The Tme at the Tavern

[klaudi]

The bright lights of the tavern in Underwood attracted many people at night. It was no different to Elgar. While the outside of the tavern looked like a dump with the moss growing on the wood and the piles of trash sitting next to it, the smell of wiskey and the noise of the bar brought interesting thoughts to Elgar’s mind. Now that I’m in Underwood, I might as well enjoy the stay. He was about to open the door when a man in a green tunic threw a drunk out of the window.
“Next time you want to start making trouble in my tavern,” the man said, “you better think before you mess with my wife.”

Sounds like the man in the green tunic is the owner, Elgar thought to himself. I better stay out of trouble. The owner welcomed him and lead him towards the tavern.

[Karuka]

All right, you submitted this for judgment, for some reason...

We have a rule saying that threads need to be at least 10 posts or 10,000 words before it's eligible for judging, but I'll give you some tips on how to get into a thread and such.

First off, if you have a thread idea and want people to join, you can put up a thread here (http://www.althanas.com/world/forumdisplay.php?f=170). That's the recruitment forum. Don't be disappointed if no one responds at first, sooner or later, someone will join or you'll join something.

Next, I'll give you a few general pointers for success on Althanas. We have a rubric that includes 10 categories, so I'll take you on a brief runthrough of that.

The first overall category is Story. It asks questions about the thread itself.

Continuity: where did your character come from, why is he here, and where is he going? You don't have to put in your character's entire history in every thread, but a little backstory and context is nice.

Pacing: How the thread flowed, whether it went too fast or too slow. We like threads to read concisely, but with plenty of detail.

Setting: The world is a vast place, and a place you act in. This category asks not only how well you describe your environment, but how you interact with it.

The second main category is Character. It's the part that asks not about the environment, the past, and the flow, but about the actors. After all, you don't go to the movie because it has shots of the Grand Canyon, you go because Harrison Ford is going to get thrown from the top of the canyon, or Sean Connery has to outwit another spy.

Persona: This asks how well your character shone, and how consistent he stayed to himself. Careful, though: if you portray your character a specific way and then change him, sometimes the judges will go "eh? That's not the classic >character< I know."

Action: This is what happened, did it make sense, was it logical for this to happen and for you to react that way, etc.

Dialogue: This asks what was said, whether it was good or lackluster, stuff like that.

The last overall category is Writing Style, which tests your use of the language and its effect.

Mechanics: This is your basic, nitty gritty, do you use your punctuation correctly, and do you know how to spell.

Technique: This looks at advanced writing techniques, foreshadowing, word play, similes, metaphors, etc.

Clarity: Basically, was everything worded so that a reader could understand it without having to re-read.

Then there's Wild Card, which rewards the other things in a thread that don't fall under the rubric. It's the category that rewards things like effort and punishes laziness and cop outs.

So, hopefully you'll soon be on your way to a successful Althanas career. :)