I'm going to be as thorough about this as I possibly can. Obviously, there's only so much I can say, because a large part of judging will always rely on one's interpretation of things. Everyone reads things differently, which is why I often rely on two primary judges and a third party to settle split decisions.

The MOST IMPORTANT THING in the Tournament of Arms is your creativity. Nothing else matters as much as this. Not detail, not grammar, nothing. Creativity is what the tournament revolves around. That said, creativity can impact your judgement in many ways. Obviously, a lot of thought goes into character creation. While I cannot feasibly judge a thread on whose character is better, utilizing your character's abilities will certainly net you some points. (Note now that I use the word "points" metaphorically.) If your character is, say, primarily a mage but spends an entire battle in hand-to-hand fighting, there is a major problem if the character does not get its ass kicked. You have to be reasonable. Even though we are still roleplaying here, this tournament relies heavily upon mixing creativity with realism. I love wild ideas, but if they aren't applied in an appropriate matter, it just looks stupid.

Detail is another important factor. You have to set the scene and enrich your writing with detail. You cannot, however, swamp your writing with excessive detail and expect to slip by because you wrote a lot of crap about how pretty the water is. There is such a thing as "too much" detail, and each person's writing style will determine what is too much. My advice? Use your best judgement on that one. If you find yourself using a paragraph to say what could be said in a couple of sentences, try to cut it back a little.

Dialogue is highly frowned upon. A slight bit of banter in the intro posts isn't a crime, but bogging down the actual fight with dialogue is unimpressive, and greatly interrupts the flow of battle.

Speaking of flow, that's another very important thing I should mention. You want your posts to give the essence of quickness. That does NOT mean they should be short. You can convey speed with shorter sentences and strong verbs and adjectives which further relate the message. A long run-on sentence makes things feel slow. Break it up. Be a little choppy. But don't overdo it. Diction can make a world of difference. You can write a ten-paragraph post, and it can feel every bit as fast as a two-paragraph post. It's all in the word choice.

Grammar is not judged the way it was back in 2001, 2002, and 2003; however, if your grammar is absolutely atrocious and your ideas and points cannot be inferred through your writing, then you will undoubtedly lose your fight. Perhaps that seems unfair to some of you, but remember, it IS a writing competition.



Judgement is based on a combination of those things, as well as any major errors we may find in your writing. For example, if you cannot keep track of your weaponry or other little things seem to disappear at one moment and reappear at another, you will be penalized. Failing to mention something simply because it's convenient for you at the time is NOT convenient to your opponent, nor is it to the readers. Fluidity and continuity is necessary if you expect to win.

You will not defeat the other characters in battle, unless the specific tournament allows victory posts after judgement. This varies on a tournament-to-tournament basis, and is by no means a guaranteed thing.

The more realistic you are, the more likely you are to win. If you suffer some injuries, you're being realistic. If you go through a fight unscathed, you're probably godmodding, or at least being a bit unfair to your opponent. Major injuries your character receives should always carry through to the next round, though there will usually be a "week" of RP time between fights for resting and whatnot.

There is NO curative magic/items of ANY kind allowed in the Tournament of Arms.

And of course, GODMODDING WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. I try to avoid reading any of the threads until the end of the round. If your opponent is godmodding, do not clutter your thread with an OOC asking them to change their posts or anything like that. Use your creativity and try to work yourself out of the hole they have put you in. Your opponent will automatically be disqualified for godmodding, so do the best you can to stick it out.

I would like to note that, because this is a tournament, there will only be a fifteen minute grace period for editing. Any edit more than fifteen minutes after the original post will be considered godmodding. It's unfair to your opponent, in case s/he has already started writing a response.



If there are any questions, feel free to send me a PM.