No doubt some of you think I’m crazy (or even crazier, which might be the more appropriate terminology) if you bothered to be keeping up with the Stormtrooper Storynet lately.  I assure you that Executioner’s Lament is not entirely a random story thrown up there, but is actually a preview to a campaign that will start this weekend.  And campaigns usually mean... you guessed it! (hopefully)  Competitions!

Aye, we have another little writing competition rolling around here and it promises to be a fun one!

(If you are still in drill, never fear! It isn’t too late to graduate as long as you do so by Sunday 4 PM EST )

First off, let me get this out right away, it’s not going to be a competition that is in anyway something you have done before.  It’s not squad vs. squad.  It’s not platoon vs platoon.  Nor is it army vs navy for those who just got their hopes up for that.  It’s trooper vs trooper, right down the element that drives the Corps.  Squad leaders and ASLs are in as well, so don’t feel left out when I say ‘trooper’ it’s a generic term

How does this work?  Quite simple.  All troopers will be assigned pretty much randomly to six groups, which will give six (some with seven) per group.  This is your stage one group.  All these groups will be given basically the same Sim mission and each member within the group will try to outdo the member of their own group for placement of 1st, 2nd, and so on until 6th.  If the group has seven, two troopers will tie for one of the positions most likely.  How we keep score is not going to be released publicly, but I will state that it is based upon number of posts AND the quality of the post.  Essentially each post is worth so many points.

Once you have your placement, you are then moved to a second group.  All the first places will be within one group, all the second places within another, and so on.  The sixth place group I expect to be our AWOLS and those on leave (little spring cleaning for the roster, yay!).  Each of these groups will be given an objective in an actual mission campaign (not a sim ).

Basically here’s a simple image that will help you understand the transition:



Forgive the low quality, it was a simple throw together image to illustrate a concept, the competition and itself should be of much higher quality

Anywho, the groups themselves, I’m sure you are itching to see what they are...  Before I state them, I must say, they are assigned pretty much randomly, and NO requests for transferring will be considered.  Period.

OOC:

Group One
Aeos
Kanderin Draken
DracoKorr
Orobos
Fenris
Hartigan
Verkur

OOC:

Group Two
Luckystar
Namyr
Ken Alibek
TX-47
LunaTick
Doriana
Marka

OOC:

Group Three
Arnaut
Jelly Bean
Alhzen
Leon
Etai
Jinx
Renji

OOC:

Group Four
Sniping101
Wicket
Saphira Striker
Dante
D’har Leth
MurderedMonk
Bathlar

OOC:

Group Five
Tanus Solvona
Zafo
Anival
Zorgn
Jennabelle
Specter1000

OOC:

Group Six
AlanRJ
Alater
Garryll Gates
Muglug
Blackout
Kantar Selldar
Valmet

There you go, the six groups.  Rogueboy, Darr-Rann, and myself will not actually be ‘participating’ in this competition, but we’ll be making sure it keeps on a roll and answer any questions you may have.

Oh, and prizes, I know that’s going to be asked.  Without a doubt.  The answer?  Certainly there will be some

Okay, seriously answering that.  Everyone who enters the first place group in the second phase gets a certain reward (not public yet) and competes for a secondary reward (also not public yet) amongst themselves in the next phase.  Second place gets a lesser reward and competes for a lesser secondary rewards and so on, going down in scale.

In addition, each post you make will credit 1000 ICs to your account at the end of the competition! (which is about 2 weeks long)

Essentially, the more you post, the better your reward will be.  Everybody gets something! (as long as they post)

This should start meeting time, Sunday, 4 PM Eastern

Any questions? Don’t hesitate to ask!  We’ll answer based on a need-to-know basis (ie, no advance knowledge of plotlines, nice try though)

Several more detailed 'rules' will be defined later. This is post is just here to give you a taste of what's to come this weekend to a Storyboard near you.  (and say hi to your group and boast on who's going to win )

This promises to be a fun competition and story as well, and I can’t wait to see where we can take it!

Action Time!! HOOAH! Nice one lieutenant.

/me sniffs the air

Ahhh...I can already smell the sweet smell of victory for me.

Cackle all you want Alater, shame you're not going to win.

You keep playing Donkey Kong and I'll keep winning!

/me cackles

Who knows what will be happening.

Dante wrote:Seriously though, will we be fighting group members?

In story, you'll be working with them to complete the objective.  Out of story, you'll try to out do them

Wow, this sounds like it should be a lot of fun and good luck to all, even those with already big heads about winning, lol.

/thinks of promotion

how late am i

This should be fun.

Going ahead and putting this out a day early.

VALID posts will be considered as follows:

• At least 250 words
• Less than 20% of the minimum should be "filler" (50 words)
• Advances the story in some manner
• Makes sense and follows the story
• Is in the PRESENT time of the story (no *before Rogueboy's Post* UNLESS you post it within 10 minutes of the post.)
• Follows board's PG-13 guidelines

Failure to meet these will involve your post not counting, and possibly deletion without any form of warning.

Firstly, word count.  Controversial, yes.  So if you post short posts constantly do you get ahead?  No.  Rogue and I have a "Point" system that will take your post, remove "filler" connent, then take a wordcount.  Depending on that new wordcount, your post will get so many points, say 3.  Someone else makes three posts and might come up with 2.5 for all those posts.  No matter your style, few long posts, or rapid short posts, you have a fair chance with this system.

Secondly, filler.  This is generally frowned upon, but I understand where some of it comes from.  20% is high in my opinion, but I don't want to be forced to elimate a lot of posts from the count.

Thirdly, advancement and making sense.  These are the obvious things that every post should have.  If your post confuses the story or otherwise does nothing for it, it definitely shouldn't count.

Fourthly, Timeline.  It generally leads to confusion if your post is behind the post of the prior one.  The only reason this should happen is if you were making a post and the other person posted before you could throw yours up. Generally this should be 5 minutes, but I'm allowing up to 10 minutes.

Lastly, PG-13.  I don't think I need to really cover this, it is simple enough.  We're a PG-13 site and that will have to be enforced.  We might give some lee-way, but keep it clean.  I really don't expect an issue with this at all, but it's here to reinforce the concept.


Any questions, please ask.  Rogue and I will do our best to keep up with your questions, concerns, comments, fan mail, or strip-o-grams.

Also of note: Double posting

This is generally frowned upon, especially if you are trying to out post your own group.  Double posts that are within 5 hours of each other will be deleted.  No exceptions.

You're already late. Look in the STC storynet, should be like 6 topics with the same name, look for the one with like group 6 or something in parenthesis.

Marka has returned from reserves and into active duty, as such, he is now in group 2.

Good work so far, remember that the Stage 1 will end Friday, so be sure to keep it up or knock it up a notch