Rules and Regulations

[Atzar]

Althanas’ first Vignette Tournament is here! This thread will detail the rules and regulations.

What is a vignette?

A vignette is a one-post story written in response to a prompt given to you at the beginning of each round. These prompts are intended to be open-ended and different from what you might normally write on Althanas. For example, you might be asked to show a slice of everyday life for your character, away from the swords and artifacts and world-threatening calamities. Alternatively, you could face a hypothetical “What if?” scenario. Perhaps it urges you to consider how your character would react in a certain situation, or perhaps it challenges you to think how your character would have been had something in his past been altered. As you can see, the possibilities are endless, and you are encouraged to be creative, so long as your response engages the prompt in some way.

Registration

As with all activities on Althanas, you will need an approved character profile to participate. Aside from that, however, there will be no formal registration – if you are interested, simply jump in! In addition, should something come up that disables you from participating in any given round, don’t worry. Every round is open to everybody regardless of prior participation, so you are free to rejoin when you are able.

Rules

The tournament will consist of four rounds; each round will feature one or two new prompts for you to use (should there be multiple choices, you need only choose one).

Each round will begin at 12:01 AM EST on Monday, and will end at 11:59 PM EST on Friday of the same week. Christoph and I will use the weekends to read the entries and to prepare the next round. The first round will begin on Monday, January 9 at 12:01 AM!

There are no brackets or elimination in this tournament; winners are determined based on overall performance across all four rounds.

Only one entry is allowed per character in each round, but multiple accounts are welcome!

Scoring

Each entry will not be formally scored, but will receive a short assessment and a ranking amongst the rest of the entries. While all assessments will be made public, only the winner of each round will be displayed – the rest of the rankings will not be revealed.

The writer of each entry will receive a number of points depending on the number of participants for that round. For example, if ten people participate in a round, the winner receives ten points, second place receives nine, third place receives eight, and so on. Again, these rankings will not be revealed, so be sure to try your hardest in every round!

Rewards

The rewards for this tournament are generous. For participating in a round, you receive 7.5% of the EXP needed to level (so a level zero character will gain 150 EXP, while a level two character gains 300 EXP). For winning a round, you instead receive 15% of the amount needed to level!

*Note: As judges, Christoph and I reserve the right to waive the rewards for any entry deemed to display insufficient effort. All this means is that you must put forth an honest attempt in order to receive credit; I don’t foresee this stipulation coming into play.

In addition to these rewards, prizes will also be given to the top three entrants overall as determined by the number of points they accumulate. These prizes will be revealed in due time.

--

This thread will now be opened up to any questions you may have. The first prompt will be posted at the beginning of the first round. Good luck and have fun! I’m looking forward to reading your vignettes!

[Joseff]

So anyone can write on this? Just as long as we stay on the topic that is given and we can write as much as we want just as long as it is on a single post? I know that we have to write just a single post but i was wondering if there was a word limit or anything?

[Atzar]

Yep. This is open to everybody. No word limit or anything like that - as long as it's one post, it's fair game. Keep in mind, however, that 'longer' and 'better' aren't necessarily the same thing. Just keep it within reason and you'll be fine.

[Joseff]

Ok one last thing. All the posts go under round one? I don't want to accidently post in the wrong spot.

[Atzar]

You got it!