Play Book Tag discussion

Booknblues and I are each working to develop some challenges for next year.

We have decided that our members will vote for one challenge from Anita's ideas and one challenge from Booknblues ideas.

Our goal is to get these challenges posted by November 7th, and at this point, we welcome questions!

I've found that questions have really helped us to finalize the specifics for each challenge and almost always raise some issue I've not considered!

For my part, I plan to post one challenge today, tomorrow, and Sunday.

Looking forward to the questions, but also hoping that each challenge has enough description that you will find it easy to determine which is your favorite.

PBT Eras Tour

This challenge is a low key one that will take you time traveling through the ages. The challenge will use the attached list of periods from Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

Each player will receive a starting era from a shorter list of well-known periods that will be revealed in advance. Your starting point will be selected at random to kick off the challenge. You must read a book that demonstrably fits or references the era and will be asked to denote how the title fits.

At the same time, you will receive an instruction about whether you will be moving forward or backward through time (also selected at random).

Whichever way you are time traveling, you may only move in increments of a maximum of 100 years. There’s a limit of two eras (reads) per month. Eras may not be repeated. The objective is to span the greatest number of years you can by the end of the challenge.

Your review for each book should aim to denote a year as closely as you can i.e. if you read a book about say Anne Boleyn that talks about her beheading, then the year would be 1536. Please denote one line of explanation in your review about why you are choosing the year you select. If your book covers a large span of years, it’s fine to select one in the middle or one that you think is most representative.

There are three ways to change your time traveling trajectory:

(1) If the book you read/review is tagged with the monthly tag (5 tags minimum), then you may switch directions (i.e. from forward through time to backward through time). This trajectory change is for one time use, may not be saved, and may only be used on your next read.

(2) The second way is to read a book that is tagged with the monthly tag 10 or more times. Each time you read a book that fulfills this extra challenge, you’ll receive a bonus that allows you to hop through time to ANY period. These time hopper awards may be saved and used as you wish and when you wish.

3) Finally, there will be wildcards. Each person will receive two wildcards, and they can trade these in whenever they want. If you trade one in, I will select a new YEAR for you using the randomizer. You will map that year to one of the eras from the list, and read a book from that era.

Everyone who finishes 12 books for this challenge will receive a participation points bonus. The top 5 time travelers as measured by how far they travel will be entered into a raffle for a special prize.

GRATITUDE: Thank you to Theresa for initiating this idea. I loved it and was able to develop a challenge that I think really is more strategic in nature and less about reading quantity. I thank her for her original thoughts as well as her brainstorming with me!

The Compass
All participants will start where they are currently located.
Participants will move by reading a book in the randomized direction from where they started.
Directions are given once a week, and are North, Northeast, East, Southeast, South, Southwest, West, Northwest.
If the participant has read and reviewed a book, they may take the randomized direction to the next location.
Participants will have 3 free tickets to choose the direction of their choice.
Moves can be any distance in the given direction.
The twist to this challenge is participants set their own challenge. For example: to circle the globe x number of times, to travel to 20 states, countries or provinces, to climb a number of mountains.
Extra points will be given for matching the tag of the month.

I like the sound of both of these.

Anita, I presume we would have a wider gap than 100 years if we were going back into pre-history? Or, is there no plan to include ancient or pre-history?

Joy D wrote: "I like the sound of both of these.

Anita, I presume we would have a wider gap than 100 years if we were going back into pre-history? Or, is there no plan to include ancient or pre-history?"

This is a great question. I do want to include ancient history and the very far future. So the rule about 100 years at a time is one that's going to need to be waived if it's just not possible.

I need to think about how that's going to happen, but I'll probably just ask you to alert me if you've reached the further ends on the timeline, and I'll give approval. If I can't figure out another mechanism. I'll give it some thought though so I can devise more systematic approach i.e. before X years and after Y years, the 100 year rule is waived. Open to ideas!

I love both - and of course I particularly love Eras, LOL.

Anita - you took my broad idea and made it workable, a real gift. Thank you! When I broached it to Anita I did want to include far past (think Clan of the Cave Bears or a book about the Dinosaurs) and scifi future. Of course I did not have a clue on how to wrangle that into some reasonable structure. Any bright ideas anyone? One I have but not sure this works in Anita's structure is to include in the randomizer one that's PreHistory and one that's Far Future - which includes a return to either 100 years before or 100 years after where you were when you got sent to Prehistory or Far Future. Lots of scifi is set in the past - either deliberately an alternative history like Master of Djinn or now because we have passed the future date of the book - 1984 or 2001: A Space Odyssey anyone?

Compass is marvelous, Fran! So I would start in NYC, and say I was given East -- I would head 'across the pond' - would there be parameters of the compass directions - is east just UK Europe or include North Africa for example and the Middle East?

P.S. Love the pick one from Anita's list and one from Fran's list.

Not sure this would work Anita, but what about if you reach a point where you cannot go forward/backward a random spin (maybe in 100 year increments to move you in the opposite direction (100, 200 etc. ) so you are not stuck again on the near future moves.

Joanne and Theresa, I think you both have the right idea. I'm going to need some kind of random round trip to the ancient world or the far future.

I think I need to define what constitutes those "eras" and then come up with how it works when someone approaches those.

I need to think on it some more, but I promise I will address it in the rules. Hopefully we don't need it to be perfectly sketched out in order to vote, but obviously if this is chosen, then we NEED a plan. I love getting suggestions as it spurs my own thinking process. So thank you!!

And thank you Theresa for your very supportive note above! I'm glad you like the voting format and these initial challenges!!

It would take some research, but pick a time in the past and a time in the future where the 100 year rule does not apply anymore. You get credit for 50 years either way. Call it time dilation.

Theresa wrote: "So I would start in NYC, and say I was given East -- I would head 'across the pond' - would there be parameters of the compass directions - is east just UK Europe or include North Africa for example and the Middle East? ..."

We would need to develop some parameters as we are having north east, east and south east. Just quickly looking at world map, going from NYC to Paris would work for East, as would Rome, Morocco, Turkey and Japan, but not Sweden, Iceland, Saudi Arabia, or Mongolia. London is probably close to the split hair point.

I have a question about The Compass challenge. Would the books have a tag requirement, (ie. Spain, if someone was going to Spain?)

Holly R W wrote: "I have a question about The Compass challenge. Would the books have a tag requirement, (ie. Spain, if someone was going to Spain?)"

I had the same question. Please say no!!

I really am thinking that it was thoughtful to implement the "one from each moderator" idea. In this way, each of you get to moderate challenges you like and thought of. I think that was a new idea that will really suit you both. I like it. I look forward to seeing what the other two challenges ideas will be from each of you.

Holly R W wrote: "I have a question about The Compass challenge. Would the books have a tag requirement, (ie. Spain, if someone was going to Spain?)"

While it won't be required, there will be a tag component built in with points, depending on 5, 25, or 50 tags. For those people who may be using books set in small town locations, or locations which may not have tags, a quote about the setting will be required. This location should not be an incidental part of the book, but the setting of the book.

One exception can be a travel book. For instance if your last location is San Diego CA, and you were given north for direction, you might read Alta California: From San Diego to San Francisco, A Journey on Foot to Rediscover the Golden State in which the author walks north from San Diego to San Francisco. In this case you would need quotes of both start and finish locations.

I just wanted to mention something about tags. I believe our annual challenges have always tried to work in the tags in some way, since this is what "Play Book Tag" is all about.

As Fran mentioned above, however, in some cases, it's not necessarily required, but may be added in for extra points, for example.

I understand the tag tie-in for PBT, but I also read lots of new books and less popular books, which have fewer tags in general. I am glad it will be optional.

Like Joy, I also read many newer books which do meet the spirit of the tag, but don't have the number of tags needed. This has been an obstacle to my participating in challenges. That's why I asked the question. I appreciate that it will be optional for this challenge.

Booknblues wrote: "Theresa wrote: "So I would start in NYC, and say I was given East -- I would head 'across the pond' - would there be parameters of the compass directions - is east just UK Europe or include North A..."

On thinking about this some more, using NYC where I am as a base and heading directly east, it eventually can take me to Japan which I could also presumably reach by going directly West - and even continue to reach Washington State by going east - Paris, Rome, Turkey, Japan, Washington State, Chicago, and west in reverse. Or will there be an invisible barrier - International Date Line?

I love the idea of creating a specialized global journey, one that reflects personal interests. I could, for example, have one that has me reading crime fiction annd thus experiencing detective work around the world. Or read books set during the Napoleonic Era wherever I land.

Would need to pull out my inflatable globe, purchased during Fly the Skies!

Oh, and everyone gets their own randomized direction each time, correct?

Theresa wrote: "I love the idea of creating a specialized global journey, one that reflects personal interests. I could, for example, have one that has me reading crime fiction and thus experiencing detective work around the world. Or read books set during the Napoleonic Era wherever I land. ..."

Those are great challenge goals and I hope everyone is creative with their goals, as there will be a reward for completion of the most creative challenges.

Theresa wrote: "On thinking about this some more, using NYC where I am as a base and heading directly east, it eventually can take me to Japan which I could also presumably reach by going directly West - and even continue to reach Washington State by going east - Paris, Rome, Turkey, Japan, Washington State, Chicago, and west in reverse. Or will there be an invisible barrier - International Date Line?..."

No barrier, so it would be possible. It would be sadly bending the rules if the challenge goal was to circle the globe the most number of times.

Oh, and everyone gets their own randomized direction each time, correct?

That is correct

Play Harder


A common challenge that I have seen around often is a list of different categories and the object is to try to select books to complete the list.

In fact, we did our own variant here to celebrate PBT's 15th birthday. You can reference that challenge as an example.

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

But now, I want to put our own member-driven spin on this challenge. Members and administrators will develop a list of reading tasks, and we will compile them into a database of tasks.

These tasks could be as simple as "Read a book with the word mystery in the title" to as challenging as "Read a book that's at least 1000 pages".

Then, each player will receive a CUSTOM list (randomized) of 12 books.

If members complete their list, they may request a new one (which may or may not have overlaps with the original).

Ideas for new tasks may be submitted all year long keeping the lists fresh and exciting.

Everyone who completes their list will receive an entry into a raffle to win a prize. Complete multiple lists to receive multiple entries. There will also be a participation points prize awarded for each list completed.

There will also be a bonus participation points prize at the end of the year if you complete a list AND read one book each month for the monthly tag.

Finally, you will earn 1 participation point for every idea you submit to the database (awarded monthly).

Joy D wrote: "I understand the tag tie-in for PBT, but I also read lots of new books and less popular books, which have fewer tags in general. I am glad it will be optional."

Oh, I get that, too. I want to read more Canadian stuff, but so much of it rarely has the requisite number of tags.

But then, I'm also less competitive (even if I wasn't an admin) and would still try to work in those Canadian books for other challenges, too!

Anita wrote: "Play Harder


A common challenge that I have seen around often is a list of different categories and the object is to try to select books to complete the list.

In fact, we did our own variant here..."

Another great idea and it really does feel like that wonderful PBT Birthday Challenge that we all liked so much. It particularly suits the set your own pace and even the mood reader quire well I think.

I love the 'ever-growing task list'. I do the PS challenge every year and am part of a GR group who reads it (I found PBT via that group actually - a member of both posted about a book she read for the Espionage tag in August 2018... and here I am). Those responsible at Popsugar for creating the list -- or those who were at one point - were silent members of the group until one day they asked us to submit ideas for prompts. Well we did and not only did we that year, there is still a thread for us to post prompt ideas to whenever we have one. I've added quite a few, like 'read a book with a map" or 'read a book set in a civil war'. Every now and then a particularly quirky one I suggest shows up in the annual challenge so someone is still monitoring that.

All that to say I already keep a list of 'prompts' which I would readily share as 'tasks'. It's a secret checklist on my phone!

Also, those who are members of ATY are used to coming up with tasks for their annual challenge as well.

Such a great interactive challenge, Anita!

Theresa wrote: "Anita wrote: "Play Harder


A common challenge that I have seen around often is a list of different categories and the object is to try to select books to complete the list.

In fact, we did our ow..."

Oh my gosh, I was straining and straining to think of the name of the originator of this challenge. POPSUGAR!!! Omg, thank you. That was driving me bonkers. I tried Google to no avail.

Yes, this is like a dynamic Popsugar challenge with participation points, lol.

Let Me Tell You a Story
Clearly we at Play Book Tag loves stories and we love having our voices heard. In this challenge we will be given a unique chance for both.

We are requesting your participation in providing your very excellent words for choices of the following parts of speech: noun, verb, adjective, adverb.

With the list compiled we will begin our game.

To start the participants will choose what part of speech they want and will be provided one from the randomizer.

When they are given their word they will find a book which uses that word in the title, can be found on the shelf with 5 tags (remember you can find any shelf using https://www.goodreads.com/shelf) or is the author's name.

Changing to singular, plural or possessive is allowed for nouns and verbs can change case or tense.

Extra points will be given for matching tag of the month, and for being on the shelf.


x number of skips/passes will be allowed during the challenge

All parts of speech must be requested during the challenge.

A review must be written before requesting the next choice.

At the conclusion of the challenge the participants will make a story using the words which they have been given. Points will be subtracted for words which haven't been used.

Longest and most creative will receive awards.

I really like this idea, Anita. I loved Birthday and this seems like an extended version of that and very flexible.

My question: if there’s a task on the list that you just can’t do (or that you hate) will there be any ability to swap for a random different one? Maybe a limited number of swaps in a year? Or is it a case of ‘suck it up, buttercup’?!

I actually really love the play harder idea!!!!

What a fun idea, Fran!

Booknblues wrote: "Theresa wrote: "So I would start in NYC, and say I was given East -- I would head 'across the pond' - would there be parameters of the compass directions - is east just UK Europe or include North A..."

That could be easily implemented with a circle divided into 8 parts put on a world map. I've tried to do it in Miro and will surely use it if this challenge wins. Here's how it may look like: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVLKDJT9...
I set the circle to start from my current location

All the ideas sound great, I will have trouble picking just 2 to vote for!

Anita wrote: "Play Harder


A common challenge that I have seen around often is a list of different categories and the object is to try to select books to complete the list.
In fact, we did our own variant here..."

I like the idea of this challenge especially the randomized list. Just an idea that maybe there should be an option to trade a category/task that we don't like for a different one from the master list of tasks like in the steeplechase challenge. Or instead of a list of 12 task/categories maybe 14 or 15 and we pick 12 on the list. Bonus points if you do all of them.

Oooh they all sound like fun. Am currently leaning toward Compass and Play Harder right now because I think they might be easiest to work into pulling things out of my shelf that I already have but I can't wait to see the rest of the suggestions.

@Anita - glad to oblige!

Just want to say that I do Popsugar every year and finish it easily just from mostly random unplanned reading. There are usually 3 or 4 prompts that take a little planning - but we are also reading for 50+ prompts. Anita's challenge has you reading for 12.

And we all learned in BWF that you can be surprised by liking a tag - or here a task - that your first thought was 'ugh.'

KateNZ wrote: "I really like this idea, Anita. I loved Birthday and this seems like an extended version of that and very flexible.

My question: if there’s a task on the list that you just can’t do (or that you ..."

Great question and idea! I'll build in a limited number of swaps. Say one swap per list. Or maybe 1 swap per quarter. I'll give it some thought. I may provide a way to win swaps as well.

Linda wrote: "Anita wrote: "Play Harder


A common challenge that I have seen around often is a list of different categories and the object is to try to select books to complete the list.
In fact, we did our own..."

I am going to provide some way to adjust the list. See my note to Kate above! Thank you for bringing it up.

Fun with Tags

Everyone submits three favorite tags. We kick off the game by drawing one tag (from the list of member submissions) using the randomizer.

At the same time, we will draw a number between 7 and 45. That number determines many days the tag remains “in play”.

Each individual can score points by the following means:

1. Read any book that fits the tag before the tag flips to a new one. - 5 pts
2. Read a long book (600+ pages) before the tag flips to a new one – 5 additional pts (10 pts total)
3. Read a book that fits the special tag and the monthly tag before the tag flips to a new one. - 5 additional pts (10 pts total)
4. Read the tag anytime during the rest of the year - 1 pt.

All these points will accumulate to you as an individual, BUT there will also be secret teams. You won't know who is on your team nor which team you are on. The teams will be drawn at random and will have names.

We will announce the team scores and rankings at the end of each quarter. At year end, the winning team will be announced and the members revealed. Members of the winning team will receive participation points, and one member of the team will be selected at random for a special prize.

Please note that the books will have to fit the tags with the usual 5 instances so take that into account when you make your voting choices.

That could be fun! They are all great. I am leaning less toward Eras and more towards the other two. Not everyone loves historical fiction. Will it be a weighted vote as it has been in the past?

I really like some of these ideas and may leverage them into my own challenge even if they don't win the vote. I was fiddling around with the Compass idea while exploring the Earth Roulette website and having a great time imagining the possibilities.

Anita wrote: "KateNZ wrote: "I really like this idea, Anita. I loved Birthday and this seems like an extended version of that and very flexible.

My question: if there’s a task on the list that you just can’t d..."

Love the idea of winning a couple swaps - maybe from tag matching a read on a task? Think something similar was mentioned in another of the challenges. Maybe there is a separate short finite list of broad tasks that you pick from - like BnB had the Grab Bag this year in Steeplechase - and you get 1 per list.

Amy wrote: "That could be fun! They are all great. I am leaning less toward Eras and more towards the other two. Not everyone loves historical fiction. Will it be a weighted vote as it has been in the past?"

@Amy - Eras is not by any means historical fiction only. Not even close. Dickens and Agatha Christie wrote contemporary fiction that reads to us now as historical fiction. Book just needs to be set between certain dates.

Theresa wrote: "Anita wrote: "KateNZ wrote: "I really like this idea, Anita. I loved Birthday and this seems like an extended version of that and very flexible.

My question: if there’s a task on the list that yo..."

Great suggestions!! Thank you!

I don't envy you all voting on BooknBlues challenges. I love both of hers so far, lol.

Theresa wrote: "@Amy - Eras is not by any means historical fiction only. Not even close. Dickens and Agatha Christie wrote contemporary fiction that reads to us now as historical fiction. Book just needs to be set between certain dates."

Lest I be remiss, I feel I must mention that "eras" also includes non-fiction!

Booknblues wrote: "Let Me Tell You a Story
Clearly we at Play Book Tag loves stories and we love having our voices heard. In this challenge we will be given a unique chance for both.

We are requesting your participa..."

Question: Will the submitted words be "vetted" beforehand to ensure there are an adequate number of choices that meet the 5-tag rule? I checked several random words and some have only a very few that would qualify. For example, for "serve" the list starts at 5 tags.

Amy wrote: "Will it be a weighted vote as it has been in the past?"

I'm not sure weighted voting works as well here since it is just three (or four maybe) choices per admin. As opposed to six choices and the top two win.

Thoughts?

Answer the Question
We are a curious bunch who are always looking for answers to our questions and that is what this challenge is all about.

Who, What, Where, When, Why and How! We are posing questions in this challenge. Participants will choose which interrogative word they want and will be given a randomized question to answer with a book of their choosing.

Members will be requested to provide questions for this challenge. Questions can be two different types, those which ask a general book related question as "Where is the setting in your book?"
or more specific questions which only some books will answer as "Where is the longest river?"

Books should be reviewed and the question answered before requesting the next question.

Points will be given for each answered question with additional points given for matching the tag of the month.

Points will also be given if the book meets a tag for the answered question, as perhaps France for the former question and Africa for the latter.

Participants will receive a given question only one time.

Participants must work through all the question words before repeating.

Questions will be posed one day a week.

Booknblues wrote: "Answer the Question
We are a curious bunch who are always looking for answers to our questions and that is what this challenge is all about.

Who, What, Where, When, Why and How! We are posing ques..."


Oh my, BnB! This is definitely a challenge inspired by a reader who ends up diving into Rabbit Holes as she reads!
One's that lead her to other books!

So for a question like Where is the longest river, would we have to read a book set in or about the Nile, Amazon or whatever it is? (I would have to look it up!) That seems awfully specific.

Anita wrote: "I'm not sure weighted voting works as well here since it is just three (or four maybe) choices per admin. As opposed to six choices and the top two win.

Thoughts?..."

Perhaps allow up to 10 votes in two groups, so the PBT member has 10 votes to spread among your three possible challenges, and ten to spread among Fran's options.

I think multiple votes help to indicate the options into those most strongly preferred.

Joy D wrote: "Anita wrote: "I'm not sure weighted voting works as well here since it is just three (or four maybe) choices per admin. As opposed to six choices and the top two win.

Thoughts?..."

Perhaps allow ..."

Okay, thank you for your input. We can do this.

Robin P wrote: "So for a question like Where is the longest river, would we have to read a book set in or about the Nile, Amazon or whatever it is? (I would have to look it up!) That seems awfully specific."

You could read a book about Africa or South America. I did look it up and it seems as if there is some dispute about the length.

That is why I need help coming up with questions because we want the answers to be general enough that there would be tags for the books, but at the same time make people work a little to find a book.