Thaal's Grading Standards

[Thaal Sinestro]

So, this is the standard that I PERSONALLY use. It's also being used by a few others around the site, so I figured it was time to refine it a little and provide a few extra features to better meet the needs of the Omniverse.

I'm not saying this system is better or worse than anything else anyone is using, it's jsut the one that I use, and I personally like having a standard to fall back on.

Sections

Description and Clarity:
This section covers how effectively the writer created the world around the reader. Making sure that the reader can understand what is being described, using vivid or appropriate descriptions of items, events and people in the story and having good word choice all go into this section of the review. Note that using “purple prose” is not always effective, nor is consistently using flat, dry description. A writer that gets a good score in this section draws the reader into the world and allows them to see through the eyes of the character/narrator.

Voice:
No two writers write in the same style, nor should they. Even individual stories call for individual writing styles, a mood that creates a tinted lens through which the story is viewed. This is traditionally called the “voice” of the writer and it is a very important part of writing. A writer with a high score in this considers tone, pacing and including/disincluding detail throughout the entire story, and carefully selects words that epitomizes the character and the scene.

Characterization:
Character development, the actions and motivation of characters and dialogue are all important in this section. The goal is to create “round” characters as opposed to “flat” ones. Making the people in your writing seem real, not just archetypes following a plot progression is the goal here. The writer should consider who the people they are writing as are as individuals, why they take certain actions, their personal problems and boons, how they interact with the world around themselves and how they approach problems are all considerations for a writer in this section. Note that not all GOOD characters are LIKABLE characters. If you really hate a character that’s well written, this section deserves a good score! You should be grading ALL of the characters the writer is working with, even the opposition's. It's entirely possible that a writer portrays a character more compellingly than that character's "owner".

Story:
Every body of creative writing, no matter how short or long, follows a storyline. How well the themes, events, messages and twists grab the reader is what makes the difference between a decent story and a great story. The writer must capture the reader’s attention hold it with the actions of characters and the world around them. This isn’t to say that a writing must be packed with action or intrigue, even something as simple as eating breakfast can be made into a great story. The presentation of events and how those events tie into the writer’s voice is what makes it good reading.

Technical:
This is the clerical work of the body of work. Spelling, punctuation, grammar and anything else that can be considered technical goes into this section. Generally every major grammatical error per 500 words moves this section down one grade. Additionally, look for length of sentences,the size of paragraphs, and the general presentation of the finished writing. If it looks unprofessional in presentation, then this section should suffer. If you could see the current format being accepted for the pages of a novel, this should be a high score.

Points
So, honestly, the consistency of the points only matters within a single fight. It's very difficult to maintain a specific standard, even for the same judge, between each writing. However, giving too many or too few points will dramatically interfere with the Damage and SP bonus that is given after this section.

Remember that MOST writers should be scoring about a 10. "Average" isn't a bad thing, and even if the writing is of a high quality, it is being compared to the standards of the site. 4's and 5's should be rarely awarded, and even good writers should not be getting them every time they post.

"1: There is room for improvement. Generally the reviewer should highlight how the writer could improve this area as well as direct them to outside sources that can give more help.

2: This section was about average. The writer has room for improvement but about par with the rest of the site’s writing ability. Reviewer should highlight areas to improve and site specific errors or weak spots.

3: This section is above average. The writer has shown a competency higher than the average writer on the site, but can still notably improve. The reviewer can be vague with their ideas for improvement but still include specific details and weak spots.

4: This section was fantastic! The writer took the reins and really took the reader on a journey. Few errors or room for improvement can be found by the reviewer but anything that the reviewer feels could be cleaned up should be noted.

5: This section is one of the best the reviewer has ever seen. This level of writing is on par with professionals with very few errors and the reviewer should have a hard time finding room to improve. This grade should be handed out rarely, and only to the very best writing!"

Fight Rules

Rounds
Generally, it's easier to grade a fight at the end. If the associated parties agree on the number of posts they want to do, it's pretty easy to just wait til the end and then grade it with a single grading sheet, hopefully with a bit of C&C.

However, if the fight is ongoing/organic, or the participants want to use the Damage mechanic to determine a winner, you are better off grading every writer rotation. Don't give a full C&C for every round, just post the scores for each writer, then at the end offer C&C (if you want to at all).

Damage
Damage is really complicated, and I'm totally unsold on my current "formula" for it. In this case, the Damage is a META measurement, not directly describing the character's "real" wounds.

Damage is dealt at the end of every writer rotation. If a character was engaged in combat with another, they each deal damage to each other equal to:
(Total Score) - 5
That means that most fighters will last three or four rounds, though if a person writers a PERFECT POST (25 points), it is possible to kill a person in one round. That is very unlikely. You can throttle this, but I don't advise increasing the subtraction beyond 10.

SP Usage
For set-length fights: Add +1 per SP used to the writer's total score.

For organic/ongoing fights: Add 2 points per SP used to the total score of a writer at the end of each round. This should effect damage. A Super Attack and a Super Defense of the same level cancel each other out, but a defense of a lower level reduce the "SP Used" by however many SP it cost (ex: A Tier 3 Super Attack is used, and then a Tier 1 Super Defense is used. Act as though the attacker used 2 SP, for a total of +4 to the score.)

Artefacts
Many artefacts act in straight forward ways, giving Assists, extra stats, or bonus SP, which means they don't need to add to the score at all. Just use them for their described effect. If their effects can be similarly described with something that uses SP, add the approximate SP value to their total score.

Death
This is easy for a set-length fight. For an ongoing fight though, if a person drops to 0 HP, they die. If somebody wants to Banish them, they'll need to do it in the next round or the body will dissipate.

Running
A character can attempt to leave combat at any time. This one is more narrative and less concrete, depending on the cleverness of the runner, their SPD and how injured they are. Play it by ear.