[LocoColt04]

Haha, yeah, I'd imagine so. You and I did our round in a Colosseum-type stadium when we were in that tournament, didn't we? I seem to remember something like that.

via xfire --

The Black Swordsman: That could work so long as newbs don't become greedy and change the environment every post.
[TDS] Argentos: Well, like I said, I'm tempted to go for the solid environment
[TDS] Argentos: It takes away some of the creativity, perhaps
[TDS] Argentos: But the dual-character idea leaves so much more open

If the majority likes the idea of a dual-character setup where characters can come from any planet or dimension, then the only thing left to discuss would be whether to fight in a single locale or whether to leave the environment up to the posters.

I'd probably frown upon having the environment change mid-fight (as fun as that was, the judges admitted that it was a bitch to follow at times... might be too sloppy), but I'm just as open to having the first poster choose the locale as I am having everyone in a giant battle dome.




ALSO, the tournament doesn't have to wait until New Year's, but it may be better just because of the holiday season. I'd hate for that to interrupt the tournament. Starting date is open for discussion, but can't begin until November at the absolute earliest.

[Prodigal Madness]

Sounds good. Aside the abduction part. As I'm sure a number of other people will say/feel, for whatever reasons, it's very unlikely, no matter who, would be able to abduct their character(s). Why not simply say the judges made a call for the ultimate tournament for the highest honors/title/rewards or some such thing?

As for the setting, why not have it in a colosseum and the first person to post has the choice of keeping it static, or being able to warp it, though only within the amount of space that the battlefield in the arena has to offer?

As for the clan thing, I thought that was a great idea. Not only will it allow for *friendly* competion, but it will allow for some within the clans as they choose their four people as well. I would say something in there, if you choose to go the clan route, that if the winners strut it around and are assholes about it, they get the title stripped from them. A reason to keep it friendly.


Oh, and if you don't like the constant change, how about having the first person to post choose to have the setting completely static, as the collosseum arena, or if they do change it(again, within the limits of the arena area), the second poster may make a *slight* tweak. Like say I chose I verdant forest setting, my opponent might choose to make the forest still there, but change that everything is dead/rotting. If I pick a dry mountainy terrain, the second might decide to layer snow on it. But make the slight tweak something that goes with the setting. If I went with having an open, grassy field, the second person couldn't say... throw up a castle in the middle of it, make it on an active volcano that shoots up lava randomly, things like that.

[LocoColt04]

Originally Posted by Tainted Mage

Why not simply say the judges made a call for the ultimate tournament for the highest honors/title/rewards or some such thing?

Even better.

Originally Posted by Tainted Mage

As for the setting, why not have it in a colosseum and the first person to post has the choice of keeping it static, or being able to warp it, though only within the amount of space that the battlefield in the arena has to offer?

So similar to the Holodeck of Star Trek fame, eh? Personally, I'd rather go with one or the other. Granted, that's just my own opinion, but again, I'm looking for some kind of continuity here. Like I noticed you posted in The Masters, themes can really pull the "best" out of a tournament sometimes. To allow each writer to write in his or her own element is what can really provoke a person's true potential, so I can understand why you would want environmental control as well. However, if we do go with allowing the first person to set the scene, I would opt against allowing the environment to be changed. Though the "minor tweak" idea is a decent proposal, it would be difficult to truly define what constitutes a minor tweak.

Originally Posted by Tainted Mage

As for the clan thing, I thought that was a great idea. Not only will it allow for *friendly* competion, but it will allow for some within the clans as they choose their four people as well. I would say something in there, if you choose to go the clan route, that if the winners strut it around and are assholes about it, they get the title stripped from them. A reason to keep it friendly.

If we opt to go back to that, there would be far too many restrictions. Plus, it seems like The Masters may be the only alliance club that can truly produce four solid members (which is amusing, because the club technically has no alliance). It's no secret that the Seekers and the Moderates would be struggling for four active participants, and there's been word from a respectable source that the Brotherhood may not be able to get four good writers either. It's probably just easier to move away from that idea unless something drastically changes within the next couple of months. But, all the same... if we go back to that, I'll keep the stripping of title in mind; however, the tournament IS about bragging rights...




In any case, I'll let the lot of you discuss.
I have some FFXI to tend to, and later, some CS:S.
Woo, videogames!

[Slim Perfect]

Originally Posted by Tainted Mage

Sounds good. Aside the abduction part. As I'm sure a number of other people will say/feel, for whatever reasons, it's very unlikely, no matter who, would be able to abduct their character(s). Why not simply say the judges made a call for the ultimate tournament for the highest honors/title/rewards or some such thing?

I must say I disagree. The whole 'honors/title/rewards' thing has grown old and generic in my opinion. I was thinking on pitching the abduction idea, but Loco beat me to it. Who's to say there isn't a higher power out there that COULD abduct any mortal being? There's that possibility, it's not like our characters are invincible.

Originally Posted by Tainted Mage

As for the setting, why not have it in a colosseum and the first person to post has the choice of keeping it static, or being able to warp it, though only within the amount of space that the battlefield in the arena has to offer?

That I think is a quite decent idea. Almost like the Pokemon Stadium course on Super Smash Bros. Melee (assuming you've played the game). Excellent idea for the writers sake.

Originally Posted by Tainted Mage

Oh, and if you don't like the constant change, how about having the first person to post choose to have the setting completely static, as the collosseum arena, or if they do change it(again, within the limits of the arena area), the second poster may make a *slight* tweak. Like say I chose I verdant forest setting, my opponent might choose to make the forest still there, but change that everything is dead/rotting. If I pick a dry mountainy terrain, the second might decide to layer snow on it. But make the slight tweak something that goes with the setting. If I went with having an open, grassy field, the second person couldn't say... throw up a castle in the middle of it, make it on an active volcano that shoots up lava randomly, things like that.

Like Loco says, that will indefinately lead to an arguement of what is slight and what is not. Eventually arguements OOC end up making people lose interest and essentially quit.

NOW! I have come up with a couple decent ideas, myself!

1) I LOVE the two character idea. Like, how they know each other and such. AND I think it would be an exceptionally good idea to have a round where you have a two on two battle with BOTH your characters. I can see that being a hell of a fun time. Combo's can be used and that will prove interesting. It would lead us into a whole new world of writing which would be perfect to test the entrants. I am thinking maybe a semifinals match or something. Cuz that's when only the skilled remain, and perhaps it will show who's the better a little easier. Whoever can handle a different situation.

2) Relating closely to idea 1 is idea 2. Maybe we could have a round that's like a 3-way brawl? My first RPB on this site was a 3-way brawl and I must say it is a WHOLE different type of writing. It's also unbelievably fun. Every man for himself.

Anyways, I'm just trying to make things different. It'll be pretty interesting to see how people do with new styles of combat; especially in a tournament situation.

[LocoColt04]

There was a pair of semifinals matches a handful of tournaments ago that had ended up being 1v1v1 and it was the sloppiest, most disgusting thing I've ever seen -- and what's worse is that it was with three of the best writers on the site. Three-way brawls are interesting to partake in, but as fun as they can be, it sorta... I don't know. It's just not attractive. There were 12 applicants, so we had two brackets of six, and used the semifinals to try to narrow it down to two people for the finals. It just... didn't work.

They're fun for casual-type sparring, but not so great in tournament play.



As for the possibility of having a round where it's 2v2, DragonHeart actually posed the same question to me a few minutes ago in our message.

2v2 matches are FUN, but can be a real bitch when you have four different writers trying to coordinate things. That's the advantage here. Since it's two writers controlling the two characters on a team, there's less sloppiness and more creativity. Personally, I love the idea. If the majority is in favor of the idea of having a couple rounds where both characters participate, it would probably be set up like this:

Round 1 - X fights
Round 2 - X and Y fight
Round 3 - Y fights
Round 4 - X and Y fight

A finals match with four characters and a month to post?
That has high potential to be incredibly sexy.

Why not let both characters fight all four rounds? *shrug* It's an idea that was turned down in tournaments past, but could become realistic here. I still like 1v1 fights though, which is why I suggest the alternation. It all works for me. It can go X-Y-X-Y or X-XY-Y-XY or XY-XY-XY-XY for all I care.

Originally Posted by Slim

Eventually arguements OOC end up making people lose interest and essentially quit.

Precisely. The alternating environment from my example was only used in that one thread that one time, because the two of us worked together outside of the forums to come up with ways to change everything in a way we both could agree upon. Expecting 16 different people to all work with one another on such similar things, be it major changes or minor, is like expecting to win the lottery on Wednesday night. Slight chance of success.

If we go with user-created environments, the first person to post would have absolute control and set the environment entirely in that first post. Otherwise, we'll use a common ground.



As for the abduction v. invitation debate, at the moment that is entirely meaningless. The most important thing right now is to decide whether the majority wants the two-character competition or not. We can figure out how the characters get to the location at another time.

[Mistress Victoria]

Well, just like I said on xfire, I'm totally for duo competition matches, which is why I particularly chose the fighters that I did. Because they could develop some combination techniques with each other. Which would be very sexy.

[Darkwolf]

uuuuuh will you accept newbies into this tournament of arms? I will need a little bit of time to develop a character but this really looks like something I can get into. It seems I'm always a newbie at forms and stuff, I just really started getting into this stuff. Can someone pm me on what I should do to get involved? I need to know what kind of stuff I need to do to like devoloping a character and stuff like that. I'll also read some on previous stuff on this. Sorry for being the noob here.

[LocoColt04]

There are threads already here in the TOA forum explaining what the tournament is about, as well as how the rules are more strict than regular RPB.

If you've never done an RPB before, I will likely reject your application from the tournament. My advice? Read all the threads, get an idea of what's going on, and then have a couple of battles down in the RPB forum. To me, it doesn't matter whether you win everything or not, it just matters that you have experience. I know there are quite a few members of the club "The Masters" who are wanting some action right now, so perhaps you could have one of them help to orient you to the realm of RPB?

You've got until the start of the new year to prepare yourself, so it's not like there isn't time to learn the ins-and-outs of the writing styles.

[Slim Perfect]

Actually, I'm 100% open right now and I would love to help you train. Something to do between Girlfriend time and work and school....well I just do this at work so....yeahhhh.

EDIT: BTW, I'm a member of 'The Masters.'

[Shiendar]

Man, this is brillient work Loco. I personally want to actually do this. I'm always on and I am burning with ideas for this. Really really. It's going to be truely phenominal... and the beginnings are in my character's profile...

[DragonHeart]

It's like I also said on xFire, I really like the two character idea. It adds so much more depth and nearly infinite possibilities to both attacking and defending. It'll be really interesting to see how all the characters interact. I'm really looking forward to further developments on this idea.

~DragonHeart~

[LocoColt04]

*giddy*

Hmm. I'm excited just to start the signups, but that won't be until December. Holiday season and such. Don't want a bunch of people to sign up only to "forget." So far there have been no objections to the dual-character setup, so assuming there won't be an outstanding amount of nay-sayers, let's go ahead and consider it official for the moment.

That brings us to the next point: How should the rounds be set up?

Char1 fights first?
Both in the quarters?
Char2 in the semis?
Both in the finals?

Both in all four rounds?

Alternating 1/2/1/2 for the rounds?

It's something we'll need to decide upon before going into any of the other details (such as the abduction v. invitation discussion).


Here's the reason I still lean toward having a mix of separate and combined fights. Let's say these judges of this elite alien race who have supreme magical powers are looking to test the greatest fighters in all of the universes of all the alternate dimensions. (Wow, long sentence.) Obviously, if they're abducting/inviting (again, not important at the moment) pairs of fighters, it must be because the fighters are known for their teamwork. Obviously, we would want to skip out on the 1/2/1/2 setup if that is the case. The reason, however, that I still wish to include some sort of solo round is not only because it's tradition of the TOA, but because these supreme aliens would probably want to test each fighter's individual skills, no?


...or, just so that every competitor has a chance to use his/her team, we could do teams in round one, then Char1 in R2, Char2 in R3, and then teams again in R4. It seems a little smarter that way, if we do go with a mixed style setup.

[Prodigal Madness]

Could have the judges just flip a coin for luck of the draw of between the characters. As for the 2v2, I'm VERY set against it. It allows for too much time between your posts. After someone does something, you want to respond, but with 2v2, you have to wait for 3 other people to post before you can react, completely screwing what you had planned on doing in the first place.

If not clubs, why not do a 3 part tournament? Light, Dark, Neutral.

Have each person decide which character would be put into which section, have those sections produce a champion, then have the champions do a 3 way ffa. It leaves it more gray for the final round, and if two are at a disadvantage to a character, they can possibly beat that one down, before turning on themselves. Also, it would be a lot easier for the judges as it would only be one match with 3 people.

As for abduction, my character is EXTREME into Dimensional magics. While he's heavily warded most of the time, it *could* be possible to invite him, where as abduction would be nigh impossible, and much more likely for him not to give a shit about the tournament. You could do invites to some, and abduct others, allowing it to suit their characters.

[LocoColt04]

...you must not have read very closely.

2v2, where each writer has two characters. I would NEVER place four competitors in the same thread and expect them to work with one another like that. Not for a TOA. Not now, not ever. Maybe for fun in the RPB forum, but not here.


Anyway, I gotta get to bed. Please start from post 19 and read through everything if you wish to get fully caught up on the current discussion without confusion.

[Prodigal Madness]

/cry Later here too. Still, I'd think I'd rather have one character fighting two, than two fighting two. Perhaps that could be an option?

[Mistress Victoria]

I say the 2v2 is great. The suggestion you initially had Cesar is what I want to go with. One character for some of the rounds and 2 for the first and last. That would be totally awesome.

I don't care what Tainted Mage says. >.>

[LocoColt04]

Let's not turn this into something it's not. All I want is everyone's opinions, and the majority will get what they want. If a handful of people don't like it, then they don't have to participate. It's going to be impossible for me to please everyone, so people are just going to have to deal with that.

Telling me that you don't care what he thinks doesn't mean that I don't. I care, but at the moment, he's outnumbered.

[DragonHeart]

I like the idea of 2/1/1/2 myself. It lets everyone get used to the new style in the beginning, which can be more like a trial run than the actual tournament in a way. Then test each individual character for strengths and weaknesses and throw them both back into the fray for the last fight. I'm thinking more of how that would work into a cohesive storyline, but I think from the battle standpoint it makes sense too.

~DragonHeart~

[Slim Perfect]

2/1/1/2 is most suitable I think.... Still... we need a good backstory.

@ TM: Sorry, but there is obviously a way your character can be abducted. He's not ALL POWERFUL! I don't care how 'into' the dimensional magics he is, what say if one of the abducters was even moreso? There's always room to be a higher power.

[Mistress Victoria]

Backstory? Uhm.. So.

Cesar's all-powerful tournament in the coliseum isn't good enough for a story? It's like that one episode of Teen Titans. That one villain guy abducted the guys from the show and had them face off in a tournament, only to absorb their powers and stuff. Maybe something like that where the judges are actually evil?

Who knows. Just trying to throw something out there for those who want a storyline.