doublecheck or something.

[Telephone Cat]

All sentences have been received. Round 4 starts now!

[Telephone Cat]

My drawings are so, so bad....

Then again, that's sort of the point, isn't it?

No.

[Telephone Cat]

Izak's got it.

I really hate that "I can't draw but THAT'S OKAY THAT WAS THE POINT ALL ALONG" attitude. Challenge yourselves! Try playing around with colors and shading and thicker/no lines! Zoom in and add little details! Go to Google Images and look at reference pictures for a while! (Just don't paste them in, obviously.) Use these wacky prompts to draw something you would have never have attempted otherwise. If you can't make something you're happy with, that's okay, but don't go sour grapes over it. Drawing badly is definitely not the point.

[Telephone Cat]

All y'all paint-haters are talking blasphemy. Paint is awesome.

(Although the fuzzy version that comes with Windows 7 weirds me out a lot.)

[Telephone Cat]

Okay, we're getting distressingly close to deadline. Does anybody want to take Equinox's and/or Amrun's picture duties if they don't show?

[Telephone Cat]

All right.

Please

don't do this again.

[Telephone Cat]

All pictures (except Amrun's, of course) should be out now! Please get your sentences in by Sunday, October 14th at 3:00 pm EDT.

I'm about to send picture duties to DGB. Hang on.

[Telephone Cat]

We are all proud.

[Telephone Cat]

No really.

Waht.

Please don't take the full three days to waffle over this. You have all the information you're going to get.

[Telephone Cat]

I just noticed the date range of Thor's V/LA. Does anyone want to take that sentence so we can move on?

[Telephone Cat]

Sending the sentence duties to izakthegoomba.

[Telephone Cat]

Sorry. I could analyze the map and apply witchcraft to change who'll get what in future rounds, but I really hate doing it.

[Telephone Cat]

Everyone should have a sentence now. If Thor does have access during his V/LA after all, I'm sorry for jumping the gun on this!

[Telephone Cat]

Prods sent out. I won't actually be here at 7:00 pm tomorrow, so please try to get your pictures in before then?

[Telephone Cat]

There are way too many of you who are cutting this way too close.

[Telephone Cat]

Yes. Cells are definitely a thing that exist in this Mish Mash game. They're just a holding place until you can steal the keys from a guard NPC and get back to adventuring, though.

(This thread secretly has the deepest gameplay ever. There is so much intricate strategy. There are also a ton of hidden minigames you can unlock, and a few extra playable characters to boot.)

[Telephone Cat]

Anyway, Amrun doesn't seem to have been around, and like I said, I won't be here at 7:00 sharp, so the new round will probably come a little late. Sorry about that!

[Telephone Cat]

She's given me a fair excuse--while I'd hoped she'd come through for this round on top of all that, I think it's fair that she hasn't.

Anyone who's up for subbing there should let me know. (DGB can still be added through witchcraft, though it's a little messy.)

[Telephone Cat]

Thor's eligible for this chain with no dark thread-reconstructing magics at all, so he'll get art duties when I get back. I'm running out now.

[Telephone Cat]

All right. Time to distribute.

[Telephone Cat]

Naturally DGB's the one on the delayed chain. x_x

Sending Thor his bonus sentence next!

[Telephone Cat]

The PMs have been shuffled around now!

Amrun seems to be missing. Like I said before, I don't fault her, but the show still has to go on. If I get the other two sentences and don't see her, I'll start the next round as early as 3:00 pm EDT tomorrow. In that case I'll hand off her art duties to a sub from the start and look into a full-time replacement (or, uh, a full-time temporary replacement--I would still like her to come back when she can) if that round concludes without her as well.

[Telephone Cat]

Round 8 starts shortly.

[Telephone Cat]

I'm afraid you were. And even at its most powerful, my witchcraft cannot turn back the ravages of time.

(The witchcraft-free set consists of {Amrun, Equinox, Kcdaspot, Kimor, saporovirus, Scigatt, Xalxe}, if any of them are interested.)

[Telephone Cat]

Sorry. Time has ravaged this chain for your purposes as well.

Kimor takes over for izakthegoomba.

[Telephone Cat]

Well, you weren't in the Round 6 one that Thor subbed for. But everyone's in 2/3ths of the chains, so statistically you will be in most of them. (Witchcraft makes that less of an issue early on, of course--in this case, if I'd invoked my map-shuffling powers, you would have been eligible.)

I could assign you a drawing prompt or some other silly sidequest if you want. It wouldn't be related to the game, though.

EDIT: Wait no of course it would be related to the game. Intricate strategy, yo.

[Telephone Cat]

It's not drawn yet. >=(

[Telephone Cat]

Go for it.

7 submissions are needed in the next 5 hours. This is gonna suck.

[Telephone Cat]

I appreciate that!

7 submissions are now needed in the next <4 hours wheeeeeeeeeee.

[Telephone Cat]

I just realized that the deadline is actually for 4:00, not 3:00.

That means five of you have a full

two

and a half hours to get this in. We can do that, right??

[Telephone Cat]

Excellent work, Robotnick! The first post has been updated with your accomplishment.

[Telephone Cat]

Well...

Aside from DGB, is anybody up for subbing duties? There's one hour to go and three missing chains, so...

(Naturally DGB's next chain is still behind. I am so sorry.)

[Telephone Cat]

Okay, the universe has cut DGB a break. And by the universe, I mean CDB.

Two pictures and one half-hour to go.

[Telephone Cat]

All pictures have been distributed, although Xalxe's and Amrun's still have yet to be drawn.

I don't really know what to do with Amrun. I'm reluctant to look for a replacement--

at least partially because I'm just not that social on this site anymore and don't really have anyone to ask

--but I think that's kind of necessary at this point.

[Telephone Cat]

Art duties have been passed to Thor and Empking. (Sorry to DGB--it's the witchcraft clause.)

[Telephone Cat]

EXTRA CREDIT:
Somebody draw that.

[Telephone Cat]

Future picture duties for Amrun will be forwarded to xtopherusD instead. Thanks!

[Telephone Cat]

Robotnick2 gets an inky onyx star.

I don't know what's up with Xalxe right now--as we saw, he missed the last deadline and its 24-hour prod, and he's the only person who hasn't picked up this round's PM yet. But he's clearly been active in other threads this whole time. If anyone's already in one of those threads, could you ask him what's up? (But only one of you, so you should probably post your intent in this thread first.)

[Telephone Cat]

Yeah I'm not sure what's going on there.

Fujiko's finally got her picture, though. I will prod Robotnick in 7 minutes!

EDIT: Okay, 13 minutes.

[Telephone Cat]

You sent your sentence in like 20 minutes after DGB posted that. Her wake-up call to you was greatly appreciated.

[Telephone Cat]

Sorry, man. I can't take the side of anybody who takes more than ten minutes with its sentence.

EDIT: Also, slackers can clearly be seen on the front page. I'm not always around in the mornings, but even so, you couldn't really have claimed "ages."

[Telephone Cat]

I am lining up the PMs in anticipation!

EDIT: Please hold.

[Telephone Cat]

Okay, all PMs should be out now.

[Telephone Cat]

All the trains would run on time.

Or else.

[Telephone Cat]

Bear needs its third sub. Does anyone in {StrangerCoug, ChannelDelibird, Scigatt, Fujiko, RedCoyote, xtopherusD but not Amrun} want to step up?

[Telephone Cat]

Psst. Xalxe and RedCoyote go pick up your PMs now before I send out the wave of 24-hour prods tomorrow. That ain't cool.

[Telephone Cat]

Noted!

[Telephone Cat]

Prods have been sent out, and RedCoyote gets a raised eyebrow for reasons stated above.

[Telephone Cat]

Nonono he sent it in when he said that.

Kcdaspot and izakthegoomba, however, get bonus prods.

[Telephone Cat]

Well, let me know if you're going to be missing a full round. (Of course, the whole game should be completed within a week, so there's that.)

[Telephone Cat]

The following can sub if Kcdaspot doesn't come through in the next hour:

{xtopherusD, Xalxe, Equinox, N, Empking, Cheery Dog, Robotnick2}

And potentially saporovirus and Fujiko through witchcraft.

[Telephone Cat]

Thanks! I'll distribute for Round 11 now, then.

[Telephone Cat]

Yeah, he's a Texan. Him putting up a window depicting someone getting lynched would probably give the wrong message to visitors.

Then again, you can't go wrong with an epic tiger slaying.

[Telephone Cat]

PS. Kcdaspot and izakthegoomba please don't let this round drag. I want to publish the chains, too.

[Telephone Cat]

Whew! I've now converted everything (so far) into a format the wiki can use. It felt a lot more draining last game!

[Telephone Cat]

After this, one picture and one sentence. As with the last game, I'll post chains on the wiki as they're completed, so functionally it's just one picture round before chains start appearing.

[Telephone Cat]

PS. I am just waiting for Kcdaspot to sign in and growling. Please, for the love of god, send in your goddamn sentences when you pick up the PM.

[Telephone Cat]

Not very efficient, though. I still don't see that PM.

[Telephone Cat]

I'm inclined to agree. (Sort of--sentence rounds are also designed to be a buffer for chains missing art to catch up, but I wouldn't mind a subjective clause letting me shunt sentence duties over to people who will fucking write the damn things if that's the only holdup.) The point is kind of moot for this game, though.

[Telephone Cat]

If he doesn't get his sentence in by 3:00 I'm just going to distribute sentences without him. Screw this.

As a sidenote, I live in the path of a large hurricane due to strike tomorrow. It's...not inconceivable that I'd lose power. Amrun still has my password if it comes to that, and is encouraged to share it with anyone who's up for wrapping the game up. I've updated the helpfully-labeled "Mod Notes" section of my PMbox with wiki formatting code, which obviously doesn't cover rounds 12 or 13 or Kcdaspot's sentence but is otherwise up to date.

I...don't think Amrun is in the path of the hurricane too? That would be awkward. At that point I guess you should probably find someone with my cell phone number and ask him or her to reach me that way. I think PJ might have it. Yosarian definitely does but he's in New Jersey too.

[Telephone Cat]

Okay, sweet.

[Telephone Cat]

Sentences have been sent out without Kcdaspot. Try not to stall until Tuesday?

[Telephone Cat]

I've forwarded your sentence, but this whole dilemma seems kind of false to me.

[Telephone Cat]

She's a smart lady. She's drawing it on the weekend instead of waiting until Tuesday like 70% of you are going to do.

Pleasepleaseplease don't do that.

[Telephone Cat]

Just five. Gogogo!

[Telephone Cat]

That only happens on the night before the deadline.

Which is pretty silly this round. Today is Sunday. The deadline is Tuesday. You are going to have more time to draw today. This is the day to claim power over your procrastination instincts.

I should sprite something or study or read about programming.

[Telephone Cat]

DGB just so you know if you ever get an army of clones you need to tell me so I can host an all-DGB Telephone Pictionary game.

And then dedicate a museum to it.

[Telephone Cat]

Just so you know, PJ hates you.

Me, I love the weird sentences.

[Telephone Cat]

I kind of want to draw those.

[Telephone Cat]

No, we're at eleven now (or nine to go, which I assume is what she meant).

[Telephone Cat]

Also, the wind here in northern New Jersey is really loud right now.

[Telephone Cat]

Prods sent out. RedCoyote still gets a glare for his continued habit of not picking up the fucking PM until 48 hours have passed and I have to prod him. Everybody else who has been prodded also gets a glare for not having drawn over the weekend.

I didn't prod Robotnick because he hasn't picked up the PM or posted anywhere since he 26th. I don't know where he is, but those of you who haven't been in Monkey already might need to step in.

[Telephone Cat]

You are in Monkey. {sword_of_omens, saporovirus, izakthegoomba, Equinox, RedCoyote, Cheery Dog, Kcdaspot} aren't.

[Telephone Cat]

I'd rather wait on Robotnick longer before handing out glimpses his sentence, sorry.

[Telephone Cat]

OKAY.

Everyone has their pictures in! Rejoice!

But I don't know who to send pictures to. I know Ether has a spreadsheet on this, but I don't have it. I'm going to wait until tomorrow and if she isn't back, I'll attempt to figure it out for myself since I don't want to unnecessarily screw up ... well, everything.

[Telephone Cat]

UNLESS ANYONE HAS ANY BRILLIANT IDEAS

[Telephone Cat]

THANK GOODNESS

Have spoken to Ether, and the spreadsheet is now available to me. Expect PMs shortly. Thanks for all your help, guys! I was trying to muddle through it when I was able to contact Ether. She still has no internet, so I will be finishing up the round. However, I am wading through the wiki things and figuring it out as I go, so I won't be quite as efficient as she was.

[Telephone Cat]

However, I am going to need a replacement for myself in chain OTTER. Empking, Kcdaspot, Sciggat, sword_of_omens, and N are eligible to replace, and maybe someone else whom I've missed. I'm asking outside as well.

EDIT: Ani has agreed to do this.

[Telephone Cat]

OMG somehow even with the spreadsheet, I'm lost, because the Cat chain does not seem to be on it. WLEIRJALDKFJ

EDIT: lol jk. adventures in the life of the technologically retarded.

[Telephone Cat]

All sentences are out. I'll attempt to start putting up the completed chains tomorrow, but if it doesn't happen it's because WIKI WHAT IS THIS

[Telephone Cat]

I'm a she. And I'm not a zombie! I'm just very difficult to kill.

I am clumsily wielding a computer that is not my own, though. I've just brought the spreadsheet up to date; I'll try to get the 17 completed chains onto the wiki as soon as possible.

[Telephone Cat]

http://wiki.mafiascum.net/index.php?tit ... amen_Years

Follow my slow, slow progress on getting these all online!

[Telephone Cat]

I screwed up Chain E--it isn't complete yet, but I accidentally wrote the Chain G stuff into that spot. I don't have saporovirus's PM yet, which I need to complete Elephant properly.

[Telephone Cat]

Man. I played a game once where the guy after me didn't recognize

Dr. Seuss.

[Telephone Cat]

Whew. All 17 completed chains are now on the wiki.

[Telephone Cat]

Name chains trivia:

-The animal chains were a last-minute decision because of the furry conversation in the signups. I scrambled to find suitable animals from A to Z in time to kick things off with a 3:00 pm deadline. Only after succeeding did I realize that I only had to go up to T.
-X was going to be Xinjiangovenator, which is apparently a type of dinosaur. The

best

type of dinosaur.
-The quest for an X animal also led me to discover pink fairy armadillos. Xenarthran was a bit too broad to have gotten its own chain, though.
-On the furry note, I googled the most popular furry species and ran with those wherever I could. I mean dragons aren't really animals but apparently they're a popular furry species so there you go.
-Maybe they're scalies? Whatever.
-Chain I went to Ibex 100% because of this video.

[Telephone Cat]

Also, I liked Thor's sentence. I drew my own in private because PJ complained about it so much, although it's on a computer I'm not currently typing from.

[Telephone Cat]

Ibex is up!

[Telephone Cat]

Elephant is up. I'm not sure where Kcdaspot has gotten to this time.

[Telephone Cat]

Kcdaspot hasn't posted anywhere since the hurricane. If he doesn't pick up the PM by 11:30 tonight, his picture goes to xtopherusD.

[Telephone Cat]

That's fair. In that case, I'm just going to assume that he's not gonna appear in that timeframe and send you the picture now, and apologize a lot if he does appear.

[Telephone Cat]

Yup!

[Telephone Cat]

If anybody else would be up for modding (and modding something that takes closer to one month than ten), I'd sort of like to play sometime myself.

Failing that, modding's pretty easy and I can keep doing it.

[Telephone Cat]

Xalxe PMed me to ask about spreadsheets and randomizers, so he's on the potential modlist too.

I suspect that around December 17th, a lot of other people will be on the verge of V/LA.

[Telephone Cat]

Christmas happens then.

[Telephone Cat]

The trouble is, while running a game in a month is easy, collecting 20 signups has been a pretty long process in itself. If you've got artsy friends who didn't know about the last two games, you might want to try recruiting them.