The Adventurer's Crown is Althanas’ official questing tournament. Whereas other tournaments feature a player v. player combat setting, Adventure’s Crown features a collaborate quest setting. Players are provided a prompt and judged on their ability to advance a quest with others (or on their own, should they advance that far in the tournament). Due the special nature of this year’s Adventure’s Crown, the tournament will be limited to 16 participants. No alts will be allowed to participate, so be sure to register with your best character. Participants must post at least 5 times (or post 2500 words) per round, or they will be disqualified regardless of whether their team advances. Read on for individual rules.

Registration Rules

  • You must have a registered Althanas character to participate. Nexus characters are ineligible. Characters are also level locked, meaning even if your character levels up during the tournament, it must remain at the level it was when the tournament began.
  • To register simply post the word “Registered” in the Registration Thread when it is opened on January 28, 2017 at 3 PM EST.
  • Registration is first come, first served.
  • Participating in the tournament costs 5 AP. AP will be deducted at the start date of the tournament, so if you’re running low be sure to comment on a few workshops.
  • Administrators and moderators, sans Max Dirks, are allowed to participate, but they must wait until registration has been live for one day to sign up.
  • Registration will continue until all 16 slots are filled or one week has passed.

Seeding and Progression

  • After registration is closed, participants will be randomly placed into teams of 4 for the first round.
  • The staff will provide a loose prompt which will provide some backstory and provide players a starting point. Every team will have the same prompt.
  • Thereafter, progression of the thread is entirely up to the teams.
  • Posting order is entirely up to the teams. There are no penalties for double posting, or skipping players; however, participation will be considered in scores and awards. Placeholders are not allowed. Only post when you are ready. Edits are only allowed until the next post is made.
  • Collaboration is encouraged. This can be achieved through any means including Google Docs, IM, or chat; however, plagiarism and copyright infringement is not allowed. If there is any evidence that someone wrote for someone else, or heavily edited their post to the point where it was no longer theirs, the staff will initiate an investigation. If plagiarism or copyright infringement is found, the entire team will be disqualified.
  • Bunnying of dialogue, dialogue related actions (such as nodding or smiling), and time advancing actions (like walking together) is allowed, but bunnying of character combat actions (such as attacks, blocks, etc.) and/or internal thoughts/perspectives is not.
  • Round one will last three weeks. Judgments will be posted at once, so there is no need to submit your thread early.
  • After round one, the winning teams will advance to the semi-finals (see below). Remaining participants will be split into four teams of two.
  • The staff will provide a second loose prompt to provide some information about how the story has progressed.
  • The semi-finals will last two weeks. Judgments will be posted at once, so there is no need to submit your thread early.
  • After the semi-finals, the winning teams will advance to the finals (see below). Remaining participants will write solos to determine final placement.
  • The staff will provide a third loose prompt to provide some information about how the story has progressed.
  • The finals will last two weeks. Judgments will be posted at once, so there is no need to submit your thread early.
  • After judgments are completed, the staff will post an epilogue.

Judgments

  • Threads will be judged by Max Dirks using the standard full rubric.
  • The wildcard and story scores will be strongly influenced by how well your group followed the prompt.
  • Participation will strongly factor into story and pacing scores, so make sure everyone pulls their own weight.
  • After each round, threads will be closed for judgment for two weeks.
  • Judgments in round one and the semi-finals are judged as a group, with only one total score provided.
  • After round one, the two highest scoring groups (of four) will advance.
  • After the semi-finals, the two highest scoring groups (of two) will advance
  • The finals will be judged individually and the highest scoring player will win the tournament and related awards. Second and third place will also receive awards. Fourth place will receive no awards.

Rewards

  • 1st Place: 60 AP and an INCREDIBLE AWARD
  • 2nd Place: 35 AP and a special item
  • 3rd Place: 25 AP
  • AP can be exchanged for EXP or GP as desired.
  • All participants will receive normal EXP and GP awards for each completed thread.

Those are the rules. Please post here if you have any questions, suggestions or comments.

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Update Log:
1/25/17 (12:55 EST) - Added some clarity to bunnying rules
2/5/17 (10:22 EST) - Added further clarity to bunnying rules