Gymnastics Competition

[Tek Croon]

Since I dropped the idea of a gymnastics competition IC and some of the other players picked up on it, I thought I'd start a thread with some ideas about how to pull that off.

Mostly it would be a physical competition so I would expect either no wings, or special events just for pegasus ponies. And no magic unless there are special events for unicorns.

Events:
Floor Routine (Tumbling)
Rings
Parallel Bars
Balance Beam
Uneven Bars
Vault

[Dragonshy]

This sounds like fun, I'd love it if we did this IC and would definitely use Kyubi for it! ^^

[Tek Croon]

I've heard many arguments both ways on whether to use the dice or not for events like this so I'll leave that decision to a consensus of the ponies wishing to participate. Please indicate at the end of your replies whether you support the dice system or not.

In support of the dice here is how I imagine it working:

We each have ability scores for things like say: Quickness. We roll a d6 and add that to our quickness to get our one time effort. The d6 represents the randomness inherent in life.

I've always been a firm believer that personal effort and practice can eliminate most of the random factors and allow one to have a consistent performance. Therefore, if the ponies who are registered for the competition can show me the logs where they take time out of their busy day to practice and really hit the irons or tracks or mat, then I will reward them by creating a 'low end cap' on their die roll to reflect that effort. How this works is if you practiced once, I give you a low-end cap of 2. Normally you could roll a d6 and get a 1 but with a cap of 2, if you roll a 1, I give you a 2 anyway. If you practice a lot, you could get up to a low end cap of 5 meaning you roll a 6 on a 6 and you get a 5 for any other roll. This shows you've taken time and disciplined yourself to get really good at something. Why not low-end cap all the way to 6? Well, mostly because the other reason for the dice is to settle ties.

So, how this would apply to the gymnastics competition: if you posted a roleplay practicing the parallel bars, I would give you a low end cap modifier for your parallel bars rolls. Each event is different so each one requires practice on its own.

Next consideration: just like in real life, there is only so much time, so the athletes have to focus on one or two events. How I'll do this is that every day you can only gain one low end cap modifier point in one of the events. It doesn't matter what time of day you practice at or which room you do it in as long as you pub me the link to the logs.

Obviously my main goal with this is to have ponies around Ponyville roleplaying getting ready and the other ponies reacting to their preparations either making fun of them or encouraging them etc however, there will be those who are unable to log into the chat every day. My thoughts for these is that we can start a forum thread where they can post what their character is doing to prepare for the tourney. I would like to see player effort match player effort so just posting 'I'm practicing parallel bars on Tue.' is not gonna cut it in such a thread. I wanna see 300+ word count describing the setting, background pony antics, time of day, 5 senses, etc. of the practice routine.

Everypony with me so far?

[Tek Croon]

If we decided to run with that system, I'd announce a 2 week window for preparation for the competition. Two weeks = 14 days and there are 6 events (currently but I'll take suggestions for more) and it takes 4 roleplays to get up to a +5 low end cap so conceivably, you could max out 3 of the events. Or you could spread your efforts around to get a few points in all the listed events.

I'm thinking we will have a Gold/Silver/Bronze for each event and one tournament champion prize determined by summing the other trophies won (Gold = 3, Silver = 2, Bronze = 1), the winner is the one with the highest point total. Ties go to the pony with more practice low-end-cap points (unless there are objections).

[Tek Croon]

IC:

An announcement has gone out among the ponies of every city in Equestria! The bi-annual inter-city Gymnastics Competition has been finalized! At stake is pride and reputation among your peers for putting in your hard work, blood, sweat, and tears, into preparing to compete in a tournament of physical skill! There will be two age categories: Adults and Young Adults which will compete separately. Talent scouts from the Equestrian Olympics will be present as well as college recruiters! Don't miss this opportunity to be recognized as the best Equestria has to offer! Sign up today!

[Dragonshy]

Just checking to make sure, that IC thing is supposed to actually be IC? Also I have no problem with the dice roll system and that thing about giving ponies a bonus for practicing is neat too.

[Tek Croon]

Once we get the details finalized, I'll take the IC bit and make IC blog post with it, but if you want to spread the word IC already, feel free. I wrote IC that there are posters up about it.

[Tek Croon]

More thoughts.

Gymnastics have qualification rounds. We could model this by saying that your applicable skill + your low end cap must break a certain threshhold to even compete.

I need to map out which skills apply to which events...

[Dragonshy]

Rings, Parallel Bars, and uneven Bars all sound like they would require Gumption to me. Vaulting most likely Quickness. Floor Routine (tumbling) I think would be Excitement or Caring, and Balance Beam would take Smartness I think. These are just suggestions though.

[Obsidian]

Count Seabreeze in as a casual competitor. And I like the idea of different stats for different events.

I support dice with low-end caps

[Tek Croon]

I'm thinking this system will work better with only 6 events if I change it from a d6 to a d8

[Obsidian]

A few questions

1) Has a date been set? I can't find it here or on the front page.
2) Are minimum caps in?
3) Are different events going to be using different stats?

[Tek Croon]

A few questions

1) Has a date been set? I can't find it here or on the front page.
2) Are minimum caps in?
3) Are different events going to be using different stats?

1) No. I was waiting to see if there was enough interest. Currently 4 players have showed interest: Me, Dragonshy, Sonic Blitz, and Obsidian.
2) What?
3) Yes.

[Obsidian]

A few questions

1) Has a date been set? I can't find it here or on the front page.
2) Are minimum caps in?
3) Are different events going to be using different stats?

1) No. I was waiting to see if there was enough interest. Currently 4 players have showed interest: Me, Dragonshy, Sonic Blitz, and Obsidian.
2) What?
3) Yes.

1) how many do you want?
2) that thing above about practice allowing your rolls to have a limit to how low they can count as
3) which stats for which events?

[Tek Croon]

1) I suppose 4 is more than enough to justify running it but the more the merrier.
2) Yes. I'm thinking we will use a d8 and have a maximum low-end cap of 6. This way there is always some variability.
3)
Floor: Gumption, Excitement
Rings: Gumption, Excitement
Parallel Bars: Gumption, Smartness
Uneven Bars: Gumption, Smartness
Balance Beam: Gumption, Caring
Vault Gumption, Quickness.

Floor Routine Example: Roll a d8, modify the result by the low-end cap, add Gumption and Excitement. And this is your score.
Dew Mist rolls a 4 for the Floor Routine. She's practiced three times to get a low end cap of 4. So she gets a 4. Add 2 G, and 3, Exc = 7.

If we are in accord with how this works, then I'll go ahead and announce the practice window on the IC Blog.

[Dragonshy]

Sounds fun to me, and with gumption going into everything this is going to give those with high gumption an advantage. And if those are the official rules I'll have to use those in practice from now on.

[Tek Croon]

Gumption is the stat that governs physical stuff. I couldn't ignore it.

[Obsidian]

makes sense to me, I like em

[Tek Croon]

I announced the IC Blog. The practice window starts today!

http://fillydelphia.com/phpbbforum/view ... f=12&t=626

[Tek Croon]

There are concerns that characters with high gumption are going to dominate this event. My initial response is 'well, of course!' However in interest of fairness and keeping it from being completely one-sided, if there are any ideas for how to offset this, please post them here. Otherwise, my suggestion is to simply play to your strengths and focus on what your character is better at than the other competitors.

[Tek Croon]

I've received a suggestion to allow unicorns or pegasus ponies to use their magic / wings in the gymnastics event as long as they only do it to add visual elements to their routines, nothing that will increase their chances of winning, only to show off a bit. The example I'll set would be if Tek Croon were competing he may wish to use his magic to add music and sound fx to his routine. It wouldn't help him do the gymnastics at all but he would use his magic. Would the rest of you be comfortable allowing this kind of thing in the competition?

Maybe we could have a separate prize for the pony with the most unique visual elements added to their routine?

[Obsidian]

I think quickness could replace gumption in the uneven bars and maybe even the floor routine. gumption to me seems more like toughness and overall strength, which I'm not sure would help in those as much as the speed and agility that quickness represents.

As for using magic or wings; while I know us here at Filly would be above such nonsense, I think it would be seen as too easy IC to cheat a bit using them. Props for added visual flair though, that could work.

[LizardX]

Maybe just half of gumption?

[Dragonshy]

I have no real problem with the use of magic or wings, but I can't think of a way wings could be used without it seeming like it would be cheating other then maybe the floor routine.

[LizardX]

Hm...I know. Half of stats. That means, dice is more important, which leads to practicing being more important.