[2008] Tournament : Swashbucklers Ahoy! [by Merlin The Wizzard]

[Grisu]

DISCLAIMER: Please do NOT post in this thread yet. We still need to migrate all posts from the old thread on diabloii.net to this thread. If you want to help, feel free to do so


This tournament has already ended. It was originally started by @Merlin The Wizzard on May 8, 2008. The last post was made Jul 7, 2008.
(link to original thread on diabloii.net) ​

Tournament : Swashbucklers Ahoy!

Introduction
"My son, are you sure?"
"Oh yes dad, totally."
"But it sounds so... girly."
"Not my problem."
"Well but... I'll be the laughing stock at the yearly king convention. They'll spray my tent pink!"
"Pink is a lovely color. Since you host the thing anyways, make sure the theme is pink or something."
"It would break your mothers heart."
"Last time she was around, and I told her of my failures, she snorted her ale up and and made public fun of me. I heard she is out somewhere in the north slaying giants? I hope one stomps on her... Hard."
"So... you want prospective brides to battle it out for your hand?"
"Well, this one at least. She frightens me."
"Boy, a dead mouse frightens you."
"I swear dad, those beady eyes never stopped following me. He was a zombie mouse, after my brain!"
"Not much of a meal..."
"Father!"
"Oh, all right. Send the wench in."

The doors opened, and a burly blonde woman came stomping in.

"So you want to marry my son?"
"What I want is a comfortable life and a husband who won't give me any lip. That cretin of yours fits the bill."
"Ah, I see. Well, he has asked that you bring him at least three parts of the Immortal King set."
"What does he need those for? I'm sure he can't even lift the maul..."
"You are talking about MY son, girl. Care to visit my dungeon for a while?"
"Ehm... nooo, I'm fine. So you want them set items? Ok, I'll see what I can find. Bye bye now, my king, my cretin to be."
"Son..."
"Yes dad?"
"If she succeeds, and comes back and marries you... I wonder, who will be forced to wear the dress down the isle..."
"FATHER!"

The idea
Go swashbuckling. In general, swashbucklers manage, through skill and bravado, to overcome surprising odds against them and achieve their goal. With that definition, Diablo seems to be DESIGNED for swashbuckling... Too bad you can't swing from chandeliers. Create a character, write up a nice background. Go out and kill some monsters, and tell us about it by use of screenshots and progress reports!

Inspiration
Ok, so that introduction is some background exposition on my probable character to be. Sue me! I hope it was a fun read. Actually, the idea just sorta popped in my head. Odd, since I've not seen any swashbuckling movies lately.

Rules
There won't be many, since I want to let your people be as free as possible.

- HC only. If that's not your game, I may allow softcore, but one death and you are out of the running. Swasbucklers don't die and get well again in the movies either (Except for Highlander perhaps)
- 1.10/1.11 only.
- Untwinked. Mule off what you see fit, don't mule on. Atma is allowed as an extended stash.
- A mercenary is allowed, but YOU should always be the centre of attention. Take a good pick for character exposition (Just think about the Go sparky go tournament a while back, where you had to get an A3 merc as a love interest). Make sure (s)he is not a better killer then you are. For most, this is simply a matter of keeping the weapon slot empty, or with a crappy bow. Once you get to hell difficulty, the crippled merc restriction is lifted.
- No summons. None. As for the merc, YOU are the centre of attention, not your creatures.
- Rerunning is allowed, but not encouraged. Try to do it all single pass, boys and girls.

Winning
- The tournament will run until someone makes guardian or until two months have passed. So it ends at 8-7-2008 either way. At that time, voting will commence.
- Each contestant gets to make three picks in each of the following categories:
- Character name and the background provided. (10%)
- Chosen character class and skills and the explanation behind it (10%)
- What equipment/weapons the character uses and the explanation behind it
(no need to do so for the merc though)(5%)
- Quality of the screenshots (25%)
- Quality of the progress reports (40%)

The remaining 10% are determined by the total progress made before death and not subject to voting. If a tie comes up, the player with most top picks wins. If that is also undecided, I cast the final vote.

Given these rules, it's quite possible that someone who dies in Act I normal will win over someone who makes it to Guardian. It all hinges on the exposition

- Should you die and want to restart, you may. However, only one of your characters will count towards the votes. You pick which beforehand.
- First pick gets 5 points, second 3 and last 1. I will add all the scores up for each character per category, and then multiply it by the percentage listed in brackets divided by 5. Example
Doris and Daisy find Josh's (Snooty Snazzles) character name and background fantastic, and give him top pick. No one else does however. So he gets 5+5 = 10 points. This is multiplied by (10/5 = 2) so final tally for the name /character class = 20. for Josh. It will be added up to his scores in the other categories.

- You may write one progress report for each Act completed (also if you die in that act before completion.) The progress report is not required, but given the idea behind this tournament, it's very much encouraged
- Each progress report may be enlivened with screenshots. In order to keep things readable, a maximum of five screenshots per progress report are allowed.

Alternate Goals
Just read my introduction above. You are free to pick any goal you like. (I will veto any goal that seems unreasonably easy though... That would not be in the swasbuckling spirit). It may even be an open ended goal (Collect as many perfect gems as possible). It's mainly a matter of exposition, and a means for storyline progression ( Aye matey, har har, I heard there's this forge in this here buring river where we can find us some lovely gems. So let's carve up some opponents and get us some loot!) These goals have no direct outcome on the vote, but faithfully trying to achieve it and then actually achieving it might score you some points in background and progress reports.

Screenshots
- You are free (and even encouraged) to 'stage' your screenies. Action shots are nice, but a pirate standing in a screen filled with heaps of gold is nice as well.
- If players have suggestions for good websites to load screenshots up to, they are encouraged to share those.