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Snowball Blitz - Gegenji - 12-14-2014
A frigid chill surprises you as something cold and wet hits you in the neck, its icy touch slowly sliding down to rest in the crook of your neck and shoulder. You duck for cover behind a leafless tree as another attack splatters harmlessly in the vast sea of white. You don't have time to celebrate your small victory, though, and you're already scooping up the snow in your own hands to return fire...
With Eorzea firmly in wintertime, so begins the first of a possible yearly event - the Snowball Blitz. Despite Ishgard's best protests, the area around Camp Dragonhead has erupted with walls, trenches, and stockpiles of weaponry - all of the snow variety. Each Grand Company has claimed a different stretch of snowy land around the city, which has been declared a neutral "no kill zone."
The goal? To enter enemy territory and strike down the Commander of each group - the chosen liaison of the actual Grand Company leaders! To some, this is all just lighthearted fun betwixt the factions. To others, it's a proving ground where you can prove your tactical and combat prowess to earn another feather in your cap. Different goals, different dreams, different hopes, all clash on this wintery landscape.
It's time for the Snowball Blitz!
Where: Camp Dragonhead, Coerthas Central Highlands
When: TBD
General Concept: Try to pelt the enemy Commanders with snowballs while keeping your own Commanders from being pelted!
NOTE: It is recommended that the participants have completed the level 36 quest "Toss Fit Workout" for the /throw emote. However, it is not required.
![[Image: tumblr_ljdi5pcJna1qir4ydo1_500.jpg]](https://38.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ljdi5pcJna1qir4ydo1_500.jpg)
DA RULES
1.) Snowballs only. Not rocks with snow around them, not ice-aspected aether, not ice crystals. Snowballs. Any IC "defenses" should also be made only of snow and made by hand - as cool as your miniature ice fortress might look, it's a little unfair to everyone else.
2.) Wear your colors. All participants are to be wearing the colors of their faction - either completely or at least for their chest and/or leg items for ready identification. Those wearing the colors of a faction they're not a part of will automatically be given a Battle Loss.
The Colors
Frozen Flames
Winterjackets
Snow Serpents
Referees
3.) No mounts. All travel and combat is to be done on foot. Only referees are to be on mounts, to allow for easy identification and rapid travel over the battlefields.
4.) Stay in the combat zones! Fighting is to remain within the areas marked on the map below, with Camp Dragonhead counting as a neutral "no fighting" zone. Should movement or combat be found outside these areas by a referee, those involved will suffer a Battle Loss. Retreating into Dragonhead during a fight will also count as surrendering and, thus, a Battle Loss.
![[Image: nKiQSaa.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/nKiQSaa.jpg)
5.) Battle Loss means Penalty Game. For those who suffer a Battle Loss for whatever reason, they must perform the following Penalty Game:
Penalty Game
i. Head to the Camp Dragonhead Aetheryte.
ii. Run three (3) laps around it.
Travel to the Aetheryte can be either on foot or via Teleport, unless the loss happens at Dragonhead, where the loser must teleport. Until you complete the Penalty Game, you are considered Out of Action.
Out of Action Status
i. Cannot win or lose snowball fights.
ii. Can still be pelted with humiliation snowballs.
iii. Lifted upon completion of the Penalty Game.
6.) Commander Loss is Everybody's Loss! Should your Commander be defeated, your faction has lost and any further combat with the surviving factions does not count. It is suggested that the defeated faction return to Camp Dragonhead for their post-battle hot cocoa and prepare for the Post-Battle Free-for-All.
7.) Winning Team gets First Throw. Along with praise and applause, the winning faction gets to throw the first snowballs to start the Post-Battle Free-for-All. As one might expect, the Free-for-All is a true free-for-all and, as such, members of the winning faction can deign to hit one of their teammates. Or their own Commander. Or a referee.
![[Image: keep-calm-were-doing-some-technical-stuff.png]](http://sd.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/i/keep-calm-were-doing-some-technical-stuff.png)
DA TECHNICAL STUFF
Combat for the Snowball Blitz is done in two different ways - singular and team match-ups. The dice roller to be used (at the moment, anyway) is rolz.org. A central chat will be created at the onset of the event to allow people to roll freely, but participants are free to make their own rooms and have more private matches. Those that do so will be left to the honor system to uphold the results, but a referee can be called in to join if there's issues.
* In Singular combat, the order of the day is "first to three." Both sides roll a 1D100 and the one with the higher roll gains a point, and the first to three is wins and the loser suffers a Battle Loss. The goal number is set to three only as a default, and can be raised in order to simulate a more intense or protracted battle.
* In Team combat, the battle is treated like Singular combat, except each additional member means an additional percentile roll. The leaders of the groups - i.e. the Party Leaders - perform the rolls. These rolls are added up and the team with the highest point total is considered the winner.
* In the case of a three-way and larger battles, Called Shots are required to specify which group is being targeted. This is done by identifying a member of the group after the action or naming the faction itself.
* The Commander is a "special unit." While they can be part of a group for Team combat, they are not allowed to leave their respective zones and are recommended to stay around the spot marked on the star if possible. To further bolster their leader position, the Commander counts as THREE people in regards to the dice rolls (i.e., they roll 3D100 in singular combat, and add 3D100 rolls to Team combat).
* The Post-Battle Free-for-All is just for fun and further RP purposes, and has no rules attached to it beyond "Have fun!"
DA TEAMS
Frozen Flames
Commander: TBD
- Cliodhna Eoghan
- Erik Mynheir
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Snow Serpents
Commander: TBD
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Winterjackets
Commander: TBD
- Steel Wolf
- Jancis Milburga
- Rizumu D'souz
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Judges:
Judgemaster: Chachanji Gegenji (possibly as Ser Albert Hemoth)
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~*~
A fun idea that was generated late at night that I think could be quite interesting. I'm not all that experienced in running these sorts of thing, so please feel free to offer suggestions and ways to make this a smooth and fun event!
As mentioned in the spiel, the current tentative date is to be determined (was originally Dec 20 to serve as a potential fun precursor to the Starlight Ball), but I will do my best to ensure that it is malleable and can be adjusted to allow the most folks to participate in the chaos.
Changes and sign-ups will be noted here, of course.
... Thoughts?
RE: Snowball Blitz - Steel Wolf - 12-14-2014
How completely fun! Count me in as a member of the proud and noble Lominsan Winterjackets! XD Unless, of course, you find yourself lacking in officiating staff.
What I'm basically saying is "I'm flexible".
Couple of questions...
I'm to assume that the /throw command will be in heavy evidence? Probably be easier for those who are judges to mark who was hit without resorting to chat-spam only. Might be a good idea to list that as an official requirement of participation.
Second...what program or system will you be using to determine rolls? I've never personally been in a Grindstone (yet), so I'm blank on how that's handled. Sorry for the noob question.
RE: Snowball Blitz - Gegenji - 12-14-2014
(12-14-2014, 11:46 AM)Steel Wolf Wrote: I'm to assume that the /throw command will be in heavy evidence? Â Probably be easier for those who are judges to mark who was hit without resorting to chat-spam only. Â Might be a good idea to list that as an official requirement of participation.The /throw command will likely be used a lot, yes. However, more free-form /em actions are allowed, and the actual success of the fights is done via the dice roller and thus having the emote is not mandatory. Even in the case of team fights, it comes down to effectively two dice rolls - attack and defense. It'll be on the group leader to pass along the information of the rolls so that defenses and such are RPed correctly.
Second...what program or system will you be using to determine rolls? Â I've never personally been in a Grindstone (yet), so I'm blank on how that's handled. Â Sorry for the noob question.
The Grindstone uses rolz.org for its dice roller. You can create dice "chat rooms" where those in it can see the rolls of everyone else in the same room, which in this case would be either the two singular fighters or the team leaders. I was going to just use that because I expected more folks to be familiar with it. I am, however, open to alternatives.
I hope that answers your questions!
RE: Snowball Blitz - Cliodhna Eoghan - 12-14-2014
Count Erik and I under frozen flames buuuuut I've never been to grindstone so I'm not really clear how the fight in that setup works.... .____.
RE: Snowball Blitz - Gegenji - 12-15-2014
(12-14-2014, 02:43 PM)Cliodhna Eoghan Wrote: Count Erik and I under frozen flames buuuuut I've never been to grindstone so I'm not really clear how the fight in that setup works.... .____.
No worries. I can clarify here and put that explanation up top in the main spiel as well if needed.
Anyway, the Grindstone works on a "first to three" system. First of the two combatants to successfully "land" three blows is considered the victor and moves on to the next round.
How this is done is with the rolz.org dice roller. The two participants make a chat room and then roll their first 1D100, with the higher of the two getting to act first for winning initiative. I'll call them Lala and Hyur for ease of reference. We'll assume Lala rolled the higher percentile and thus won initiative.
Getting to go first, Lala emotes their attack, describing how they approach, how they attack, and so on. Then they roll a 1D100 attack roll in the chat room. Hyur then rolls a 1D100 afterward as a defense roll.
Should Lala get the higher roll of the two, their hit lands and they get a point (making it 1-0 in Lala's favor in this case). Should Hyur have the higher roll, the attack fails. In either situation, Hyur would then emote the aftermath of the attack (either taking the hit and returning in kind, or evading the attack and striking back). Now it's Hyur's turn to attack - emote and 1D100 attack roll and all - and Lala's turn to defend.
It goes back and forth like this until someone has gotten three points, and then they're considered the winner.
I'll put an example breakdown in this spoiler, omitting the emotes the players might be doing in-game to avoid this post being any longer than it already is:
As mentioned, this is basically all that's being seen in the rolz.org chat room. In FFXIV, these numbers will most likely not be seen at all (except maybe in party chat if both combatants are in a party, or through /tells) and onlookers will only see the /em actions the combatants show. Adds a nice level of both randomness and fairness to the fight.
In the spoilered example, Lala got to 3 points first, so they would win and move on to the next round. In Snowball Blitz, the victor gets to stay and continue their assault/defense while the loser has to run (or teleport!) back to Dragonhead and do a couple laps around the Aetheryte before they can fight again.
I hope that explains it. Let me know if it doesn't and I can try to tweak it up to be more understandable.
RE: Snowball Blitz - Warren Castille - 12-15-2014
Some ideas:
Grindstone combat is measured out in attack and defense rounds because it is supposed to be a display of prowess and reaction. That having been said, when has anyone in a snowball fight ever done a single thing to preserve themselves?! It's a snowball fight!
I hereby propose the "let's get as many people as we can" involved ruleset. Anyone who's attended the Grindstone knows it can be a bit of a grind when two parties of verbose mothereffers get talking and the dice result in defense after defense. To keep the frantic, rapid-motion feel of a snowball fight, why not just skip the defense round? Both parties roll a die and the higher takes the round, first to three. It guarantees someone's getting a facefull of frost after five rolls at best, and it helps keep things moving along.
The reason I'm proposing this is thusly: Teleporting to an aether and running two laps can be done in the time it takes some people to roll an attack and post. It wouldn't be impossible for someone to get eliminated, do their time and join back into the battle that eliminated them, resulting in snow zombies that never die!
So, uh. Yeah. If you treat it like a game of War (the card game) it might flow faster. One of the things I wish I could improve upon with the Grindstone is the pacing, but that comes with the territory of roleplaying.
RE: Snowball Blitz - Gegenji - 12-15-2014
(12-15-2014, 11:17 AM)Warren Castille Wrote: I hereby propose the "let's get as many people as we can" involved ruleset. Anyone who's attended the Grindstone knows it can be a bit of a grind when two parties of verbose mothereffers get talking and the dice result in defense after defense. To keep the frantic, rapid-motion feel of a snowball fight, why not just skip the defense round? Both parties roll a die and the higher takes the round, first to three. It guarantees someone's getting a facefull of frost after five rolls at best, and it helps keep things moving along.
The reason I'm proposing this is thusly: Teleporting to an aether and running two laps can be done in the time it takes some people to roll an attack and post. It wouldn't be impossible for someone to get eliminated, do their time and join back into the battle that eliminated them, resulting in snow zombies that never die!
Ah, that might be good, yeah! Just three rolls, highest gets the point - simpler and much faster. Of course, I'll probably still leave in the option for the combatants to agree to a higher point total if they want to really get that protracted snowball fight feel going.
And we could have a pre-made rolz chat room set up that people can join in and then just flip over to make their rolls instead of having to create a room each time a conflict comes up. Warren, you're more familiar with the site, is there a limit to the number of folks that can be in one of the rooms?
It should probably be noted that I actually added the two laps because I wanted to slow down their return to the fray, but not enough that it detracts from their experience. I would've offered a penalty of a lap around Camp Dragonhead's ramparts instead, which would both be lengthier and allow the runner to get a look at the chaos unfurling below but... I'm fairly certain it isn't a full circuit.
However, I'm up for other "penalty" options that would both delay the fallen's return to battle and hopefully make it interesting for them too. You lost the fight, but I still want you to have fun!
EDIT: Some minor changes made to the OP to reflect this.
RE: Snowball Blitz - Warren Castille - 12-15-2014
I don't know if rolz.org limits participants, but I'd bet it's okay for the number you're considering. Hell, they keep chat logs dating back to at least June, aka my first Grindstone win.
Running a circuit from Dragonhead to Whitebrim and back would eat up a fair few minutes, too.
RE: Snowball Blitz - Gegenji - 12-15-2014
(12-15-2014, 11:38 AM)Warren Castille Wrote: Running a circuit from Dragonhead to Whitebrim and back would eat up a fair few minutes, too.
That seems a little TOO lengthy, though, and has them running through the Maelstrom area while "Out of Action." I'm all for those that choose to run getting hit with humiliation /throws, but I want that to be available to everyone, not just the Winterjackets!
... Hm, maybe having to run sprints from one edge of the Aetheryte's raised walkway to the other? I'm including up the stairs to the ramparts on each side in this, too. That way they can at least get to see what's going on while doing it. Effectively making them do wind sprints.
In that sort of format, they'd have to return to the Aetheryte (either by running or teleport) first. Then after "touching" the crystal, they run up to one of the ramparts and then run across past the Aetheryte to the other rampart. Back to the crystal, and then they're free to return. Maybe make them have to do a goofy emote at the rampart stops? A nice /welcome or something?
It should be noted that the run back is also additional time (and a chance for getting cut off!), especially if they're assaulting or defending the Commanders!
RE: Snowball Blitz - Gegenji - 12-19-2014
I'm changing the date for this from Dec 20 to a nebulous "TBD" for now. I still want to do this at some point this Winter, but I would be more comfortable with it after getting some more feedback, suggestions, and (for my poor, poor easily deflated ego) a few more people on the team rosters.
EDIT: I'm also trying to tighten up the explanations so they're not so confusing. Also dropping the overly complicated "Company Leader Snowman" idea I thought up late at night for a much more simplified "Commander" system. And allowed them to be mobile, albeit limited to their zones!
Good? Better? Worse? Please let me know!
And definitely offer up some good dates and times you think this could work? I'm aiming for a Saturday/Sunday dealie so I we can as many people into this cold-weather chaos as possible!
RE: Snowball Blitz - Jancis - 12-19-2014
Continuing from a PM to help me understand the snowball thing, thank you Chach CaptainÂ
, I'll sign up tentatively and stop being shy about it.I'm usually free weekends or evenings EST.
Um, I guess the winterjackets are fitting.
RE: Snowball Blitz - Gegenji - 12-19-2014
Haha, no worries. Also, thanks for asking questions! It helps me see things I might've otherwise missed!
To wit, I have simplified Da Rules. As mentioned, I dropped the intangible snowman idea completely since the Commander concept makes it unnecessary and redundant.
I've also adjusted the presentation for Da Rules, trying to emphasize key points and make it less of a slog to go through. Technical Stuff is still pretty detailed, though. Feel free to ask if something still doesn't make sense!
Also, I'm taking any and all recommendations for dates and times to try and get this happening. I'm leaning towards midday on Saturdays or Sundays so that we can get as many folks in on this as possible!
Also also, where our Gridanians at?
RE: Snowball Blitz - RizuDSouz - 12-20-2014
I would join the Snow Serpents, buuuuuttt....I have to represent the Winterjackets for this one if the team is not already fullÂ
RE: Snowball Blitz - Gegenji - 12-20-2014
(12-20-2014, 10:24 AM)RizuDSouz Wrote: I would join the Snow Serpents, buuuuuttt....I have to represent the Winterjackets for this one if the team is not already fullÂ
Nowhere near close to full! I want to get as many people in on this as possible.
RE: Snowball Blitz - K'nahli - 12-20-2014
This sounds like a really fun idea(it appealed to the airsoft/paintball side in me) but sadly I am personally not interested in the dice roll aspect so I will refrain from participating myself, albeit I may take a look some time just to see how it plays out.
Good luck with the event! ^^