Hydaelyn Role-Players

So, some time ago I got the idea that I wanted to host my own Grindstone type thing. And after watching 'A Knight's Tale' I got the idea that...holding an ACTUAL Medieval Tournament would be fun. And since Ishgard is all Knightly and stuff, what better place is there to hold it? So I wanted to run this idea by everyone to get feedback, suggestions, etc before posting it to the RPC. Feel free to reply to the thread with your thoughts. I still need a proper location, and supporters.
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"A short time has passed since the Holy See saw fit to open Ishgard's gates to those of Eorzea. Since then, our peoples have worked together for the betterment of all. To commemorate this union, the Knights most Heavenly have seen fit to hold a Tournament, to better bolster our strengths and cover our weaknesses. Knights, Adventurers and those of all kind are welcome to participate. Whether you fight for your House, Company, or personal glory, you shall be welcomed to compete. This tournament holds events for any sort of combatant, be it Martial mastery, Arcane proficiency, or marksmanship with a bow or firearm.

The Tournament shall span over a moon, with a new event each week. Each Event shall have a champion, that will be honored until the next tournament. Should an individual be brave enough to try and Champion all the events, they will be named Grand Champion of the Fury, and given special honors for the next tournament, should they compete. Preparations are being made for this tournament, and soon the final announcement shall be made on when the Grand Tournament of the Fury will be, and where it shall take place."

OOC Info:

I'm wanting to host an Ishgardian based grand tournament, much like the Grindstone and Runestone, only with...well more, and over a longer span of time. This is what I've got so far for details.

There will be 4 events and 4 Champions
-Chocobo Jousting/Champion of the Lance
-Martial Duels/Champion of the Blade
-Wizard Duels/Champion of the Wand
-Archery/Marksmanship/Champion of the Range

Each week will have a new event, and at the end of the Tournament, the Champions will get a little ceremony. If there's a Grand Champion, they will receive a grand prize and honors until the next tournament, as well as a place at the beginning of the new Tournament. Each event Champion will have the choice to either stay Champion at the beginning of the next tournament, and thus only defend their title at the end of the Event against the semi-finalist, OR they can choose to fight at the bottom of the bracket and re-win their title.

Each Event has similar rules, with different flavor. The exception being the Archery/Marksmanship event.

Chocobo Jousting: Depending on the number of contestants, there could be multiple lanes open. Two contestants will mount battle Chocobos and arm themselves with a jousting lance. When the flag drops, they will charge and attempt to shatter their lance on their opponent.

To win, one of the Jousters must break three lances against their opponent, or knock their opponent off their Chocobo. Rolls will be used to determine hits and misses, much like combat in the Grindstone and Runestone. The only difference being, jousters will be aiming for a threshhold instead of trying to beat the other's roll. Since two jousters breaking lances on each other at the same time isn't uncommon, we figured we'd make it more of a race than trying to counter the other. Jousters will run up to the middle of the line, post, then roll. A roll between 1-300 is a miss. 301-700 is a lance break. Whoever rolls higher will determine who breaks the lance first if the final blow is also a draw. 701-900 is a staggering lance break. If one jouster rolls this, it will stagger their opponent and render their attack null (If they succesfully rolled over 300 but under 700 on their own run). 901+ is a de-horse. A de-horse is an automatic victory for the attacker, so long as the opponent didn't also roll over 900.

Martial Duels: Similar to the Jousting event, depending on the number of contestants, there will be multiple battles taking place at once. Lethal force is not permitted, as it is a test of might, not lethality. Duelists can use any form of martial weapon, with the exclusion of magic. Firearms and bows are permitted, so long as the firearm is loaded with non-lethal ammunition or Arcane shots. Arrows must be aimed at non-lethal locations. If a Mage from the Wizard duels wishes to participate in the Martial tournament, they may be selected by a Martial duelist to be their opponent with the understanding that they will be facing magic instead of steel. Rolls will be used to determine hits and misses, and combatants will go up to three strikes, or until one person yields.

Wizard Duels: Similar to the other events, depending on the number of contestants, there will be multiple battles taking place at once. Lethal force is not permitted, as it is a test of Magical talent, not lethality. Mages can use any form of Arcane arts, so long as they are not powerful enough to destroy their opponent or damage the arena or bystanders. Summoners are restricted to a singular summon. If the Summon is destroyed, they cannot summon another. White Mages and Scholars are not allowed to heal themselves until after the battle. Since the Scholar's fairy is incapable of fighting, it has no set ban. It can be used to shield or block attacks (for flavor). Summons have no set hit pool, and can be used for flavor or singular attacks. If a Summoner attacks with his Summon, it will be considered as one hit. If a Summon is to be destroyed, the opponent must declare his intention through his post. Should a Melee fighter from the Martial Duels try and compete, for a chance to become Grand Champion, they must be selected by a mage to be their opponent with the understanding they will be fighting steel, not spells. Rolls will determine hits and misses, and three hits, or a yield, determines the victor.

Archery/Marksmanship: Unlike the other events, this is not a combat event. Archers and Machinists will be placed in a line and fire at targets in groups of six (Or higher, depending on the number of contestants). Rolls will be used, using /random. Shooters will get three shots, trying to hit the bullseye. 999 is a bullseye, and anything bellow 100 is a miss. At the end of the shooting, scores will be tallied. Anything bellow 100 will be ignored, and the top four (Or more, if the group is large) will move on to the next round. Scoring a bullseye will automatically put you into the next round. In the final round, the last two shooters will be placed on the same target. Whoever rolls the highest in total wins the round. If a Machinist or Archer rolls the same number as their opponent, at any time after the shot was made, they will nullify that shot and take it for themselves. If a Melee fighter or Wizard wishes to enter the Marksmanship event, for a chance to become Grand Champion, they will be provided a firearm and shown how to use it. No exceptions will be made. The one with the highest score wins, and is named Champion.

Each Champion of each event will be given the choice of participating in the next cycle of their event in the fullest, or wait until the end to defend their title. The Grand Champion, should there be one, will have the honor of starting the next tournament and choosing his place in each of the events. At the end of the month, when the Tournament is over after the last event, there will be a Ceremony and the champions/Grand Champion will be awarded their Prize and have their names/name added to the list of The Fury's Champions.

I am totes in support of this and issue a pleasant challenge to any mage willing to face me. 

"Come at me Scrublord, I'm ripped."

Sounds like a lovely idea!

If you need any assistance, give me a poke ingame or over the RPC !

If we are going Knight's Tale... can... can we have a Chaucer?

(07-18-2015, 09:43 PM)T Wrote: [ -> ]If we are going Knight's Tale... can... can we have a Chaucer?

I agree.

This sounds like a lot of fun. My character isn't much of a fighter but he'd definitely come along to watch.

Thanks for the responses guys  
What I need right now is 

A) A suitable location that could hold all of these events. Right now, the biggest challenge would be finding a place to host the Chocobo Jousting...And figuring out how to make it interesting for the RPers. 

B) Tweaks and ideas for rules, for maybe the duels and such. Having the Martial Duels and Magic Duels allow Martial or Magical fighters in the opposite duels SOMEWHAT defeats the purpose. But mages need to be able to try for the Grand Champion title. My current running idea is to have the Mage and Martial duels be interchangeable for the title, since both champions can't win the final two events. That way, there'd be a Grand Champion and a Martial/Magical champion. Granted, there won't always be a Grand Champion each tournament. It's meant to be a rare title obtained.

C) Supporters and Staff. As it is an Ishgardian Tournament, it's entirely possible to NPC Ishgardian healers or guards, but I would like PC's to play the parts. Naturally, Ishgardian roleplayers would get first pick on those jobs but I'd never restrict it. Mercenaries, and regular folk can be used for either the Healer or Enforcer jobs. There would have to be plenty though. Prize ideas would also be appreciated. Anything from a standard pot of Gil, to Crafted items of significant value. I probably won't be able to provide that myself, since I'm not a Crafter.

D) A starting time. As it IS a weekly event like the Grindstone and Runestone (Albeit a different event each week) I'd need a steady and constant start time. Something to maximize time spent there.

In my opinion, something this big shouldn't be weekly. It's already a struggle to manage resources in a short time frame like a week (trust me, I'd know). But I can see this being a huge one-timer, if not monthly occuring event. I just think you'll be deprived of winnings if you were to host it weekly.

(07-19-2015, 03:34 AM)Flynt Reddard Wrote: [ -> ]In my opinion, something this big shouldn't be weekly. It's already a struggle to manage resources in a short time frame like a week (trust me, I'd know). But I can see this being a huge one-timer, if not monthly occuring event. I just think you'll be deprived of winnings if you were to host it weekly.

It is a monthly thing, in a manner of speaking. Each week would have a different event, so it wouldn't all be at once. It'd just be like the Grindstone and Runestone, only with a bigger end goal. So for instance, week one would have the Martial Duels, week two would have the Wizard Duels, week three the Archery contest, and week four would have the Jousting and the final ceremony. Prizes would be given out at the end of the month, at the final ceremony. Alternatively, I could try to spread the four events over one week FOR the month, but I feel like that could also prove difficult.

(07-19-2015, 06:24 AM)Draco Nobis Wrote: [ -> ]Alternatively, I could try to spread the four events over one week FOR the month, but I feel like that could also prove difficult.

I can understand why you'd want to split it over several weeks. Maybe you could do it every other month, so the Champion(s) get to hold their titles for a month between each tournament, and you don't get burned out trying to organize such big events every week (keeping with the one-event-per-week idea).

If you had enough people to help then it might be possible to do it once a month over the course of a single week, but it'd still be a pretty big undertaking. It would make for an amazing event, but it would be incredibly intensive for the organizers.

(07-19-2015, 03:17 AM)Draco Nobis Wrote: [ -> ]B) Tweaks and ideas for rules, for maybe the duels and such. Having the Martial Duels and Magic Duels allow Martial or Magical fighters in the opposite duels SOMEWHAT defeats the purpose. But mages need to be able to try for the Grand Champion title. My current running idea is to have the Mage and Martial duels be interchangeable for the title, since both champions can't win the final two events. That way, there'd be a Grand Champion and a Martial/Magical champion. Granted, there won't always be a Grand Champion each tournament. It's meant to be a rare title obtained.

I think tweaking the rules so that only one of those events is needed to win the Grand Champion would probably be best. Unless you want to simply condense it into one event and open it up to combatants facing off against either type of opponent. I have never run a combat style event before so I don't know for sure, but that might be tricky to do and keep fair at the same time.

I'd say the easiest option would for the Grand Champion to require a win in only their own specific discipline (martial or magical).

A grand champion is the best of the fighter's from the four categories. You could just make each fighter who won in a specific category a champion then after those four weeks of events, hold a finals event to determine the grand champion of the four champions. The finals should run relatively smooth if there are only four combatants and two rounds if its 1v1.

This is an awesome idea! I would love to have Flynt do a bit of jousting (And if requested he can yell "WILLIAAAAAAM" heroically at the end). All joking aside super hyped for this. If you want/need any assistance let me know! /Ishgard4life

While War Siren isn't one for competitions herself. If you need to hire security, she'd be willing to do that. If not I'll try to make it to watch!

Some quick thoughts while I'm at work:

I'd like to piggyback off of Kagero and say that it may be worth holding the "set" of events every-other-month, or even once per quarter if you'd like a slightly larger gap.  This will help prevent burnout and perhaps make it seem like more of a larger to-do.

I'm also digging Sarnai's idea of maybe holding a "finals" bracket as a separate event between the champions of all four categories.  I think this will ultimately depend on what event spacing and frequency is decided.

As for staffing:  As much as Reima would love to sit back and watch like an overly-excited little birb, I can oocly and ICly offer my assistance as a healer between matches.

I think a once every three months would be for the best. A Grand Tournament for every season works well in my mind and would give you the time to maybe think up something to make each special and different. Asmodean would more then likely take part as fighter trying to claim the Champion of the Blade but will work as a guard for the other events as needed.