Date: December 1st, 2005 12:03 AM Author: hot adventurous university
I'm glad you asked. This belief that the outlining of a fort can be somehow "shortcutted" has become an issue on the board that I believe shows a skewed tendency among xoxo'ers to undervalue quality forts. And, frankly, it's a tendency I'd like to see reversed.
Sure it's not *that* difficult to throw together a rudimentary tree fort that may be able to withstand your basic attack from the clowns on Sherwood Lane, but what about when that group of older kids from Ruth Ellen Road gets wind and tosses together an assault? Well, when they do, the line between the survivors and those who spend the rest of their lives trying to convince prostitutes that cripples deserve a full service discount is clearly drawn at the outlining stage.
For example, you have your tree fort, complete with pull-up rope ladder, functional periscope, a walkie talkie system and three or four mounted bb guns. Simple enough and fairly by the book, sure. BUT, for those who didn't take the time to outline, where's the moat gonna go now? Around the tree in a circle? Not so fast. What about the big ass fucking root that you didn't notice when you were more concerned with getting an ill-gotten stack of nudie mags into the fort as opposed to outlining. Sorry. You're as good as crippled now. But surely it's easy enough to rig an escape pulley system that would lead you across the forest canopy and to safety in the event of a perimeter breach, right? Wrong again. Had you concerned yourself with outlining from the get go, you'd know that the big ass douglas fir on Mr. McKenney's property blocks eastward escape, Reid's pond makes anything but a submarine escape to the west doubtful, and the north is uphill while any attack will likely come from the east (obviously). Hope you enjoyed the use of your legs before gettting a chance to even break em in post-puberty.
In short, there's no such thing as too long. Absolutely no such thing. There may be a point of diminishing returns, sure, but can you really put a calculated value on an underground network of tunnels linking your various forts?
Date: October 29th, 2007 9:31 PM Author: bateful smoky nibblets
Date: December 1st, 2005 12:03 AM
Author: Regular Guy (builder of forts, admirer of Andre the Giant and snowboard god)
I'm glad you asked. This belief that the outlining of a fort can be somehow "shortcutted" has become an issue on the board that I believe shows a skewed tendency among xoxo'ers to undervalue quality forts. And, frankly, it's a tendency I'd like to see reversed.
Sure it's not *that* difficult to throw together a rudimentary tree fort that may be able to withstand your basic attack from the clowns on Sherwood Lane, but what about when that group of older kids from Ruth Ellen Road gets wind and tosses together an assault? Well, when they do, the line between the survivors and those who spend the rest of their lives trying to convince prostitutes that cripples deserve a full service discount is clearly drawn at the outlining stage.
For example, you have your tree fort, complete with pull-up rope ladder, functional periscope, a walkie talkie system and three or four mounted bb guns. Simple enough and fairly by the book, sure. BUT, for those who didn't take the time to outline, where's the moat gonna go now? Around the tree in a circle? Not so fast. What about the big ass fucking root that you didn't notice when you were more concerned with getting an ill-gotten stack of nudie mags into the fort as opposed to outlining. Sorry. You're as good as crippled now. But surely it's easy enough to rig an escape pulley system that would lead you across the forest canopy and to safety in the event of a perimeter breach, right? Wrong again. Had you concerned yourself with outlining from the get go, you'd know that the big ass douglas fir on Mr. McKenney's property blocks eastward escape, Reid's pond makes anything but a submarine escape to the west doubtful, and the north is uphill while any attack will likely come from the east (obviously). Hope you enjoyed the use of your legs before gettting a chance to even break em in post-puberty.
In short, there's no such thing as too long. Absolutely no such thing. There may be a point of diminishing returns, sure, but can you really put a calculated value on an underground network of tunnels linking your various forts?