These be ye official rules.


STANDARD COURTESY OF ROLEPLAYING IS TO BE FOLLOWED. YOU WILL NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, CONTROL YOUR OPPONENT'S BODY OR ACTIONS, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF DIALOGUE (and only lightly at that). THE RULES PERTAINING TO GODMODDING ACCORDING TO THE STANDARD RPB RULINGS REMAIN IN PLACE WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE FOLLOWING NOTES:


Summoning/Transformation is allowed and perhaps even encouraged, if this is something your character would specialize in. Summons/transformations cannot be responsible for what are considered "major" shifts in the battle. A major shift would be the loss of a limb or some other crippling blow. Minor shifts would involve changes in scenery, such as a summon ripping through the bowels of the earth to reach the surface. Yes, it would be major in terms of environment, but it is minor when it comes to direct effect on the opponent. If anyone needs me to clarify this (this example may not be clear enough), take it to the Q&A thread and I will write up a couple of samples of major and minor changes.


Curative Magics/Items will be allowed so long as they only have mild effects. There is no time to patch up a gaping wound or to mend a broken bone. Spells and items may only stop bleeding if it is an injury that could (relatively) easily be fixed by modern standards. With this in mind, casting of curative magic on demonic/undead opponents will be limited in the same fashion, as a cure-all type of spell would destroy the opposition.


Use of Magic is encouraged, primarily for mages. If your character is classified by a "job," it is recommended that you follow your own character sheet to the best of your ability. I don't want to see a knight using magic if it isn't part of his bio; I don't want to see a mage using a broadsword if he has no proper training. Characters should be somewhat balanced when it comes to magics. Exceed in one category and fall short in another, or remain fairly balanced in both. I do realize that, as we are dealing with overpowered characters to begin with, it will be more difficult to determine the line where balance should be drawn. Use your best judgment, and I will use mine.


Superdodging is still not allowed... but super-attacking is. If your character has a massive "limit break" (or whatever you like to call it), you may use it -- but only after each writer has written a minimum of five posts. Space out massive attacks accordingly, with another three posts or more between each one. (Summons or transformations would fall into the category of a super-attack.) Too many too close, and you will be penalized.


AND REMEMBER, when it comes to taking damage, only the person on the receiving end can decide whether or not his arm will be taken off... or even if the attack hits at all. Yes, we're expecting a spectacular show, but you still have to show some courtesy to your opponent. If we all ran around all day dodging everything, nothing would ever get done.


THIS COVERS THE BASICS. YOU ALL KNOW THE REST OF THE RULES AND I FIND NO NEED TO FURTHER EXPLAIN THEM. IF THERE ARE ANY QUESTIONS, DIRECT THEM TO THE Q&A THREAD SO THAT I MAY ANSWER THEM AND POSSIBLY EDIT THIS POST IF NECESSARY.


THESE ARE SOME OTHER NOTES, ALL OF WHICH ARE IMPORTANT:


Judging will be based upon these three major factors:
  • Flow: your ability to work with not only your opponent, but yourself as well, to produce the smoothest storyline possible
  • Creativity: your ability to utilize your opponent's weaknesses, your own strengths, and your environment to your advantage
  • Continuity/Precision: your ability to maintain an able-minded view of where everything is, and your location within the battlegrounds (ex: you drop your weapon at Point X in post 3, but you pick it up at Point Y in post 5... you better have a damn good explanation for how it moved from Point X to Point Y)
Things like detail and elaboration, while certainly good things to have, will not be nearly as important. If long, in-depth descriptions are your weakness, don't struggle trying to make it work. So long as you do a sufficient job explaining everything in your post, you don't need to write a novel. Your posts will not be graded by length.

Though you will not be graded upon grammatical precision either, if a post is too difficult to decipher, it will only serve to hurt you in the long run. I understand that English is not everyone's primary language. Try to get your point across clearly and you will be fine.


Reserve Warriors exist for a reason -- to be called upon in the case of an absence or otherwise real-life interruption. IF A WARRIOR HAS NOT POSTED WITHIN SEVEN DAYS OF HIS OPPONENT'S LAST POST, he will be withdrawn from the battle and replaced by one of the reserve warriors. The reservist will be in charge of writing in the reasoning behind the swap... the original fighter collapsed due to internal injuries, he left his house on fire, or perhaps my favorite (Anomaly joked about this in a PM), there was a wounded baby nearby which needed to be eaten before it got cold. If a reserve warrior, at any point, fails to post after seven days from a prior post (excluding the initial call to battle), the battle will be forfeit to the active writer. PERIOD. Only one reserve may be used per faction per thread, and it will be at the leader's discretion as to who posts where.


Armies are cannon fodder and otherwise background material. I see no reason why any faction would march to war with a mere ten soldiers, even if these captains could wipe out entire armies by themselves. My idea, which raised eyebrows of both your leaders, was to have each captain march into battle with a slew of warriors at his back. These armies would have NO DIRECT INFLUENCE on battle and could even be ignored after the introductory post for all I care. I merely intend for them to serve as decoration for the sake of my Battlegrounds thread. (Leaders: I will want a list from each of you as to what "type" of warriors each of your starting captains would command. The two of you specifically will lead no such army -- your battle is meant for the Fortress... and my, what ideas I have.)


Kill Posts will be issued at the end of each thread, after judgment has been passed. Once the kill posts are complete, the winning faction will be given an ANNIHILATION POST with which to decimate the opposing faction. The annihilation post will be written by the winning faction's leader, regardless of whether his character fell in battle. (ex: Party X loses four battles against Party Y, but Leader X wins his fight. Although Leader Y's character is dead, Leader Y still writes the annihilation post, sending Party X into oblivion by whatever feasible means he chooses.) I will post a new thread and write one hell of an introduction leading into the final post, covering the major events from all five threads to the best of my ability, setting up the bloody farewell.


Annihilation will result in the losing faction being DISBANDED FROM TFF. This was decided upon by both Anomaly and ToroMor, so I don't want to hear any complaints from anyone on either side. Now, the users themselves will not be restricted from posting on the forums, so it's not like anyone has to leave TFF. The losing faction's club thread will be closed and archived. ANY CHARACTER WHO FALLS IN BATTLE may no longer be used here at TFF. Any threads outside of war currently using said character may be finished, but the character can not be used after that point. Those of you who wish to stay on the forums post-war (and I'd hope most of you would) and continue to participate in various events will need to create new characters or use alternatives.

If a faction's leader falls, but the faction remains, the leader has two options -- hand the faction's club on this forum over to one of his underlings (after all, aren't each of your clubs here merely branches of a larger base elsewhere?), OR create a new character to take the place of the old one, preferably with some excellent story about how this all came to be.