Help with Tournament Ideas

[Oyuu]

So, I've noticed a distinct lack of tournament-type RP events available to the EU crowd and as someone who can no longer stay up to 6am participating in Runestone or Grindstone as much as I'd love to, I fancy giving a go at running one of these things myself. Will it be a reoccurring event? Who knows. Will it be fun and well organised? Well, I'm gonna try and that's why I've come here for help. So my questions are: 

 

1) Coming up with rules and a theme - I'm debating whether to come up with some original rules for my event but I realise this comes with the task of balancing said rules, and making sure it runs smoothly and quickly, and is easy to understand to the average roleplayer. What's the best way to do this? Are there any sources I could perhaps take inspiration from? 

 

2) Do I actually need to come up with a different set of combat rules? - The Grindstone rules are well known and there isn't a niche for it currently for the EU crowd, but considering there's already several events already existing that use this system... Would it be better to try and come up with something more original? Or do you think a well recognised and approved system would be preferred?

 

3) Running the event - What can I do to ensure the event runs smoothly? What problems am I likely to encounter? What other things should I consider that I haven't asked about here? All tips and advice appreciated! 

 

Thank you in advance!

[Gegenji]

There used to be an EU-centric fighting tournament called Fight Club or something like that which happened on... Fridays? I forget exactly when but they held it out in Costa. I don't know if it's still going, but it might be worth checking into!

 

As for the questions, let's see here...

 

1.) A lot of the basic rules that are in the events that happen right now are there because they're pretty solid rules, so using existing tournaments for basic rule ideas definitely can't hurt. For example: Grindstone's no-killing rule and the Runestone/Spellguard's defensive systems that "absorb" spells to basically do the same. So, having that sort of rule in place is kind of a given, unless you're wanting to run a more gritty "no holds barred" tournament - which has its own drawbacks since I'm sure many of the participants would expect to be the ones doing the killing and would react poorly to being the ones being killed.

 

2.) You can come up with your own combat rules, but the GS ones are used as much as they are because they're exactly what you're looking for in Question 1 in regards to all the other rules: quick and easy to understand. Two people roll, highest roll wins, reroll on tie. Leaves it all basically up to RNG with (little to) no way to really game the system, which could happen with a different rule set.

 

3.) I think one of the big things about running the event is building trust from the audience you're running it for. That way they're willing to acquiesce to having you (and whatever additional staff you have) "in charge" for the duration of the event. Doing things like being on time, being polite and courteous to the participants when they're behaving, and being firm but fair when they're not. Things like that.

 

That's what comes immediately to mind. I'm sure others will chime in with their own thoughts. Overall, I'm of a mind that you should just keep it simple, keep it approachable, and keep it fair. That way you'll keep it open to the widest number of people.

[ExAtomos]

Definitely reach out to people who run tournaments already, whether they are one on one bracket system (Grindstone/Runestone/Resistance tourney), team (Spellguard I think?), continuous like Fight Club, or vs monsters like the Festival of the Hunt and get their advice.

 

Me personally, the simple Grindstone rules are familiar, so I would be less likely to fight in an event that does not use them.

 

(I'm an EST resident whose play time is actually pretty early. Late events, while obviously not as bad for me as they are for EU players, are still a bit rough.)

[Martiallais]

Hey just wanted to weigh in here because when The Dufresne Bellworks put on the Grand Tournament of the Fury last year we ran into a lot of the same questions you've noted here.

 

1) Since the rules have been answered I'll speak to the theme. And really that depends on what you're looking for and what sort of audience you're after. There have been (and are) a number of different fighting tournaments so aside from time zone what are you looking to bring to the table? With the Grand Tournament we wanted, basically, to try and recreate 'ye olde fighting tournaments' with the same sort of fancy flair that Ishgard would support. I'd suggest maybe poking at a few of the EU FC leaders and seeing if they have any suggestions on what their members might be willing to participate in. Chances are if you see something of a 'hole' in the community offering (which you've already started by noting the EU folks are possibly missing a combat tournament) someone else probably has thought about it too. And more support is -always- a good thing because you don't want to try and run something like this on your own.

 

2) Going to echo Gegenji here and say that the rules work by and large because the Grindstone has literally been around that near everyone knows of it or has seen/participated in it at least once.

 

3) ExAtomos has the right idea here: Reach out to the people who run these tournaments regularly. The advice offered by Warren especially was invaluable in helping our tournaments run smoothly. It was nowhere near the turnout the GS regularly sees but for a group of first time runners like us it was still a bit of a chaotic mass.

 

One thing I'd say remember is, that it's okay if behind the scenes things don't go exactly according to plan. Someone may drop out right before the fighting starts or during the event and you have to scramble for replacements or there's always someone who's friend is running late, etc etc....just try and keep a calm face for the crowd. As long as people think the event's running smoothly, it'll keep doing so.

[Oyuu]

There used to be an EU-centric fighting tournament called Fight Club or something like that which happened on... Fridays? I forget exactly when but they held it out in Costa. I don't know if it's still going, but it might be worth checking into!

 

...

 

Overall, I'm of a mind that you should just keep it simple, keep it approachable, and keep it fair. That way you'll keep it open to the widest number of people.

 

Having a quick look at the Balmung RP Calendar for the past month, all that's available in viable EU hours (Before 5PM EST) are tavern/cafe nights. No tournaments at all and it's been that way for a while. :C Even then, there's no harm in introducing one more if it is still out there, eh?

 

Simple, approachable and fair was what I was already aiming for and you put it perfectly, thanks for your advice! The GS rules I have already used in past events for my FC and the like, and it does seem the easiest to use, especially in the case of introducing it to players that have never done competitive combat RP before.

[Virella]

Don't fix what ain't broken! Grindstone rules is something we used back on WoW (well, we did drop the initiative and it tended to be a gentleman's agreement, but the system was basically the same). I think it's a very good system and most people are familiar with it, so why change it up at this point. I'm all for innovation, but I genuinely think the Grindstone ruleset just works very well for Balmung.

 

With the Resistance I never had much issues. I point it out OOC and IC not to push it too far. You're there to spar/train. I didn't have people purposely trying to blow off limbs or anything so far. So mixing magic and melee never was an issue with the Resistance at this point.

 

What I personally find very helpful is that I got a few people helping me out OOC. While I do the pairing up, they keep track of a spreadsheet for me ect. Running it completely alone would be utter chaos, even if the Resistance events don't draw as many people as for example the Grindstone! And healers, oh god, find them. They are so rare to find, and you will need them in case things do happen IC.

 

If anything, poke Warren for advice. He helped me out a little while ago as well with stuff.

[Oyuu]

1) Since the rules have been answered I'll speak to the theme. And really that depends on what you're looking for and what sort of audience you're after. There have been (and are) a number of different fighting tournaments so aside from time zone what are you looking to bring to the table? With the Grand Tournament we wanted, basically, to try and recreate 'ye olde fighting tournaments' with the same sort of fancy flair that Ishgard would support. I'd suggest maybe poking at a few of the EU FC leaders and seeing if they have any suggestions on what their members might be willing to participate in. Chances are if you see something of a 'hole' in the community offering (which you've already started by noting the EU folks are possibly missing a combat tournament) someone else probably has thought about it too. And more support is -always- a good thing because you don't want to try and run something like this on your own.

 

Aha! This is where I have prepared my butt and have already been conversing with different EU RP groups and FCs through discord (we even have a little group dedicated to organising events since yeah, sometimes we end up staring wistfully over the pond wishing we can attend some of these fantastic events that are at 2am on a school night. ;3; ) Anyway, it has been in discussion for some time and something I've always wanted to do. I just wanted to see what the RPC had to say!

 

The rest of your points were also helpful, luckily I have experience of being a DM for my FC and running other types of public events... I knew I wouldn't escape the chaos with this. D: Definitely food for thought and your advice from running your own thing is very useful!

 

Don't fix what ain't broken! Grindstone rules is something we used back on WoW (well, we did drop the initiative and it tended to be a gentleman's agreement, but the system was basically the same). I think it's a very good system and most people are familiar with it, so why change it up at this point. I'm all for innovation, but I genuinely think the Grindstone ruleset just works very well for Balmung.

 

With the Resistance I never had much issues. I point it out OOC and IC not to push it too far. You're there to spar/train. I didn't have people purposely trying to blow off limbs or anything so far. So mixing magic and melee never was an issue with the Resistance at this point.

 

What I personally find very helpful is that I got a few people helping me out OOC. While I do the pairing up, they keep track of a spreadsheet for me ect. Running it completely alone would be utter chaos, even if the Resistance events don't draw as many people as for example the Grindstone! And healers, oh god, find them. They are so rare to find, and you will need them in case things do happen IC.

 

If anything, poke Warren for advice. He helped me out a little while ago as well with stuff.

 

Seems like Grindstone rules are winning the vote! And ah yes, no killing rule I have already written down as that seems obvious and seems like an open can of worms for drama if not implemented. And yes! Employing minions to help is a good idea. I've had a few friends and FC members already voice interest in wanting to help - I will definitely make sure to have more than one healer there as well in case it gets bloody. 

 

Also everyone's said to poke Warren and I will do just that!

[xelliexell]

I don't have much experience with running tournament-style events, so I'll leave the OoC logistical advice to the experts.

 

However, this topic came up just the other day in my linkshell chat, so maybe I can offer a suggestion or two regarding the theme.

 

The general lamentation I saw was that there don't seem to be any major tournaments right now who encourage a mixture of fighting styles. For example, there's a non-magic tournament, a magic-specific tournament, and a fight-club-esque brawl tournament -- but those who use aether and melee in combination find themselves at a natural handicap when entering one of the above. (A solid example of this being IC dark knights, among other skillsets that combine magic and stabby-stab.)

 

With the inevitable popularity of ICly being a Red Mage on the horizon, there may be a real interest in a "Spellsword" tournament, or even just a "Mixed Arts" theme. The main challenge might be to try and pair participants up with those who use somewhat equivalent fighting styles due to the "anything goes" aspect, but I can vouch that there's a demand.

 

If not, there's always a Pokemon-style monster-battle tournament for consideration!

[GentleGiraffe]

I don't have much experience with running tournament-style events, so I'll leave the OoC logistical advice to the experts.

 

However, this topic came up just the other day in my linkshell chat, so maybe I can offer a suggestion or two regarding the theme.

 

The general lamentation I saw was that there don't seem to be any major tournaments right now who encourage a mixture of fighting styles. For example, there's a non-magic tournament, a magic-specific tournament, and a fight-club-esque brawl tournament -- but those who use aether and melee in combination find themselves at a natural handicap when entering one of the above. (A solid example of this being IC dark knights, among other skillsets that combine magic and stabby-stab.)

 

With the inevitable popularity of ICly being a Red Mage on the horizon, there may be a real interest in a "Spellsword" tournament, or even just a "Mixed Arts" theme. The main challenge might be to try and pair participants up with those who use somewhat equivalent fighting styles due to the "anything goes" aspect, but I can vouch that there's a demand.

 

If not, there's always a Pokemon-style monster-battle tournament for consideration!

 

tbh I think at least some of the reason why we don't have mixed tournaments is that it's feasible for your average punchy mckicky to win round after round against other non-magickal martial artists, but things get a little blurrier when the opponent starts slinging fireballs and summoning egi and opening holes to the void

 

but yes, I think as soon as SB is released and RDM is attainable we'll absolutely see mixed tournaments and duels. like you said we already have a sizeable fanbase of arcane knights kind of people that have been growing since the RDM announcement

[Gegenji]

Oddly enough, I wonder if having such a mixed field might also take away "outs" for some of the folks who lose. One of the most common reasons I've seen some players use at the Grindstone for why their fighter didn't get as far as they "should" in the tournament is because they're "restricted" to not using their arcane (and Monk, chakra abilities are also not allowed!) complement.

 

Then again, that could be more on the character than the competition. :tonberry:

 

Still, perhaps some manner of mixed combat may be in order just because the main goal is to have an event for the EU folks, and restricting them to one combat format or another without a feasible alternative (Grindstone v. Runestone) might not be so good. Hm.

[xelliexell]

I totally understand the concerns that a mixed tournament might seem to disadvantage non-mixed-fighting-style participants, but if it's all determined by a /random roll, wouldn't it be inherently fair on an OoC level? It was my understanding that the OoC logistics make it so that any participant -could- win, regardless of the flavor text that describes how a character is fighting. So, in that way, I don't think anyone would be less inclined to win a round or the tournament itself, based on their particular fighting style. I know that "powergamers" are always a worry, but I always figured that the OoC logistics helped to even things out.

 

I admit that I'm not familiar with how these tournaments are run though. If everything is more freeform than I thought, then I suppose my suggestion of having an ultimately unrestricted theme wouldn't be as feasible, haha. ;

[Gegenji]

I totally understand the concerns that a mixed tournament might seem to disadvantage non-mixed-fighting-style participants, but if it's all determined by a /random roll, wouldn't it be inherently fair on an OoC level? It was my understanding that the OoC logistics make it so that any participant -could- win, regardless of the flavor text that describes how a character is fighting. So, in that way, I don't think anyone would be less inclined to win a round or the tournament itself.

 

At its simplest, yeah - what skills and techniques and whatnot are all basically fluff since it all boils down to who rolls better. I think the situation is more for the IC standpoint of explaining away how one fighter could beat the other - restricting them to a similar style of combat helps with this. However, we still have people winning the Grindstone using fishing rods and frying pans, so... it's not a complete catchall solution.

 

I guess it's inherently more difficult to explain why the wobbly trainee with the rusty sword beat a master of Allagan summoning than beating a seasoned GC soldier? I dunno. :lol:

[Martiallais]

This was something we chewed on too but in the end we had all the 'champions' who'd won their specific tournaments (melee, magic, ranged, and mounted joust) fight it out to see who would be the grand champion. In the end we decided that everyone knew it was just for fun (and a sweet title) so everyone rolled with it.

 

In our FC training/sparring matches and such however, we don't have any kind of restrictions like that and let anyone use whatever skills they have available to them. It makes things a bit flashier but in the end during our last Bell Bouts (as we call them) it ended up being two melee types with access to some magic/enhancing abilities (a DRK and a WAR) slugging it out so it evened out well enough.

 

I'm of the mindset that as long as everyone goes in knowing that it's basically a 'any given day, any person could win' kind of situation, they can justify winning or losing however they like.

[Maril]

I don't have much experience with running tournament-style events, so I'll leave the OoC logistical advice to the experts.

 

However, this topic came up just the other day in my linkshell chat, so maybe I can offer a suggestion or two regarding the theme.

 

The general lamentation I saw was that there don't seem to be any major tournaments right now who encourage a mixture of fighting styles. For example, there's a non-magic tournament, a magic-specific tournament, and a fight-club-esque brawl tournament -- but those who use aether and melee in combination find themselves at a natural handicap when entering one of the above. (A solid example of this being IC dark knights, among other skillsets that combine magic and stabby-stab.)

 

With the inevitable popularity of ICly being a Red Mage on the horizon, there may be a real interest in a "Spellsword" tournament, or even just a "Mixed Arts" theme. The main challenge might be to try and pair participants up with those who use somewhat equivalent fighting styles due to the "anything goes" aspect, but I can vouch that there's a demand.

 

If not, there's always a Pokemon-style monster-battle tournament for consideration!

 

I was going to add this as well. It has always struck me as somewhat odd that things are so divided - is it because it's somehow too unfair to mix things? Why not go for it anyways? It's not like it's deeply unrealistic to meet a spellslinger that wants to sling their spells at you outside of tournaments. And they do need to be able to deal with close-range fighting. 

There's no such thing as a fair fight at the end of the day, in a complete IC and not OOC manner I'd love to see something more mixed. Heck, how about having it in a challenging area/climate so that the environment can both give a hand and take a hand away, with the creativity of the players. 

 

Something else which I'd never really recommend because people are so diverse with how they want to rp, but has kept me from participating (Beyond the timezone bleep) - is that there's sometimes some things that just don't seem like they really have a place in canon eorzea. At the risk of sounding like a grumpy lorenazi, I have a hard time submitting my character to an event which I risk they might not even be able to talk about afterwards because it'd completely wreck their understanding of eorzea. I'm not saying it's wrong to toss these concepts into a tourney, nor do I think it's a solvable thing, outside of some sort of roleplayer utopia. It's just a thought I had. So please don't eat me. 

 

On another note, I'd love a pet fighting tournament. PETA might get angry though.

[Gegenji]

Something else which I'd never really recommend because people are so diverse with how they want to rp, but has kept me from participating (Beyond the timezone bleep) - is that there's sometimes some things that just don't seem like they really have a place in canon eorzea. At the risk of sounding like a grumpy lorenazi, I have a hard time submitting my character to an event which I risk they might not even be able to talk about afterwards because it'd completely wreck their understanding of eorzea.

 

Oddly enough, I've seen more of that with the Runestone than the Grindstone. Magic just seems to allow for a much wider margin of unique takes. I can think of a few... interesting examples, but that's wholly outside the scope of the point here. And could be misconstrued as call-outs, which I don't want this thread to descend into. :lol:

 

Still, you have to do some explaining to some degree anyway if your battle-hardened thirty year war vet lost in the first round of the tournament to a goofball swinging around a stale baguette (didn't actually happen, just using it as an exaggerated example). I guess it's just a degree of how much... finessing of the events you have to do for the explaining.

 

And a pet-fighting league would definitely be interesting! I'm kinda surprised there isn't one yet.

[Aegir]

I want to see a chocobo jousting tournament!

[Warren Castille]

It has always struck me as somewhat odd that things are so divided - is it because it's somehow too unfair to mix things? Why not go for it anyways?

 

I can answer this one as it pertains to the Grindstone: It was to explained to me when I asked similar questions that at the onset of the game's launch, a lot of roleplay styled itself towards super flashy mega-powerful mages and magic types. The Grindstone was partially created to give people not on that scale a place to hang out and meet other people of that same level of power.

 

It doesn't really matter to me because I loathe emote fighting, but... 

 

... seriously? You exclude mages? What the fuck? So if you have a character who is a spellcaster they simply aren't allowed to participate?

 

Care to explain?

 

First off, Darkfae has the absolute right of it. Time and time again I've attempted to come up with a fair set of rules for spellcasters to use, but in the end, magic and most importantly people's vastly varying approach to magic in FFXIV makes it exceeding difficult to dictate any real rules for it. On top of that, the use of summons, whether faeries or primals, and then healing and such complicates everything. Trimming the abilities handicaps the classes; pitting them against physical fighters makes things vastly more difficult unless those physical fighters have supernatural abilities which many of ours do not.

 

In the end, the Grindstone rules are meant to be quick and easy. When I created the Grindstone there were plenty of mage or magic-oriented FCs and LSs so I thought doing something for the physical fighting characters to -show- that they were doing their thing and to experience another side of roleplay (emote fighting, as you call it) would be a great idea.

 

So far I've regretted nothing.

 

I've stated this before and will state it again: We don't discourage magical combat rpers. In fact I encourage it. And I'm always open to listening to suggestions on how we can make combat with all magic classes a feasible idea.

 

But right now it's simply not one for us, and I apologize if that makes you feel excluded, it was never my intention.

 

Magic users are always free to participate using physical combat skills.

 

 

 

 

 

To chime in on the OP questions and concerns (also, everyone else did a great job giving the kind of advice I'm probably about to repeat!):

 

1) Theme and rules

 

KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid

 

When it comes to fighting tournaments, you don't need to do a whole of work to justify it existing. Fight Club in the book/movie started as two guys (technically!) fighting each other. Others witnessed it and wanted in, and things grew. You could do something that simple: An FC wants to give their war division some more practice against new people, so a freely-joined tournament started up. You could wink at the meta and just explain it as never being able to make one of the other events so you're starting your own. War games, practice, King of the Iron Fist manipulation stuff: Sky's the limit.

 

Rules, though, should be as simple as you can possibly express them without people needing to keep track on a napkin of what happened. I actually wish we could streamline the Grindstone rules a little bit so we could pare down what's frequently a 3+ hour event but I'm slow to adjust tradition. The "trouble" with comparing attack and defense rolls is that sometimes the game wants to see two people fight for an hour and hold up an entire leg of the competition. I know a couple twists on the formula are in play: Spellguard features 2-on-2 fighting where one person is rolling team defense and the other is rolling team offense. The Gin Mill is testing a system where you roll at the start to determine the winner, and then you just write out the result for the next several minutes, with an emphasis on Cool over Mechanic. I wondered if there'd be some room to just do blackjack styled hands: You both roll once, highest gets the advantage that round, best-of-seven rolls kind of thing.

 

My advice would be that whatever you decide, you want people paying attention to the event itself, not the mechanics under the hood. Immersion (and fun) breaker possibilities. Just ask anyone who's ever tried to Grapple something in a D&D game.

 

2) Rules

 

Covered!

 

3) Management:

 

Hoo boy. I've mentioned a lot to people who've asked that running a successful event is a little bit like being a stage manager during a play production: You're working hard to make sure that the people in attendance are blissfully unaware of the commotion and panic and various bits of crisis that are happening behind the curtains.

 

Having people to rely on is key. Key. KEEEEEY. There's a ton of stuff to track during a combat event, up to and including

 

people's posts

their rolls

linkshell/party/fc communication

the various tells you'll be getting

people winning

tending to people who've lost

trying not to ignore anyone who tries to talk to you ICly

or OOCly

linkshells you have that AREN'T a part of the event

answering questions

directing traffic

 

The way I've learned to handle that is to outsource as much shit as I can to everyone I've got helping (and I'm incredibly lucky to have volunteers and offers every week from people). Depending on how many people you have turn up to fight, don't be afraid to turn your event into brackets: The Grindstone is basically 4 miniature tournaments every week on account of not wanting to crush the chat log by keeping everyone in one area. Split up what you've got if you must.

 

If you've got fighting, that means you'll have wounded. Be prepared for people to take damage beyond what would be expected to be "reasonable" in a semi-friendly setting, and if you can have a medical staff on hand to help give some additional RP to those bounced from the mechanical side of the tournament, that's great and fun. The big warning here, though, is that it's also very easy to take those volunteers for granted by expecting them to just be healbots. That destroys morale and should be avoided where it can. I've found gratuitous thankfulness helps a bit, as does never making demands for people to do anything specific.

 

Some generic advice: Start on time. Be flexible if people arrive late (especially if you have odd numbers that can make a tournament lopsided) but when you say "we begin at this time" you'll want to hold to that. Event organizers will feel bad for leaving people out who showed up late, but my mantra for this is "Run your event for the people who are present, not for who is absent." If you've got a dozen people in line ready to go, you're now weighing 1-2 stragglers' attendance against the dozen excited people who showed up before the opening bells.

 

This is kind of slapdash after a long morning of driving, so if you've got any specific questions feel free to hit me up. As mentioned though, the other folks in the thread did a good job of answering.

[Shoshopu]

Why is Spellguard crossed out, Warren :< That's more like it! >

 

I'm going to echo everything Warren has said here. I've personally gone to him for advice many times since I've started running Spellguard, especially at the beginning. Consistency is key!

 

Something that might not have been mentioned (since the Grindstone is never wanting for people to participate, haha) is to never be discouraged by small turnouts. Especially if participation starts out strong and then tapers off later. It's natural for it to wax and wane, especially during long lulls between patches when less people are playing, or during the holidays. It's another facet of Warren's mantra, "Run your event for the people who are present, not for who is absent." Only concern yourself with who is at your event, and not who isn't. As long as enough people are there to run your event, well, you've had an event!

 

I'd be happy to brainstorm with you sometime or answer any specific questions you have, if you happen to reach me on your journey to reach out to others who run tournament events. I really, really like the pet tournament idea too, and if I didn't already have a tournament and a tavern that I help run, I would totally take that idea and run with it.

[xelliexell]

On the subject of a "Minion Madness" tournament theme, our linkshell has run two such events and each were small but successful. (It's why I threw that idea out in tandem, heh.)

 

The downside is that it may be too "cutsey" for some, as more gorey/realistic emotes are kind of off-limits due to leading into uncomfortable animal cruelty territory.

 

But! If you'd like a narrative example of one of ours, here's a log: http://hostingstars.shivtr.com/forum_threads/2570428

 

Mind you, this event did involve rolling, which may not be entirely shown in the edit. There may also be some "DM"ing, since there was such a small and cozy turnout between an insular LS group.

 

Mainly I'm just saying that if you wanted to do a more left-field theme like this, there would probably be interest and there is plenty of room for both creativity and feasibility if constructed right!

[Oyuu]

I want to see a chocobo jousting tournament!

I believe there was already one of those! 

 

Gah, so many useful responses and so many good points and ideas raised, thank you to everyone for providing a fruitful discussion.

 

Regarding the mixing of magic and fighters, this was actually one of my first ideas thinking along Gegenji and Maril's lines that I shouldn't limit something to a rather small (well, much smaller than NA) community. This does poise an issue over balance I suppose, but most of the time I've experienced something like Ave where people understand they are not to go overboard and yeah, the fact the /random rolls make things fair. When using rolls in other events, I've always got the thought in mind that my character can fuck up their spell, or their opponent block it - just because he's a talented mage doesn't mean he'll always land the hit and it actually motivates me to be creative in my combat posts. 

 

I don't doubt there's going to be that one person that will be like "but I lost to a ten year old with a wooden stick!" or whatever. Although, Maril brought up a good point considering this matter when it comes to lore - When does it become an unfair fight, putting rolls aside and focusing on the RP? How much of my preference to be lore-adhering should I allow when organising my event? Whilst I do not want to turn down players from joining, I can't ignore that there is the problem that some roleplayers may have issue with characters that are not lore-friendly or "broken" in terms of power. How strict should I be? In regards to magic, would implementing a rule such as "any questionable magicks may be questioned afterwards, please remember IC actions have IC consequences when using spells that are forbidden etc."

 

Minion tournaments sound cute, and I have been playing around with an idea inspired by Shatter. Instead of having players fight each other, they have an NPC target (could be something like ice or perhaps a creature?) to take down first. I thought this might be good for groups of players - just something I thought of at 4am so it may sound more stupid than I first thought, heh. Is there more fun to beating the crap out of other characters, or do you think the simple thrill of competition would be best? 

 

Thanks to Warren and Shoshopu especially!! I will definitely take you up on your offer of help should I need it (probably feedback on the ideas themselves?) and you also gave great tips. "Run event for those that are present, not who are absent" is a damn good quote and something I will keep in mind! Small turn outs also don't scare me too much, I think I would faint if I got anything half of Grindstone's size! The limit on the number of turns might be a good idea too, I've suffered from watching a three-hour fight because no one could land an attack roll. 

 

I'm not done taking notes just yet, so any advice, experiences or things you would like to see in a tournament event would be awesome to read! Thanks to everyone so far.

[Warren Castille]

On the subject of lore-breaking characters, and how to reel them in:

 

Don't. Don't even try to, or think about it. People's personal arcs aren't something for anyone else to judge, and if they bring up something completely ridiculous feel free to give them benefit of the doubt, while also being free to doubt.

 

"I can't believe that I, the slayer of Bahamut and childhood friend of Raubahn and Azure Dragoon and 13th Chakra Monk, have been defeated in combat!"

 

That kind of behavior should be noted and ignored, in my opinion. Don't go full MST3K and snark on someone's story, but feel free to wonder incredulously about someone's accomplishments, especially if it sounds like they're trying to save face. Your job as an event organizer is to facilitate roleplay, not judge it or try to influence it in your favor. If people want to show up summoning DoomTrain-Egi, let them, and then wonder how much they spent on illusion dust to make their carbuncle look like a train.

[Aegir]

...I do want to summon Doom Train-egi.

[Warren Castille]

...I do want to summon Doom Train-egi.

 

Aegir plz

[Oyuu]

On the subject of lore-breaking characters, and how to reel them in:

 

Don't. Don't even try to, or think about it. People's personal arcs aren't something for anyone else to judge, and if they bring up something completely ridiculous feel free to give them benefit of the doubt, while also being free to doubt.

 

"I can't believe that I, the slayer of Bahamut and childhood friend of Raubahn and Azure Dragoon and 13th Chakra Monk, have been defeated in combat!"

 

That kind of behavior should be noted and ignored, in my opinion. Don't go full MST3K and snark on someone's story, but feel free to wonder incredulously about someone's accomplishments, especially if it sounds like they're trying to save face. Your job as an event organizer is to facilitate roleplay, not judge it or try to influence it in your favor. If people want to show up summoning DoomTrain-Egi, let them, and then wonder how much they spent on illusion dust to make their carbuncle look like a train.

 

Thanks for your reply - and yeah I agree. As long as they're not breaking the rules (by killing people or somehow fudging up the combat) I think I would be fine people turning up with their doomtrain-egi, I think it's just something people will have to deal with and it's not worth excluding that one person from a *public* event because they have a different flavour of RP to myself or others. Easily dealt with the IC doubt option as you mentioned, "whatever you say buddy, let's get on with this." Having an attitude of "well, that happened" and moving on would be best for everyone, I think.

[Aegir]

...I do want to summon Doom Train-egi.

 

Aegir plz