Storytelling Rules

Welcome to Alsatia's Storytelling Competition Rules. The following rules will be in effect at all Alsatia' Storytelling Competition events. These rules may change from time to time, and will be noted here if they are changed.

OOC rules:

1) Be cool. This is supposed to be a fun-for-all event. There may be children present. Excessive jerkiness or foul language will result in your expulsion.
2) You are in the middle of a gypsy camp. There are hundreds of gypsies present. Any violence will be quickly and ruthlessly crushed by NPCs.

IC Rules:

In brief: This is a storytelling competition. Each contestant gets to tell one story, that must fit in with the current Competition's Theme. People then vote on that story, rating it from 1 to 10 (1 being worst). Then it is the next person's turn, and so on and so forth until everyone who registered has had a turn. Then the votes are tallied, and the winner is given their prize (if any).

Registration: Anyone wishing to participate AS A STORYTELLER in the competition must register ahead of time. This is mostly done so we have a vague idea how long the event will go on. However, it is required.

Theme and Required Elements: Each Competition will have a Theme and between one and a dozen Required Elements. A theme can be such things as 'horror' or 'comedy' or 'romantic' or 'tale of bravery'. Required Elements can be just about anything the organizers can think of: 'a dog' or 'someone dies' or 'a cliche.' A story MUST have all of the Required Elements, or it will be disqualified. Theme and Required Elements will be announced ahead of time, to give people a chance to work on their stories. The only exception to this is Improvisational Stories. If the Theme is Improv, you will be told how MANY Required Elements there will be, but not what they are until the day of the competition. To be fair to earlier Tellers, each Teller's Required Elements during an Improv story will be different. Ie: Fred and Joe and Sally are all in the competition, in that order. Joe and Sally will not have the same Required Elements that Fred had, and Sally will not have the same ones as either Joe or Fred.

Telling your Story: Once the Competition begins, the MC (usually Alsatia) will give you a one minute warning, and then say 'go'. From that Go, you have ten minutes to 'tell' your story, AND for people to read it and vote on it. Ten minutes after the Go there will be a Stop and at this point you must stop telling your story, and no more votes will be tabulated. There will often be a 'one minute warning' at the nine minute mark, just to prompt people who have not voted yet to do so. Because of this ten minute rule, it is a good idea to have your story written ahead of time, so you can just copy/paste chunks of it when it is your turn.

Originality: We are looking for original stories here, not ones you found off the internet or lifted from your favorite book. That being said, we cannot prevent you from doing said lifting or finding. However, you may be marked down by voters and /or mocked for doing so.

Length: Your story can be as long or as short as you want. Remember however that it must fit the Theme, and include any Required Elements in it. If your story is too long people may not get a chance to finish reading it, which may cost you votes. At the same time, one liners seldom get voted very well.

Formatting: We recommend it. You can use as much or as little formatting as you want, but the easier it is for your audience to read your story, the more likely they are to give it a decent vote. Wall-O'-Text stories don't tend to do well.

Voting: Each person present (competitors or merely audience) may vote for each story, rating it from 1 (terrible) to 10 (Shakespear could't have done better), with two exceptions. The first is that the MC will not vote, and the second is that the storyteller him or herself may not vote for his or her own story. Yeah yeah, you gave yourself a 10. Take it as given. Voting is done by paging the MC with your vote during a Storyteller's 10 minute window. Any votes that come after the Stop has been called will be ignored.

Vote Stacking: This is a for-fun event, but people can get competitive. That being said, vote honestly. Don't bring everyone from your Ship or House or Org to sit in the audience and have them all vote 10 for you and 1 for everyone else. If the MC thinks this is happening, the MC has the right to ignore votes from offending parties.

Have fun: that is the point, right?