So, you've been doing a legacy or a challenge, and struggled to make it through, while posting story updates on the board. Maybe you're several generations in. Maybe you're almost done. But then...

CATASTROPHE!

What if the Fates turn against you? What if the villain wins?

I suggest that if you're writing a legacy/challenge, and you fail, but manage to write it up in truly spectacular fashion, that you be awarded the Spectacular Failure medal. For those times when things are looking up, but then take a sudden nosedive, or when the family that has overcome obstacle after obstacle finally succumbs to their long-suffering nemesis' master-stroke. Or maybe fate played a role, and a flu epidemic wiped out all the heirs, spares, and spouses. Perhaps the Celebrity Chef set the hot dogs on fire, and died in ignominy as the Social Worker took away all the children. Maybe the apocalypse family was one promotion away from lifting the Paranormal restrictions, when the ghosts decided to have a party and scare EVERYONE to death, and you have the pics to prove it.

Maybe the author just got sick and tired of the challenge and instead of simply quitting, decided to go out with a bang, or maybe the author was really caught by sims doing their thing in a jaw-droppingly messed-up manner that made it simply impossible to recover and win the challenge, or maybe the author wrote an adversary that was simply too good to fail. If you write it up and post it, and enough people agree for it to be considered really a spectacular failure, you get a medal. Not for simple failures - this needs to be an impressive, epic failure: a crash landing from a family that was previously flying high. And it needs to be written up and posted as such.

Why such a medal, you ask? There are a few reasons.

• * We've all seen some really plotty stories on here, and they're great. However, we all know that the author will do everything possible to ensure that the line continues and the challenge/legacy is successful. It sort of takes out some of the suspense. Sure, we may see the loss of a favorite character, but the villains never truly win. The families never truly die off. You know they'll make it through the latest challenge. It's just a question of how. With the possibility of a truly Spectacular Failure, though, you just don't know. There's some actual suspense.
  • *How many times have we seen a little admission of "I exited without saving," because they were doing great, until calamity struck?
    *How many times have we seen a deus ex machina, because the author wrote the villain's plot so well that the heroes just couldn't win, but if they lost, the challenge was over, and they put 8 or 9 generations into this thing, and they can't lose NOW? They want that completion medal!
  *And how about when we read a great story that just stops abruptly, with a little note at the bottom of the page saying, "I tried everything to save this family, but Sims are so STUPID!, and now they're all dead, and I failed, so no more updates. Please move this to the graveyard." If the author were to actually write out that "tried everything to save them" ending, we readers would get some closure and the beleaguered author would at least have a chance for a medal of recognition. It may be a consolation prize, but it has to be earned.
  *And of course there's always the possibility that one of us authors will go to great lengths to work the legacy, draw the readers in, really make them care about the heroic family, and then BOOM! Because we can. One of my favorite books is like that. Ed Bolme wrote a wonderful story, where the hero has struggled and overcome and is just about to win, and then... "BOOM," is literally the last word of the novel. And I LOVE it.

Note - this can't be earned by saying, "My computer blew up." You have to write up that failure, it has to be in-world, and it has to be epic. Your readers would be the ones who nominate you for the award, and a mod would make the final decision.

Awesome - This is a great idea and thank you for all of the detail, and thank you for posting it. Give us some time to talk about it and see what we come up with.

I really like this idea too, a medal given out rarely for truely great written legacies that just didnt quite make it to the finish line. Love it.

I really like this as well!

I just wanted to touch base on this suggestion. We have not given up on it, it just slipped a little down the priority list. It is still on the list, though, so that is a good thing.

This sounds fantastic. There should be a special place for these stories, too, rather than sticking them in the graveyard. After all, they do have a complete ending.

That is a good point, Rose. I will add it to the discussion taking place.