ToC Introduction and FAQ (Read First!)

[Christoph]

Allow me to welcome you to the main event of the Althanas Invitational, the first ever Tournament of Champions. No doubt you have some questions regarding this whole thing, so I will use my telepathic powers to answer them all in advance.

What is the Tournament of Champions? The ToC is a massive, completely open inter-forum competition. Writers and roleplayers from all across the Internet are invited to register and compete.

What sort of competition is it? It’s a team battle tournament. Participants form teams of two and battle other teams.

So I win if I beat the other team ICly? Nope. Players receive a score at the end of their battle. The team with the highest total score wins and gets one step closer to the prize!

Score? Wtfhax? How does that work? And what about defaults and all that stuff? A great question! Your answers are provided in detail here (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?t=17630) and here! (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?t=17647)

Okay, that helped. This sounds cool, but how do I join? First, obviously, register for a basic account on this forum if you’re not already a member of Althanas. Then, you must register a character specifically for the ToC, following the guide found here (http://althanas.com/world/showthread.php?p=134359#post134359). Finally, you’ll need to find a partner and register your team for the ToC. Then, you must complete an entry for the qualifiers, as instructed here. (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?p=134400#post134400)

Hold on a second, you said something about a prize earlier! Indeed, I did! You’re not only will you be competing for glory, inter-forum renown, and the knowledge that you are, in fact, the best. The outline for the rewards are as follows:

All participants: All EXP and GP earned during the tournament to use for their standard Althanas character.

All semi-finalists receive: Double all EXP received and a free copy of the upcoming World of Althanas Anthology.

Second place participants: As above, plus a $20 cash prize.

First place participants: The warm and fuzzy knowledge that you’re the best, privilege of registering an official Althanas character at the ending level of their tournament character, a hard-cover special edition of the World of Althanas Anthology, and a $40 cash prize.

Does it cost anything to enter? Nope!

This all sounds pretty awesome, but I've never done this kind of 'battle roleplay' thing before.

That's no problem at all. Max Dirks, our very own Battle Consultant, has assembled a great informational thread to tell you everything you need to know and more. Find it here! (http://althanas.com/world/showthread.php?t=17650)

...okay. When does it all start?

Character Registration ends December 24th. Team Registration and Qualifier Trials must be posted between December 21st and December 28th.


Feel free to post any other questions you may have in this thread and I will answer them as promptly and clearly as possible. Good luck, have fun, and get those characters registered so the literary violence can begin!

[Saxon]

About this adjustment to level 5 characters across the board for people in the tournament, what does that actually mean for us that are registering new characters for this event? What types of stuff do we have access to that we normally wouldn't have if we were below that level? Types of armor? Guns? Etc?

What is normally alotted to a mid-level character that wouldn't be given to a lower level character aside from some leeway with developing more powerful abilities (Strong enough to lift a car, can break through walls, can wield a gun, etc.). I'm just wondering so we know what kind of precedence the tournament staff are going to set and what some of their expectations are with what we can and cannot have in this tournament.

[Lord Synical]

... you mean we can't use characters we're familiar with and know how to play, but instead need to work our way up...?

That's... different.

[Christoph]

For this tournament, you may use any character you wish, be it one you already know (from Althanas or other sites) or a completely new one. The only requirement is that it first with the basic power and ability guidelines set in Witchblade's character registration guide set up for this event. For Althanas itself, outside of the ToC, characters start at level 0 and work their way up by completing threads (quests and battles). That's not to say that you can't base a starting character off of a different character that you're familiar with (he/she would just be weaker to start with), so long as said character at least mostly fits with the fantasy theme.

Of course, everyone who came to Althanas for the ToC and decides to stay will have a nice chunk of EXP to start with.

To answer part of Saxon's question: lower level Althanas characters can be transferred over and modified to fit what the parameters of a level 5 (likewise with higher level characters, who would need to be toned down). The rest of your question would be best directed at Witchblade, who is in charge of this sort of thing and can be more specific. ;)

[Phoenix]

Alrighty, I shall advertise this at my board in my OOC forum, but cannot promise I can partake myself. I am pretty swamped with University atm, have a project due in next week and have a first draft deadline for my novel looming as well. :P The start of this tournament may be too soon for me but I have the feeling some of my members might be interested.

We'll see though, we'll see. Thanks for inviting us though, its an honour and I hope if I can't partake this year that I can next year (if it turns out to be a regular thing. ;) )

[Lord Synical]

Thanks for that, Christoph.

[Sorahn]

I have a question. Two actually...

If your character is already registered on Althanas and just so happens to be level 5 at the moment, should he/she/I just copy-paste his/her/my profile over to the ToC forum?

Also, are familiars allowed in this tournament? If someone were to hypothetically have an awesome black dragon familiar, would it be kosher to use him in battle?

[Christoph]

Question one: Go ahead, if you've already got a level five profile for Althanas and plan on using the same character. You get an easy ride.

Question two: Familiars aren't typically allowed -- unless both teams agree to allow them in a given battle.

[Zieg dil' Tulfried]

Question: Is this Garden of Secrets open now? And I read the backstory and don't truly understand much about this Garden. I want to get a backstory up for my character in this tournament now if possible.

[Christoph]

The Garden is open now. Please, feel free to start up some threads with our guests. They don't even necessarily need to have anything to do with the Garden of Secrets itself -- any sort of non-tournament roleplay would go there. As for the story aspect of the Garden, I will direct you to Ataraxis who is currently working on fleshing that out.

[Ataraxis]

It's technically open, but it contains no information to clarify what to find in the Garden of Secrets, or its uses. All the information will be made public in a few days, though I can tell you what to expect. The GoS serves as an IC Area outside the tournament itself, where the participants may interact in whichever way they decide. Moreover, as the Garden is full of dimensional rifts, you will not be confined to the Garden itself and will be able to access any setting you desire. Lastly, you may also write about events prior to your character's arrival in the GoS.

Basically, as long as you write with the character you registered and the thread has a slight connection to the ToC, you're good to go.

As for the Non-ToC related roleplaying, you may do so in the Side-Events Forum.

[Christoph]

Excellent. Thank you for clearing that up.

[Death's Nephew]

I keep noticing the mention of level five profiles and needing to have one posted....

Is the max level cap 5 or is that a neccessity? Would I need to create a special profile for the tournament?

[Christoph]

You will need to create a tournament-specific profile. Level five is the cap, but you're free to make a weaker character if you'd like.

[Mutant_Lorenor]

How soon can we start roleplaying in the Side Events section and exploit the Garden of Secrets? Let's say that I -do- want to make a story using the Garden of Secrets that will directly involve the tournament, would that be doabel? I want Lorenor to have a major role to play in this thing as always! I like big and grandiose things! Anyway, I was just curious about the Garden of Secrets. Will it be made into a permanent forum after the Althanas Invitational is over? Will people have access to The Tap within the Garden of Secrets? Thanks! I'll ask more questions as I come up with them.

[Ataraxis]

You can use the Side-Event forum now, though you can't access the actual Garden of Secrets for now, since the description of the area is not up yet (I'll announce it a few days before the 20th). As for your second question, any thread that happens in the actual GoS (the IC place, not the subforum) or in a world accessed through one of the rifts available in that same GoS, already involves the tournament - you're usually there because you were invited, lured, or kidnapped. You'll have to wait until I put up the IC welcoming of participants before using the place for a storyline.

Barring exceptional circumstances, it probably will not be made into a permanent forum. As for access to the Tap, it's all up to you, though you'll need a good explanation considering the Tap was shattered (so you'd have access to shattered realms made from the Tap - very Steven Erikson-ish).

[Mutant_Lorenor]

Thanks that makes a lot of sense. So to post roleplays explaining the events that lead my character being in the tournament I have to wait until the GOS is officially open or can I simply just rp there now? I see some people roleplaying in the GOS already. So I am assuming that its okay now to do so?

[Ataraxis]

The events that lead to your character's arrival to the GoS are perfectly fine. I've read the threads there and I see some people are already inside the IC GoS, winging the descriptions of the place, and it's really perfectly fine, too. I just figured it might make it easier if everyone had an actual description of the place, so I'll put it up tomorrow.

Short version: yes, you can write now, about the events leading up to your arrival in the GoS, as well aswhat happens when your character arrives there - as long as you don't mind a temporary lack of descriptions about the Garden itself.

[Godhand]

What if we're over level five?

[Farmboy]

I think level five's the cap. If you still have your level five update application, you can probably post that and get into the Tourney. Or just make an entirely new character with level five abilities and such.

[TrollSlayer]

The basis for the level 5 balancing test for skills is "average," where average equals the amount of training a regular member of that class (soldier, mage, etc.) would have. The ratings that you can give to a skill, from highest to lowest are: poor, below average, average, above average, advanced, expert, master and legendary. So basically we use the balancing test as such: say you decide you want your level 5 character to have 5 skills. One of those skills is legendary (like super strength). In order to balance your character to get it approved with all 5 skills (including super strength), you might have to make the other skills poor or below average or just drop others off completely.

Does this mean that I could have for instance Legendary swordsmanship but to offset that I could use a poor skill in fire magic?

[Christoph]

Well, not exactly. The idea is that if you want one or more exceptional powers, you'd either offset it by just not having other powers or by taking disadvantages. Merely not being good at fire magic wouldn't cut it. Perhaps having a weakness to fire, however, potentially could. My tournament profile is an example of this principle -- Jacob is an exceptionally powerful telekinetic, but he's also terminally ill, physically weak, and pathetically fragile.

[Petoux]

The start of round one is ......

Finish the sentence ... :p

I thought it was today (The 28th)

*Scratches head*

[Christoph]

Negative. The 28th was significant in that it was the original due date for Team Registrations and Qualification Trials. Due to the downtime, however, that's been pushed back to the 30th. Trials will be reviewed and scored by the 5th, and round one for the first bracket will start the 7th. I'll get a detailed schedule posted shortly.