How To's! (Important, read it!)

Subject: How To's! (Important, read it!) Sat Apr 07, 2012 2:36 am

EXPLORATION IN THE ARENA!

Alright guys, guess what we're two days away from our 27th Hunger Games, so it's time to explain how all this is going to work. This is going to be the first post in a string of about 4, this will be the longest and most general so sit tight and get ready for some reading!

With the exception of the opening blood bath your tribute is going to be doing some serious running around the arena, you're going to want to interact with the environment, it's not just as simple as saying you're going to do something and then doing it in your post, oh no, that's much too simple and easy minded, so I want to complicate it.

Take this post;

Quote :: I was running through the trees with May beside me. We had to move silently and fast, it was night but any moment it would get lighter out and we'd have no time left to go find some other tributes off in the arena. The arena, was a big mud pitt with a bunch of tree's around, there was a patch of grassy land off somewhere else in the arena on either side of the mud pitt. We needed to kill a few of the eight tributes left. There was really six others out there and figured that we'd be ahead of the game and kill at least two and if more than that was perfect.

In this post, let's name him Danny, Danny is running through the Trees of a Giant Mudpit arena with a fellow tribute, let's just take a moment and forget about the other tribute he mentioned and say he was running through the woods by himself. A Gamemaker could make the following post.

As Danny darts through the trees a distant thundering boom could be heard, not a canon, but something just as dangerous, probably a mutt, he seemed to be heading away from the noise. As he continued running a small stream could be seen in the distance to the right, it might be poisonous because of all the muddy dirt around. But you're feeling awfully thirsty now that you've been running so long.

See what I did there? As the Gamemaker, I control your environment, you guys can't make up a stream near yourself just for your own convenience. I'll control your hunger and thirst which will play a part in the arena (look for the how to on this later on.) Anytime you make a post you MUST wait for a Gamemaker to respond with an Environmental reaction.

Now you might be thinking, well I'm traveling with a group of people so how does that work. Well let's go back to that other tribute Danny mentioned. An Environmental reaction will happen once all members of the group traveling together have posted once. For example, let's say Danny posted the above up in the example above. And his fellow tribute May responded with;

May wrote:: I looked over at Danny. He had been running hard, well we had been running hard, it was difficult to run in mud that was around your ankle. Next I had tripped and fell face first into the mud, I really didn't like being dirty like this but you got used to it in these games. I pulled my self up and then we ran more.

At this point, now that both Tributes of the same traveling group have posted an Environmental response will happen.

Both tributes continued to run, soon reaching the grassy area they had been running for. As they stopped to catch their breath a sudden snapping sound was heard, a seemingly safe patch of grass had morphed into a small sized pit, about 10 feet deep and May had fallen down to the bottom where an ominous clicking sound could be heard from a small hole in the wall.

At this point I would roll Trap damage for her *Combat How to coming below soon* That's how exploring is going to work in the arena.

Summary

A tribute may post once and then wait for an Environmental reaction to occur.
If a tribute is traveling in a group, all group members must post for a reaction to occur.
A tribute may not post more than once in a group without a reaction happening.
A tribute may not find food or water on their own, they may go foraging for supplies but can't find items on their own.

That's about it for exploration, if you have any question please PM one of the Gamemakers and we will get back to you.

Regards,
The Staff

Subject: Re: How To's! (Important, read it!) Sat Apr 07, 2012 11:46 am

Combat

Obviously in the Hunger Games there's combat, you're going to be bashing some heads if you want to get out of there and back to your home, so this post is going to explain how you're going to do it.

First of all let's go over the basics of combat.

When your tribute gets into a fight there will be 3 phases. The attack phase, the move phase, and the minor phase.

The attack phase is obvious, you use this phase to attack your opponent.
In the move phase you have two options,

You can either move to gain a combat advantage
You can use it to try and escape combat.

~Both will be explained more later~

In the minor phase you can:

Heal yourself
Block
Attempt to stop someone from escaping
Retrieve your weapon

The three phases do not necessarily have to go in that order, for example,

Tribute A could, {Attack, Move to a better fighting position, and block}
Tribute B could {Block, Attack, Heal}

Now that we've gotten what you can do out of the way, let's go over how to do it.

The same principles for exploring will happen here, once both tributes or groups of tributes have posted a reaction will happen. Reactions can be anything from a tribute losing a limb to someone having their weapon knocked out of their hands. Please note: A post from the Gamemaster with the results of the Dice IS NOT, a environmental reaction.

*Special note for Healing: You Cannot heal yourself using Water! Do not try it, any heals that use water as the main factor will not work and you will not be permitted to change your post.

When you go to post a response a lot of people will use the quick response box located at the bottom of the thread, well In combat that doesn't work. In order to use the dice (how attacking is going to work) you must go down to the bottom of the forum and click "Post a Reply" or click the preview button in the Quick Response Box.

Once inside the Post a reply section you can scroll down to just under a window where there should be a box that says "Roll" by clicking on the drop down menu, you can select the action you'd like to perform, the numbers next to the action represent your district.

For example, if a Tribute from District 5 was attacking, they would click on the option that says "Attack (5)" If that Tribute was from District 11, they would select the option "Attack (Other)" because they receive no bonuses for attacking.

The same goes for Tributes who are Healing, or Blocking. Tributes will never use the dice labeled Mutt and Trap. That is for GM's only.

The only exception is the Escape Dice, now the escape die works a bit differently. If a tribute wishes to escape a fight they can attempt it by doing an Escape Roll. The result will be one of 5 options.

Escape Failed
Escape - 1 turn
Escape - 2 turns
Escape - 3 turns
Escape - 4 turns

Here's what that means, "Escape Failed" Pretty self-explanatory, you were unable to escape. "Escape - X turn(s)" means that your tribute will escape in that amount of turns. A tribute once beginning to escape can not be stopped, they can only be injured more (If I'm feeling nice the escapee might lose a leg in which case they won't be going anywhere). The tribute can be attacked up until the GM post they escape on, and cannot block any attacks to them directly before their escape post. A tribute can only attempt to escape once every 4 turns. Meaning that if you roll the escape die you can't do it for another 3 Environmental reactions.

Escape die also have one other feature. If your tribute falls into a trap, they'll be taking trap damage, tributes must use the escape die to get out, or they will take trap damage for each turn they remain in. This is the only time where escape die can be rolled more than once per 3 reactions. Turns still apply to escaping, that means that if you roll a four on escape, you better have the hit points to survive. (Escape die use the last time counter, for example, if you roll a 2 to escape, and try again and get a 4, the 4 erases the 2. Same with failing, if you roll a 3, then roll a fail, you stop escaping.)

Keep in mind, as long as a tribute makes a detailed thought out lengthy post, things will happen in their favor.

For example,
Posting "I walked down to where I suspected a creek would be to quench my thirst." Is much less likely to find water then a paragraph post about searching for water.

To put this in better terms, if you make your combat posts very well, you're more likely to do extra damage and knock weapons away at a higher frequency then someone posting one liners.

Regards,
The Staff

Subject: Re: How To's! (Important, read it!) Sat Apr 07, 2012 11:46 am

Food & Dehydration

We all remember Katniss's first few days in the arena, almost withering from dehydration right? Well you guys will be in, for lack of a better phrase, the proverbial same boat.

Food & Water will play a big part of your time in the arena, but there's also going to be realism. (More on that in the next how-to.) Tributes are going to have to determine what is safe to eat and drink. But first they're going to need to find it.

Apart from the odd water skin at the Cornucopia the only water sources will be natural and you'll have to find them. As mentioned before, exploring the environment is the easiest way to find something you want. If you want to find food or water you can do a few things to improve your chances.

State your actually trying to find resources
Make a detailed post, the better the post the higher the chance of success.
Be logical, you're not going to find water by looking in a tree right?

If your tribute does not eat or drink on at least a semi-regular basis they're going to be taking damage! So be sure to stay hydrated and keep your bellies full.

Regards,
The Staff

Subject: Re: How To's! (Important, read it!) Sat Apr 07, 2012 11:46 am

Supplies & Using what you know

The point of training was to not only let your tributes have a good Roleplay experience, but to also give them an opportunity to learn something new. This being our first set of Games I'd like to start with something that may or may not continue, so without further delay;

With the exception of, Archery, Swordplay, and Healing, Tributes will not be permitted to do actions that they haven't learned in training. The only exception to this is to a skill that was outlined in the character bio.

Keeping in touch with the realism there are going to be supplies around the Cornucopia. Tributes need to keep track of what they take from the Cornucopia, remember, they only have two hands, they're not going to be walking away with a huge stash of weapons in their hands.

Tributes will be able to take the following.

A maximum of 2 weapons
A maximum of 7 Other Items
+3 items per backpack

Once you take supplies from the Cornucopia they become yours and you are expected to keep your list updated. It is highly recommended to put it on the end of each post or in your Signature and adjusting it whenever an item is consumed or used.

On a related topic, time in the arena passes in real life based on Eastern Standard Time. (GMT -5) When it's night EST it's night in the arena, vice versa for day.

Regards,
The Staff

Subject: Re: How To's! (Important, read it!) Sat Apr 07, 2012 5:14 pm

Hit Points!

As some of you may have noticed, some users have a little bar underneath their name labeled 150/150. This is your HP bar. You will be responsible for editing it if you take damage.

To turn your HP bar on you scroll to the top and go Profile ---> Character Sheet
And edit all your stats from there. All tributes start with 150 Health, once that hits zero, the tribute dies and is removed from the games. Tributes with 0 HP can not in any way shape or form, come back to life unless a GM posts otherwise.

Regards,
The Staff

Subject: Re: How To's! (Important, read it!) Sat Apr 07, 2012 5:14 pm

All How-To's are now In place

» Stylist Application! (PLEASE READ IT ALL! VERY IMPORTANT!)
» Lets Get Down To Business~ (IMPORTANT INFO READ IT)
» Read this please!
» Dragon FAQ (PLEASE READ!!!)
» Poll! (VERY IMPORTANT!)