The Top 10 and the Contest Structure

[Airan]

First and foremost, the Top 10 has been officially decided-

They are as follows-

[spoiler]Duelist: Fiyero
Berserker: Elias Heatherpaw
Schemer: Lucan
Seafarer: Novak
Hunter: Old One
Guardian: Priideep
Marksman: Unga Underbite
Brigand: Antonia St. Myra
Assassin: Siobhan, Codename: The Mantis
Wildcard: Zandir Firesage[/spoiler]

Congratulations to everyone who made the cut, and to those who didn't, you did a fantastic job. It was a really close race at the end and many categories were won only by one or two votes.

Okay, with one exciting thing comes another, so it's time to talk about something I've been hiding up my sleeve for a while now. So, if you've been around the Discord, you may have heard me discuss a particular 'Idea' or Plan of mine. This is something I've been toying around with for the last few weeks or so and keeping under wraps, trying to get all the things right to where I'm confident that it could feasibly work. So- with that in mind, I'm going to go right into it, explain how it works, and what my thoughts behind it are. Let's go-

The Contest Structure

Alright- First thing's first. I want to explain briefly how the traditional contest structure has been done. Usually, it works like this-

Round 1- 2 weeks. 2 day voting. Death announcement. 2 day planning for next round
Round 2- 1 week. 2 day voting. Death announcement. 2 day planning for next round.
And so on-

As we've done more and more of these contests, admins have been trying new ways to shake up the formula and make it interesting for them, for readers, and for the contestants. In MO3, we decided to start doing the deaths suddenly in the middle of the following round so that they could be better planned and flow with the narrative. In MO4, some writers came together and wrote a collaborative post, so as to not spoil the death.

In MO5, we'll be doing something different: There will not be a weekly death like in previous contests- instead you will die in a cull. Let's get right into explaining the mechanics of everything.

First thing's first- This contest will be broken up into 2-3 separate segments which we will call "Acts." Like in the previous system, an Act will be made up of a number of rounds each lasting the traditional week. For reference, I suspect the first Act to last roughly 3 Rounds. Rather than kill off each character at the end of a respective round, instead, characters will be killed in a cull at the end of the Act.

Before I move on to better explain, if you are confused about the Act based structure, I have prepared a visual to help better explain how it might work. If you are still confused afterwards, please get with me so I can try to make it more clear-

Okay, so there are probably two questions on everyone's mind at the moment reading this. "Why are we doing this?" and "How will voting work?" I'll start by answering the former-

Why are we doing this?

I have two answers. The first answer is simple, I just think it'd be fun. The second is a bit more methodical. To put it into perspective, I'm doing this to better control the pace of this particular story- as I think MO5 would benefit from having a slower pace. By having weekly deaths, the story might just be one massive and long battle scene with hardly any room for downtime or meaningful character interaction. With the traditional system, the cast would always need something readily available to kill them, so I could see a lot of them dying to random mooks or accidents or just running out to the woods to meet the Suneater, and yeah, I feel like that would really hurt their image of being 'skilled warriors.'

By slowing down the deaths I hope to achieve the following-
Slow down the story so that each battle is important and can be built towards as an important event, rather than the story being a constant fight scene.
Give every writer a chance to write for much longer than usual, and give slow burn characters a chance to get into the meat of their development. Characters surviving for longer than usual also means that there will be strict word limit rules in place for the story.
Make every death hit hard and meaningful. Give each character the chance to really go out as a warrior.

How will voting work?

The voting system is not something that I have completely worked out. Though the current plan is this- Just like in the familiar system you're used to, there will be a vote at the end of every round. Each contestant and audience member will get a total of three votes that must be used on separate characters. You cannot stack 3 votes on one singular character, or 2 for one character and 1 for another, or anything like that. Once the votes are counted, they will persist and accumulate between rounds. So, if a character receives 3 votes in round 1, and 2 votes in round 2, they will have a total of 5 votes. At the end of the Act, the three characters with the highest vote total will be the victims of that Act's Cull.

At the end of the first or second round of an Act (I haven't decided)- I will privately message every contestant and tell them their current vote number, along with every reasoning that was given for them, so that they have an idea of their current standing. I will not be sharing these details publicly, and I disallow all cast members from discussing it as well, as I don't want to encourage targeting whoever currently has the most to keep their own characters safe. I trust them all to keep these details tight to their chest.


And that's really everything. As you can see, there's a reason why I've been so excited for this contest. I'm really excited to try something new, and I think this system might be interesting for everyone involved. If you have any questions at all, please ask them below and I will answer them the best I can.

Otherwise I want to extend a hearty congratulations to the Top 10. You made it! Now...

...can you survive?

[multiplemint]

Just wanted to point out to everyone what I raved about to Airan on discord. I love that this mirrors the classic story arc/tension structure.



It's so smart! Can't wait to see the story this will give us.

[Pennies]

This structure looks great, Airan. Sure to build a strong story!