To celebrate the coming of Vigor, we often engage in tests of martial skill, tournaments, general festivities and whatnot in the Lothlan lands. On speaking to Taeo a bit I’m offering to hold a fighting tournament. (That means I won’t be fighting, so please, enter the tournament.) Captain Arvia and I still have to work out a few details, but here is the general plan:
The tournament will be a pairs tournament. Enter with your comrades. 2v2 bouts.
Spells and archery are acceptable this year. Collateral damage that hits the food results in an automatic loss. Unfairly using the food as cover also results in a loss.
No Death (should be obvious why)
No potentially fatal things unless you line up a healer ahead of time (so those of you with Venom, go hire the Healer’s Circle)
No Repel (because it’s going to be irritating to have people repelled out of the tournament ring and I don’t wish to deal with it)
Tournament will be round robin if we have very few applicant pairs, Swiss-format (whoever they are) if we have a moderate amount of applicant pairs, and if we have a large number of applicants, we will have multiple small round robin pools. The tournament will be concluded with either a finals match or a 4-team semifinals single-elimination tournament, at my discretion. I expect that we will have somewhere around 15 bouts, and that teams will fight 3-5 times.
DO NOT DRINK BEFORE YOU FIGHT. If you drink, you’re done fighting in the tournament.
Corollary: Bouts will be a maximum of 2 minutes long. If they run longer I will call them and award winner by fiat. Be ready for your bouts; if you are late, I will disqualify you. I want to get everyone fought and done so that we can all celebrate with several rounds of drinking. Vigor is not celebrated by dragging out the tourney, it is celebrated by clashing blades and hoisted horns.
I am working with Morpho on a way to use my Lyra affinity to allow combat teams to share some of their skills. When you plan your teams, you may be able to move up to 6 quintessence of your skills between the members of your team. This can be all in one direction, or it can be a trade if you wish.
Prizes will be available. Magic items, scrolls, leaf. I may announce them ahead of time, or I may not. (We’re still working out the details.)
All are welcome. Oak Harbor, Wanderlust, Floodwater, Hania. This is a celebration. Leave professional and political concerns outside of the tourney ring.
There’s no entry fee; make sure that anyone who is running support doesn’t actually want to be out there fighting themselves.
Keep your support visits efficient. If your sword is busy getting gooped up and it doesn’t make it back to the pit when it’s your turn, I am likely to just disqualify your team. Or watch you fight without a sword.
Hm. Good point, Shang. I’m trying to hold a “fighting” tournament here, not an “infuriating but effective tactics” tournament. (I’m also not trying to run an information gathering tournament here, where Oak Harbor and the Floodwater Company face off and figure out what the other can do. This is not for subterfuge. It is for celebration.)
So, no. Circles of Protection are going to be annoying to deal with and will drag out the fight. Same with Repose of Peace, Strength of the Mountain, any of the Druid path powers that give you a ward against damage, and any other crazy tricks that mean someone with a sword or spell and the skill to use them can’t take you down.
I will watch for these wards on the tournament floor. If anyone uses them, they will then have a slow count of 15 to drop their protection. Contenders with these abilities can use one use of a ward in any given bout. Contenders who keep their ward up too long or use more than one use of a ward will forfeit the bout.
It seems to me that since wards are immobile and bouts are only 2 minutes long, using a ward may make it less likely that you win since the winner will be declared by fiat and Vance has said he wants to see fighting, not standing in wards.
… That’s one ward, period, per contender, per bout. Max of 2 wards per side per combat. Max of 30 consecutive seconds. Further edge cases to be decided, by me, at whim, on the fly, as a deterrent from getting too close to the edge of the rule.
Sleep is an effective battlefield attack. If both members of your side are slept, based on what I know of the combatants and their position on the field, I may ask for the team that slept them to attempt to knock them unconscious. I will do this if I think that the team that is down has a chance of turning the fight around, and if you did not sleep them cleanly enough or dramatically enough for my whim at that moment. If I don’t ask for this, they’ll be considered unconscious and defeated. (So, if you’re throwing Sleep, plan to have to stab the enemy to unconsciousness. If you’re getting a Sleep thrown at you, don’t count on the enemy having to drub you into unconsciousness. Plan for the worst case.)
Root is also effective. You can root people. If you root them and fail to take them down, I will consider this when judging the bout by fiat, along with the part where you just stuck someone to the floor of my tourney square for 5 minutes and now we have to scrape them off the floor. If you simply root the strong fighter in place and take out their teammate and then don’t usefully engage, you will be disqualified.
You may not Disarm or Fumble people and then interact with their weaponry in any way. No sword keep-away and no kicking weapons into the crowd.
Silence and Weakness may be pretty devastating for some of you. Spell Shields are going to be worthwhile.
If you have taken both arms and one or both legs Maimed or Withered, you are out of the fight, unless your team has some way to de-potato you.
No form of remote spellcasting on active contestants by folks not in the fight is allowed. Anyone casting spells on folks fighting must also be fighting.
This is a 2v2 tournament that includes spellcasting, melee, and archery. While I am Lothlan and it would not be this way in the homelands, I fully expect this tournament to be won by some enterprising team with a novel tactic. Thing is, if you win due to that sort of thing, it’s a ‘brilliant tactic’; if you lose, it’s a ‘cheap dishonorable trick’. Given that I can’t say “that’s dishonorable” if you don’t ask about it before you do it, it is unfortunately the optimal strategy to not tell me (or anyone) about your plans for the tournament before entering it and using your various tricks.
I would simply advise anyone entering this to be ready for anything.
I would like to provide a generally warning about the following rule:
“Spells and archery are acceptable this year. Collateral damage that hits the food results in an automatic loss. Unfairly using the food as cover also results in a loss.”
If you hit non-combatants, make sure you take care of their healing either by your own abilities or otherwise. Some find being shot with an arrow, or being hit by a spell to be somewhat offensive.
Furthermore, if the above scares you, don’t stand close to the ring.
I’ve heard from a fair number of folks who want to participate, but don’t have partners lined up yet, so I’d like to offer to help with that!
With Vance’s permission, I’m going to try and collect the names of those interested in participating, but currently lacking a partner, and post them on a cork board I’ll be bringing for the tournament. That way, people can see who else is looking for a partner, and seek out people more easily.
I’ll probably announce this at feast as well, but if you want to have your name included in this, come find me early at Feast, or just put yourself in the appropriately marked section on the cork board. If you want me to preemptively include you in this group, respond here or send me a message personally!
Tip: Get your name on the thing early! Check the thing often! The tournament will start within an hour or two of the beginning of the feast, so time will be tight if you aren’t careful.
P.S. This is just to help people find their own partners! I’m not going to be making/assigning pairs myself, that’s up to you. (Taeo’s Matchmaking Service is for different things!)
