Battle Arena Rules and Guideline

[Kris]

Table of contents

Post 1: Battle Arena Rules
Post 2: Create a Character
Post 3: Create a Battle
Post 4: Create a Tournament
Post 5: Judging

[Kris]

Battle Arena Rules

- All RPA Rules apply:

RPA rules can be found here.

- Creating your Character:

Follow the steps here


- Creating a Battle/Tournament:

To start a battle or request for one, please follow the steps listed here

To start a Tournament please follow the steps listed here


- You cannot control another person’s character:

In a place like the Battle Arena, this rule is a strict enforcement. You cannot control how their character acts or decide whether their character takes or dodges an offensive move. How they move and react in combat is not your decision. (You may suggest or allude to a desired outcome for your opponent to consider, and he/she in turn may follow your line or thinking or not).

Breaking this rule in a tournament setting may result in a warning or instant disqualification.

- You cannot interfere with other battles:

If you are not involved in the fight, do not post within the Battle thread for any reason.


- There is a post length minimum:

All Battle posts must be at least three lines in length. While speed is important, opponents need some level of depth so they are able to react to a scene effectively.

This rule may be adjusted for the purpose of Battle Tournaments - Always check individual Tournament rules before signing up.


- You only have two actions per post:

An “action” includes the following:

1. Movement (Must be a meaningful active move, such as running away or moving a great distance)
2. Attack (can be in any form or shape, including spells and special abilities).
3. Defense (interrupting or countering a previous attack, dodging or evading, blocking, healing, use of items)
4. Other (Any interaction with the environment of the arena in meaningful way)

If you are unsure whether your post violates this rule, contact a member of Staff for guidance.

- Act courteously in Battles:

In Tournament Battles, if you have a problem with your opponent or how the fight is progressing, please contact the Battle's Judge or a Moderator.

Flaming or causing drama during a Tournament is grounds for disqualification. If you forfeit a match, this is a permenant decision and your opponent will be awarded an automatic 'win'.

Overpowered Characters;
No character can be overloaded with abilities or have an impenetrable defence. Neither should characters be impervious to well-placed assault, and players should use discretion on whether an attack hits. If an attack seems like it should miss, then it should most likely miss, and vice versa with attacks that seem like they should hit.

Characters considered to be ‘over-powered’ will not be allowed to participate in Battle Tournaments. If a member of Staff deems that a character is acting ‘over-powered’ during a Tournament Match, they reserve the right to disqualify the player on the grounds of ‘God-moding’.

[Kris]

How to Create a Character

- Create a thread in ‘The Barracks’:

You can only use characters that you have posted in 'The Barracks' during your battles. One thread is allowed per member, but there is no limit to the amount of characters you can post in this thread. Please post only within your own profile. No idle chatter or ‘bumping’ of threads is allowed.

- Post the details of your character:

- Try to be as informative as possible;
Your opponent will need to be able to describe your character based on this. In addition, you must include all abilities and spells in the interest of fairness and Tournament regulations.

- Keep it easy to read;
Grammar and spelling should be at an acceptable standard. Structure and font should be clear and beneficial in helping the reader select necessary information. Bolding or underlining headers is often helpful for those who are looking for specific details.

- Follow the Battle Arena Rules;
If a character violates these rules or is deemed otherwise unacceptable, a Moderator or a judge (if the battle is judged) is likely to contact you to offer suggestions on how to improve its profile.

- Character Template:

You must fill in all sections that are applicable to your character. You are allowed to add additional sections if you feel it is needed for your specific fighter.

Please notice that the requirements for the Character Template may change according to specific battles or Tournament. Please follow each requirements of battles accordingly.

General Information:
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Race:

Appearance:
Physical features including size, build, body shape, hair, eyes, scars, skin tone, tattoos, distinctive features, etc. fall under this section

Clothes / Armour:
A basic overview of the character's outfit, armour and accessories is needed, enough that your opponent will be able to form a general idea of what your character looks like.

Fighting Style:
Weapons:
All weapons need to be mentioned in detail – type, appearance, magical attributes, etc. Equipment, such as shields or grappling hooks, should also be described here. You cannot overload your character with an unrealistic amount of weaponry. If your warrior has expertise in unarmed combat – hand-to-hand – then make note of his fighting style here.

Abilities:
All spells, special moves and abilities must be listed here. You must provide a description of what they do, how they affect an opponent, charging and cool-down times, and how long the effect lasts for. You should include any limitations or drawbacks of the abilities.
When talking about periods of time, please give details in the form of the number of posts i.e., ‘Kai’s ‘Lightening Bolt’ spell takes two posts to charge, and she must wait one post after use until she can start charging again.’

Items:
Anything that follows your Character into battle but is not a weapon or shield. It must be describe in details, including how it effect and in how many turns of posts

Attributes:
Your character’s weaknesses and strengths and any miscellaneous “other” abilities or Conditions that enhanced or debilitated fall under this section. If your character has a debilitating condition (such as a disease, or some kind of genetic weakness or something of that sort) this debilitating condition will not advance or cause your character to weaken further from battle to battle. However, during a battle, if certain factors, environmental conditions, or character actions aggravate this debilitating condition, you will be expected to account for this and role-play your character’s struggle with this accordingly. This means that if something would aggravate your character’s weakness during a battle and hinder him/her/it in some way, you will be held accountable for role-playing that out and not pretending that your character can function at normal levels.

Biography:
Use this section to describe the Personality of your character and his/her Background:

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- When creating a profile, please notice the following regarding special abilities:

Abilities with “multiple effects”:
Any ability with multiple effects, can have only two simultaneous effects that will go on the same post and may be limited to how much they can be used in battle. Any two effect skill will be count as two actions.

Projectile Attacks:
Characters may fire multiple projectiles per attack, however, they should be comparable in effectiveness to other kinds of attack (no death rays or giant guns that can launch fifty missiles, for example) and will count as one action.

Passive and Active effects:
Passive effects do not require a character action to be used or maintained.

Active effects require a character action to be used or maintained.

Please notice that passive lasting attacks are considered powerful and needs to be adjusted according to the battle. If a battle is judge, a judge may be be allowed to limit the ability or the effects.

Attacks that can control another:

A player cannot write out another player’s reactions, however, each player is obligated to acknowledge and play out any effects that would/should affect their own character, whether from the environment, judge, or other player.

Guaranteed-to-Hit Attacks:
Even if you cannot dodge a projectile, this does not mean you need to suffer the effects of it as intended by the opponent. For example, if I have a magic rock of guaranteed-hitting, and I throw this rock at you, the rock is going to hit you. But, depending on what you do to meet that attack, there are a variety of ways to avoid taking damage or negative effects of that rock. There are ways to avoid or reduce the damage, even if an attack is guaranteed to hit, provided there is an appropriate and believable response/reaction to it that reasonably details this.

If a battle is judged, there may be additional limits to such an ability.

Manipulation Attacks:
If you wish to manipulate another character with mind control or some other means, you would be making something more similar to a “strong suggestion” for what you would like that character to do, but you cannot force a character to react as you intend. It is up to the other player to either come up with a way to resist, dispel, deflect, or otherwise nullify or mitigate the effects of your suggestion, or fall prey to this suggestion for a limited amount of time. So in practice, the mind-control spells would work as “suggestions” rather than fully controlled outcomes by the character making them.

If a battle is judged, there may be additional limits to such an ability.

Instant Kill abilities are not allowed.

[Kris]

How to Create a Battle

Before you create a battle, you must have a valid character to use. Please check the ‘How to Create a Character’ section for more information.

- Find an opponent:

You are allowed to arrange a battle with another member. Alternatively, you can post an open challenge to whomever might be interested – To do this, post a thread in the ‘Throwing the Gauntlet’ section and detail the specifics of the battle you want.


- Judged Match:

Judged Matches involve inviting a neutral party to overview the battle and decide on its outcome. They are also there to ensure that all battle rules and regulations are adhered to.

Please note that any match that is a part of an official RPA event must be judged.


- Create the Battle thread:

If your battle is not being judged, you are free to open the battle thread in The Colosseum as soon as both participants have agreed the details.

If your battle is being judged, you may want to wait for the judge to open the thread and run the details of the battle, or include the judge later to form his/her opinion once the battle is over.

[Kris]

How to Create a Tournament

- Any member is allowed to create a tournament:

However, you must take the time to familiarise yourself with the Battle Arena rules. Also, if other tournaments are scheduled or in progress, your own may have to be postponed until a less busy time.


- You must have your tournament approved:

If you wish to host a tournament, you must contact a member of Staff with your proposal. Make sure to include as much details as you can about the rules of the contest – battle conditions, power restrictions, etc.

All tournament matches must be judged and it is your responsibility to ensure each match has a judge. Neither the host or the judges of a tournament are allowed to participate in the contest themselves.


If your tournament is approved, a member of Staff will then help you to get it up and running.

[Kris]

Judging's Template Suggestion

This section apply to those that wish to have their battle judged, and suggest a guideline that has been used in previous Rumble battles. You may choose to go according to another direction of scores and judging, but this template is more or less what is used in official RPA Rumbles event and it is adviced to get familiar with

- Any member or staff member is allowed to judge:

Anyone can apply to be a judge or be asked to be one. However, if someone is a judge, they cannot participate or take part in the battles they are judging.

- Suggestion for judging criterias:

Notice that you may decide on different scores and criteria on battles that are not Official RPA Rumbles, as this guide is only a suggestion. But since we are using this scores,
it is advice to know of them.

Each category will consist of the sum of the scores of its subcategories. We usually rate on a scale of 1-3: 1=Needs Improvement, 2=Sufficient, 3=Commendable.

(For example, let's go for "Writing Style"- If you rated "Artistry and Complexity" as 3, "Fluidity and Clarity" as 2, and "Conventions" as 2, then the total for the Writing Style category would be 7/9)

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Writing Style:

• Artistry and Complexity (creativity/originality, and other writing techniques and details that enrich the post, such as unusual structuring and changing styles)
• Fluidity and Clarity (Ease of following the action of the post, and the ease in reading and understanding it)
• Conventions (grammar/spelling/punctuation)

Effectiveness of Combat:

• Character Consistency (How well do the actions of the character in the post reflect or fit who/what they are, their capabilities and their limitations?)
• Ingenuity (How well does the character handle situations in original, interesting, yet effective ways? Does the player simply repeat the same actions and put little thought in their moves, or do they provide interesting responses to the situations they’re in?)
• Choreography (How well does the character/player interact with the other player’s character?)

Control of the Field:

• Environmental Awareness (How well is a player aware to the surrounding environmental and conditions he/she is in?)
• Strategic Awareness (How well do a player present his/her character’s abilities, strengths and weaknesses in each situation or post? Are they aware of the ways that the environment and the opponent’s actions can affect his/her character? Are they able to anticipate and turn these to their advantage or minimize the damage to their own character effectively?)
• Control of the Fight (Did the player maintain control of the situation? If not, was there a point of impressive turn of events for worse or better? did it left an impression? was the player struggling to stay alive or did he/she adjust the battle for clever surprise? Sometimes even if a character died or was wounded badly, but he/she did so in very epic manner that engraved the memory in the minds of the readers, aren't they the true ones in control? Keep that in mind as well ).

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