Author's Games: Samurai

About Author's Games: Samurai

This is A LOT of information, so take a deep breath and turn on your brains. Don't panic though: I know there are going to be questions, so ask and comment away after you read everything :) 

In Author's Games: Samurai, things are done WAY differently. The only similar aspects between them are in fact that you will be writing and that this is a competition.

Unlike other Author's Games THERE WILL BE NO VOTING. Writers will still be eliminated, and that is chosen by me, but you guys have a direct change to get rid of people, and it's still based on your writing.  There will still only be one winner, but it's who comes out on top. This is as much a strategy game as it is a writing competition.

First, will be a sponsorship task, so I can choose certain ones of you to sponsor (both for writers for the competition and for story line purposes). It is also for you to see how I grade, and which writers score better than others.

After that, there will be regular tasks, and there will be battle tasks, which I'll explain in a moment. Regular tasks work like normal Author's Games tasks. I'll give your character something that they have to do, and you must write them doing it in an entry from their perspective. I'll score and judge you on your writing, among other things.

Unlike other Author Games, you will have to choose a clan. This clan will be your character's last name (which in Japan is placed FIRST, not last). Your first name can be anything Japanese. You will have to have at least one main character, which is your clan leader, or your diaymo. You may also include other side characters that are important to your character's life. They may be in your entries and in the proper places of your character form (discussed in detail later).

Each battle task, I will give you a battle scenario, such as: you are on a field against an enemy clan and you have archers on your side, or something like that. During the task, you will write what happens during the battle, following the instructions of the battle task, but your clan must be at war with another clan (aka another author). At the end of each battle task, I will compare your entry to theirs and determine whether you beat them or not (judging by story line and writing). If you win, their clan will now be a part of yours. This is technically an elimination as they cannot win the competition anymore, but they are allowed to help you, critique your entries before handing in, and even write the entries with you (such as including something about their character in it if you both choose to do this). This will continue through the entire competition until there is only one clan remaining, aka the winner.

Staring off, will be fifteen tributes total at the start. Every task, whoever scored the highest or stood out to me the most, will win what's called immunity, which means that they'll be able to skip the next battle task and go on and prepare for the next task. In the first battle task, four tributes will be leaving us; second battle task, four will leave us again; third two tributes will leave us; fourth two tributes will leave us. The semi-finals, one person will win immunity, just like all the other regular tasks, leaving the two remaining tributes to battle it out in the fifth battle task. One will win and go on to the finals, the other will lose.

So before each battle task, will be a preparation. It's a first come first serve basis. All the clan names will be listed. You will comment or PM the name of the clan that you want to attack. They will get to decide whether they want to accept, or deny your request. If you accept and both writers decide to, then you'll be facing each other in the battle task. (In other words in the task itself your clans will fight each other). If they deny it, then you both must select another clan to fight. This will happen until all clans are paired up with each other. Now, you both will write entries attacking and/or defending based off that particular tasks' battle scenarios. I will judge you and decide which one of you won the battle based off your writing. If you win, I also decide if the loser escaped (because their entry was also good), or if the loser ends up becoming a part of your clan (technically becomes eliminated from the competition).

As I mentioned before, this will happen in between regular tasks. Regular tasks and battle tasks will continue up until the finals, which will work as normal.

Alliances are very important in this game. Not only is it between two writers, like normal Author's Games, and coordinating if you choose, also like normal Author's Games, but normal alliances will be promises not to attack each other. You can betray allies, which will in turn be betraying that writer, or you can choose to trust that they won't betray you. This is why the rule to not be rude to other writers is so important. 

Now, since this is all new, following the sponsorship task will be the sponsorship battle task. In the story line, it will be your clan's first small skirmish in taking over Japan.

Yes, in case I forgot to mention, in the story line, your character is not a tribute in a game. Instead, they're trying to unite Japan by taking it over completely. The problem is that my character, Nobunaga Oda, is also trying to do that

Anyway, back on topic, the battle sponsorship task will be a small skirmish. NO CLANS WILL ACTUALLY BE TAKEN OVER. This is just to get a feel for how battle tasks will work. Task 1 will begin after the sponsorship battle task. This is where the competition really begins.

Before the sponsorship task, your clan starts off owning a piece of land where the clan is located. Even though this isn't technically logical, or historical, we'll just call each piece of land the same names as your clan name to keep from being confusing. When you take over a clan, you also receive that clan's land. This will continue until you own all of Japan.

During each task, your army needs supplies, and more importantly, extra rice fields to increase your clan's income. You must choose to fortify your defenses, recruit and hire ronin (samurai without a master), gather supplies, and plant more rice fields which in turn increases your clan's income. Let me explain this.

Every clan will start off with the same income and the same number of samurai in their army. You must use your income to hire ronin, buy supplies, or fortify your defenses. Each task, based off your score, I will award you more income. At the end of every task, you can choose to save it, or buy supplies, ronin/samurai or defenses.

DECISIONS FOR THIS WILL BE MADE BY PM-ING ME AFTER EACH TASK IS SCORED.

The number of samurai in your army, your defenses and your clan's income will factor in during the battle tasks, where I will be judging on your writing and your chances of winning or defending, based off the number of troops and your defenses, or the defenses against you. There are also bonus units in every battle task to help you, so if you have the extra income, you can buy them to use during the task. If not, well, then you don't have them to use in the battle.

Now. Your income and army can increase each task because of high scores, or it can even decrease. Decreasing would happen if you have any penalties (because of ballots), or if you turned in late, or went over word count, stuff like that.

Again, I know this is a lot of information, so let the questioning begin!