The Dajas Pagoda: The Updated Rules

[Christoph]

Special thanks to Atzar for laying down the foundation for the Pagoda rules, writing most of those below. It wouldn't have been possible without him.



The Dajas Pagoda

Located in Scara Brae, the Dajas Pagoda might be best described as a proving ground for all Althanian warriors. They use sword, axe, bow, magic, or even stranger means to show the world just who they are. It’s never easy, though: multiple levels of strong, experienced, cunning fighters block the way to the top.

Each Hierarch is in charge of his/her own arena. This means that the battlegrounds are completely customizable. While hazards are fair game, unavoidable dangers are not. The vast majority of fighters must be able to survive in the arena. A field covered entirely with lava, for example, would not be allowed; the majority of players cannot fly and are not immune to fire.

Additionally, fighters need not worry about their survival. While dying obviously isn't a brilliant idea, a number of Ai'Bron monks are on hand to deal with all fatalities.

All arenas shall be made public knowledge and will be described for all members to see.

The Setup:

The Dajas Pagoda consists of three ranks of fighters. The bottom rank, Warrior, consists of six fighters. They are the vanguard of the Pagoda, and all newcomers must first test their skill against these powerful fighters. The middle rank, Master, is shared by three strong combatants. The top rank, Grandmaster, is held by one person alone. Only those who have defeated a Master in combat have the right to challenge this lord of the Pagoda.


Everybody may make a challenge in the Pagoda – there are no level restrictions on this section of Scara Brae. If a player does not already hold a rank in the Pagoda, he/she (gender neutrality henceforth implied) must first face and defeat a member of the Warrior rank. Once victorious, the player has two options:

1) He can assume the position of the defeated Warrior. The player is now a member of the Warrior rank and immediately acquires all benefits and responsibilities. The vanquished Warrior is immediately stripped of his rank. The new Warrior must wait for a minimum of two weeks before challenging a member of the Master rank.

Note: If a hierarch is beaten by two or more challengers who wish to assume his position, the challenger whose thread was completed first shall be granted the position. The other fighter may then move on to the next rank, if he so desires.

Note also: A challenger, if defeated, may not challenge the Heirarch which defeated him again until after having challenged a different Heirarch.

2) He can immediately challenge a member of the Master rank. The victorious player does not become a member of the Warrior rank. The vanquished Warrior retains his position, but all bonuses due to winning streaks are eliminated.


Masters may only be challenged by members of the Warrior rank and those who have defeated a member of the Warrior rank in the Dajas Pagoda. If defeated, a Warrior retains his position but loses all bonuses due to winning streaks. A participant who holds no rank, however, is eliminated and must begin again by facing a member of the Warrior rank. If victorious, however, the player has two options:

1) He can assume the position of the defeated Master. The player is now a member of the Master rank and immediately acquires all benefits and responsibilities. The vanquished Master is immediately stripped of his rank. The new Master must wait for a minimum of two weeks before challenging the Grandmaster.

2) He can immediately challenge the Grandmaster. The victorious player does not become a member of the Master rank. The vanquished Master retains his position, but all bonuses due to winning streaks are eliminated.


The Grandmaster may only be challenged by members of the Master rank and those who have defeated a member of the Master rank in the Dajas Pagoda. If defeated, a Master retains his position but loses all bonuses due to winning streaks. A participant who holds no rank, however, is eliminated and must begin again by facing a member of the Warrior rank. If victorious, however, the player assumes the position of Grandmaster and immediately acquires all benefits and responsibilities.

If the former Grandmaster is defeated by a Master, he assumes the former position of the victor. If the former Grandmaster is defeated by a player who holds no rank, however, he must challenge a Master within three days of the judgment or be stripped of all rank. The winner of this challenge retains the position of Master, while the vanquished is stripped of all rank.


Rules:

Normal battle EXP gains are applied. Normal battle GP gains are not applied.

To issue a challenge to any rank, the player must pay a fee of 100 GP (this fee may be altered as described below, and can potentially be fronted by another player). The winner receives this sum, plus an additional 100 GP (so a winning challenger would gain a 200 GP, for a profit of 100). The player may choose to challenge a specific member of the rank, or he can simply issue a challenge and let the first available member of that rank accept the challenge.

Battles must be at least 10 posts long to qualify for judgment. The winner is determined by OOC score.

If a member of the Pagoda hierarchy is involved in less than two challenges, he must accept all specific challenges or be stripped of his rank. If the member is already involved in two or more challenges, accepting additional battles is voluntary. The challenger must then select another hierarch to battle.

If a challenge to a ranking member with less than two battles isn't accepted within 5 days, the member loses his rank and the challenger is free to assume the position.

Unless other arrangements have been made and agreed upon by both parties, the Hierarch must create threads within three days of their acceptance.

Participants are required to post within 72 hours of their adversary’s last post from June 1 to August 31. During the months of September to May, the time limit will be 96 hours, to allow a little more breathing room for participants during the school year. A single violation of this rule results in a warning; a second violation results in automatic forfeit, and the winner and loser are treated as stated above. If a participant does not post for more than 10 days, he is disqualified automatically with no warning.


Rank Bonuses:

With each successive victory, a hierarch may choose to gain a small bonus based on his rank. Bonuses are reset upon promotion or defeat.

Challengers receive no bonuses.

Warrior Rank:

The following bonuses are available:

1) The player receives a 3% increase to his EXP gain at the end of a Dajas Pagoda battle. This may be chosen multiple times, to a maximum of 15%.
2) The fee to challenge this Warrior is increased by 25%. This may be chosen multiple times, to a maximum of 100%.
3) The player receives a +100 increase to his GP gain at the end of a Dajas pagoda battle. This value has no effect on the challenge fee and may be chosen an infinite number of times.

Master Rank:

Masters automatically receive a 5% increase to their EXP gains at the end of a Dajas Pagoda battle.
Masters automatically receive a +150 increase to their GP gain at the end of a Dajas Pagoda battle. This value has no effect on the challenge fee.

The following bonuses are available:

1) The player receives a 3% increase to his EXP gain at the end of a Dajas Pagoda battle. This may be chosen multiple times to a maximum of 15%, and is cumulative with the innate bonus (so a 6% increase here would result in a total increase of 11%).
2) The fee to challenge this Master is increased by 50%. This may be chosen multiple times to a maximum of 100%.
3) The player receives a +100 increase to his GP gain at the end of a Dajas Pagoda battle. This value has no effect on the challenge fee and may be chosen an infinite number of times.

Grandmaster Rank:

The Grandmaster automatically receives a 10% increase to his EXP gains at the end of a Dajas Pagoda battle.
The Grandmaster automatically receives a +400 increase to his GP gains at the end of a Dajas Pagoda battle. This value has no effect on the challenge fee.

The following bonuses are available:

1) The player receives a 3% increase to his EXP gain at the end of a Dajas Pagoda battle. This may be chosen multiple times to a maximum of 15%, and is cumulative with the innate bonus (so a 6% increase here would result in a total increase of 16%).
2) The fee to challenge this Master is increased by 100%. This may be chosen only once.
3) The player receives a +200 increase to his GP gain at the end of a Dajas Pagoda battle. This value has no effect on the challenge fee and may be chosen an infinite number of times.
4) The player receives a +1 increase to his score during judgment when determining the winner of a battle. This may be chosen multiple times, to a maximum of +3. The player must indicate in his final post of the battle that he intends to use this bonus; this bonus is reset after use.

The Grandmaster Bounty
Aside from the opportunity to claim the coveted Grandmaster position, defeating the Grandmaster holds another reward. Any challenger who defeats the Grandmaster in a completed battle receives a prize of 2,000 GP, plus an additional 500 for each win on the current Grandmaster’s streak. A player who earns this reward cannot win it again for another six months.


The Champion of the Pagoda
Above all other titles in the Pagoda, one holds prestige and glory higher than all. That title is the Champion of the Pagoda.

Becoming the Champion of the Pagoda has the following requirements:

1.) The player must achieve the rank of Grandmaster.
2.) The player must hold onto that rank for four consecutive battle victories against challengers. Default wins do not count.

A Champion loses his title under the following circumstances:

1.) The player loses a Pagoda battle due to inactivity.
2.) The player is ousted from his Grandmaster position and his successor wins four matches before the current Champion is able to win the Grandmaster rank back.

The Champion of the Pagoda has the following benefits in addition to their Hierarch benefits:

1.) IC recognition and fame throughout much of Althanas.
2.) A symbol of their rank. [Note: I've yet to decide what this should be. Feel free to put in your ideas]
3.)A 25% discount in the Bazaar.
4.) A 10% bonus to EXP and GP in ALL battles that the Champion completes on Althanas.



Leave:

Once every two months, a hierarch may request leave. When this request is granted, all responsibilities of the hierarch are paused until his announced return. This break may last up to two weeks; if it goes on longer, the hierarch may be removed from his position in the Pagoda.

In order to request leave, the following conditions must be met:

- The request must come at least a full day before the actual break begins.
- The estimated date of leave and return must be posted.
- The hierarch must list all of his current Dajas Pagoda battles.

A separate thread to announce leave can be found here.

The Scara Brae moderator is to keep track of all bonuses earned by Dajas Pagoda members.


The Inactivity Addendum

Due to the significant problem of Hierarchs going inactive during their battles, the following new rules are being enacted:

Zero tolerance for inactive Hierarchs: Any Hierarch of any rank who loses a battle due to inactivity will automatically lose his or her position and be expelled from the Pagoda.

No free ride policy for challengers: A challenger cannot advance to challenge the next Pagoda rank following a default win. Challengers instead have two options. they may assume the ejected Hierarch's position as normal, except they may not challenge up the ranking until they have won at least one complete battle at their current rank. Conversely, they may simply choose to challenge a new Hierarch of the same rank and start over. Players who choose this latter option will receive 50 EXP per post in the inactive battle as compensation for their wasted efforts (note: Hierarchs who win battles against challengers who go inactive also gain this compensation). If two challengers both win by default against the same Hierarch, the challenger with the most posts has the first opportunity to assume the position.

[Christoph]

New inactivity rules have been added.

[A Nony Mouse]

nice.

[Logan]

Christoph, question, what if I choose to wait on the inactive heirarch in an effort to actually complete the battle? For instance, Dra went inactive and then posted his leave request -- no biggie for me really --, but by the new rules (which i know are not retroactive) he would be dq-ed and i would have to challenge another heirarch. If i wanted to wait on Dra, would that be acceptable?

[Christoph]

When a Hierarch posts leave, they cannot be DQed for inactivity. That's the whole purpose of having leave.

[A Nony Mouse]

I think he means that Dra technically passed the time limit between posts in his battle and then posted leave. So Logan should win by default, but he wants to wait for Dra to return.

Logan last posted in the battle on April 9th, 2008, 09:36 AM
Then Dra waited until April 14th, 2008, 11:05 AM to take leave
This would be past the 4 day allowance; that's how I read Logan's post

[Logan]

Well, technically he didn't go 10 days, so that's not my concern, as I've already stated I'm going to wait for him out of respect regardless.

Are we allowing up to 9 days of non-posting and then posting of leave? If an emergency comes up, I can understand, however, 9 days for that? It seems a bit much and a fairly easy way for a heirarch to retain their position without much hesitation or heavy-handedness.

My main concern is that we need to keep activity up, while also making sure to not give too much leniency to one side or the other -- i do agree with what you changed with the challenger side of things.

I would feel the 4 days should be a maximum for no activity before leave is posted. Otherwise a dock in the score must be accounted for. It makes it VERY hard to keep up a good battle if there is a lull of 5 or 6 days.

In conclusion, I understand emergencies popping up, and think those should be allowed, but we must not allow too much time to pass and then give up to another 2 weeks on top of that. It's 2 and a half weeks if done right.

[A Nony Mouse]

Yeah Logan, I like that idea. Otherwise we might deter people from joining the Pagoda if we have rules that are too strict...

[Christoph]

Well, the thing to consider is that if the Hierarch waited nine days and then posted leave, he/she would still be at nine days upon returning. And they don't get to take leave very often, so it's something that is not wise to waste.

[Taskmienster]

Can we have a rule to have it so that, at most, a person can use only two of their characters?