Judging rubric

The judging rubric is a set of criterion used to determine writing quality on Althanas. At the end of each completed battle and quest, an Althanas moderator will use the rubric to post a score for each player in the thread.

Each of the 10 categories, including the final 'Wild Card', is worth 0-10 points. At the end each battle or quest, the results of each category are tallied and your character is awarded a final score, from 0-100, for the thread.

Over the long term, the focus on a detailed writing based rubric has significantly increased the writing quality of Althanas at the cost of a significant flow of new younger role-players. Althanas 3.0 is all about finding new ways to bring in new players without losing touch with the foundation of the game. What we've done is taken both writing and role-play elements and combined them into 10 categories. This rubric focuses roughly 70% on the writing side and 30% on the role-play side of Althanas.

The Rubric

• Story: Story is worth 10 points on the rubric, and it asks the questions of 'does this thread have everything a good story should have'? This is simple enough to score on. Did the story have an introduction that made you want to read more? Did the rising action continue to take its hold on you? Did the climax make you gasp or cry or show some other emotion? Did the conclusion leave you feeling satisfied, leaving all questions answered, or teasing you with a 'to be continued' type ending? A good story has all four of the previously listed elements (Intro, rising action, climax, conclusion), and will be scored upon to how well each of these four were done.

• Continuity: Continuity is ten points on the rubric. It focuses on how well a character fit into the Althanas canon, or how the Althanas canon related to the character? Did the character go to Fallien but play it out as a jungle setting? Did anybody in Akashima speak a foreign (asian) langauge that your character was not familiar with? Did they roleplay Knife's Edge being destroyed (as is current) or continued as if nothing happened? A good writer makes sure he knows the canon of the area he's writing in, and is able to grade a character on it thoroughly. A five would mean the character acknowledged he was in Fallien, and had a couple of details to incorporate it (a hot sun, lightly dressed people), where as a 10 puts forth excruciating details to make sure anybody who reads knows exactly what Fallien is all about, and enthralls them to do threads there personally.

• Setting: A ten point category that is similar to continuity. If your character is fighting in a concert hall, are there felt chairs about? Do their feet stick to the floor? A good setting answers for the time and place for the character. A good writer will incorporate time of day, a location one can picture in their heads, and a sense that you could actually feel yourself being there. If I read a thread on the Steppes of Salvar, a writer should want to know how cold the wind feels, how deep is the snow, has the sun reached its peak or not? Details such as that. Setting isn’t about just visual, but all five senses that would assist with creating a detailed and dynamic environment.

• Creativity: Creativity is ten points based on how creative the writer is. In a one on one sword battle, a score of 1 would mean that the characters locked swords, did a traditional stare down and break away cliché that we see in so many movies/shows. No dialogue or anything. It's so flat and static that it warrants no extra points. However, if in the sword lock, Player A licks his blade to distract his foe, it's creative and so gets a higher score, and would get around a 5. Now if he say, comes out into a new area and uses his fireball ability to catch the ground aflame while locked in the swordplay, it's something a judge rarely if ever has seen done, it’s very creative take on a classic move, and a creative way to use a fireball, so they'd get around a 7-8.

• Character: You must make sure that the writer is portraying the character correctly. Think about it, would Letho Ravenheart ever murder his daughter, of his own free will, randomly, for no reason at all? No, it's not in his character, and doing such a thing would probably result in a 0 for the Grand Marshal of Corone. Character reflects who our creations are, what they do. A 5 would mean that the character did everything normally, with a few exceptions that seem out of place. A 10 would mean that the character was perfect, they did everything that seemed in-character, as it were, with no real quirks that seemed out of place. Or, in turn, quirks that make the character realistic and come to life.

• Interaction: A 0 in interaction means that the character really didn't engage in any interaction, or the interaction in and of itself was flimsy. Something like 'Hey gurl, how you durrin?' while the character is -not- drunk or from another 'part' of Althanas would be a good example. A 5 is given if the interactions (not nessicarily dialogue) is both believable and enjoyable, but still left wanting. A 10 should be given if the interaction is both believable, and enjoyable, with nothing left wanting. Remember that two silent swordsmen can easily say enough with their eyes and their attacks then some could ever do with words. Interaction does not mean dialogue, do not judge it as such.

• Strategy: Strategy judges the action of the thread mostly. Keep in mind that this doesn't actually just apply to battles, but can apply to other areas as well. Thinking about life, or having a picnic, could be seen as strategic for the character as well. A 0 in strategy means that absolutely nothing happened in the thread, at all. A 5 means that everything was fine, but not spectacular. It didn't make you 'wow' at either the unpredictability or sheer coolness of the actions. A 10 means you were absolutely amazed by what went on. Yes, a picnic may be boring to you, but depending on how the picnic was carried out, it could relatively be the coolest damn picnic ever. Keep in mind that when you judge strategy, you're judging more than just fight fighting and warrior stuff, you could also be judging lovers, or even scientists as well.

• Mechanics: Mechanics judges spelling and grammar. Are all your commas well placed, all words spelled correctly? We're supposed to catch spelling/grammar errors and deduct them in this category. I'd start automatically giving everybody a 10 in this category, assuming that the thread is spelled and written perfectly, and the more errors your see, the more points they lose. A 0 means almost every other word is a spelling error, there are tons of run-ons, and you can't differentiate dialogue from action. A 5 means that about half of the thread had spelling errors in it (in an average 10 post thread, lets say 5 of the posts had 1-3 errors), whereas a perfect 10 means there was absolutely nothing wrong. Commas, periods, and correct punctuation were all used. Almost no grammar or spelling misuses (1-2 mispelled words in 1 post in a 10 post thread, for example, could be waived, but no more than that)

• Clarity: Did the reader understand the thread? Did they know what was going on at all times? If a character 'gets into a fighting position', what does that mean, exactly? Did they raise their hands to their face and shift their feet forward? Or did they simply bounce up and down and swing their arms? To a judge clarity means you understand everything, and it was stated clearly so even a child could understand it. A 0 means you had to reread the entire thread 3-4 times in order to know what was going on, and even then had to ask the person via IM at certain parts what had happened. A 5 means that you understood some parts of the thread, but other areas were hazy. (Like 'gets into a fighting stance' with no specifics, 'having a picnic', without stating what exactly that entails, etc etc). A 10 means that everything was completely understood. You didn't have to re-read anything, and that you could judge the thread almost as soon as you finished reading it.

• Wildcard: Wildcard is a judge’s discretion category. Did you enjoy the thread, and the characters involved? Did you find it lacking, and wish for more? Are you now going to follow this character, even if you're not judging their threads? All of these are factors in wildcard. A 0 means that the thread had absolutely no redeemable qualities to it. You didn't like it, it was horrible in your opinion, and there was nothing good about it. A 5 means you enjoyed it, but wished for more. Maybe a character didn't draw a foight out long enough. Perhaps the thread seemed a bit rushed to you. Minor things that irk you should still result in the average score of 5. A 10 means you really loved the thread. Everything about it was fun to read, and you may even read it again just for kicks.