Activities for 2024: Let's Discuss

[Theresa]

A suggestion for 100 Tags -- build in a couple of swaps so that if someone gets a tag that they just can't face reading, they can another- one before or after for example. While I might think it fun to read a zombie book, others would absolutely quail. Or even manga or graphic novel.

[Joanne]

I also am on Team Pluto-you cannot just push a Planet out the door without some discord occuring!

[Anita]

Theresa wrote: "Anita wrote: "Theresa wrote: "Finishing my comments/questions:

8. Olympics - what a great idea! 😉 could it be designed to allow the occasional reading of a novella - say with track event like the ..."

On the voting, why does is need to be limited to a set number? I do think that's a bit more confusing and perhaps unnecessary to delineate? If they have four they like or 2 they like, do we care?

[Anita]

Theresa wrote: "Anita wrote: "Theresa wrote: "I know about Pluto, but my old fashioned brain can't quite give it up
..."


I'm with you, Pluto stays!"

I love how we all like Pluto !!

[Anita]

Theresa wrote: "." Great questions!!

1. Not every team member has to read each month - but can't slack off too much - will there be a minimum? Example: you have to read contribute to spelling at least 1 book in 8 different months.

I'm going to leave this up to teams to decide, but if they find someone ghosts them or contributes little, they can ask the person be replaced. The final decision will be up to the administrators.

2. Members can contribute by reading multiple books to spell but I assume there will be a minimum number of team members who must participate each month - like 3 of 5.

I hadn't thought about this, but I think so. Probably 3

3. Team reading most books for tag - that's collectively how many books for that months tag each member reads, right?

I need to revisit how I framed this, but will make it explicit when I post the final description. I believe I meant each team, not each member

4. Love the idea of game points with the reward only being at the end. Will it be team self-tracking? Any plan to monitor through the year?

I'll need to think this through more, but there will likely be self tracking plus a checking mechanism. This probably won't be posted unless it is chosen.

[Anita]

Theresa wrote: "My only serious reservation with this challenge is that the monthly tag voting will be overwhelmed by strategy for this challenge - which isn't fair to all those not participating - and it's already too prominent..."

I see the votes every month, and I think this concern is actually not as big a deal as people make it to be. I plan to use the tag that people vote on, and there's multiple strategies that might lead teams to select different tags. Some might want the shortest, others might want the ones that have the hardest letters to thwart opponents, etc.

[Theresa]

Anita wrote: "Theresa wrote: "Anita wrote: "Theresa wrote: "Finishing my comments/questions:

8. Olympics - what a great idea! 😉 could it be designed to allow the occasional reading of a novella - say with track..."

You don't -- you can have it be the whole list and they can spread their 'votes' however they want. I was literally following the practice used in board elections -- where you only have a fixed number of seats to fill and by-laws don't allow voting for more than the number of seats to fill and you have more candidates than seats.

I don't remember how voting on challenges has been handled in the past -- I vaguely think there was a ranking system - we put them in order of preference? But I can't remember if you did that to all or just listed and ranked your top 3 or something.

There are variations and other methods of voting. If you want to outline what you are thinking and have me just look it over, just PM me. I have been overseeing voting in small group context since the late 1980s, including votes where you are basically polling for the most favored. There are only so may ways to do it. The trick is writing it up clearly enough so that those voting grasp it easily. And you haven't created a tallying nightmare for yourself (I've been the vote counter too).

[Theresa]

Anita wrote: "Theresa wrote: "My only serious reservation with this challenge is that the monthly tag voting will be overwhelmed by strategy for this challenge - which isn't fair to all those not participating -..."

That makes sense and I had not thought about strategy varying. I think I am just remembering how there always seems to be a big discussion every month about what tags will provide most options to gain points in one of the year long challenges, rather than being chosen for other reasons.

I'm a 'will it be fun' and 'can I just grab something from my TBR without looking at tags' type of monthly tag voter. 🤣

[Theresa]

Thanks, Anita, on all the responses! Very helpful.

[Booknblues]

Theresa wrote: "Lets Make PBDeal - what would a sample challenge look like? Would each be more or less equal in difficulty, or could they be in varying degrees of difficulty randomly. Would each challenge be a variation of the others?
..."

The idea of the challenges for the Lets Make PBT Deal is for the challenges to be appealing to some people, but not to all to encourage trading. There would be random degrees of difficulty with length, number and type of book.

For some sample challenges:
Read a book written in the 19th century, read a biography/memoir of somebody who you admire, read 5 children's books, read a novel in which somebody is running from danger.

[Booknblues]

Holly R W wrote: "I am drawn to "This Day in History" and have a question. It sounds like the challenge will be to read 12 books throughout the year, one book corresponding to each month. At the moment, I'm unsure w..."

Holly, I see that as a challenge in which you can pick the level which you want to read at.

[Karin]

Theresa wrote: "Robin P wrote: "Sue wrote: "Joy D wrote: "It would be great if an international element could be incorporated into the Olympics game, like reading books set in the different participating countries..."

Yes, the States will move far up. When it was in Germany in the past Canada moved down to the K's. I don't watch the opening ceremonies and am not an avid follower of this other than checking the daily medal count, but my husband watches them when he is able.

[Joy D]

Questions/Comments:

1. Regarding Jeopardy:
-Is it only one dollar amount per month or can players complete multiple dollar amounts (e.g., I finish my originally picked $100 then move on to complete the $200, then possibly all the way up to $500)? The way it is written it sounds like one per month, but in the real game show, Jeopardy, it is allowed for a player to "run the category" (in any order) if they are quick enough on the buzzer.

2. Regarding Let’s Make a PBDeal:
- It seems the "first come first served" part of this game favors those living in the US. It might be difficult for our international members to be "first" depending on where they live. Even those of us in the Pacific time zone are often "late to the party." My perception is that the game favors those living in the US Eastern time zone. Perhaps it is possible to vary the times for the curtains to be revealed and the trades to be made so that the time zone differences are taken into consideration?

3. 100 Tag Racetrack:
- I second Sue's and Theresa's idea to allow for a couple of "swaps" like we did in the Subdue the Shelf game in case players land on a tag they loathe.

4. Trade That Tag:
- I assume it's ok if the quarterly "order of play" takes place over a fairly long time period, taking into account all the time zone differences? I know this has been done before in our book swaps but am curious as to how many international members have participated.

[Booknblues]

Joy D wrote: "Questions/Comments:

2. Regarding Let’s Make a PBDeal:
- It seems the "first come first served" part of this game favors those living in the US. It might be difficult for our international members to be "first" depending on where they live. Even those of us in the Pacific time zone are often "late to the party." My perception is that the game favors those living in the US Eastern time zone. Perhaps it is possible to vary the times for the curtains to be revealed and the trades to be made so that the time zone differences are taken into consideration?

3. 100 Tag Racetrack:
- I second Sue's and Theresa's idea to allow for a couple of "swaps" like we did in the Subdue the Shelf game in case players land on a tag they loathe.
..."

2. Let’s Make a PBDeal
Joy, I think you are correct in this assessment and the deals will be made by administrator randomizing and pairing those wanting to make a deal.

3. 100 Tag Racetrack-Instead of swaps the player will be able to either move back or forward 1 space, while technically remaining in the same space.

[Joy D]

Thanks for the clarifications!

[Anita]

Joy D wrote: "Questions/Comments:

1. Regarding Jeopardy:
-Is it only one dollar amount per month or can players complete multiple dollar amounts (e.g., I finish my originally picked $100 then move on to complet..."

It's one category per month. So you can start at $100 and run through to $500 for the month (or as far as you can personally get).

On trade that tag, there will definitely be reasonable periods of time given for people to make their selection, but we will have a randomizer alternative if people aren't timely.

[NancyJ]

Anita wrote: "Joy D wrote: "Questions/Comments:

1. Regarding Jeopardy:
-Is it only one dollar amount per month or can players complete multiple dollar amounts (e.g., I finish my originally picked $100 then move..."

I love that we can try for all dollar amounts each month. It’s more consistent with the real game. We might bomb out on some questions or categories, but make up for it with others, just like the real game. Sometimes when watching the show, I might get the $100 answer wrong, but get the so-called harder ones right.

Getting a hold of the books might be a bigger problem with some categories, such as the awards in your original example. Allowing for short lists (or nominees or finalists) could give us enough options to get the books on time.

[Joy D]

Anita wrote: It's one category per month. So you can start at $100 and run through to $500 for the month (or as far as you can personally get).

On trade that tag, there will definitely be reasonable periods of time given for people to make their selection, but we will have a randomizer alternative if people aren't timely.."

Sounds good, thanks for the clarifications!

[Nicole]

Jeopardy: I guess I don’t understand (maybe because I don’t watch Jeopardy), but if you can do all the challenges under the chosen category for the month then why do you have to choose one dollar amount BEFORE the challenges are announced?

[Anita]

Nicole wrote: "Jeopardy: I guess I don’t understand (maybe because I don’t watch Jeopardy), but if you can do all the challenges under the chosen category for the month then why do you have to choose one dollar a..."

Great question! A slower reader may want to choose the highest dollar amount they believe they have a shot at completing because that's the only task they may be able to complete in the time frame allocated.

So to earn more money, they might start with say, $400. But then, if they finish that, they will be permitted to move onto a different dollar amount in that category.

A fast reader might just start with the easy task and move quickly onto the next and the next.

On the flip side, the initial selection is the riskiest because you won't know what's under all of the dollar amounts. If you finish the initial read (and earn whatever dollars are available there), you can move on and potentially you might know more about your subsequent choice.

[Anita]

I have made some edits to a few of the challenges: Jeopardy, Books with Friends, Olympics. Just a heads up in case you want to revisit before voting. I'm hopeful to post the voting on the 15th.

[Nicole]

Thanks Anita - That’s very helpful and clears things up! :)

[Anita]

Nicole wrote: "Thanks Anita - That’s very helpful and clears things up! :)"

Oh good! Thank you for letting me know. It was a very helpful question.

[Olivermagnus]

They all sound like lots of fun. I know that over the years, I've never been disappointed by the winning challenges. And the Admins that voluntarily give so much time to this group are beyond exceptional.

[Theresa]

I just had a chance to read over the updated challenges - really terrific! Love that an international aspect has been added to Olympics.

It's gonna be a tough call.

Have you decided how voting will be handled?

[Linda]

I am a very slow reader so I like challenges that don't include teams and a need to read a book in a certain amount of time. That is why I liked the Birthday Candle challenge this year. I could take as long as I wanted as long as I finished by the end of the year. I think the 100 tags may fit that? Who will make the determination if the tag is unusual? Or will you take all nominations until you have 100?

[Joanne]

Olivermagnus wrote: "They all sound like lots of fun. I know that over the years, I've never been disappointed by the winning challenges. And the Admins that voluntarily give so much time to this group are beyond excep..."

Nice to see you! I have been thinking of you and wondering how you are doing!

[Anita]

Theresa wrote: "I just had a chance to read over the updated challenges - really terrific! Love that an international aspect has been added to Olympics.

It's gonna be a tough call.

Have you decided how voting ..."

Everyone will get 20 votes to allocate as they wish among all the choices. They can either put all 20 to their favorite, or divide them up amongst their top choices.

[Joanne]

Anita, will Books with Friends allow picking your own teams? That is not in the description, so thought I would ask

[Theresa]

Anita wrote: "Theresa wrote: "I just had a chance to read over the updated challenges - really terrific! Love that an international aspect has been added to Olympics.

It's gonna be a tough call.

Have you dec..."

Thanks, Anita!

[Booknblues]

100 Tag Racetrack

Here is your chance to race around a track designed by members of Play Book Tag.

Are there interesting and unusual tags which you wish would be used? This is your chance to let us know what they are. PBT members will be asked to nominate tags of their choice which have at least 200 books which 5 people have tagged. From these choices we will devise a circular board of 100 tags. Each participant would be given a random tag to start on and then proceed from that point.
While moving around the board a player may choose to skip 2 tags by either moving back or forward 1 space, while technically remaining in the same space

Review must be posted with proof of tag used by at least 4 people, before spinning for the next tag using a spinner wheel with 10.

https://pickerwheel.com/tools/random-...

Participants can choose to go through the board once or continue to complete all tags. For those who continue, if they land on a tag which they have read they would move to the next tag until they reach one they haven’t read yet.

Every 6-10 spaces there will be a hurdle i.e. move back 3 spaces, jump ahead 5 tags, spin again, etc

[Booknblues]

Let’s Make a PBT Deal

Do you love a deal? We are ready to make one! All you need to do every month is choose a curtain. A, B, or C to reveal a challenge. The very first step is that the players post which curtain they want for the month.

Curtain A will be the first to be revealed. If you don’t like it, maybe somebody else will. Any of the players who are unhappy with Curtain A, who have chosen A, will announce that they want to trade for B or C.

At that point players who want to trade with them will announce their intentions and the administrator will randomize and pair those wishing to make a deal. The players who wish to trade must answer a “focus on reading type of question” to make the trade.

Then curtain B will be revealed with the same opportunity for trading. Lastly curtain C will be revealed. If someone is unable to make a trade, that person will need to read a book from the curtain they chose.

To continue in the game for the next month, you will need to complete and review your book. Read and review all 12 books to complete the challenge and receive 50 participation points and entry into a drawing for a special prize

[Booknblues]

This Day in History

Every day of the year seems to have some historical significance. Somebody was born or died, a nation declared independence, a business started, something was built or any number of different things. Each month, you’ll select the date you want to use and choose a book that aligns with the significant event. You may begin your reading on the date you have selected and have a month to complete your book.

In addition, at the beginning of each month, we will randomize a type of event, birthday, business, invention etc. If you choose a book that matches that event you will earn extra participation points.

At the end of the month, three lucky days will be chosen at random. Anyone who completed a book about that day will be able to start the book for the next month at any point during the following month.

An example: If I select a book for July 4th, I would start reading a book about America’s independence on July 4th, and I have until August 4th to complete the book. If July 4th is selected at random as a “lucky day”, I can start my August book early even if the day I select for August is say the 20th
Using November, here are some examples of books which could be read:
Nov.1 - First all race vote in South Africa - A Conspiracy of Mothers
Nov. 6 Matthew McConaughey's birthday - Greenlights
Nov 10 Neil Gaiman's Birthday -American Gods
Nov. 15 Sherman Burned Atlanta - The March
November 22, 1963 - Kennedy assassinated - 11/22/1963

[Booknblues]

Edited challenges

[Anita]

Joanne wrote: "Anita, will Books with Friends allow picking your own teams? That is not in the description, so thought I would ask"

Yes, I'm going to permit people to form their own teams, or we will assist those who want to play, but may be new and don't know who to play with.

[KateNZ]

Thanks Anita. That sounds like a great balance. It’s fun to be able to play with people we’ve got to know (some of us are friends in real life). But it’s also fun to have the option to find new friends or get to know other PBTers better!

[Anita]

Voting is now open:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[NancyJ]

I’m so excited about these challenges. They are so creative, and I can’t wait to see how they get fleshed out.

I’m leaning toward one year round game where we can go at our own pace - 100 tag race. Plus one of the monthly challenges: Jeopardy, Day in history, or Olympics. I don’t have a sense of the others yet. I’ll wait to vote until I have more information.

I really like year round challenges that allow you to go at your own pace- such as both of this year’s challenges. The 15 candles was my favorite PBT challenge EVER, and Subdue was the most motivating. It appears that the 100 tag race will be just as good. We can pick our own pace. I think it will be ideal if the 100 tags are a mix of very popular tags, and appealing tags that will stretch us. (The tags with about 10000 books seems to be the sweet spot. )

it’s also fun to have challenges with deadlines, in which we all focus on the same task. It appears that Jeopardy, This day in History, and Olympics will have monthly deadlines. (I didn’t read all the details so maybe I’m wrong.) I assume the Jeopardy tasks each month will need to be announced at the same time to everyone. All of the search, selection, acquisition, reading and reviews will have to be done in one month. This can be exciting for many of us. But if we have two games like this, it could be too hard to juggle all at the same time.

So if two challenges with a monthly focus win, I hope that one could be stretched out to allow longer term pacing. For instance, I think This Day in History could easily fit the 15 candles time format. We would each pick different days, and most of the time it won’t matter when we read them. Does that seem like a possibility?

I don’t know yet what Olympics would entail. I like the idea of including other countries. I really don’t want to read a lot of sports books (though 2 of my top 15-15 involved sports). If some task require multiple books, I think many would prefer flexible deadlines.

I don’t really have a sense of the four other challenges yet. I don’t usually like white elephant type trades so I ruled those out right away. I can’t tell how let’s make a deal relates to reading tasks yet. The space game focuses on the number of pages we read, which is ok, but not as much fun on its own. I’ll wait to vote until I learn more about the details.

[NancyJ]

===
For the 100 tag race, I was wondering how you’ll pick the tags. I don’t know how many people will submit ideas. I would hope to get a mix of challenging, average and popular tags.

Just playing around….

One idea: Each person will submit 10 tags, with their #1 choice identified. Assuming about 50 people submit a #1 favorite that meets the guidelines (e.g 5000 books) , the rest of the list would be filled by the tags that were suggested by the most people. I’ve used this method with other things to give everyone one of their top 2 choices. It’s easier with small groups.

A simpler option. We each submit 10 tag ideas, and the 100 with the most submissions are selected.

A weighted option.
We could also group the tags together before counting or drawing, If we wanted to get a mix of narrow, average and popular tags., we could select 30 narrow tags (*5000- 10000 books), 40 average tags (10000-20000 books) and 30% popular tags (20000-100000+ books).

[NancyJ]

Booknblues wrote: "
This Day in History
Every day of the year seems to have some historical significance. Somebody was born or died, a nation declared independence, a business started, something was built or any ..."

I’m looking forward to seeing what kinds of creative connections people come up with. I imagine some will be informative, and some might be comical.

Does it have to be a date in past history, or could it be a new historical event? There will be a total eclipse of the sun in my area in April. One of my book club friends is involved, so we’re looking for books that might be related. If a current event doesn’t work, I suppose I could link it to a past eclipse. What do you think?

[NancyJ]

Holly R W wrote: "I am drawn to "This Day in History" and have a question. It sounds like the challenge will be to read 12 books throughout the year, one book corresponding to each month. At the moment, I'm unsure w..."

Holly I really like this one too. It’s OK if you can’t do them all. In other monthly games we earned credit for each month we read the book. There was no penalty for what we didn’t read. (Though there was sometimes a bonus for whoever read the most or read them all.). I think each one could be fun for different reasons. I like this one because you can take your time to find really creative, interesting or comical connections between the books and the days.

I want to read about AI next year, so I might find a day that was critical to its development. Or maybe the day the Terminator movie was released. Haha.

[Joni]

I thank the admin for their hard work on coming up with these challenges. I am a very slow paced reader and year round or year long challenges work for me. Some of these I have a hard time comprehending or they just end to fast for me. I won’t vote, but will try my best to participate if i can. I do love this group.

[Deedee]

I haven't participated much in this group so I don't think my vote should count. That said, the challenge that appealed to me is the This Day In History.

[Linda C]

For Space Odyssey are there any restrictions on what we read outside of the tasks at the planetary stops? Do the books read for the planetary stops count toward miles to goal?

To see approx how many books it would take to reach goal:
Sun to Pluto = 3.7 billion miles = 3700 millions of miles
(500 pages=1 million miles) = 3700x500 = 1850000 pages to goal @~300 pages per book = 6166 books to read
(100 pages=1 million miles) = 3700x100 = 370000 pages to goal @~300 pages per book = 1233 books to read
(50 pages=1 million miles) = 3700x50 = 185000 pages to goal @~300 pages per book = 616 books to read
(10 pages=1 million miles) = 3700x10 = 37000 pages to goal @~300 pages per book = 123 books to read
(1 pages=1 million miles) = 3700x1 = 3700 pages to goal @~300 pages per book = 12.3 books to read
(0.5 pages=1 million miles) = 3700x0.5 = 1850 pages to goal @~300 pages per book = 6.2 books to read

If we count 8 planetary stops (with Pluto as the end point not a stop), and each stop is a book to read before getting back on the ship, then 8 books must be added to the above number.

Am I calculating correctly?? If so I think this would be a nightmare for Mods to work out. Players would be stopping in the middle of books to complete special tasks and pages per 1 million might be small decimals to keep book count reasonable for slower readers or for people who do multiple reading challenges and don't want to commit to a lot of reading for one challenge.

Just thinking this may need some reworking, before final votes are made. Hope I'm not overthinking this.

[Nicole]

First, I absolutely appreciate that math - so satisfying to see all those calculations lined up. The math minor in me swoons.

Second, I think we also have to take into consideration scale:

The distance from the sun to Uranus (Planet 7/9?) is 1.8 billion miles.

The distance from the Uranus to Neptune (Planet 8/9) is an additional 1.0 billion miles.

The distance from Neptune to Pluto (Planet 9!) is again an additional 1.0 billion miles.

Seven ninths of the planets lay in just one half of the total distance approximately. The scale between planets makes setting a pace difficult; in my opinion Neptune and Pluto would have to be stretch goals. Even then, the scale within the first seven planets is still highly variable. See example below. Regardless, you’re right that 500 pgs per million miles doesn’t make much sense, scaling would have to be much much smaller.

Example:

Sun to Mercury: 41.7 million miles @ 10 pgs = 1 million miles >> 417 pages

1-2 books of 300 pg length (to continue previous example)

Sun to Venus: 668 pages (~2 books)
Sun to Earth: 919 pages (~3 books)
Sun to Mars: 1438 pages (~5 books)
Sun to Jupiter: 4625 pages (~15 books)
Sun to Saturn: 8860 pages (~30 books)
Sun to Uranus: 17839 pages (~60 books)
Sun to Neptune: 27792 pages (~93 books)
Sun to Pluto: 37000 pages (~123 books)

Distances based on quick Google searches.

[Pam]

I just happened to read a book where they are traveling from Earth to Mars to Jupiter to Saturn and talking about the distance between each, and I thought...if I was reading this for that Space Odyssey challenge I would really want to get some kind of bonus points for subject matter!! Just a thought :)

[NancyJ]

Maybe there could be some magical shortcuts (worm holes?) or mathematical adjustments to compress the longer distances. What do you think Nicole? Would logarithms help, or a simple rank order? With a rank order Pluto would require about 9 books rather than 123.

I didn’t vote for this one anyway, because I don’t want to focus on page length next year.

[Nicole]

That sparks some ideas Nancy … I wonder if we could turn the challenge into a role play game of sorts. I don’t Dungeons and Dragons, but I’m thinking of something similar with a game master who tells the story as we go. We could all start at Earth and there could be a storyline that sends different groups of players to different destinations at different speeds. Example, a group of slower readers could be sent to Mercury from Earth and a faster group could be sent to a farther flung planet from Earth at a faster pace. Etc.

[Nicole]

The more I think about it, the more I think the Space Odyssey storyline game would be a lot of fun. If this is a winning challenge and the moderators are open to it, I would love to volunteer to be the game master and develop/narrate an interactive storyline.

[Anita]

Nicole wrote: "The more I think about it, the more I think the Space Odyssey storyline game would be a lot of fun. If this is a winning challenge and the moderators are open to it, I would love to volunteer to be..."

That's extremely sweet of you, and we would definitely take you up on that offer should that be the winning selection!