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Welcome to Book Games!

You have all been waiting and now it is time to volunteer to be a tribute in the latest Team Challenge from NBRC. May the odds be ever in your favor.

About this challenge
🏹 The arena is ready with challenges to complete as a team. If you want to survive then it is time to build up your supplies and get ready to battle.
🏹 This is for fun, however twists will occur to add an element of jeopardy to the points you are accruing - the spectators have to give their supplies somehow! Each team will have their fair share of these so the frustrations should be shared evenly.
🏹 As you read, your books should be allocated to one of 4 categories. These are: weapons, defense, food and shelter. While we have given suggestions to help with where to place each book, we encourage creativity. If a book isn’t allocated a category, then it won’t receive any points.
🏹 Starts on 15th May at 9am UTC and runs for 3 months.
🏹 Books must be at least 100 pages in length.
🏹 Only books started after the challenge start date can be used.

Category ideas
These are suggestions. Trust your gut and don’t overthink placement.

🏹 Weapons

weapon on cover
grey or metallic colour on cover
weapon named in the book
letters of weapon in title
author or main character initials in weapons
features a character who is a blacksmith
battle in book

🏹 Shelter

shelter on cover (i.e. a building)
red, purple or pink on cover
a character you'd like to shelter with
shelter letters in title
author or main character initials in shelter
features a character who works in construction
finding / making shelter critical element in book

🏹 Food

food on cover
yellow, orange or white on cover
food or drink named in the book
food letters in title
author or main character initials in food
features a character who is a cook
cover is a "feast for your eyes"

🏹 Defense

defense on cover (i.e. a wall, a mountain or a river)
green, blue or brown on cover
books can be heaped into a wall to form a defense
defense letters in title
author or main character initials in defense
features a character who is a soldier/police officer/public defender
siege in book

🏹���油��������

Weapon: Hot Prof & his rock.
Shelter: set up camp, enhanced by the Magic Blanket of UnderAge Love.
Food: scarfing down on disease-risk dino steak and melons. All the globular melons.
Defense: Hot Prof puts up a strong defence against the lustful ladies' wanton ways.



Weapons: it is thick enough to throw at someone as a weapon.
Shelter: You can shelter in the sewers (a diversion in the book for several chapters).
Food: as a classic is thought of as food for the brain.
Defense: The barricades built during the book.

Rules
🏹 Audio books are allowed. For page numbers, use the "default" GR book page numbers. If the "default" is a Large Print version, use the next most popular edition for page numbers. If there is no print / ebook, then the audio book must be longer than 3 hours, and page numbers will be set at 100 pages, no matter how long the audio is.
🏹 Books with MPGs Childrens / Kids / Poetry / Play / Graphic Novel / Illustrated / Photography / Art (or which have "Illustrated" in the title or an "Illustrator" contributor in the metadata) must have at least 25,000 words (must be a verified count. sites that provide estimated word counts are not valid sources for verifying word count). ArBookFind is a great site to double check (there are .com, .co.uk and .com.au versions). If in doubt, ask your captain. Another rule of thumb is the audiobook version should be over 3 hours.
🏹 Any book in any language will count, as long as it meets the criteria.
🏹 "Re-reads" will be allowed, if it has been six months since you have read the book. This includes listening to the audio version, if you've already read the book.
🏹 Only books read during the specified round can be used (“read date�� is what counts, not the day you start.) Books cannot be “banked�� from previous rounds to use later in the challenge.

Point System
🏹 Books less than 100 pages = 0 points
🏹 Books between 100 and 1000 pages = 0.1 points/page
🏹 Books over 1000 pages = 100 points
(points will be rounded up/down from 0.5 as per standard maths)


For current BOM (Book of the Month) discussions
Writing a day's worth of discussion questions = 40 points
Participating in a current BOM (participating in discussion) = 20 points

The first BOM for this challenge is the 16 May Adult/Nonfiction BOM.

NOTE: We will accept one team member per book per team for writing a days DQs. If, by three days prior to the BOM starting, we don't have enough volunteers to write all DQs, then we will let more than one team member per team write questions. If we have more people than days sign up (prior to 3 days before start date) we will randomise the volunteers to determine those who can write DQs.

Remember that you can collect your participation points from previous BOM (from January 2024) for an extra entry in the randomiser, on a basis of 3 participation points to 1 extra entry. Participation points from previous BOM that are already on the spreadsheet can be used. Your team will be allowed a maximum of 6 entries for each BOM.

Administration

🏹 This challenge involves adding a special bookshelf to your personal GRs bookshelves other than "read." You may choose a preexisting one.

🏹 Those people who want to keep their Profiles Private, must be willing to "Friend" their Team Captain(s), the NBRC Mod account, or one of the Moderators, to allow page count verification and to assist you if you are having difficulty with your bookshelves.

🏹 Please wait to be told to which Team you are assigned. It might take awhile; however, you will be able to count the books you have read from the START date of the challenge.

🏹 Once you actually join, please check-in with your team discussion thread by posting the name of your bookshelf. Remember to add a HYPHEN between words for your bookshelf.

🏹 Helpful Tip: Knowing about Sticky Shelves may help you put your assigned bookshelf near the top of your dropdown box.

🏹 With MOBILE DEVICES there have been major problems when trying to add books. If that is all you have to access the Internet, or you don't know how to Cut & Paste on it, then this challenge probably is NOT the right fit for you.

🏹 Discussion threads will be in the regular NBRC group. (No secret groups allowed)

🏹 You do NOT have to join the discussion, if you don't want to; communicating via posting a book is good enough. Nevertheless, Your Team wants to know if you are still participating. We understand Real Life gets in the way. However, please plan to "check-in" in some manner at least once every week. If we don't hear from you for two weeks, you may be replaced with another team member and be prevented from joining future team challenges


Sign-Up Information

Challenge requirements

IMPORTANT: To be a part of this challenge you need to be able to:
🏹 Read at least one book per MONTH
🏹 Create a special shelf for the challenge for the books you are reading (for ease of captains' lives)
🏹 Check-in on your team's discussion thread at least once per week
🏹 Have fun!

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★��

To join, we are using a Google Form to collect the below data.
Follow this link to complete the form:

★N������
★ŷ������ User ID Information (see under spoiler for how to find this)
(view spoiler)[ To find your ŷ������ User ID, click on your name (or go to your profile page). In the URL bar you will see something like /user/show/5.... In this example, your User Name is 5674827-kelly) (hide spoiler)]
★Approximate number of books read per MONTH! Be accurate - look at your ŷ������ stats to work it out!)
★Your continent (so we can try and match time zones)
★Your shelf name (for books read during the challenge)
★How often you'll be checking in on the team thread (note that you are required to check-in at least ONCE a week
★If you are willing to be a team captain or co-captain (note that you are required to be active on your team thread)

About Team Captains

🏹 We need people to volunteer to be Team Captain(s) or Co-captains whose duties include:

- Keeping a Google Spreadsheet that all members can view (we will provide you with a template)
- checking team members books read and page counts
- checking that the books are posted within the right time frame and submit each round by posting to the captains group (Posts will be due at the end of each round by 14th of the month at 9PM, London UK Time)
- communicating with a NBRC Moderator
- communicating with all Team Members
- making sure Team Members are staying active
- notifying the NBRC Mod if someone drops out
- have effective and kind (this is a game, remember) on-line communication skills to help members having trouble
- making sure Team Members belong on your team
- posting weekly status updates/reminders
- dealing with minor issues that arise


🏹 Please let us know, when you make a request to sign-up, if you are interesting in being a Team Captain or Co-Captain.


Important:
Do not sign for captain/co-captain, if you're not comfortable with sharing the personal info below:
*Captains are required to befriend the mod account or one of the mods to be invited to the captains group
*Captains will have to share their email account to be able to edit google spreadsheets

NOTE: Initial sign ups have now closed. You can still complete the sign up form to be placed on a reserve list and you will be contacted if/when a space is available on a team.

Teams will be formed and everyone notified over the next few days - keep an eye out on this thread and your GR inbox for more info!

Hunger Game Buddy Reads

Informal buddy reads will be held for the original trilogy of the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. One informal buddy read for each month of the challenge.

Informal buddy reads means there will not be formal discussion questions as with our groups BOMs.

However, in order to earn the 20 points for participation, players need to post at least 3 posts that provide a reasonable contribution to the discussion of the book. You do not need to provide a school worthy book report, but the posts need to be more than "Katniss is awesome" or "I love this book" to count for participation points.

The Buddy Reads for each book will run as follows:
The Hunger Games: May 15th to June 15th
Catching Fire: June 15th to July 15th
Mockingjay: July 15th to August 15th

Everyone needs a little help from a friend (or sponsor).

Supply drops consist of books read by the sending team to be used in a way chosen by the receiving team within specified criteria.

Teams have been paired up for the duration of Book Games and are allowed to send up to 3 supply drops each to their partner team per round. This is not required - your team could decide to not send any supply drops. But if that's your team's choice, your partner team could decide to do the same.

Paired teams are allowed to coordinate with requests for books which would be most helpful to the receiving team. However, the sending team ultimately gets to decide which books are sent as supply drops.

Sending Team

The sending team chooses up to 3 books to send to the recipient team each round. These can either be 3 random books or books that meet specific needs of the recipient team.

The books can be sent any time during the round and the books do not have to be sent at the same time. That being said, it would be most helpful to the receiving team if the supply drops were received early enough in the round to decide how best to use the books for their team.

The sending team logs the supply drop books on the respective round's book log, puts the books in an appropriate resource category, and receives page points for the books sent. However, the books sent for supply drops cannot be used for other tasks. The appropriate code for supply drops is added to the mini reference column.

Supply drop books cannot be sent until they have been read by the sending team.

Receiving Team

The receiving team can choose from a variety of options on how to use the supply drops. But once used, they are locked in and the supply drop books cannot be moved to a different spot.

Supply drops can be carried over into future rounds but can only be used for mini challenge tasks in the round they were sent.

- Mini Task: Supply drop books must work for the mini task they're being used for. This includes the read date being within the timeframe of the mini challenge.
How to log this on the spreadsheet: add the book to the appropriate round's book log, enter 0 for the page number, select "Supply Drop" as the resource category, then enter the appropriate mini reference code.

- Additions to resource piles: Supply drop books must meet a requirement of the resource pile.
How to log this on the spreadsheet: add the book to the appropriate round's book log the same way you enter any other book read by your team, select the appropriate supply drop code in the mini reference column.

- Protecting supply piles: Supply drop books must fit into that category AND have some type of shield/defense. These would need to be separate. So if you want to use a supply drop book to protect your defense supply pile, the book needs to fit into the defense category in 2 different ways.
How to log this on the spreadsheet: add the book to the appropriate round's book log, enter 0 for the page number, select the resource category you'd like the book to protect in column F and provide the reason why the book meets that pile's requirements in column G. Then add the appropriate supply drop code in the mini reference column in column H and provide the reason why the book meets the defense resource criteria in column I. Protection (column G) and defense (column I) must be two different reasons.


Team Pairings

District 1 & The Capitol
District 2 & District 13
District 3 & District 12
District 4 & District 11
District 5 & District 10
District 6 & District 9
District 7 & District 8

Make sure you get yourself the best resources possible at the start of the Games by getting bonus points for each of the tasks you fill. Each task can be repeated a maximum of five times. Each food item in text can be repeated once.

This mini challenge runs from June 1st to June 15 9am UTC


- Read a book with a orange cover
- "harvest" (plural OK, no other variants) in text
- Author initials in HERACLES
- Word in title is hiding a different smaller word (of at least four letters) inside it (not the singular form or verb tense differences) - examples LimonCELLO; THINg; wereWOLF (or indeed WEREwolf); HUNGer but NOT GAMEs (as that's the singular/plural)
- One of the following food words in text (plural OK, no other variants): corn, grape, ham, bread, cheese, apple, fish, chicken, bread, rice, tomato, pepper, salt, honey, lobster


- Horn on cover (instrument or animal equally OK. but not antlers please)
- Book set in Crete
- Book set in Idaho
- Author's name has a diacritic (Cornucopia was a concert tour for Björk. yes, it's tenuous, but go with it anyway!)
- "abundant" or "abundance" in text
- Takes place on a farm (farm meaning somewhere raising plants or animals to be sold for food)


- Title (including subtitle) includes all the letters CORNUPIA (no need to duplicate C and O)
- The cover has at least 3 different food items
- Set in Peru, Panama, Colombia or Venezuela (or combination of them to reach the 50%)


General Notes
Locations must represent 50% or more of the setting
Colour cover must be 50% the colour (use of common sense, please)

In order to succeed in the Arena you will need to battle with your competing District Tributes.

You have been matched with an opposition and will fight them twice (once in round 2 and once in round 3), switching who strikes first.

The fight will consist of parrying book titles back and forth, by matching the end of your opposing team's title with the start of your own. You can use or ignore articles at the start of the title. There must be an overlap of at least three letters.

Planning
To start the fight each pair will be spun a title by the Arena Masters. The first team must find a book with a title that overlaps by at least three letters, and declare their planned strike to their opposition team, who must then plan their riposte. Each team will plan out a maximum of 10 strikes each this way.
Books can be read in any language, but titles must be in English.

Note: planning must be completed within the first week, and you must NOT start reading any book until the second, fight, week.

Fighting
Once the fight phase starts each team simply reads their planned books!
There's no requirement to read them in the correct order, but if at the end of the week you have missed a planned strike then you will lose the battle, regardless of how many of the rest of the books you complete.

Supply Drops
Supply drops from your partner team can be used to provide ONE extension letter to help you make an overlap.
You can use either the first or last letter of your supply drop title to make the overlap work.
Supply drop books can be read during either of the two weeks, and may be started at any point during the challenge.

Points and Winning
Each team gets 5 bonus points for each completed strike
The winning team in each pair will get a further 5 bonus points
The winning team will be either:
- the team to make the last completed strike, if not all 20 books (across both teams) are read; or
- the team with the smallest number of overlap letters in their strikes, if all 20 books are read; or
- if there is a tie for number of overlap letters, a coin toss will be made by a neutral mod to decide the winner.

Example
Team A will strike first.
Their randomly assigned book title is Orphan Black.

Team A Strike 1: Blackwater (BLACK overlap, 5 letters)
Team B Strike 1: Terms and Conditions (TER overlap, 3 letters)
Team A Strike 2: Onset of Danger (ONS overlap, 3 letters)
Team B Strike 2: Anger (ANGER overlap, 5 letters)
Team A Strike 3: Gerald's Game (GER overlap, 3 letters)
Team B Strike 3: Me Before You PLUS a supply drop letter A (AME overlap, 3 letters)

Team A final total (of overlap letters) = 5 + 3 + 3 = 11 letters
Team B final total (of overlap letters) = 3 + 5 + 3 = 11 letters

Battle Pairings

District 1 & District 8
District 2 & The Capitol
District 3 & District 13
District 4 & District 12
District 5 & District 11
District 6 & District 10
District 7 & District 9

Timings
The first week in each of Round 2 and 3 shall be for planning your fight
The second week in each of Round 2 and 3 shall be for fighting your fight

In Round 2 Districts 1 - 7 will strike first
In Round 3 Districts 8 - The Capitol will strike first

Build Your Shelter Mini Challenge

Learn how to make the best shelter

Read books with the following MPG to create your shelter. Your team can read each genre a maximum of 3 times:

Non Fiction
-Specifically focused on survival in extreme conditions, wilderness survival, or emotional and psychological resilience.

Romance
- Use the bed sheets for a tent!

Science Fiction
- To gather some advanced materials for your shelter.

Historical Fiction
- So you can lay the foundations and learn from the past.

Mystery
- Enhancing your problem solving skills.

Thriller
- Create a camoflage and protect against the unknown.

Fantasy
- Enables you to use magical elements to strengthen your shelter.

Nature
- Use the nautural elements to survive in your shelter.

Contemporary
- These will give you new ideas for patterns and methods for creating your shelter.

Young Adult
- No shelter is awkward, and therefore complete, without a love triangle.

Literary Fiction
- You may need to take your time making a shelter, so this genre will help build your patience.

Crime
- They are out to kill you. Use this genre to build a shelter that is protective.

Horror
- Will help you be on alert and create natural alarm systems for your shelter.

Paranormal
- So you can communicate with with spirits and other entities to maintain peace in the shelter.


Create the walls
Create a series ladder for the walls by reading books in a series. You need 8 series book in order (which can include multiple of the same series but doesn't have to) to create each wall. Each series book must be a whole number for the wall.
You are creating up to 3 walls.

You can add in one .5 book (that meet the usual challenge requirements in terms of page count) per wall for windows. The window has to be in the run of the series numbers (you couldn't have 3.5 window in a wall made up of series #5 - #13). Windows have to be within the range of your wall, so if your wall is #2-9 then the window can't be either #1.5 or #9.5.


Example under spoiler:(view spoiler)[
Wall 1:
A Court of Thorns and Roses book 1
All the Broken Places book 2
Mockingjay book 3
Tyrant's Throne book 4
High Five book 5
The Hanging Tree book 6
Last Scene Alive book 7
Rattle His Bones book 8
wall is complete
We decide to also add in A Court of Frost and Starlight (book 3.5) as a window. (hide spoiler)]

Now for the door
Steal shelter books from other teams to make your door.
(This means reading a book another team has already read for their 'shelter' category.)
Get creative about how their book would be a door.
Is it a brown cover and therefore you are using it for your wooden door?
Does it have a door on the cover? That's obvious and not so creative, but, hey it works.
Does it have a character who is a builder? Great - get them to build your door!
You will need 4 books to complete your door.

�� Every book read, i.e. every task completed, is worth 5 points. Each book can be used for one task only.
�� Books for tasks can be finished in any order. No need to complete each part in order to get the points.

�� Books can be started at any point since the start of the Book Games challenge (May 15).
�� Books need to be finished after the start of this mini challenge on July 1st 9am UTC
and before July 15th 9am UTC.

�� Books used for this mini challenge do not need to be separate books from what you are claiming for your main tasks.
�� The usual book length rules apply.
�� Team spreadsheets will be updated with a mini challenge tab so that you can track your books and claim your points.

For this challenge you have two wheels, and will have one active spin of each at a time.
One wheel is the District Wheel, requiring you to complete the set of tasks associated with the District. Each task must be filled with a different book (can't use one book to fill multiple tasks).

The other wheel is the Arena Hazards Wheel, which is a spell out wheel. Each letter must be filled with a different book (can't use one book to fill multiple letters).
Spell outs can use the first letter of the title or series title (ignore or use THE, A or AN as you prefer), the first letter of the author, narrator* or translator* first or last names. For this version NO character names are permitted.
* these can only be used if the edition read was audio or translated

Once you have finished a wheel you can request a new spin from the other captains, or repeat the requirements again - the choice is yours!
For the District Wheel, if on respinning you receive a set of tasks you have already read you may request another spin for a new set.
For the Arena Hazards Wheel, you may NOT request a new spin even if you receive a duplicate word.




District 1 is luxury items
RICH in title
purple colour cover (50%+)
#1 in series
purple text on cover
item related to district on the cover
author first & last initials in LUXURY ITEMS
set in Japan (50%+)
plot element that can be linked to the district

District 2 is masonry and defense
WALL in title
brown colour cover (50%+)
#2 in series
brown text on cover
item related to district on the cover
author first & last initials in MASONRY DEFENSE
set in Italy (50%+)
plot element that can be linked to the district

District 3 is general electronics
IPOD in title
white colour cover (50%+)
#3 in series
white text on cover
item related to district on the cover
author first & last initials in GENERAL ELECTRONICS
set in Korea (North or South) (50%+)
plot element that can be linked to the district

District 4 is fishing
FISH in title
blue colour cover (50%+)
#4 in series
blue text on cover
item related to district on the cover
author first & last initials in FISHING
set in Australia (50%+)
plot element that can be linked to the district

District 5 is power/electricity
VOLT in title
yellow colour cover (50%+)
#5 in series
yellow text on cover
item related to district on the cover
author first & last initials in POWER ELECTRICITY
set in China (50%+)
plot element that can be linked to the district

District 6 is transportation
CARS in title
blue colour cover (50%+)
#6 in series
blue text on cover
item related to district on the cover
author first & last initials in TRANSPORTATION
set in Germany (50%+)
plot element that can be linked to the district

District 7 is lumber
WOOD in title
brown colour cover (50%+)
#7 in series
brown text on cover
item related to district on the cover
author first & last initials in LUMBER FORESTRY
set in Finland or Sweden (50%+)
plot element that can be linked to the district

District 8 is textiles
WOOL in title
white colour cover (50%+)
#8 in series
white text on cover
item related to district on the cover
author first & last initials in TEXTILES
set in India (50%+)
plot element that can be linked to the district

District 9 is grain
HUSK in title
yellow colour cover (50%+)
#9 in series
yellow text on cover
item related to district on the cover
author first & last initials in GRAIN PULSES
set in Pakistan (50%+)
plot element that can be linked to the district

District 10 is livestock
GOAT in title
black colour cover (50%+)
#10 in series
black text on cover
item related to district on the cover
author first & last initials in LIVESTOCK
set in Argentina (50%+)
plot element that can be linked to the district

District 11 is agriculture
FARM in title
green colour cover (50%+)
#11 in series
green text on cover
item related to district on the cover
author first & last initials in AGRICULTURE
set in Mexico (50%+)
plot element that can be linked to the district

District 12 is coal mining
COAL in title
black colour cover (50%+)
#12 in series
black text on cover
item related to district on the cover
author first & last initials in COAL MINING
set in Russia (50%+)
plot element that can be linked to the district

District 13 was in charge of nuclear weaponry
BOMB in title
orange colour cover (50%+)
#13 in series
orange text on cover
item related to district on the cover
author first & last initials in NUCLEAR WEAPONRY
set in United States (50%+)
plot element that can be linked to the district

Capitol is politics and communication
VOTE in title
purple colour cover (50%+)
#14 in series
purple text on cover
item related to district on the cover
author first & last initials in POLITICS COMMUNICATION
set in a national capital (50%+)
plot element that can be linked to the district


carnivorous squirrels
skewer-beaked birds
poisonous fog
electric forcefield
vicious hornets
dog-mutt cryptids
clock puzzle
tidal waves
urban tunnels
other tributes

This mini-game will start at 9am UTC 1 August, and end at the end of the challenge.
Books used for this mini-game must be finished during the period of the mini-game.
All books used in the mini get 5 points

Round 3 Mini First Spins

Team		District Wheel	Arena Hazard Wheel
District 1	District 1	electric forcefield
District 2	District 10	other tributes
District 3	District 11	other tributes
District 4	District 5	urban tunnels
District 5	District 9	vicious hornets
District 6	District 4	electric forcefield
District 7	District 9	urban tunnels
District 8	District 3	electric forcefield
District 9	District 7	dog-mutt cryptids
District 10	District 6	skewer-beaked birds
District 11	District 8	dog-mutt cryptids
District 12	District 7	urban tunnels
District 13	District 8	urban tunnels
The Capitol	District 10	tidal waves