Before you enter:
This writing contest is a little different from others that I have seen hosted before on this site. That's not to say it hasn't been done, but I just want you all to be aware of how this will work. Rather than judging a series of short stories written by each of you, I will be overseeing battles that you fight amongst yourselves, using the OC's you create. Think of it like a roleplay of sorts, in which the characters are the ones participating in this tournament against one another.

You're not writing a short-story; you're fighting a duel with words. Don't let that prospect discourage you though, my friends. Whether you have great pride in your writing ability or not, I strongly encourage you to enter. It would be a great learning experience for those of you who wish to improve, and a fantastic opportunity to teach others what you know about writing if you're confident in your methods. If you're unsure because you are simply nervous, set aside your anxiety and participate to the best of your ability!

I offer my services as well. I will never, I repeat never, steer the outcome of this contest. However, it is my desire to see it become an enjoyable and fun experience for all. To that end, I will help people edit their posts in the tournament threads, if they want me to, to help improve their flow, imagery, etc. I will not ever alter the base content of a post: all actions and ideas come from the poster, I just make the words sparkle.

This is not an insult to your ability whatsoever. It is simply my way of offering assistance to those who wish to participate, but are unsure that their writing abilities will make the cut. I will help you get your OC into this tournament if you want to participate, even if you are not confident in your own literary prowess. Think of me as an editor of sorts for the duration of The Unity Games. You may use my services or not, the choice is yours.

[Rules Pt. I] Stats and Ranks:
Obviously it would be unfair to allow an "anything goes" policy on OC's. However, it is very difficult to limit the abilities of each OC (or improve them, if that's necessary for some reason) to ensure a fair fight. To that end I have created a simple stat system that will help to balance things out a little.

There will be five stats that each character utilizes: vitality, willpower, strength, agility, and intelligence.

Vitality is the measure of your OC's physical endurance. It determines how much damage they can take, how long they can sustain a standoff (such as a grapple), and various other things.

Willpower is the measure of your OC's incorporeal endurance. It will determine how much magical energy you have your disposal, how long a dragon can breathe fire; things of that nature.

Strength is just simply the pure brute force of your OC. Some have it, some don't.

Agility helps to determine how quickly characters interact with one another, often determining the outcomes of "hit-or-miss" engagements.

Intelligence is what determines the thinking nature of your OC. A well-learned or experienced character may be able to see through a feint, or perform similar judgement to help save them or gain an advantage. It also determines your OC's magical force.

The skill range goes as follows: S->A->B->C->D, where S is the highest possible stat.

These abilities are scaled based one what type of creature you use, and no base OC may exceed a B average. Each race has its own unique beginning balance; a default if you will. Take the changeling as an example:

Changeling [Basic]:
VIT:B
WIL: B
STR: B
AGI: B
INT: B

The basic changeling is balanced in everything; they're adaptable. As you can see, the average across all of their skills is clearly "B". Now, take a base dragon:

Dragon [Basic]:
VIT: S
WIL: C
STR: A
AGI: D
INT: B

The dragon is not as adaptible. They are stronger than a changeling and can endure more punishment, but they are slower and have less magical potential. Even so, the basic dragon still averages a "B".

[Rules Pt. II] Races:
Obviously the Visionary universe is the battleground for The Unity Games. As such, only creatures within the universe are permitted. However, special exception can be made with good reason, as many creatures do exist that have not been mentioned in the stories. Humans, however, are not a part of the universe. Sorry for the inconvenience.

The following overview lists the basic stats for a few of the races. Anything outside of this must be discussed and determined before your OC is submitted.

Changeling [Basic]:
VIT:B
WIL: B
STR: B
AGI: B
INT: B

Diamond Dog [Basic]:
VIT:B
WIL: D
STR: A
AGI: A
INT: B

Dragon [Basic]: (I apologize for not making this available sooner. Information regarding dragons may be found here.)
VIT: S
WIL: C
STR: A
AGI: D
INT: B

Gryphon [Basic]:
VIT: B
WIL: D
STR: A
AGI: S
INT: C

Minotaur [Basic]:
VIT: A
WIL: D
STR: S
AGI: A
INT: D

Zebra [Basic]:
VIT: D
WIL: B
STR: C
AGI: A
INT: S

Unicorn [Basic]:
VIT: D
WIL: A
STR: C
AGI: B
INT: S

Earth Pony [Basic]:
VIT: A
WIL: D
STR: S
AGI: B
INT: C

Pegasus [Basic]:
VIT: B
WIL: D
STR: B
AGI: S
INT: B

[Rules Pt. III] Balancing Your OC:
After deciding on one of the races listed (or picking from another and balancing its basic stats with me), you're pretty much golden. Your OC's abilities are moderated by these statistics, so as long as your abilities are within reason you may use any of them that you like.

In other words, no matter how many weapons, abilities, or other such things your OC has, the stats affect them all, creating a basic balancing system. However, it goes without saying that for the sake of plausibility and simplicity I would prefer you to have a manageable number of things your OC can do.

Obviously you can see the word "basic" on all of those stat lists. That is because your OC's are supposed to be champions; they are not basic by any stretch of the imagination. So, to make things more interesting, you are allowed the following to modify your stats:

1) You may add two points to your stats, but only two. That means you may take a single stat and put it up by two ranks, or two stats and put them each up by one rank.

2) You may redistribute two points. This means that you may pull two points from any one (or one from any two) stat(s), and place them elsewhere.

For example, let's say I am using Aurus. He is the changeling king, so obviously he has more raw energy and magical ability than other changelings. So I would probably add my two free points to Willpower and Intelligence. Then I redistribute my points, and so his stats look like:

Changeling [Aurus]:
VIT: B->B [+0]
WIL: B->A [+1] (Taken from Strength)
STR: B->C [-1] (Given to Willpower)
AGI: B->B [+0]
INT: B->S [+2] (Two additional points)

Once you figure your stats out, you'll notice that everyone still averages out the same. This gives you the freedom to tailor your OC to fit your image of them (Mage, duelist, whatever you wish), without giving them an absolutely insane advantage over someone else's character.

Then of course is the fun part: building your OC. Giving your OC a strong back story, sensible abilities, and a personality are the most interesting portion of the creation process. I look forward to see what magnificent creatures and characters you all create!

[Rules Pt. IV] The Tournament Ladder:
The tournament ladder will be posted at the tournament's opening, when all OC's have been submitted. Since the back story is that this is a "Warrior's Bond" sort of tournament, the idea is to pit characters from various races against one another.

The first round of ladders will be based off of how many competitors there are, obviously. In the event that there are an odd number, myself or another contestant will play an additional OC to fill the charts. All first-round matches will be scrambled so that as many matches as possible include champions of different races.

Obviously after the first round the tournament runs itself, and anything after that could be pony vs. pony, dragon vs. dragon, or anything at all. The winner of the "viewers only" portion will fight against an OC picked (and controlled) by myself in the final round. Regardless of the outcome of this match, the winner of the VO (viewers only) portion will win the grand prize.

[Rules Pt. V] Combat Posting:
This roleplay tournament is a fight between your OC and your opponent, using all of your descriptive powers. However, in the interests of fairness, there are rules you must abide by for each post you make in your matches:

1) To prevent godmodding, your posts will be observed by myself prior to their posting in the specific official duel thread. The outcome of the actions in the post will not be judged at this time.

2) In tandem with the above rule, all actions in your posts are to be "open-ended". No attacks may auto-hit, and no preventative measures may automatically deflect an attack, so on and so forth.

3) Your combat posts should be in 3rd person narrative, to help keep things consistent.

4) Banter is definitely permitted, and encouraged. It's boring if someone gets their ass beat and nobody says anything.

5)You may only make your combat posts inside of threads that you are dueling in. You may not post until your combat actions have been declared legit. (See rule #1)

Five simple rules to keep your posts fair, and hopefully entertaining for both yourself and your opponent. I know it may sound like a lot of work, but trust me, it's less intensive than you would think.

[Rules Pt. VI] Spectators:
Man do we love our spectators! That's what makes a tournament, after all. Spectators are encouraged to post, and not just read, as people in the crowd call out all the time at huge events like these.

This means that you are both allowed and encouraged to post inside of duel threads. However, you may only post things pertaining to the match. That means no OOC nonsense. But if you want to cheer for someone fighting, or boo the other guy, you're free to be a man in the stands shouting at the top of your lungs!

The people who are dueling may take what you say to heart, giving them courage or damaging their resolve. That is completely up to them, but they can decide to make use of your observations, catcalls, and more inside of their combat posts. In other words, they can hear you.

There are no absolute rules for this type of posting, other than that you shouldn't try to influence the course of the match, but rather try to increase the total fun had. It will be more entertaining for everyone when the duelists dedicate attacks to their fans in the stands, or salute the crowd at the end of a match! Any spectator posts that are clearly out of line will be deleted by yours truly.

[Rules Pt. VII] Judgment:
The part you've all been waiting for. How do we decide the winners of these duels? Well, it's not just me doing it, you know.

When judging the results of combat posts, a small panel of other contestants will be used to help me decide what actions do and do not occur. Obviously nobody is allowed to judge a match they are participating in, so "other contestants" means people who are either out of the ladder because they have lost a duel, or from a different duel altogether. All decisions are reached by brief discussion and voting.

I feel that this will help to render fair combat judgments, as only people who have had a chance to fight within the tournament are allowed to make those decisions. In other words, only those who have experienced the game and understand how it works are allowed to assist in rendering judgment.

It will be selected so as to remove bias, meaning that I would never give anyone the chance to decide who they would be fighting in the next ladder if they won. Judgment for combat posts must be decided fairly and without motive.

When deciding the end of the duel itself, it may happen one of two ways:

1) The duel will be concluded once the two involved parties reach a consensus that one of their OC's can't "fight anymore". This doesn't mean that they surrender, or that they lose; it simply means the match is over. Voting judgment will be rendered in this case.

2) Judges may call a match in the event that a "death blow" is decided. A "death blow" would be when those who judge each combat post decide that the actions within would kill another OC. This is a friendly competition, so there is no "to the death" fighting. That wouldn't be good for world peace. If the judges call a match based on a death blow, the OC that would have dealt the blow is declared the victor.

Final judgment is rendered in part by myself. However, all spectators and contestants not participating in the duel will have a chance to vote for the winner, if no "death blow" is dealt. In other words, if it is not obvious who has won, those watching the fight will decide who was the victor.

In either case, by death blow or viewer voting, the final judgment is absolute. No bitching.