User blog:Njalm2/The Blackjack Tournament

Greetings! I returned to this wiki only recently, and due to how little I have to do these days, and also due to me being in the mood to attempt to arrange an event for the wiki. I'm happy to announce the upcoming Blackjack Tournament. Which is, as the name suggests, a tournament, but with a rather different twist. Rather than being a haven of genocide and a place to test your characters powers on their own, the tournament, henceforth shortened simply to it's codename "Blackjack", takes place within the deepest underbelly of Soul Society. As several very powerful crime lords, among which is my own Shigenaga Arma have pooled their resources together in order to create this large event. Their motives? To gather recruits for their various organizations, form partnerships with other powerful individuals such as members of high-ranking nobility, officers of the Gotei 13 and wealthy patrons. They're also concerned with dividing the Rukongai by territory, make illicit trades among themselves and sizing up the possible new additions to their rivals cartels, possibly to determine whether or not their threat is great enough that an unfortunate "accident" might be called for.

As I hope you've gathered from the first paragraph. This is not a tournament where everything is legal, or everything is honest and kind. There will be foul plays, sabotage, assassination attempts and countless other issues for everyone involved. Participants will find that in most matches, though not necessarily every single one, there will be something within the system that works against them. Whether this be a only recently discovered clause that mysteriously affects one side to a much greater degree than the other, or which even works undisputedly to one sides explicit advantage. Curses wrought by some of the crime lords powerful associates, or in regards to Shigenaga, by the very crime lord himself. Someone might've "forgotten" to remove dangerous traps or mechanisms from the arena itself, and there might be many more complications.

Now, with the introductions out of the way, let's see if we can't bring the focus to the main event. The Tournament itself.

The Tournament
The Tournament will be split into several factions. These factions each represent a single crime lord, who each may have up to three separate teams. Although I use the word team, it's perfectly possible to enter the tournament as a single individual, although the rules of the tournament still states that you need to represent a particular crime lord. As this is after all THEIR project. Each particular Crime Lord bestows a bonus to their teams based upon who the crime lord in particular is, they might also increase your chances of winning by using their resources to sabotage your opponents.

For example. Shigenaga, being an accomplished spellcaster and in charge of a large company specializing in the manufacturing of Kidō-enhanced apparels, would likely bestow upon his teams a few magical trinkets to improve their chances. While debilitating your opposition with curses. Another crime lord might give extremely accurate intelligence (enough to legalize meta-gaming for your team only), while giving your opponents false information (making them more prone to make poor judgements). There would be more naturally. But that depends on you guys.

While it's possible for me to work out a few NPC crime lords, I think it would be much more interesting if we populated their ranks with characters from the fanon, and had their roleplayers roleplay as them in the tournament. The role players would then decide on the boons of their character in accordance to their character concepts. Come to think of it, there's several different roles we should try to fill beyond the crime lords. The first being the referee.

The referees job is however more of a formality, and they function more like a commentator to the audience, and the one who summons the fighters to the ring at the start of each match. As a commentator the referee is expected to comment on something once in a while in every major match. Furthermore, the referee can also award points to one side based your own impression These points can have a game-turning effect when the time comes to select the winner. Although nothing is certain. The referee can award up to eight points in total per match. Though it's encouraged to be stingy with them.

Secondly, there's the commentators. The roles of the commentators are similar to the referee, as they comment every once in a while in order to make the match feel more alive. They can also give points at their own discretion, although they can only do so very sparingly. Limited to a three point total in every match. Points as a general rule can be awarded for most activities, provided it's within the personality of the character to do so, with the typical point rewards being given for outstandingly well-written posts: whether they be attacks or defenses. As for the personality part, a particularly eccentric referee could decide to give bonus points for practically anything and nothing. A point might be awarded for having long hair, wearing a particularly revealing outfit in the case for more perverted referees, to even coming to the tournament with matching socks!

To enter the tournament, it's enough for your character to present themselves to the board. Assuming they are acquainted enough with the underworld of Soul Society to find it. Certain individuals which a crime lord might be especially interested in will be given their own invitations, allowing them to easily sign up to the tournament. However, in order to sign up, you must affiliate yourself with one of the crime lords. Whether you've met the crime lord in question is irrelevant, they're not likely to ask questions.

If you want to participate in this tournament, whether as Referee, Commentator, Crime Lord or Fighter. Please leave a comment. Also. I want everyone who has a possible crime lord character to refer to them below. Pretty much every single character is accepted. Although I don't want any powerhouses, the tournament is for characters ranging from upper Lieutenant-level to low-level Captains. This makes it more interesting as a whole, I find.

Do you have any suggestions? Something to note? A few flames coming my way for being an condescending prick? Share them in the comments, I probably won't do this unless there's a significant following for such a project. I don't like wasting my time, after all!