The Weakest Link '09 competition is upon us, and today registration starts!
Most people will have taken a look at the Warm-up thread already, and subsequently checked out the old threads from last year's competition. Still, I think it's best to go over the rules in detail in the first official post.
This thread is restricted to questions and discussions about the RULES of the Weakest Link. All other idle chatter, especially commentary on the leagues, will take place in the General Discussion thread.
While I'll be leading the Competition, managing the threads and editing the rules if need be, I'm only filling in for Grey. Should he decide to step in during a rules debate, his word shall be law.
Goal
Become the last survivor in a gigantic battle to the death and beyond, facing the depths of the dreaded vaults of Infinity, with your rivals quietly rooting for your demise - and once the Chaos gates are open, all bets are off...
Players will be organized in leagues depending on the number of participants, though it's very likely (UPDATE: Not so likely anymore, no) that four leagues will be formed just like last year, with the two best players of each league entering the finals.
Each league will be assigned a single, randomly generated character, which they have to play in turns. Each turn consists of 2000 game turns, no more, no less. During these 2000 game turns the character must descend at least once and may never ascend! This will pit the players against increasingly difficult hordes of monsters, with no means of turning back, to their inevitable deaths...
Game Reports and Cheating
Players recount their adventures and make official reports in the league threads. These reports must adhere to the following principles:
First, make note of any significant occurence during the report. It's only 2000 turns to keep track of, thankfully... If you're in doubt whether something is significant or not, note it down anyway. Significant occurences are, for example, monsters you have eluded or ran away from, whether you heard a tension room, that you gained a level and so on...
Even with the Chaos Gate open, you must not withhold information or lie in order to deceive and hinder the other players. Violation of this rule will result in you losing any advantage you gained and then some.
The only exception is if you've died at the end of your turn. You are then allowed to withhold any information you have gained that might help the others! Them dying too is the best chance you have, so why should you have to sabotage that chance? However, it is still not allowed to lie.
This is not a strict rule, but still something I think is very important: Describe your adventures as closely as possible. The Weakest Link is a spectator sport; the people who read the threads want to know what challenges you had to go through, and providing them with an interesting read makes for about 99% of the fun to be had in the Weakest Link! Even if you died it's good sport to make cryptic hints as to why you died and still create an entertaining tall story of what you had to go through. If you died horribly after twenty turns, at least include some chosen curse words!
There is a time limit. From the moment it's your turn you have 72 hours to play and post the report. If you don't play until then, you will be pushed down the list if it's the first round, or taken out of the competition. Some players have busy lives, and that's acceptable, but pay attention to your league threads. If you are too busy to play within 72 hours, please post something to that effect. If you're friendly about it and post exactly when you will be able to play and that is not all that far away, you'll probably be given more time. If you'll be gone for a week and fear your turn might come up state that also. We want to include as many people as possible in the competition and will be patient. Just don't try our goodwill
Cheating, this most wretched and dishonorable offense, is of course forbidden. However, it's impossible for me to control what you're doing with the savegame. This challenge depends on the honesty of the players! So, don't save scum if you died, and don't make final log files, for instance by quitting, except if you really died! Final log files may contain information that would give you or others an unfair advantage. You can make short or verbose logfiles instead, since they do not contain such information.
Unless I'm presented with hard evidence, I will always make the assumption that there was no unfair conduct in relation to the savegame. The only authority you have to answer to if you're not found out is God and your own nagging conscience.
Death
Players die if they
- Have their character die before the 2000 game turns are over
- Have 2000 game turns pass without advancing by at least one ID level
Dead players are the weakest link - goodbye! They are out of the competition, unless they become reanimated.
The next player in line continues with the last "alive" savegame.
The Abyss
What if a player ends his or her 2000th turn in the middle of a horde of large spiders, with 3 HP left and poisoned many times over? Would it be fair to have all the other players die and him or her triumph by default? Who is the weakest link in this case - those who die to an impossible situation, or the one who created it?
Should it happen that players die in waves after one has finished his or her turn, he or she is suspected of having created an unsurvivable situation. There is only one chance to redeem oneself - Survival! Should this player surpass the challenge unwittingly or wittingly set by him or herself, he or she automatically becomes winner of the league by elimination. Should the character die or fail to descend one level, however, the offending player is cast to the Abyss; he or she's the weakest link - goodbye!
The Abyss rule is in force until the two league winners are decided. Once only those two players are left, the first one who dies dies and that is it.
Reanimation
If a player is cast to the Abyss, all the players that died to the unsurvivable situation he or she created will be reanimated. They will continue the descent through the ID from the last "alive" save prior to the one that contained the unsurvivable situation. Despite their now undead nature, they are "alive" players for any purpose of the term, and can die and be reanimated later as usual, with no difference in scoring.
There is, however, one tiny chance to reenter the competition for anyone, even those that have died early and have no chance of being reanimated in the way above: If an unsurvivable situation has led to a player being cast into the Abyss and the other participants reanimated, there will be a Trial: All the dead players of any league may try to succeed where the others failed and survive the unsurvivable. The first player who manages to complete the Trial will be reanimated and allowed to take the place of the one cast to the Abyss!
But beware: Only one player can be reanimated through the Trial. Though there is no set time limit, the Trial is open only for as long as the two league winners haven't been decided. Once two players are left in the league fulfilling the Trial will only remain a contest of honor.
Players that have been cast to the Abyss may compete for Trials unrelated to their being cast into the Abyss, but not the one they caused - there are no do-overs, they had their chance. The same is true for the players who already participated in the creation of the Trial through their own deaths.
And obviously, the Trial is not a Trial for the Living - only dead players can make their reappearances! This is no way to play in two leagues at once!