The Very Extensive Hunger Games Mechanics Guide

THE VERY EXTENSIVE GAMES MECHANICS GUIDE:

THE HUNGER GAMES (DUN DUN DUN)

(EVERYONE STAY CALM)

- THE BLOODBATH
The Bloodbath is the official beginning of the Hunger Games. Just like the book and movie canon, all 24 tributes will partake in a mandatory Bloodbath collecting items, laying out damage, and attempting to flee before hitting 40 HP Damage.

- Pre-Bloodbath
* Bloodbath item lists will be posted the day before the BB commences, as will the Bloodbath rules.
* If you are unavailable to attend the Bloodbath, you are responsible for finding your own tribsitter and posting in the Tribsitting thread located in Hunger Games Info to alert the GMs. Tribsitter info will be detailed in the first post.
* What's Tribsitting, you ask? Look no further: hungergamesrpg.com/thread/51095/souths-guide-tribsitting

- Alliances
* Games alliances will take into effect immediately after the Bloodbath begins. You must update your alliance information in the Alliances thread prior to the Bloodbath commencing to have your alliance effective for Day 1. It is recommended you do this, as alliance members can often be the reason you live or die in the Bloodbath.
* All changes to alliances come into effect the following Games Day.
* There is a maximum of 4 tributes per alliance allowed at once.
* NO TRUCING YOU SCOUNDRELS! As the great 10Stare says "and just saying from personal experience trucing is a TERRIBLE idea".

- THE BLOODBATH IS STARTING OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD
* Your first post in the Bloodbath MUST be an introduction post, with an ooc note stating your tribute has entered the Bloodbath. (This makes it much easier for GMs to keep track of things!)
* Your first attack post (the one after your intro post) must be unarmed. You can then pick up your weapon item and begin to use it there. Alternatively, you may pick up your weapon but continue to use unarmed attacks. For a cute list of weapon stats, see this handy Kire spreadsheet.
* Posts must be an ABSOLUTE MINIMUM of 5 SENTENCES.
* You must wait AT LEAST 10 MINUTES between each post you make in the bloodbath, INCLUDING INTRO AND FLEE POSTS.
* Upon creating a new attack/flee post, you must quote your last post for a timestamp and put your tributes name, what attack it was (eg. Intro or Attack or Flee) and the damage you rolled. 
* ANY ATTEMPTS AT ALTERING QUOTE TIMESTAMPS WILL RECEIVE SEVERE PUNISHMENT AND A POSSIBLE BAN FROM FUTURE GAMES.
* You must wait until 4 people have posted between your intro/attacks/flees to post again.
* If you are in an alliance of 4 tributes, you must wait until at least one person outside of your alliance has posted (For example: YOU, ALLY #1, ALLY #2, ALLY #3, NON-ALLY, YOU AGAIN).
* One person cannot be attacked more than 6 times in a 'round'.
* Please note: The GMs may lock the Bloodbath thread at any time in order to keep track of damage and solve potential rulebreak queries. They will more than likely announce this on the Slack channel for your Games and will post stating ‘locked’, and ‘opened’ once the thread is unlocked and free to continue. Please be patient and follow all instructions if this happens.
* For every attack post, you may pick up an item IN ORDER OF THE BLOODBATH ITEM GUIDE. You do not need to collect all the items - you can enter and exit the bloodbath with nothing if you wish.
* If you kill a tribute (meaning your attack roll caused their damage HP to hit 40 or higher), you are allowed to take their weapon and items they have collected. You are also allowed to take the items they may have taken from a previous BB kill.
* If you break or sever a leg/foot, you must post THREE flee posts to successfully flee, or have an alliance member flee whilst aiding you (this must be stated in their flee post as well as yours).
* Upon fleeing the BB, you must post outside of the BB at least once (fighting or not) before the next Games day (Day 2). Not doing so will incur terrible damage for your tribute - and a high risk of death by inactivity. (see: Jamie Lyon 64th, got his foot bitten off by a crazy panther mutt. Yikes.)
* The last alliance remaining at the Cornucopia upon the remaining tributes fleeing or dying, will receive the Wealth - providing at least one member of that alliance was one of the first 15 tributes to enter the bloodbath with an intro post.
* The wealth will be made up of the remaining uncollected Bloodbath items left by tributes, and more often than not will trigger a Wealth RE which the alliance can then choose to act upon or not depending on the RE's circumstances. This Wealth RE will be at the discretion of the GameMakers.

- Trib Maint
Tribute Maintenance is basically a log you update at least once a day for the Gamemakers to keep track of your tribute, their health, their items, and their actions.
* Every time you eat, drink, perform first aid (on yourself or others), use items, give an item to a tribute, receive an item from a tribute, get sponsored, drop an item, or anything else relevant, create a new post with your information. Par example here.
* It's a good idea to update this after every thread you partake in.
- Inventories
* Your inventory keeps track of the items your tribute is carrying.
* If you have a bag/satchel/other sort of bag, you may use up to 15 slots in your inventory (with 15 being a full inventory). If you don't have a bag, you get 5 slots.
* Inventories will be available on the Ripred Engine.

- Moving On the Map
* You can move from the location you are at the end of a Games Day to a different neighbouring area - unless you have Endurance as a station, in which you can move to a different location in the middle of a games day.
* You can opt to remain at the same location for the next day, however you will not be able to flee the mandated fight you are placed in.
* If you choose this option you will receive x2 overnight healing. (Meaning that your damage will be halved overnight, and then halved again. Say for example, after my tribute maintenance, my tribute was at 20HP. Overnight, it became 10HP. Because I stayed in the same location, 10 is halved to 5HP.)
* Locations must be PMed to the GMs prior to the next day’s Anthem being posted.
* If an alliance or tribute does not contact the GMs, the GMs will choose their location for them.

- Random Events
* RE’s are interactive triggered events written by GMs prior to the Games beginning. They will more often than not be based around the arena, its landscape, the IC tastes of the GMs, and mutts. If you trigger these, you will be tagged in them.
* Some RE’s are opt-in, meaning you can choose to roll a dice or not, and some you have to participate in. They bring things like damage, items, poison, triggered events, etc. to a tribute and make the games more interactive and exciting.

- Healing
* Upon the beginning of the next Games 'day' - your tribute's current damage will be halved. If you chose to stay in the same area for the next Day - your damage will be halved again. (See above: “Moving On the Map”)

- Fights
* Fights are the core part of the Hunger Games and are more often than not the main way tributes gain damage and, ultimately, die.
* Fights can be mandated (which means you HAVE to fight until one or more tributes die - unless specified by the GMs) in anthems, or you can choose to attack in a non-mandated thread. This is extremely common on Day 1, or post-bloodbath.
* In regards to who starts the mandated fights, first come first serve (except in the case of the BB, Feasts or Finales, in which the first outlining post will be made by a GM.)
* Mandated Fight Threads will be organised by the GMs based on location and the time of the Games. These will be posted in the Anthem detailing when, where and who is involved. These may be Tributes vs Tributes, Alliances vs. Alliance, Tributes vs. Mutts, or a combination of all three (tribs, alliances and mutts).
* In mandated threads, just like the BB, you make an intro post. However, in these intro posts, you CAN attack someone listed in the mandate. Once everyone has posted at least once, this is the set order for the fight until everyone leaves, regardless of a tribute or mutt death.
* Non-mandates: these aren’t compulsory, but always fun to watch. Go crazy!
* Once a tribute reaches a damage level of 40 HP (or a mutt reaches their HP level as listed in the Official Muttations thread) and is declared dead by the GMs, the living tributes can choose to stay on and continue fighting, or flee. Remember to stick to posting order when fleeing.
* Once your tribute hits 40 HP, they are considered dead and you will not be allowed to continue to roleplay with them outside of the arena. You are more than welcome to write a death post or thread, and to go back in and re-fill fillers or WIP posts within the games after your tribute has died.
* If you would still like to continue to write your character, the AU Board is popular for writing past tributes in the beyond, or in different scenarios and situations had they not been in the Games.
* The killer of the tribute may raid their victim's body for any items that they desire. You may skin and take meat from a dead mutt if they are listed as edible in the Official Muttation threads.
* If taking items from a dead tribute, please note this in a flee post and in trib maint.

- Fillers
* A post with little to no writing and/or with no intention of writing a post, and only a dice roll, is considered a Filler posts.
* Fillers are strictly prohibited in the Bloodbath and Feasts. Doing so will grant you an extra 8 damage per filler post, and your attack/item collection/flee will NOT count.
* In regular fights, you are allowed up to three fillers. If you have 3 fillers - and then decide to fill one post in, your filler count will drop back down to 2 again.
* The limit is to encourage people to actually WRITE, because, y'know, we are a writing site.

- Turn Delay
* /shrug
* Honestly, only Aya and Kire really know.
* However, we do have THIS handy tutorial - although slightly outdated - video giving you a basic understanding of how TD works.

- FEASTS
Feasts are, in simple terms, a smaller version of the bloodbath. However, unlike the BB, you do not need an intro post (you can attack in your first post) and you can't flee until a certain number of tributes have died (which will be noted in the first post and/or anthem by GMs).
* A small 'wealth' will be provided containing mystery items. You do not have to collect these. Details on how to be eligible for these will be explained by the GMs in the first post.
* Please adhere to all Feast rules, which will be stated in the opening GM post.

- Final 8
* Once the 'Top Eight' tributes that remain alive are established, all alliances will disband effective immediately the following Games Day.
* Mandated Anthem fights from here-on out will more often than not be 1 vs 1 - and may be comprised of two former alliance members.

- Finales
Finales are pretty self-explanatory: they are the last mandated fight of the Hunger Games. The final 2 (or, in some cases, final 3 or 4) tributes left alive in the arena will fight in the Finale.
* Stations and Exemptions are counted in this thread. These, along with starting damages, will be declared in the Anthem and also in the opening post by a GM.
* As per the 65th Games: a Victor member (who has had less than 15 games between their winning and the current games) may not proceed to a finale with their tribute. It is their responsibility to make sure their tribute dies before the final day of the Games.
* The last remaining tribute left alive wins.

- Winning
* You WIN! HELL YEAH!!
* You get $25,000 site cash credited to your account. (Prize money may be altered due to site inflation/deflation at the discretion of the Staff.)
* You cannot participate in the following Hunger Games, but are welcome to enter any Games after your one game break upon victory.
* If you choose to participate, and 15 IC Games have not passed since your winning (or, roughly 5 ooc years), your tribute must die before the finale commences.
* If there have been 15 or more IC Games (not including our “.5” Ratmas Games) that have passed between your victor winning, you may enter the Games as a contender for Victor.

-  Victory Tours
* Victory Tours, much like the canon books and films, give your newly-appointed Victor the opportunity to travel the 12 Districts with their mentors.
* Victory Tours are not compulsory. However they are great ways to celebrate your victory, invite members to thread with their characters across the site, offer up fantastic development opportunities, and allow your character to reflect on the Games they have just conquered.
* You can thread with characters and fellow victors within the Districts on your tour. If applicable, your mentor(s) join you. For organisations sake, it is recommended you make a thread in Character Plots to invite members and their characters to thread, plan out ideas, show interest, and to help you keep track of all the threads you have!

Hopefully this guide has shed some light on how the Hunger Games (and their mechanics) work on this site. As a new member it is understandably a lot to take in all at once. Whether an old member or new, have just been reaped for the first time or the tenth, know a little or a lot, please know that our community here at HGRPG are experienced, friendly, welcoming and always willing to help out. Please do not be shy to ask a question on the CBox, talk to us on our Slack Channel's games-chat thread or PM a member of staff, a former/present Game Maker, Veteran Member, or another member whom you feel comfortable talking with. (We also offer an OOC mentoring system each Games where members who have tributes are paired with experienced non-tribute members of the site to help guide tribute writers.) Good luck, have fun, and may the odds be ever in your favour!