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+----- Thread: [5] *The Face to Face* (/showthread.php?tid=1210)
[5] *The Face to Face* - Proto Man - 04-10-2015
Competition and Judging
Welcome to the premier event in survival. In Dante's Abyss, you are writing your character's experience on the island. You, the writer, are also taking place in a game that requires a great deal of luck and strategy. As much as this is a competition about writing engaging characters, this is also a contest of wits between the members of the community.
Many things are in your control -- Your allies, where you move, how you spend SP, how your write.
But somethings are out of your control -- Your starting Weapon/Item and the various fights that occur.
Anytime that two or more characters land on the same square, a ‘face to face’ will occur.
A ‘Face to Face’ is a confrontation authored by the Host of Dante’s Abyss. The moment a ‘Face to Face’ occurs the Host will make a post in the thread that states ‘Face to Face’ and includes the characters involved. Those characters cannot post in the meantime (anyone else may continue to post normally).
When a Face to Face has happened, you'll see a post like this:
Quote:Face to Face
Retane, Guu, Atelos
I won't reveal who may be allied with who until the actual conflict is edited into the post. Depending on the characters involved and the complexity of judging the confrontation, the Face to Face will be up as soon as 15 minutes and as late as an hour and a half. If something happens where I will take longer than 90 minutes to write the post, I will let the players involved know this (this could happen, my life can be goofy sometimes).
The Face to Face is where the action will be. It is where characters will be injured and killed. It is also the one part of the writing that is wholly out of your control. After a Face to Face, the surviving characters may continue to roleplay (probably dealing with the consequences of what happened). Anyone who survives a Face to Face will receive a 'cool down' of 8 OOC hours or the end of the current 'phase' (or until they move from their square) to prevent them from being jumped in the event that their opponent leaks their location in private to interested parties.
With that said, I’ll get into the meat and potatoes of what you all probably care the most about.
“How do you determine who wins a Face to Face?”
When I sit back and figure this out, I’m considering 4 factors – Prior Injuries, Weapons, My Opinion of the character, and any 'queued' Powers ups.
1 – A character who already has a lot of injuries will be at a natural disadvantage in a fight. That’s just ‘real’ life. If you have 1 arm and the person trying to kill you has 2, you better have a way to get around your handicap.
2 – Weapon match ups are also considered, especially when I decide on injuries or deaths. Having a better weapon can mean that you’ll have a high chance of grievously injuring or killing your opponent. On the other side, a powerful weapon can also help you avoid taking excessive damage if you are outmatched by a better character.
3 – By ‘my opinion,’ I essentially mean just that. I'm the sole judge. That means everything is based off my opinion and mine alone. I'm not biased to an individual but I do hold bias towards how I like to read things. Obviously, I can't control what I do and do not enjoy, but I can be fair and let you in on it.
4 – Powers up can provide a boost for those entering a fight, especially if they don't have the best weapon at their disposal. Will power ups compensate you for being outnumbered or out-gamed? No. Could a power-up let you walk away from a fatal encounter or take an advantage in what would otherwise be an even fight? Maybe/yes.
Unlike how I grade fights in the Omniverse, there is no point value or anything. I'm going to simply read everything and give a final decision based off my opinion. Just to make this known ahead of time – the number of roleplays you make or the length of them will not influence my decisions. Just because you roleplay every day doesn't mean you are going to kick the most ass.
There are many writers who may post just once and it will be more effective than 2 or 3 posts from someone else. Find your balance but do not overdo yourself in the hopes of it swinging anything in your favor. You don’t want me to get bored or feel over-saturated by your character.
In terms of post length, I prefer short to medium posts. I don’t want to read novels, and I’ll be honest, I start to get bored and zone out if a post is terribly long and not all that interesting. I know when I'm just reading fluff or filler. That is a bad thing for you.
I love emotion and reading a character's thoughts and feelings of the current situation. I don’t care for their past, pre-Omniverse or otherwise, unless it has something to do with the here-and-now.
I love descriptive posts, but on that same note, I abhor purple prose and anything that reads like you went through a thesaurus. Be genuine.
When I’m on the verge of killing someone in a fight, I will ask myself the following questions…
-Do I want to find out more about this character?
-Do I feel this character can bring bigger things to him/herself or others?
-Do I want to continue to root for, or against (it should be obvious that I like antagonist) this character?
Things like that. It's all about the character, not just how much you write or even how great you write. Although if you’re terrible with grammar, I’ll zone out and things will go downhill. I got enough of that during the school year.
Bottom Line - I know a lot of people simply can't change how they write. That's fine. Don't. But at least attempt to go over a few of these guidelines I've put in here and incorporate into your own style, rather than completely changing it. If you have a style that I just can't get into, and you refuse to improvise, then that's a problem for both of us.
Other Bottom Line - In registering and partaking in this, you are agreeing to the fact that I will write your character at points. That said, I read extensively when I can, and while I will not master every character in this contest, I will do my best to make sure that I don't have them do something they wouldn't do in a fight. I like to think I can grasp most characters quite quickly, and if you doubt this, you can ask Atelos/Gilgamesh for his opinion on how I write his character. Also, if you're in a Face to Face, I hope you'd stick around so I can reach out to you if I have a question, especially for those first few frantic days of wide-scale combat.