As you all know Rogueboy, Aeos and myself have been working on a NPC Story Competition for you guys. It is finally here. So...here is how things will work:

There will be two squads to a story. One squad will be the New Republic and the other will be representing our NPC -based Phalanx Platoon. The squad designations will be as follows:

Iron Horse - Imperials vs. Jester - New Republic
(Darconis vs. Sabre)

Paladin - Imperials vs. Raiders - New Republic
(Banshee vs. Chimera)

Wraith - Imperials vs. Blackjack - New Republic
(Absolut vs. Candy)

Like any competition in the past, the winner will be determined by overall activity and of course any incidents during the competition may or may not be held against you or your squad. Things will be a bit different this time:

* Because of the need to split three stories each one of us (Rogueboy, Aeos, and myself) will be monitoring one particular thread. The person monitoring the thread will be the one in charge of maintaining it. That will involve deeming what posts are and are not necessary, throwing plot twists in, adding in characters when needed, issuing new orders, etc.

* There are three stories for a reason. It is for the purpose of determining which group will win the campaign. I will be going by majority rule: if two stories end with either a NR or Imperial victory that group will win the campaign. (Which will result in all three squads for that group wining a sort of prize)

* There is an introduction thread that will always be locked. I ask you not to post on it if you notice it is un-locked. It will only be unlocked to be updated. This will be to give you an overall idea of what all three groups are doing.

* I normally do not do this, but I have honored a request that it get done. For a post to count it must be a MINIMUM of 350 words long and MOVE THE STORY ALONG in some way/shape/form. Posts that do not meet this requirement will still be counted as part of the story but will not appear in the official post count. Also, ANY form of quote-posting will be deleted no questions asked (unless it is one line or two).

* This story is all NPC characters which means they can die. When a character dies, your story moderator will insert a new member for you. In the meantime you have 11 other characters to control from the same squad so have fun with that! Make things real but don't make them superhuman: I don't want to see anyone posting on god-mode.

* For the record I did not randomly choose your designations. Your SL/ASL contributed to the decision. Only in the case of Wraith and Blackjack did I need to flip a coin. Also, do not ask me to swap squad names because it will not happen.

I'm going to briefly touch on the story for now then I will count on the rest of you to read the story carefully for the information that I toss at you.

Negotiations are going on between the New Republic and Malastare. No side is making any headway. In an attempt to move things along, Phalanx Platoon was dispatched to take control of the planet. However, the Malte platoon for the new republic got wind of their plans and are (unknown to them) waiting for them at each of their targets. The two Platoon Commanders are brothers. The Malte Platoon Commander was tossed out of the empire and joined the New Republic. The area of Malastare we are in is mostly forest (Aeos wanted something foresty).

Before I close this thread....please feel free to ask any questions about the competition. This is new to us Commanders as well as you troopers because it has never been done before. I would ask that you ask questions (through PM) to the person controlling your story due to the fact that they will be able to understand the question more than someone who isn't. If you must ask a public question, please feel free to do so here. With that...I will open the threads and wish you good luck.

So, here's something I found quite interesting. The way that the very design of the competition mechanics precludes a New Republic victory, at least in RAIDERS story. As Chimeras objective is to defend the comm. tower there are only two ways to accomplish this goal, kill all of Banshee, or route banshee. Routing being impossible because Paladin wouldn't just give up, the only option left is the total annihilation of Banshee. Now with both squads getting more and more guys every time ours die there really is no way for Chimera to win. Besides, the new NPCs will just ruin the atmosphere.

Thing is, we can slaughter both sides' reinforcements off and get back to fighting.

Sorry Kami, but a competition IS about winning and losing otherwise its the same old mission story scenario with characters we don't have a firm grasp on.

Oh, and in regards to the NPC situation, they're not a never ending supply. I gather that Rizzit and co. will stop supplying them at some stage. Eventually, one squad will just have to graciously bow down and allow themselves to be defeated.

You wish

I intended to have the New Republic backup cut down to size by the biker Imperials. Throughout this competition, the two squads have had roughly the same number of troops.

Kami wrote:Ditto how Legit? If anything, we, the NR in the IH/Jester thread are bound to lose, being pinned in place within an installation as you constantly come at us. Last I checked this competition isn't about winning anyhow, it's about having a go at something different. Suck up your pride, get into character and enjoy yourselves. Losing isn't the end of the world, just the end of the NPC's

Kams I wasn't talking about our situation. I was Ditto-ing Snipes situation. :P

Well, have them wipe each other out!