General Discussion (Q&A) Thread

[Andromeda]

As it sounds, I am just going to open up a thread for asking all your questions. I had wanted to keep things with as few threads and necessary, but I guess one more will not hurt it. I'll transfer the posts that were made here and anyone with a question can ask me.

I prefer you did not PM for general questions simply because if you have a question, someone else probably has the same one. This way I can answer them generally, rather than personally. Questions about an individuals quest and something more personal, can be PM'd to me. But we are not at that point, so if you have a question this is place for it.

Well since merging and moving was being a pain, I'll just quote even one.

Originally Posted by LocoColt04

While I'm still unsure of whether I'll be participating or judging in this (the latter would be your call, of course, but the former depends upon my upcoming free time, which should hopefully be expanding), I do have a question for you all the same.

What is the tentative start date for the inaugural tournament? Are you placing a time limit on applications or are you waiting for a certain character cap instead? I figure these are the two questions that everyone who's interested will want to have answers for before anything else, so I'm asking now.

Answer:

Well the start date will be tentatively set for two week down the road. Though I'm going to be judging a lot of it by the responses I get from people. I know that there are already good hand full, like 8 or so. So consider the deadline for profiles in two Sundays.

Originally Posted by Andromeda

You'll have to forgive me I put together this last night so I was distracted. I had all of the information, but I did not put it all in the right places. I had meant to include the story in this thread as well. I went and made that correction now. Since I'm more awake now I'll be going around cleaning things up if I made any other mistakes.

The rules thread has all of the information aside from the story, because the story will change, but the rules will remain unchanged. The story and quest threads are made seperate mainly to answer any questions at this point. Though the quest thread is also going to have all of the quests as they are announced, so it will be used. I'm going to leave the story thread for questions to be asked about the story itself so that it can be explained there.

The profile is not too bad and relays important information. Just remember that having a thorough profile will be important so that those who are RPing with you have an understanding of how you are. It will also aid me as well. But you do not have be so thorough there is nothing left for mystery. Just finding that balance so there is enough for people to work from.

Originally Posted by Merlin

Perhaps you should make a Q&A topic or General Discussion topic in here so that silly ppl like administrators aren't breaking TFF Rules by posting unrelated questions in the 'Character Profile' topic...

Anywho, since I'm a judge I don't believe I need a character profile, unless I am judging IC, in which case I will edit this post and add something.

[Anomaly]

A thorough and detailed character profile will be required, the information required will be provided at the bottom. This information will be necessary for the creation of the quests and how the overall plot will be molded.

Character profiles will not be requested until the tournament’s background and current state of affairs in the world has been announced.

So...then do you need us to post up profiles before you make the quest? Or do we need to wait for the current world background to be posted up before we make our profiles and then you make the quest?

[Andromeda]

As I was saying before, when this was more just an idea being thrown around I did not want to have profiles tossed at me. Since they would have been reworked completely, since I had not even made the world yet. I was simply saying I will not be asking for profiles until I posted the background information, which I have done now. So profiles are wanted right now.

And I will be using the profiles as a way to group people together at the start, simply because for story sake I'm not going to intentionally mix kingdoms together at this point. Each side will work together independently for the first round unless I come up uneven with groups.

Quests will not be handed out and announced until the deadline for the profiles have been reached. When the quests are announced, the tournament will pretty much start that day or shortly there after. I may provide a day or two before the start, so that you can think over the information and ask questions initally if needed about the quest you received.

[Andromeda]

I'm answering HUNK's question about character death. There is no enforced death for characters. And if an organization falls due to a plot event, well your character will naturally still be around, though what happens after that event is up to you. You and your afflications are not so connected that if you lose they are over. If you lose, it will be up to you if you really want to kill your character off. I will allow for you do that, but it can only be by your own hand and after you know that you have lost, naturally.

This is more RP than a battle, so do not feel that failure means death. All it means is that your story ends sooner than the others.

[Merlin]

So... do we have a timeline set up yet? While extending the signup period indefinately might seem admirable, there's a point where it becomes counterproductive to the greater good.

[Andromeda]

Yes, I am keeping a close eye on things here. Aside from needing a couple people to finish up their profiles there are still things that I doing behind the scenes that I want to have ready before closing things. I also got caught up in a few other things that I was not planning on, so I did not have the free time available that I was expecting. Either way, I do not think that things will go on must past the end of the month. I already have about 12/13 people, which I had hoped for 16 at least it is enough.

I figure if all things go well, I will be closing the sign ups in a week or little more. Probably in the first week or so of February. Then there will be a week for me to get everything in order, meaning working the brackets out and getting the quests ready for everything. And then things will start for writing probably mid-February. The only thing that will really stop me from meeting that will be is something comes up with me that I am unable to write or something of that nature. So I would consider February to be pretty definative right now.

[Andromeda]

Well I am announcing the deadline for signing up for the tournament. As of Tuesday night at midnight, Tuesday/Wednesday I will close the threads for signing up and profiles. When that happens I will begin creating the brackets for the tournament as well as the quests. When that is finished I will announce the pairings or groups. When I have announced them I will give you one day to reflect and ask questions. At which point I shall create your threads and you can begin posting.

If you have any questions about this bring them up now.

[Merlin]

Keep in mind folks that you technically have a little over 3 weeks to go, but you shouldn't wait around to the last minute to do something. I want you all to do well in this and fight your way to the top. I don't want to have to vote out people because they were too lazy to post at all. Musicmuse, Aerif, and Anomaly are the only people who have participated so far. If you're brainstorming or something, at least post in your OOC thread so we know you are even attempting to participate. The following people have yet to actively participate in this Tournament:

Group 1
Dragonheart
Cassie-Chan
Psiko

Group 2
Itachi Uchiha
HUNK
Hexin
Rabble Rouser

Group 3
Haku
Dante Fatima (posted in OOC but not in Quest yet)

[Psiko]

I want to apologize because last week was not a good week for me. I worked 77 hours and so when I wasn't working, I was sleeping for the most part. We had a big visit from one of the higher-ups and now that this is done, I can get back to being active here.

Again, I apologize.

[Merlin]

Two from group 1 and one from group 2 have responded so far to my inquiry. I guess that's a start...

In any case, I'm going to begin looking over what has been posted so far. If I let all the posts start piling up, it will become troublesome in a few weeks. XD

[Fehrant]

Hey, care to throw a random encounter for my character to chew on the meantime?

Seriously, though. If it keeps going like this, I'll win by default.

[Andromeda]

Yes, though winning in a round that is only suppose to lose one person is going to screw a lot of things up. If we lose that many people just from inactivity, it means I am going to have completely re-organize the groupings. So do whatever you can to push and pull the others in your group to get in here and post.

[Fehrant]

That's not my only concern either. Even if people suddenly start posting, at this pace, I doubt we'll leave the hideout.

[Andromeda]

Yes, that will be a problem. Hopefully, with introductions out of the way, whenever. One of you will be able to speed up the process. Once we hit the three week mark I will need to make a decision of where everyone is at in the posts and progress to know how feasible it will be to have it finish up in a week.

Once we are over the first round hurdle, I think thing will improve somewhat since the remaining people will have actually posted and know that the tournament is happening. They will also not have the same hesitations that they might right now. I am not sure what is the reasons for some of them not posting. It could be life, no internet suddenly, writer's block, lack of motivation. Who knows, and these things can pop up at anytime too, so I do not expect the future rounds to be complete smooth rides to the end. I foresee plenty of more bumps in the road.

One of the problems was that it took 6 weeks to go through the signing up process. This is partial due to lack of interest suddenly, which seemed a little strange since most of the people that had interest in the original thread in the RP OoC forum did not actually show up here to my disappointed. That there gave me some false impressions of what to expect. Hopefully the future tournaments will not have such troubles as being established, rather than completely unknown.

[Merlin]

TFFers are notorious for being lazy when it comes to RPing. You give them a month, they'll wait around till the end THEN start posting. Hence why I love inactivity penalties and shorter time periods. Fine you don't post after X days/weeks.. you lose! About the only thing I liked about FFH back during a certain cross-forum tourney was that they wrote like winning the Tournament was their livelihood... they didn't sit around waiting, they typed till their fingers bled. Unfortunately, TFF has never been like that. I'm not sure how to change that, but it is one thing I have always wished for here...

As for Fehrant, you should grant him the ability to double-post. Hell if the rest of them in his team want to be MIA... don't let it hold him back. Lets see how creative he can be. I think it'd be interesting. Sure its technically not RPing at that point, but hell... why make him sit there for 3 weeks. That stinks.

EDIT: Also, I get the feeling that I'm the only judge that actually posts... maybe I care too much about seeing Andro's RP Tourney work... lol! I really would like to see this thing succeed. O.o

[Andromeda]

I have been thinking the same thing as well Merlin. Especially since I would like to see the RP complete, if it does come down to it. Fehrant can double post to get things moving along. I am not sure if I want to make that call right now, since as you said TFF RPers are notoriously lazy about posting. I do not know why they would want to be when there is a timeline. I would be posting immediately myself knowing that I could not wait around until the end. It is a different environment than the rest of the standard RPs out there that you can wait a week for a post, in spite of it being annoying.

As for the other judges, Spike does not look around the forums much and he said that he is only available in the latter half of the week. *shrugs* That really should not change matters in posting, but as long as he judges. And Loco, well he has ToA. Though it is moving along on its own, so I do not know what is stopping him. The only thing that stops me is that I work 9-6, otherwise I post here as soon as I can.

[Fehrant]

Oooh, double-post? Nice. I love the autistic feeling of RPing myself with... myself. My apologies, I mean, authentic feeling. My brain is being pushed to the limit due to the excessive competition, as you can see. Will work on something, though, if that would tilt the balance to my benefit, dear judge. *evil grin*

As a side note, I do second the motion about inactivity penalties; it makes my PC clock appear useless otherwise.

[Andromeda]

Yes, that might be something to consider. However, I would not feel right about adding it in the middle of the round, considering it would be seen as a threat or ultimatium as this point rather simply another part of the judging process. I was wanting to get away from the ideas of penalties and rewards for doing things, since it would make too much like Jam and TRPT. But penalty for inactivity I think would be something to add into the judging criteria, since it is important that someone is active as well as writing well or else nothing get done.

It would be a subtractive point scale along with the other judging categories. It would need to be capped, I think, as I would really hate to see insanely poor activity become completely destructive. However, it might need to be uncapped since inactivity itself is destructive to the RPing of others. It will be something that I will need to discuss between the other judges.

[Mistress Sheena]

...Seeing as this is the first tournament of its kind, I'd say no. -_-;

Besides. This tournament is practically as good as dead, no offense.

[Anomaly]

Meh, get it to the next round and we'll see how dead it stays.