Question List(s) of recommended starting points for newbies?

I expect this has come up already, and I know that the Wiki has the full list of stories in chronological order, but has there been any thought to a list of Recommended Starting Points? The previous site has a separate "recommended order" list, which was somewhat useful, but I think that there needs to be more than a single canon order for the site, especially since not everyone is going to want to dive right into the main story.

I think we need listings on this site itself, not only for the in-world chronological order of the stories (having it on the wiki isn't discoverable enough, IMAO), but also for points of interest - the stories for specific characters (we have the author filter, but that's not quite the same thing), lists for the combat finals. list of more-or-less stand-alone one-shot stories which could serve as an introduction, and a number of other special categories.

The stories already have a tag system, but AFAICT there is no way to sort or filter based on the tags; this would give most of the functionality I am recommending, and would be at least a starting point. Even if we keep the master lists out on the wiki, adding prominent links to them would probably be advisable.

As I said, I expect that this has already been discussed, and that I just didn't find the threads about it. If there were any earlier discussions, I would appreciate pointers to them. TIA, everyone.

Just to explain why I am bringing this up: I have at times given people recommendations to check out the series, and I have had some complain that they didn't want to dive right into the main story, or that they couldn't find the start of the storylines, or that they had trouble finding the later stories in a series. I have taken to sending out emails with the following information and recommendations; for some reason, the links didn't paste in, but in the email messages they are linked to the story titles. I am guessing others have run into similar problems, which is why I think this should be addressed.

This is a web serial/shared-universe series I have been following for years. The stories I've marked as 'one-shots' are more or less stand alone stories, not part of the main storylines, and thus would probably be easier to read on their own.I specifically suggest starting with the "Combat Finals" stories, actually. The explanation about those is below.

The premise of this web serial/shared universe series is somewhat similar to The X-Men, or more accurately, the original iteration of the spin-off series The New Mutants (that is, there's no superhero team going around doing good deeds, just a school and a bunch of kids).

Whateley Academy is a secret high school for super-powered mutant teens where they can learn to control their powers and learn survival skills needed to avoid being taken advantage of and/or attacked by mobs of hostile 'baselines' (ordinary humans). Both heroes and villains alike are supporters of the school, and the school maintains a policy of neutrality, so there is no actual imperative to become superheroes (or super-villains), though some students clearly have plans in one or the other direction from the start.

Most of the 600+ students have relatively minor powers - for example, one student, Aquerna, is an Avatar (a spirit-catcher, who can make a bond with a spirit being such as a totem animal or a kami and use it's abilities in exchange for giving the spirit a hallow to live in) who has the spirit of the Squirrel; her powers are mostly limited to talking to squirrels and chipmunks, climbing, and jumping really far, making her one of the school jokes. Some, on the other hand, have real world-shaking power, such as the New Olympians, who are the hosts of the ancient Greek Gods.

The initial main characters are the members of a training team called Team Kimba. The origin stories for five of the Team Kimba characters (the sixth, Lancer, didn't get a PoV story until much later) are:

Team Kimba as a group: "Welcome to Poe", "Quoth the Ninja, Nevermore!", and "First Assembly"
Chaka: "Enter the Chaka!"
Fey: "Mom, I don't Feel So Good", "PMS and Other Problems", and "Adjustments"
Generator and Shroud: "Coming Out","Away From Home" and "Becoming a Girl"
Phase: "Ayla and the Late Trevor Goodkind" and "Ayla and the Blackmailer"
Tennyo: "Unexpected Consequences" and "Another Day, Where Are We Going Again?"

One-shot stories
Here are some one-off stories which can be read with only minimal knowledge of the series as a whole. Note that these are mostly in the middle of the 2006-07 school year, so there are spoilers for those who want to read the series in order.

Sara's Little Purple Book - a primer on the difficulties of intimate relationships when superpowers are involved
The Bad Seeds
A Single Fold
Toni and the Tiger
Parent's Day
The Case of the Poisonous Patent
Three Little Witches
Crime and Chaos - this one is basically a "Law and Order" pastiche, but it does give a look at the world outside of the school. One of the detectives, Janice Talbert, later reappears as a new teacher.
Mimeographic - more backstory material, from the perspective of one of the major villains
The Big Idea

Also, the Jobe stories are mostly independent of the rest, as are Aquerna's:
The Book of Jobe
The Second Book of Jobe: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
No Beast So Fierce - takes place concurrent to 2nd Book of Jobe Parts 2-4
Saks and Violence

Aquerna:
Never Look a Gift Squirrel in the Mouth
Straight from the Squirrel's Mouth - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10
Spring, and a Young Squirrel's Fancy...

Combat Finals
Most of them are from the Fall 2006 Combat Finals; 'combat finals' are a twice-yearly student vs. student challenge (with additional challenges from simulated civilians and law enforcement)which all able-bodied students must take part in. While (despite the name) they don't necessarily have to involve fighting, and clever solutions that win while avoiding a direct fight actually can score better than a brawl, not many teens are going to think ahead enough to do anything more than punch each other's lights out. Freshman and sophomore students are tested separately from juniors and seniors, and while most matches are in the Arena 99 facility, some are held in the VR Simulation system. In theory, challenges are selected at random, except for those unlucky few chosen for The Crash, a special set of challenges for specific groups of students intended to teach them and the audience a lesson. In practice, some weaker students (mostly from groups like the Underdogs, or some Hawthorne Cottage residents) are selected for less arduous challenges, while others singled out for special treatment for other reasons (such as disciplinary problems).

One problem the school can't seem prevent is that the footage always manages to get leaked out of the school, and the Pay-Per-View "Mutant Deathmatch" shows are popular with betting halls around the world. It's almost as if someone in the administration had something to do with it... someone like D33rcr0$$, perhaps...

In these stories, the announcer is Peeper, the school's would-be paparazzo, and his minion/whipping boy, Greasy.
The Pushover - Bugs vs. Tarmac
Never Look a Gift Squirrel in the Mouth - Aquerna vs. Buster
Stress Fracture - Fractious vs. Stopwatch
What's Up, Dork? - Foxfire vs. OMAG
Chasing the Dragon - She-Beast vs. Zhong Lau
Gearhead - Loophole vs. Sizzle
Combat Boot - Phase vs. Belphegor
A View to a Smell - Peeper v.s Miasma

A few character origin stories:
Mama's Boy
Steel Ribbon
Shine

Here's the WebArchive version of the Reader's Preference reading order. You could ask Kristin to remake it as another tab-thing on the same pages that give a link to the Wiki on the top. Or make a new order and have Kristin post that. Or something.

Could use the WhatIF function to make a page to test it out...

web.archive.org/web/20150829052611/http:...rg/storiesSort2.html

Kristin has responded to this a few times.

We don't really have a way of implementing other lists other then someone manually creating and maintaining them, and we moved to the CMS system to get away from doing that, Kristin doesn't have the time to do it.

If someone wants to use the WhatIF system to create and maintain the pages, she's all for it, but she doesn't have the time to do it herself.

As before, we point you to the columns of the existing lists, and the abilities to sort according to any of them already built in.

OK, that's an understandable position to take, and it would be unfair to you for me to demand you take on a lot of extra work. Perhaps what some of us could do is prepare lists of personal recommendations, either here or on the wiki, and a page or sticky thread could be set up with a master set of links to those.

Even if this isn't suitable, I still think that putting a link to the master list in the Wiki - not the main page of the wiki, but the story list specifically - somewhere prominent on the home page might be a good idea. While I can understand if you lack the time to do this any time soon, I think it would still help a good deal, and would consider doing that or something similar eventually.

If you want it on the main site, feel free to create a document in the WhatIF section of the CMS. Once a document is created in the CMS, it's relatively easy for Kristin to move it to anywhere else in the site.

You can use HTML to make it how you want, but if you leave the font and format pretty simple tags, <b>, <h3>, etc, then the CMS for the site can take care of making it match any future changes Kristin makes.

OK, I have put the first of these lists in the WhatIF section, though I don't think it is published just yet. Comments and corrections welcome.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: OK, I have put the first of these lists in the WhatIF section, though I don't think it is published just yet. Comments and corrections welcome.

OK, this wasn't set to 'published' and is stuck, unfortunately it's been moved to the main WhatIF section this way, and only Kristin (and Warren I suppose) have editing permissions for that section so that they can unstick it.

Schol-R-LEA, you might want to review the steps to publish in the Walkthrough

Other than the published date ( many thanks for the effort to maintain those dates in the migration ) I would say the best sort option would be timeline dates. ( a lot of work to implement here since timeline isn't a part of the fields available, use the wiki lists, much easier )

Reading the stories in timeline order helps the reader follow the different arcs.

If they want to read a specific character's arcs, then read by publication date from the author then use the characters tag to get extra stories with cameo type appearances.

For an answer I can only quote Maria Von Trapp, from the Sound of Music.

annachie wrote: For an answer I can only quote Maria Von Trapp, from the Sound of Music.

That's a very good place to start.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Just to explain why I am bringing this up: I have at times given people recommendations to check out the series, and I have had some complain that they didn't want to dive right into the main story, or that they couldn't find the start of the storylines, or that they had trouble finding the later stories in a series. I have taken to sending out emails with the following information and recommendations; for some reason, the links didn't paste in, but in the email messages they are linked to the story titles. I am guessing others have run into similar problems, which is why I think this should be addressed.

This is a web serial/shared-universe series I have been following for years. The stories I've marked as 'one-shots' are more or less stand alone stories, not part of the main storylines, and thus would probably be easier to read on their own.I specifically suggest starting with the "Combat Finals" stories, actually. The explanation about those is below.

The premise of this web serial/shared universe series is somewhat similar to The X-Men, or more accurately, the original iteration of the spin-off series The New Mutants (that is, there's no superhero team going around doing good deeds, just a school and a bunch of kids).

Whateley Academy is a secret high school for super-powered mutant teens where they can learn to control their powers and learn survival skills needed to avoid being taken advantage of and/or attacked by mobs of hostile 'baselines' (ordinary humans). Both heroes and villains alike are supporters of the school, and the school maintains a policy of neutrality, so there is no actual imperative to become superheroes (or super-villains), though some students clearly have plans in one or the other direction from the start.

Most of the 600+ students have relatively minor powers - for example, one student, Aquerna, is an Avatar (a spirit-catcher, who can make a bond with a spirit being such as a totem animal or a kami and use it's abilities in exchange for giving the spirit a hallow to live in) who has the spirit of the Squirrel; her powers are mostly limited to talking to squirrels and chipmunks, climbing, and jumping really far, making her one of the school jokes. Some, on the other hand, have real world-shaking power, such as the New Olympians, who are the hosts of the ancient Greek Gods.

The initial main characters are the members of a training team called Team Kimba. The origin stories for five of the Team Kimba characters (the sixth, Lancer, didn't get a PoV story until much later) are:

Team Kimba as a group: "Welcome to Poe", "Quoth the Ninja, Nevermore!", and "First Assembly"
Chaka: "Enter the Chaka!"
Fey: "Mom, I don't Feel So Good", "PMS and Other Problems", and "Adjustments"
Generator and Shroud: "Coming Out","Away From Home" and "Becoming a Girl"
Phase: "Ayla and the Late Trevor Goodkind" and "Ayla and the Blackmailer"
Tennyo: "Unexpected Consequences" and "Another Day, Where Are We Going Again?"

One-shot stories
Here are some one-off stories which can be read with only minimal knowledge of the series as a whole. Note that these are mostly in the middle of the 2006-07 school year, so there are spoilers for those who want to read the series in order.

Sara's Little Purple Book - a primer on the difficulties of intimate relationships when superpowers are involved
The Bad Seeds
A Single Fold
Toni and the Tiger
Parent's Day
The Case of the Poisonous Patent
Three Little Witches
Crime and Chaos - this one is basically a "Law and Order" pastiche, but it does give a look at the world outside of the school. One of the detectives, Janice Talbert, later reappears as a new teacher.
Mimeographic - more backstory material, from the perspective of one of the major villains
The Big Idea

Also, the Jobe stories are mostly independent of the rest, as are Aquerna's:
The Book of Jobe
The Second Book of Jobe: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
No Beast So Fierce - takes place concurrent to 2nd Book of Jobe Parts 2-4
Saks and Violence

Aquerna:
Never Look a Gift Squirrel in the Mouth
Straight from the Squirrel's Mouth - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10
Spring, and a Young Squirrel's Fancy...

Combat Finals
Most of them are from the Fall 2006 Combat Finals; 'combat finals' are a twice-yearly student vs. student challenge (with additional challenges from simulated civilians and law enforcement)which all able-bodied students must take part in. While (despite the name) they don't necessarily have to involve fighting, and clever solutions that win while avoiding a direct fight actually can score better than a brawl, not many teens are going to think ahead enough to do anything more than punch each other's lights out. Freshman and sophomore students are tested separately from juniors and seniors, and while most matches are in the Arena 99 facility, some are held in the VR Simulation system. In theory, challenges are selected at random, except for those unlucky few chosen for The Crash, a special set of challenges for specific groups of students intended to teach them and the audience a lesson. In practice, some weaker students (mostly from groups like the Underdogs, or some Hawthorne Cottage residents) are selected for less arduous challenges, while others singled out for special treatment for other reasons (such as disciplinary problems).

One problem the school can't seem prevent is that the footage always manages to get leaked out of the school, and the Pay-Per-View "Mutant Deathmatch" shows are popular with betting halls around the world. It's almost as if someone in the administration had something to do with it... someone like D33rcr0$$, perhaps...

In these stories, the announcer is Peeper, the school's would-be paparazzo, and his minion/whipping boy, Greasy.
The Pushover - Bugs vs. Tarmac
Never Look a Gift Squirrel in the Mouth - Aquerna vs. Buster
Stress Fracture - Fractious vs. Stopwatch
What's Up, Dork? - Foxfire vs. OMAG
Chasing the Dragon - She-Beast vs. Zhong Lau
Gearhead - Loophole vs. Sizzle
Combat Boot - Phase vs. Belphegor
A View to a Smell - Peeper v.s Miasma

A few character origin stories:
Mama's Boy
Steel Ribbon
Shine

I would also recommend "Razzle Dazzle" to get a better flavour of the overall world-as-it-stands, with the caveat that it's being told from the PoV of a supervillain, so you don't end up knowing if ANY of the things you have read are true...

I also saved a copy of the timeline that one fan generated using PHP, that shows the stories arranged by character, as well as chronologically over the school year.

It's html-based, so it can't be posted here, as the site security doesn't allow html attachments. (And quite right too. It would be a gaping loophole for spammers to use if you did.)

I found that this helped a lot when trying to work out where each of the stories fitted in with all of the others.

If one of the site-admins could drop me a line, i'll forward it on.

It goes like this:

First, there was nothing. Then it all exploded, and the stars formed, and the dust coalesced into planets and cooled. The fish crawled out of the oceans and turned into dinosaurs, but they all died when their meteor deflector failed, and they got buried. Then the sheiks came and started charging the West too much for oil. Somewhere in that mess, Whateley was started.

Any questions?

Mister D wrote: I also saved a copy of the timeline that one fan generated using PHP, that shows the stories arranged by character, as well as chronologically over the school year.

It's html-based, so it can't be posted here, as the site security doesn't allow html attachments. (And quite right too. It would be a gaping loophole for spammers to use if you did.)

Make a copy and change the extension to "txt"?

Compress it into a zip or tar or something?

Also. That's a long quote... Shrink it? Well, people could just scroll down to the relevents...

elrodw wrote: It goes like this:

First, there was nothing. Then it all exploded, and the stars formed, and the dust coalesced into planets and cooled. The fish crawled out of the oceans and turned into dinosaurs, but they all died when their meteor deflector failed, and they got buried. Then the sheiks came and started charging the West too much for oil. Somewhere in that mess, Whateley was started.

Any questions?

Now, Mr. Elrod as you’re the oldest, would you mind telling me what happened?”

The raptor’s eyes locked with the other two students and what appeared to be a mischievous glee lit within them. His hands began to move and the computer generated voice spoke once more. “In the beginning, two hundred billion years ago, the universe was created in a massive explosion we call the Big Bang…”

“Skip a bit, Mr. Elrod,” drawled Mrs. Carson while she suppressed a very inappropriate smile at the youth’s sense of humor.

elrodw wrote: The fish crawled out of the oceans and turned into dinosaurs, but they all died when their meteor deflector failed, and they got buried.

To bring this back to where it started I just searched for Jinn I can only find 6 or so stories tagged with her, yet I know that at Chrystal hall there was a whole arc of stories featuring Jade and Jinn. Bottle a Jinn comes to mind especially. So, I agree with the original poster, I would like to have the list that was at Chrystal hall back. It was a good place to start for a newbie. I read my first taste of the universe on BCTS but I wanted to get more of a feel for the universe so I read all of the Kimba stories that I could, but now when I'd like to go through them again I'm finding it difficult at best and sometimes I get things out of order. FEX I read Ayla and the Mad Scientist before the birthday brawl this time around, and as I said, I can't find Bottle a Jinn at all.

^ So, you didn't see this link?: web.archive.org/web/20150829052611/http:...rg/storiesSort2.html

Or do you mean remade, 'cause Kristen already said something about that. Thankfully, this thread isn't too long, so you can just go to the previous page and search "Kristen Darken"

Anne wrote: To bring this back to where it started I just searched for Jinn I can only find 6 or so stories tagged with her, yet I know that at Chrystal hall there was a whole arc of stories featuring Jade and Jinn. Bottle a Jinn comes to mind especially. So, I agree with the original poster, I would like to have the list that was at Chrystal hall back. It was a good place to start for a newbie. I read my first taste of the universe on BCTS but I wanted to get more of a feel for the universe so I read all of the Kimba stories that I could, but now when I'd like to go through them again I'm finding it difficult at best and sometimes I get things out of order. FEX I read Ayla and the Mad Scientist before the birthday brawl this time around, and as I said, I can't find Bottle a Jinn at all.

When we were migrating the stories we mainly concentrated on getting them all here intact as quick as we could... tags were added to most but some may have been missed along the way... I've tried to add them, here and there, as I notice they're missing and have the time but it helps if someone points out where they notice the discrepancies. We've got a Canon Stories Migration - Corrections thread that you can use to let us know about such things... Link

As for a list of stories... As talked about in this thread... people can build lists and we'll host them for others to use. I, myself, tend to just hop over to the wiki and use the lists built-in there since they can be sorted in different ways and the links can be followed back to this site... Link

I must have been asleep the last time I read through this thread. I'd thank you twice if I could.