Syntax McBucketface/My Judging Style
I have two ultimate goals with my events: Try and give everyone a reason to be there and reply with as many "yes, and's" as I can manage. If people have an idea, my goal is to try and find a way to make it work and at least have some kind of result. Clever ideas are rewarded as is taking advantage of your character's unique quirks. I don't dread people breaking challenges I put before them because they bring something unique to the table, I relish in it.
But this can be challenging to do when you have both newer and older players playing side by side. Leveling up skills can take time and there are some vet players that literally cannot roll lower than a 6 on literally any skill. Rather than punish people for being long term players, I've tried to strike a balance. On the one hand, I do limit the number of skills you can have trained to 40. On the other, I actively reward people for purposefully nerfing themselves. Below you'll find my full list of rules. Some things are standard for judges, some are unique to me.
1. Reverse WS rules all. Room changes or players dipping in and out, whatever happens, the order will be reverse WS.
2. You are limited to 6 skills that can be rolled above rank 30 before bonuses. You will be expected to keep track of the six, but if I suspect a violation I will ask for your list and monitor your rolls myself. Bonuses from any source besides skill training can be factored in. For example, if willpower was trained to 40 and you also had bonuses that brought its total to 48, you would use ( roll willpower - 10 ) despite the end result being above 30 (due to passive bonuses).
3. Well written posts will be rewarded! Well composed and/or creative posts with solid backing may have their difficulty reduced! If you can make a convincing case that an action would be trivial for your character, I might be willing to forgo a roll entirely.
4. Players with the [NEW] tag will have the option of rolling a D20 with a bonus of +1 to +4 depending on what they believe their character should be capable of. This can be extended to players who have not invested much into their skills on a case by case basis.
5. You will be given a single WUMBO dice for every stat you willingly reduce to 20 from 30 and/or two WUMBO dice if you both have and disable Jack of All Trades. Wumbo dice will allow you to reroll with advantage (or disadvantage if you really want to fail) or to roll a d20 to reduce the severity of a failure. Please note that you must prove that skill's trained level so I can make note of it BEFORE the event starts in order to take advantage of this. These can be used alongside hero points!
6. Have all of the equipment you plan on using during the event when it starts and be prepared to prove it is on your person if asked.
7. If you have to go before we finish, please let me know what your character will be doing in the "background". I'll be sure to factor that into future rolls in that event so your initial attendance means something.
My ultimate goal is to get people to consider what their characters REALLY excel in and to lean into it as well as give newer players a chance to shine. So far, the rules have worked out pretty well!
Also, yes, WUMBO is a Spongebob reference. I have no idea why I settled on that. The word just spoke to me.
