The dream ends at midnight.

You walk slowly down the street, idly turning a token in your fingers. Someone or something gave you two of them while you were asleep.

The tokens are strange, you muse. As you rotate them, pinpoint stars glide beneath their black surface as if far away. It’s impossible to guess what they’re made of--for all you can tell, they were cut from a fabric made of night sky. They are glass-smooth and warm against your skin. They do not change, even as the world around you flits restlessly from location to location. It’s clear that they are the only things protecting you from the dream.

Your memory is a bit of a haze, but you remember waking up next to a clock. There were eleven slots: one token for each hour excepting midnight. You suspect that it’s the only way out.

You recall seeing other people. You realize that they must have tokens too; the dream would have torn them apart otherwise. You clench your fists as the situation becomes clear. One thing is certain: not everyone can escape.

You hear bells strike eleven in the distance and the ground beneath you falls away.

The first dream is about to begin.


Welcome.
Welcome to the wRHG tournament. You are trapped in the Valley of Dreams and have one way to escape: collect eleven tokens before time runs out. Failure to do so means death.

As I said in the introduction thread, this tournament is not bracket-style. Each contestant has been given two tokens to start and must collect eleven by wagering them against their opponent. There will be four rounds.

All rules are below (and I’ll appreciate it if you bear with me, because they are quite extensive), so read carefully before you ask me any questions.


Overview
Every round you must write a story that fills three prompts: Universal, Round, and Individual. The universal prompt is a set of circumstances everyone must work with in every story (these are detailed in the next section), round prompts are round-specific rules for everyone, and individual prompts are rules unique to each matchup.

Each round has three phases. Details on specific mechanics are in following sections.

Betting phase:
The betting phase lasts six days and begins when I post the round prompt. This is when you guys declare wagers. I will issue your individual prompt once your bet has been declared (this means you can get extra time to write by declaring your bet early).

Individual prompts consist of a setting and/or scenario and a narrative challenge. Settings/scenarios each have their own requirements and, in some cases, penalties to avoid. The narrative challenge is a stylistic narrative device that you may choose to incorporate into your story. The contestant who executes the narrative device most effectively gets all of the points for it (equivalent to three votes).

At the end of the betting phase, anyone who has not declared a bet will be set to the minimum wager and all remaining scenarios will be released.

Stats and scores from the previous round are also released at the beginning of this phase. If you want to make an appeal because you believe you were misjudged in the previous round, you must do so as soon as possible during this time.

Writing phase:
The writing phase begins when the betting phase ends. Contestants have three weeks to write their story and submit it by PMing it to me before the due date. The copy that I receive is the one that gets judged for skill points. This means you are not allowed to edit your story after submitting. You will also post a topic like you would for a normal match.

You are allowed to submit topic and story at different times, so if you finish your story in two weeks but your opponent isn't done yet, you can still PM your story to me for judging. I encourage you to submit as soon as you're ready instead of waiting for the due date to roll around. You technically don't get a bonus for submitting early, but it gives the judges more time to read your story and return better feedback. It also helps keep the judging phase from running longer than a week. Judging is private; nobody will see the submitted copy except for the judges.

Also, if you post your topic early, you’ll beat out the inevitable influx of stories right at the due date and people will be more likely to see and vote on your story.
If your topic has not been made by the due date, then I will make the topic for you and your opponent.

You will be eliminated from the tournament if you do not submit your story on time.
If you have extenuating circumstances that prevent you from writing your story, you must PM me about it before the due date. I will not be generous with extensions/passes; very few circumstances prevent you from writing for three entire weeks.

Judging phase:
After the writing due date, there is a judging phase in which people vote on stories and judges go over all of the stories. Feedback is totaled at the end of this period. Ideally, this phase will last about a week, but it depends on how many stories there are to go through. (Again, if you submit your story early, you can help keep this down to one week.)

The winner of a round gets the wagered tokens. Who wins is determined by the round score. Round score consists of the following: a rubric score, which is whether you followed the prompts or not; skill score, which are points issued by judges based on your apparent storytelling competence; narrative challenge, which is whether or not you won the narrative challenge; vote score, which is based on the number of votes you received; and feedback points, which is an extra ten points you can receive for giving multiple pieces of good feedback.


There will be one day between the end of one round's judging phase and the start of the next betting phase when I total up the points and get the new matchups together.


You may also make a Deal with the Devil during any phase to receive an extra token in exchange for a permanent condition. Said condition can be related to the events in the story, the language you use to write it, or something arbitrary. Check the relevant section for details.


Story Guidelines
ing that ever has been and will be. In practical terms, it means that your story can end up taking place anywhere at all with any conditions.

I want to make this as clear as possible: Forget about all of your fancy canon stories and big plot developments. This tournament is completely separate from all of them. This is about you using your character in different situations. Your characters almost definitely won’t be fighting for all four rounds; it depends on what prompts you get.

Each story takes place in a separate “dream”. That means that the events of one story are completely unrelated to the events of the next and should be treated as such. It’s up to you to come up with the circumstances that lead up to the events of your story (you don’t even have to specify said circumstances if it doesn’t add to the narrative). These circumstances shouldn’t follow from your canon stories or previous tournament rounds.

Importantly, write your stories as if they aren’t dreams, which is to say, make sure that the events are “believable” and your logistics make sense. Your character shouldn’t even be aware of the fact that they’re in a dream during tournament rounds (although you can if you want to make that a plot point).

Not all scenarios involve fighting. If your prompt is better executed without people punching each other in the face, then don’t write people punching each other in the face.


Universal Conditions:
1) You may not kill your character in your story.
2) You may not have an accompanying supporting character. This means you may not have a supporting character that has persistence throughout all or some of the rounds. It’s okay to have or create supporting characters in individual rounds, but these supporting characters are part of the dream; your character is trapped in the Valley alone.
3) Your character retains damage between rounds, but you are allowed to heal them to the extent that would conceivably be able to over time. e.g., if your character gets stabbed or breaks a bone, that can be fixed by the next battle. If your character contracts a serious disease or loses a limb, however, you have to stick with it.
3a) Damage must be retained, but the cause for said damage does not. Say your character lost a finger in one round from trying to use a table saw while drunk. You have to keep the finger lost in the next round, but if it comes up in the story you can say that it was caused by something else, like a shark attack.
4) Your characters’ (both you and your opponent’s) abilities should match up with your one-line blurb. I don’t care if you have some details or whatever you didn’t list, but if you write “weapons master” in your blurb, your character should not be a complete klutz who stabs their self in the foot when using a knife.
5) This should go without saying, but both wRHG characters have to be major, alive characters in the story (for example, if you get a murder mystery prompt, you’re allowed to have your opponent be the murdered party only if that character also has scenes in which they are alive and doing things to advance the plot). They do not have to fight; many prompt scenarios will work better if they don’t. They do not necessarily have to be in conflict with one another, either.


Continuity (Things to Keep in Mind):
Technically each “dream” is fifteen minutes long, but dreams are weird in that they can last for any amount of time within that. Basically, if you want a story that has a context going back months, go ahead and do it.

Your character can have as many or few memories of their canon past as you desire (but try to avoid plot-convenient laser-guided amnesia) and can be any age. Because this is about putting your character into different and strange situations, your character’s personality and abilities should be as consistent across stories as possible. I can’t penalize you if you change your character’s personality unless it directly conflicts with the skill points section below, but it’s really shooting yourself in the foot creatively if you just up and change your character’s personality for plot convenience.

Don’t make reference to the Valley or tokens within your story. You won’t be penalized if you do, but I can guarantee you will write a better story if you keep that business out. The Valley is just a framing device so we can have fun writing stories.


Remember that you must assume that readers only know the prompts and whatever is in the two characters’ one-line blurbs. Do not assume that they know anything about your character’s story (and you can even change this if you want) or the details of your powers.

You may be writing a dream, but everything still has to make sense.[/spoiler]

Matchups
closest number of tokens and random within that. There will be no repeating matchups (e.g., if A and B have four tokens each, but have already fought, then A will be matched with the next closest contestant C, even though C has more or less than four tokens). I will do my best to prevent anyone from being in a three-way battle twice.[/spoiler]

Wagers
s to ensure there’s some actual progress within four rounds.
1) All wagered tokens go to the player with the highest round score (covered in the next section). In the event of a three-way battle, two thirds go to the first place and one third will go to the runner-up.
2) Wagers are made before individual prompts are released. I will give out prompts as soon as individual bets are declared.
3) The betting range is half the lower player’s pool (rounded up) to the lower player’s entire pool. e.g., if the lower player has five tokens, the minimum wager is three tokens and the maximum wager is five.
4) Wagers are set by the first person who posts in this topic declaring one. The wager will be set to minimum if neither player declares one before the end of the betting phase.
5) If the minimum wager is three tokens or more, the person who does not declare the bet may raise or lower the wager by one token. This will default to doing nothing if you don’t declare anything, but please actually declare if you don’t want to raise or lower so I can finalize your wager and give you your prompts. e.g., if A declares a bet of five tokens, B may choose to post saying that they want to raise to six, lower to four, or stay at five.
5a) You may not lower the wager below your minimum. e.g., if A, who has six tokens, declares a wager of five tokens, B, who has ten tokens, may not lower the wager because that would be less than half his/her pool, even though it’s still in the betting range. However, if B made the same wager, then A would be allowed to lower it.[/spoiler]

Round Scoring
nd scoring. There are multiple parts to the round score. Don’t ask me questions about this unless you’ve read the entire thing.

Rubric points: These points are based on your ability to follow directions. This is comprised of three parts and you will lose all points in a section if you do not fill all the respective criteria. These should be free points. Ask for clarification if you’re confused as to what you need to do for a certain prompt.
-Universal conditions: Unless instructed or allowed to do so by another prompt (round condition, individual prompt, or Deal), you have to follow the universal conditions listed a few sections ago. (15)

-Round conditions: Each round has an overarching theme and condition. You must invoke them. (15)

-Individual conditions: Each matchup will receive a random setting or scenario. Your story must take place in that setting and be of the scenario (if one is provided). Some individual prompts will have specific conditions you must fill or penalties to avoid. Read your prompt carefully to make sure you don’t get penalized. Note that your individual condition score can become negative if you make enough infractions. (15)


Skill points: These points are assigned by the judges. They are based on your storytelling and writing competence. It is possible to get partial credit on these subcategories.
-Proofreading: You will lose Proofreading points for poor proofing. Signs of bad proofing include: misspelling character names, accidentally changing character genders mid-story, repeating sentences verbatim for no apparent reason, and losing words in sentences when the rest of your writing indicates your skill level is high enough to understand when you are doing so. Pro tip: read your story out loud when you proofread. If you don't feel confident in your proofing skills and/or want a second opinion, feel free to ask others to read your story before you post it; just do it privately. (5)

-Characterization: Your story exists because of the characters, not the other way around. Write the story as a result of your characters, give them distinct personalities, and make sure they stay consistent. Note that you will not be penalized for writing a personality that is inconsistent with the one listed on your wRHG page. Atrocious dialogue goes under this category; if your character is a normal person, have them talk like one. (5)

-Plot: Again, this should be a result of your characters. The things your characters do should make sense based on their personalities. You should not have a character willingly go into a dark and dangerous alleyway with a thug who wants to kill him for literally no reason than to make the plot ha

[Post reserved for FAQ]