In an effort to ease the burden on our glorious leader, Peregrine Caged, I have created this thread for the purpose of assembling all questions about writing for the tournament in one place with absolutely no intention of usurping authority.

In a nutshell, this thread will be for everyone to post their technical questions in one place before the tournament starts so that Peregrine can make sure he covers everything at the start and time isn't wasted trying to get in contact with anyone later. I'm doing this purely for convenience and not because I have any authority whatsoever with this tournament. Peregrine can answer these whenever he wants or not, isn't my call. Anyway, here are my questions to start the list:

Will there be any kind of deadline schedule for the battles?
How do we determine terrain for our fights?
Will Discord alter the setup at all mid-battle?
Is there a length limit on each battle?

Most of these will probably be explained anyway, but maybe you guys have different important questions. Gather them here so they're all in the same place.

3286352
I was, at first, a little miffed to see this. But this is a good idea. I might have or might not have done it, but better we get it out of the way now, heh.

To answer your questions:

1. Yes. I want to keep this moving, so you'll have two weeks to get me your completed fight. If I get one but not the other in that time, it's a forfeit and the other automatically moves up. Though I really would prefer to have two version of every fight and let the fans pick the winner. If both do not reach the deadline, a slight extension will be given--if both participants fail again, I have a backup plan, but both authors will be removed from the project.

2/3. You'll be given terrain details (and a few others) before each matchup. And it is Discord, after all, so who knows.

4. Oh yes. I'm thinking around 5000 words should be good, but might go down to 3000. That's not just a limit--it's a minimum. Each fight needs to be roughly the same length for as much fairness as possible.

3292645
I was wondering whether this would seem kinda pretentious when I did it, so I tried to make sure people knew this was an unsanctioned and unauthorized bit of initiative. I was just expecting people to dump all their questions here and you would get to them when the tourney started.

Sorry for stepping on toes, hooves, or other appendages, but I'm not great at waiting and doing nothing so I tried to be productive without bothering you.

I do have one slight concern. I don't know if this has already been addressed.

You say after the battles are complete, they are put to a vote -- Wherein the writers can blog about it, spread the word etc.

Surely then, writers with a higher number of followers will have an unfair advantage and some votes may be based on favoritism rather than actual quality of the writing?

Wouldn't a panel of judges be a fairer means of selecting a victor?

3296763
Well, now I feel stupid, that's true. OK, well then. That changes things a bit. But only one thing, and it was something I added after the fact anyway. OK, the players themselves will not be allowed to blog and ask for votes. Only neutral parties (such as myself) will do that. My intentions were always to utilize TWG as our primary source of votes, regardless. Although with the lack of group notifs these days, those plans went out the window, some. Which is why I figured I'd let everybody blog.

As for a panel of judges, no. If I'm able to find a few, I would like a group of judges to read the pieces and then offer their opinions on the fights. Not a selection, but just their thoughts. So we'll see what happens. But I still want the final verdict to be a judgement from readers, since part of the challenge is writing action scenes that appeal.

Is there going to be any kind of healing or recuperation between fights? It would be kind of awkward to write a narrow victory with lots of bruises/injuries and then be expected to fight another opponent effectively.

3300990
Originally I wasn't going to let you, thinking that should be part of the challenge. But there will be some healing and resting allowed, as well as restocking for those who utilize ammunition.

You won't be put to 100%, but you will be battle ready.

So when we write these things, does our character have to win? I mean, I know having my character go down means I won't advance, but I don't see a realistic match by forcing a win if you gnomesayin.

3301005
3304936

This is a slight extension to Blazer's question --
I do have a slight issue with this idea of not fully healing between bouts. What if one character has an especially difficult battle/wins via the skin of their teeth -- do these injuries automatically wipe themselves out? otherwise one character would have an unfair advantage over another. Can't we get back to 100% after each battle? Let the characters do the battling, not their circumstance?

3304936
I don't see why you wouldn't write your character winning. Your opponent will be doing the same thing. So, yes, your character has to win, unless you want to give up by default, I guess.

Edit: I get that it might be a little more difficult having a foregone conclusion, but that's part of the challenge.

3304960
No. Any debilitating injuries will be healed--bones mended, organs restored, major cuts and wounds healed to simple scars. Superficial wounds such as scrapes and minor bruising will be left alone. This is a story which means it is taking place in normal time, one after the other. Everyone will be in the same boat--always brought back to battle ready status, but also forced to actually experience these fights as they occur one after the other. Use it for for some character, for some drama. Spaced, come on, I'm doing everything I can to make these matches as fair as I can. A little trust, please.

3305042

Fair 'nough

We're writing our own exit at the end of the fight, correct? We don't end with the opponent's KO, but by actually leaving the field via the exit?

Well, I was going to ask a single question: Will there be like Flashbacks or moments that the fighters would talk about their pasts or something like that?

3307976
Yes.

3309516
I've said as much, yes. Would hardly be interesting if it was just a fight.

Does it have to be 3rd person omniscient? Can it be 3rd person limited with alternating perspectives instead?

3334136
I answered this to you personally, and the answer I gave you sticks so don't worry about this, but I'll throw it on here.

While it might work, I'd really rather you all write in the same manner. Conflicting POV are not good. As well, limited naturally might focus on your own character, which is a major spoiler in the victor.