After months of alluding to this event, I feel the time's finally come to reveal it to the community and begin accepting registrations.
The theme for this dueling tournament is "Established works". While players are welcome to make original characters for these duels, extra consideration will be given to those who superbly play Redwall-series canon characters, and also characters from existing fan fictions or RPs. (Established characters who you made up and have played before will receive more consideration than a totally new character, but not as much as if you played somebody else's characters well. ;) )
Also, unlike previous tournaments, you the players, along with your opponents, will get to choose the characters and the settings in each of your duels. You're not locked in to play one role for an entire RP. I felt that this would be the best way to give you the creative freedom that you need to produce the great things I know you're capable of.
OOC character and plot development is a critical part of this tournament. The emphasis here is not on "winning" each fight, but on quality role-play, and quality role-play is inherently a cooperative process. I can't tell you how many RPs (or, in a community I used to frequent, "webstories") I've seen collapse due to the writers trying to make their characters "better" and get a leg up on everyone else. Stories run that way inevitably required their own game moderators, and as much of the game was spent trying to sneak overpowered things past the moderator and other players as it was actually writing good stories. The power level of the characters and which character wins/loses the duel should not determine which player wins a match; it's about the writing skill and characterization.
We've had several ideas on what the best format for this tournament would be, and after some deliberation, I've decided on something like this: Players will participate in a round robin of duels, that is, each player facing every other player once. Depending on how many of you there are, you may be split up into two "divisions", to prevent there from being too many duels for y'all to write. When each player's sets of duels are over, there'll be one group melee thread per division consisting of all of the players in that division. After that's over, the top two players (either the top two in the case of a single division, or the top player from each division) will face off in a final duel.
Guaranteed awards given will be for 1st Place, 2nd Place, and, perhaps most specially, Congeniality, which is awarded to the player voted by staff and your peers the other players to be the most helpful/best "team player" to other players. 3rd and possibly 4th place awards may also be given in the event of a particularly large tournament. There'll be a panel of staff members that will judge each player's play in each duel, to determine rankings. Each participating staff member will have the opportunity to tell you about their criteria for judging posts, and you'll have the chance to get their advice for your work and ask questions about their ratings. While the exact details of how we give out our points is at each staff member's discretion, the minimum and maximum points possible will range from 0 to 100.
Proofreading and editing has a role in good story-telling, which is what we really want to encourage here. I feel the work that matters is the final product, and not necessarily nailing the steps you took to get there. So, while there'll be a time limit for each duel and a final "submission date" (which, by the way, will be clearly posted up in a stickied thread), until then, you and your dueling partner can make whatever changes you feel are necessary to improve your story, whether that's simply fixing typos or changing story elements. You're also free to seek others' advice in doing this, including other players and staff members. My only rule is that you keep all of your OOC conversations out in public, on the OOC discussion board that is provided, not in PMs, as it will be important to other people when judging your body of work.
I hope that adequately explains most of this. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in this thread. Sign up by posting your name in bold.
Current Registrants
Gonff the Mousethief
Delthion
Sagetip
Fatch of Southsward
Peony Groddil
LT Sandpaw
Ashleg
Captain Tamm/Leo
Dueling partners?
My plate's pretty clean right now, I might do it.
Quote from: Sagetip on September 05, 2016, 02:36:46 AM
Dueling partners?
Any person you're matched up with/against in a single duel.
Guess Sand would be the only one I could do.
I'll join!
Last time I did one of these I got a N/A for being so bad. Let's fix that, shall we? Gonff the Mousethief if you will.
I've never dueled before, or competed in a tournament... ;D
So do I post my name in bold if I want to join? Delthion.
Quote from: Sagetip on September 05, 2016, 02:43:15 AM
Guess Sand would be the only one I could do.
No, you'll get to duel with several different players (possibly everyone if there's not too many of y'all in the tournament ;) ), and talk to them for each duel.
Bold text does clarify your intentions, and I did say in the first post that you should, so yes. That said, I won't hold it against you if anyone forgets to use it, so long as they clearly say they want to join.
Quote from: James Gryphon on September 05, 2016, 03:08:28 AM
Quote from: Sagetip on September 05, 2016, 02:43:15 AM
Guess Sand would be the only one I could do.
No, you'll get to duel with several different players (possibly everyone if there's not too many of y'all in the tournament ;) ), and talk to them for each duel.
Bold text does clarify your intentions, and I did say in the first post that you should, so yes. That said, I won't hold it against you if anyone forgets to use it, so long as they clearly say they want to join.
I meant as a partner.
Sagetip
Well, by "partner" I meant whoever you're scheduled to play "against"/with. So if I schedule you to face off against, say, Peony (if she signed up) for your first duel, she would be your dueling partner for that duel.
OK WELL WHATEVER
This seems fun but stressful so I don't know.
Action? Drama? Adventure? Glory? Rewards? Prizes? Judging? Duels? Role playing? Quality over power? An emphasis on telling good stories over mindless under-detailed fighting???
Umm... Let me make this simple: Fatch of Southsward
Forget thermodynamics and no free time! I'm makin' some time! :) ;) :D ;D ;D ;D :o :o 8) ::) :P :-*
If anyone wants me to RP as their fanfic character, I'd be happy to give it a shot :D
I am interested but this is not me committing just yet.
Quote from: Capt. Leonardo V Williams on September 05, 2016, 05:15:58 AM
If anyone wants me to RP as their fanfic character, I'd be happy to give it a shot :D
I am interested but this is not me committing just yet.
We Happy Few lends its cast of characters to you, Cap.
I'm confused, so will this be a full on story that we work together with our 'opponent' to write?
Quote from: James Gryphon on September 05, 2016, 03:13:08 AM
Well, by "partner" I meant whoever you're scheduled to play "against"/with. So if I schedule you to face off against, say, Peony (if she signed up) for your first duel, she would be your dueling partner for that duel.
If she signed up?
If she signed up?! IF SHE SIGNED UP?! Man, surely my RP history can't be
that easy to forget.
Peony.I must say though, I'm surprised we're doing another dueling tourny so soon. Not that I'm complaining.
Quote from: Rosie Willowwater on September 05, 2016, 02:19:06 PM
I'm confused, so will this be a full on story that we work together with our 'opponent' to write?
I believe so. I'm sure James will shed some light on the subject for us.
So what's the reason for all of the characters being there?
Will we be making different character sheets for each duel?
By the by Lieutenant Sandpaw isn't sitting this one out.
I didn't think these rules were so complicated. ;) I'll try my best to explain things.
Quote from: LT Sandpaw on September 05, 2016, 03:32:33 PM
Will we be making different character sheets for each duel?
Quote from: Ashleg on September 05, 2016, 03:15:27 PM
So what's the reason for all of the characters being there?
Each duel is its own thing, a separate story from the others. You work all the details, like the story setting/background, the location your characters will be fighting, and what characters you're using, out with your partner/opponent in your OOC thread.
Now, if you and an opponent
want to continue some sort of story from one or both of your duels with other players, you can; that isn't the default state, though.
Quote from: Rosie Willowwater
I'm confused, so will this be a full on story that we work together with our 'opponent' to write?
Sort of, but the story revolves around the confrontation (which may, but doesn't necessarily have to be physical) between two characters. A good example of a duel thread (besides the not being finished part) is Wylder and Sandpaw's "The Hand of the Princess" (http://www.loamhedgeabbey.com/index.php/topic,209.0.html).
Mmkay. When do we start?
Since this is a major forum event, I'll probably give it until next Saturday or Sunday for signups to finish.
Once that's done, I'll pass out the schedule for the rest of the tournament on the Monday after that.
Can we start posting ideas, and discussions for different duels in the OOC boards or Tournament talk board?
Yes, that's fine. Remember that if enough of y'all sign up later for divisions, you might not be able to play every other person, though.
Quick question:
You mentioned that established characters and characters that appear in other role plays will be given special consideration.
What exactly do you mean by special consideration?
Should we make entirely new characters, or should we use old ones, if we want the best chance of a good result?
Well, I'd probably give using an established character (from the books, fan works, and roleplays), and doing it well, a few more points in my decisions.
It shouldn't change the outcome if there's already a big difference between you and your opponents, but it would tip the scales in your favor if it's close.
FINE.
Ashleg.
Quote from: Groddil on September 05, 2016, 06:15:58 AM
We Happy Few lends its cast of characters to you, Cap.
It's been a while since I read an entry in that story, so I'm in the process of re-reading it from beginning to the end of part I. But I think playing a character from that story would be really fun! Perhaps Malumgula and his obsession with fire would make for a fun opponent, or possibly Turnob... Give me another day or so. The story's great by the way! :)
Wanted to bump this thread to remind y'all that signups are expected to close soon. If you want to get in on this, now's the time. :)
Turnob from We Happy Few
Quote from: Capt. Leonardo V Williams on September 11, 2016, 10:21:00 PM
Turnob from We Happy Few
Oh, yeah. Gonna be keeping an eye on this, Cap. ;)
Are sign-ups closed?
Nearly. There's a couple of people who seem like they'd be into this kind of thing I might PM and ask if they're interested, but I expect we'll generate the schedule pretty soon.
All right, signups are closed.
New thread coming up.
Any room for a new player?