The "Pass It On" Tournament
A number of big tournaments are winding down, so although several players (myself included) are still working on characters for "It Takes All Kinds," this new one seems so fun to me that I just couldn't wait. It won't start until April 14th, but registration is open now. Also, it's a long-running tournament, at least 14 weeks (and possibly as many as 30-40 weeks), so it's a tournament you can play in even if you're in several others.
*****
THE "PASS IT ON" TOURNAMENT
Abarr the Barbarian was feeling powerful, bashing the forces of evil left and right with his gargantuan axe. He had rescued Cain, and vanquished the Countess in her filthy tower. He surveyed the loot that lay in piles upon the floor, and grinned... then, suddenly, he felt faint, and fell to the cold stone tiles, unconscious.
Back in the Rogues Camp, Warriv and Cain awaited Abarr anxiously. Had he succumbed to the forces of Andariel? Was their hope in vain? They saw the sudden glow of a town portal illuminate the darkness, and breathed a sigh of relief…
But the figure stepping through the portal was not a strong barbarian warrior. It was a buxom blonde maiden… and she was naked!
*
Meanwhile, in another dimension, Nerf the Necromancer was walking towards the fire in the Rogues Camp, when to his horror he felt his features beginning to swell uncontrollably. Had his experiments with poison gone wrong? Were his arms going to pop, bathing the curious onlookers in the blood of his own ironically exploding corpse? His clothes burst from his once-skinny frame, and the crowd gasped.
“Wow,†breathed Charsi in a husky tone. “You’re a barbarian, huh?â€
“Hey baby,†said Nerf, feeling strangely confident. “You can call me… Abarr. Abarr the Barbarian. Now get me an axe, wench. The biggest one ya got."
RULES
1. HC only.
2. Version 1.11 and 1.11b are permitted. You may play if you use RWM, but you may not use any runewords that are unavailable in unmodified SP play.
3. Classes: you will be assigned a character class and character name at the start of the tournament. Don’t worry if you don’t like what you get…you won’t have to play it for long!
4. No Multi-Player permitted. No trading permitted.
5. You may play on any players setting you wish, and change that setting as you see fit. Please do NOT engage in cheesy “kill monsters on players 1, open chests on players 8†tactics.
6. CHARACTERS.
As noted above you will be given a character class and character name to begin playing. However, you will not play this character for long: every so often, upon reaching certain milestones, all players will cease playing their current character, and email the character files to the next player in the list. The next player will then take up that character’s quest, assigning skill points, stat points, equipment, etc. as they see fit. If the character you are playing dies, you are out of the tournament. The player who survives the longest will be declared the winner—no other score-keeping is required.
7. SKILL POINTS and STAT POINTS.
As the character you are playing gains levels, you may assign their skill and stat points as you see fit. If you don’t wish to assign points, you need not do so… it’s up to you. FIRST NOTE: it might be tempting to assign skill points in ways that will disadvantage a future player… but remember, what goes around comes around: if the character is still alive later in the tournament, you may reap what you sow! SECOND NOTE: please do NOT post in the forum anything about what skills you are using with a particular character, or even what items you are wearing. Part of the pleasure (and challenge) of the tournament is not knowing what you’re going to have to deal with.
8. EQUIPMENT.
When you are required to send a character to the next player, you will send the character completely naked, with the exception of the Horadric Cube. Please remember to mule your gold into your stash! Any quest items that have been found but not used should also be sent with the character. As for the gear your character was wearing… you may sell it for gold, or stash it following the rules below (see #9).
Whenever you receive a new character, you may equip it with any items you find, purchase, gamble, craft, etc. You may also use any items that you have kept in your ATMA stash (see rule #9, below).
9. ATMA USE.
You may mule items off of your character to other characters or ATMA stashes, but you may only mule on items that follow the stash rules listed here:
You may keep an ATMA stash for socket-fillers of all kinds, charms, and potions. When sending a character on to the next player, you should first mule off ALL YOUR GOLD. You may also keep TWO of each of the following items in your stash at all times:
Melee Weapon (includes sorc orbs, katars, and all throwing weapons)
Ranged Weapon (includes all throwing weapons and amazon bows)
Shield (includes pally shields and necro heads)
Armor
Ring
Amulet
Boots
Gloves
Helm (may include barb and druid helmets)
Belt
You may change these items at any time, so long as you never have more than TWO of each in your ATMA stash. NOTE: pay attention to the class of the character coming your way next! If you have a sorceress coming up, for example, you may not want to hold on to a big sword… you may want to have a good orb in the stash.
10. CHARACTER SWITCH POINTS:
There are nine times per difficulty level that you will be required to stop playing a character, strip it, and email it to the next player. You must solve all quests and find all WPs up to the switch point, unless otherwise noted, before sending your character onward. You may NOT solve any quests or find any WPs BEYOND the switch point. If you are confused about whether a certain quest comes before or after a certain WP, or vice versa, simply consider that you are expected to play the game in order: you should not find the Malus, for example, before finding the Outer Cloister WP (even though it is certainly possible to do so).
Black Marsh WP (you must NOT complete Black Tower quest)
Sewers Level 2 WP
Palace Level 1 WP
Spider Forest WP (you must find Khalim’s Eye before sending character)
Upper Kurast WP (you must retrieve body part from sewers 2 before sending character)
City of the Damned WP
Frigid Highland WP
Ancients Way WP (you must NOT kill Ancients, but you should have completed all previous quests, including Nihlathak)
Upon killing the Cow King
You should never be playing more than one character at a time. If you haven’t sent your current character onward, and receive a new character by email, YOU MAY NOT OPEN THE FILE until you have finished your current character’s tasks: that would give you an unfair advantage (you would know what equipment to keep!).
11. DYING.
When you die, you are out of the tournament… please update the table by removing your name from the Current Players list and adding it to the RIP list. Please do not send character files to RIP players… that could cause confusion.
12. QUEST REWARDS.
You need not take advantage of quest rewards immediately (imbue, socketing, etc.). However, if you don't use a reward by the time you send the character onward, then the next player is welcome to use it as they see fit.
13. RUNNING, RE-VISITING AREAS, ETC.
You may adventure in the areas that you are permitted to play as much as you wish, but you may not go beyond the next switch point, or go back before the last switch point (except to visit a town: you can visit towns as much as you like). So for example, if you are playing a character for the leg of the tournament starting at the Upper Kurast WP and finishing at the City of the Damned WP, you could run Mephisto if you so desire (Durance 3 is in between the two WPs). But you could *not* run the Arcane Sanctuary, since it is outside the area you are permitted to visit. Once a character has progressed to a new difficulty level, you may not take them back to old difficulty levels.
14. OTHER NOTES
A: PLEASE BE PATIENT! Not all people can afford the same amount of leisure time, and everyone plays at their own pace. There will be times that you won’t have a character to play—if so, relax. Play another character. Read a book.
B: To avoid bottlenecks, please do NOT play through more than TWO SWITCH POINTS PER WEEK. As you can guess, this will cause the tournament to last a long time… an absolute minimum of 14 weeks for characters who survive to fight Baal in Hell difficulty.
C. On the other hand, please be honest with yourself when registering for this tournament. If you do not have enough time to play through one switch point per week, then you should not join this tournament. Players will be removed from the tournament, at the discretion of the host (me), if bottlenecks become too problematic. If you feel that you must leave the tournament, please PM me.
D. If you are going to be away for a week or longer (vacation, exams, etc.), and unable to play, please make sure we know by posting in the thread.
15. REGISTRATION, START DATE and END DATE:
Registration is OPEN NOW, and you may register up to April 13. There is no limit to the number of players who may register. I will compile a table of all entrants… once I’ve posted that table, please PM the next person in the table and give them your email address (so they can mail you characters).
The tournament will BEGIN on Friday, April 14th, after I post a list of player names, character classes and character names to the thread. Find your name and get started! This table should ONLY be updated upon your character’s death; at that point, please delete your name and add it to the RIP list.
Once you die, you are out: no restarting permitted.
A number of big tournaments are winding down, so although several players (myself included) are still working on characters for "It Takes All Kinds," this new one seems so fun to me that I just couldn't wait. It won't start until April 14th, but registration is open now. Also, it's a long-running tournament, at least 14 weeks (and possibly as many as 30-40 weeks), so it's a tournament you can play in even if you're in several others.
*****
THE "PASS IT ON" TOURNAMENT
Abarr the Barbarian was feeling powerful, bashing the forces of evil left and right with his gargantuan axe. He had rescued Cain, and vanquished the Countess in her filthy tower. He surveyed the loot that lay in piles upon the floor, and grinned... then, suddenly, he felt faint, and fell to the cold stone tiles, unconscious.
Back in the Rogues Camp, Warriv and Cain awaited Abarr anxiously. Had he succumbed to the forces of Andariel? Was their hope in vain? They saw the sudden glow of a town portal illuminate the darkness, and breathed a sigh of relief…
But the figure stepping through the portal was not a strong barbarian warrior. It was a buxom blonde maiden… and she was naked!
*
Meanwhile, in another dimension, Nerf the Necromancer was walking towards the fire in the Rogues Camp, when to his horror he felt his features beginning to swell uncontrollably. Had his experiments with poison gone wrong? Were his arms going to pop, bathing the curious onlookers in the blood of his own ironically exploding corpse? His clothes burst from his once-skinny frame, and the crowd gasped.
“Wow,†breathed Charsi in a husky tone. “You’re a barbarian, huh?â€
“Hey baby,†said Nerf, feeling strangely confident. “You can call me… Abarr. Abarr the Barbarian. Now get me an axe, wench. The biggest one ya got."
RULES
1. HC only.
2. Version 1.11 and 1.11b are permitted. You may play if you use RWM, but you may not use any runewords that are unavailable in unmodified SP play.
3. Classes: you will be assigned a character class and character name at the start of the tournament. Don’t worry if you don’t like what you get…you won’t have to play it for long!
4. No Multi-Player permitted. No trading permitted.
5. You may play on any players setting you wish, and change that setting as you see fit. Please do NOT engage in cheesy “kill monsters on players 1, open chests on players 8†tactics.
6. CHARACTERS.
As noted above you will be given a character class and character name to begin playing. However, you will not play this character for long: every so often, upon reaching certain milestones, all players will cease playing their current character, and email the character files to the next player in the list. The next player will then take up that character’s quest, assigning skill points, stat points, equipment, etc. as they see fit. If the character you are playing dies, you are out of the tournament. The player who survives the longest will be declared the winner—no other score-keeping is required.
7. SKILL POINTS and STAT POINTS.
As the character you are playing gains levels, you may assign their skill and stat points as you see fit. If you don’t wish to assign points, you need not do so… it’s up to you. FIRST NOTE: it might be tempting to assign skill points in ways that will disadvantage a future player… but remember, what goes around comes around: if the character is still alive later in the tournament, you may reap what you sow! SECOND NOTE: please do NOT post in the forum anything about what skills you are using with a particular character, or even what items you are wearing. Part of the pleasure (and challenge) of the tournament is not knowing what you’re going to have to deal with.
8. EQUIPMENT.
When you are required to send a character to the next player, you will send the character completely naked, with the exception of the Horadric Cube. Please remember to mule your gold into your stash! Any quest items that have been found but not used should also be sent with the character. As for the gear your character was wearing… you may sell it for gold, or stash it following the rules below (see #9).
Whenever you receive a new character, you may equip it with any items you find, purchase, gamble, craft, etc. You may also use any items that you have kept in your ATMA stash (see rule #9, below).
9. ATMA USE.
You may mule items off of your character to other characters or ATMA stashes, but you may only mule on items that follow the stash rules listed here:
You may keep an ATMA stash for socket-fillers of all kinds, charms, and potions. When sending a character on to the next player, you should first mule off ALL YOUR GOLD. You may also keep TWO of each of the following items in your stash at all times:
Melee Weapon (includes sorc orbs, katars, and all throwing weapons)
Ranged Weapon (includes all throwing weapons and amazon bows)
Shield (includes pally shields and necro heads)
Armor
Ring
Amulet
Boots
Gloves
Helm (may include barb and druid helmets)
Belt
You may change these items at any time, so long as you never have more than TWO of each in your ATMA stash. NOTE: pay attention to the class of the character coming your way next! If you have a sorceress coming up, for example, you may not want to hold on to a big sword… you may want to have a good orb in the stash.
10. CHARACTER SWITCH POINTS:
There are nine times per difficulty level that you will be required to stop playing a character, strip it, and email it to the next player. You must solve all quests and find all WPs up to the switch point, unless otherwise noted, before sending your character onward. You may NOT solve any quests or find any WPs BEYOND the switch point. If you are confused about whether a certain quest comes before or after a certain WP, or vice versa, simply consider that you are expected to play the game in order: you should not find the Malus, for example, before finding the Outer Cloister WP (even though it is certainly possible to do so).
Black Marsh WP (you must NOT complete Black Tower quest)
Sewers Level 2 WP
Palace Level 1 WP
Spider Forest WP (you must find Khalim’s Eye before sending character)
Upper Kurast WP (you must retrieve body part from sewers 2 before sending character)
City of the Damned WP
Frigid Highland WP
Ancients Way WP (you must NOT kill Ancients, but you should have completed all previous quests, including Nihlathak)
Upon killing the Cow King
You should never be playing more than one character at a time. If you haven’t sent your current character onward, and receive a new character by email, YOU MAY NOT OPEN THE FILE until you have finished your current character’s tasks: that would give you an unfair advantage (you would know what equipment to keep!).
11. DYING.
When you die, you are out of the tournament… please update the table by removing your name from the Current Players list and adding it to the RIP list. Please do not send character files to RIP players… that could cause confusion.
12. QUEST REWARDS.
You need not take advantage of quest rewards immediately (imbue, socketing, etc.). However, if you don't use a reward by the time you send the character onward, then the next player is welcome to use it as they see fit.
13. RUNNING, RE-VISITING AREAS, ETC.
You may adventure in the areas that you are permitted to play as much as you wish, but you may not go beyond the next switch point, or go back before the last switch point (except to visit a town: you can visit towns as much as you like). So for example, if you are playing a character for the leg of the tournament starting at the Upper Kurast WP and finishing at the City of the Damned WP, you could run Mephisto if you so desire (Durance 3 is in between the two WPs). But you could *not* run the Arcane Sanctuary, since it is outside the area you are permitted to visit. Once a character has progressed to a new difficulty level, you may not take them back to old difficulty levels.
14. OTHER NOTES
A: PLEASE BE PATIENT! Not all people can afford the same amount of leisure time, and everyone plays at their own pace. There will be times that you won’t have a character to play—if so, relax. Play another character. Read a book.
B: To avoid bottlenecks, please do NOT play through more than TWO SWITCH POINTS PER WEEK. As you can guess, this will cause the tournament to last a long time… an absolute minimum of 14 weeks for characters who survive to fight Baal in Hell difficulty.
C. On the other hand, please be honest with yourself when registering for this tournament. If you do not have enough time to play through one switch point per week, then you should not join this tournament. Players will be removed from the tournament, at the discretion of the host (me), if bottlenecks become too problematic. If you feel that you must leave the tournament, please PM me.
D. If you are going to be away for a week or longer (vacation, exams, etc.), and unable to play, please make sure we know by posting in the thread.
15. REGISTRATION, START DATE and END DATE:
Registration is OPEN NOW, and you may register up to April 13. There is no limit to the number of players who may register. I will compile a table of all entrants… once I’ve posted that table, please PM the next person in the table and give them your email address (so they can mail you characters).
The tournament will BEGIN on Friday, April 14th, after I post a list of player names, character classes and character names to the thread. Find your name and get started! This table should ONLY be updated upon your character’s death; at that point, please delete your name and add it to the RIP list.
Once you die, you are out: no restarting permitted.
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