General Information [5th Games]

In the beginning there were no elaborate arenas, no Gamemakers, no mentors, no careers, no training sessions, no pomp and circumstance. No precedent. All of that developed piece by piece, over time and countless mistakes. The goal of this event is to backfill our canon — to create reference points for the present day.

Instead of focusing on the hope that our tribute might be the one to survive, the goal is to focus on the diversity of the stories that have already come and gone: the career dynasties of yesteryear that have been usurped by a surge of lower district victories; tributes who figured out how to cheat the system and cause the kind of mayhem that led to high tech solutions; the kids who thought that refusing to kill each other might mean that no one died — until mutts were introduced to prove otherwise; the very first person to ask if they could volunteer in someone else's place...

This is an incredible opportunity to write characters you might not normally write. To write someone who doesn't fight back or who is merciless without redemption; to take risks in your writing and commit to an idea, rather than bending a character to match their dice; to see how much you can do with so little time; to write selfish characters who aren't fighting for allies or last chance arena romances because everything is sudden and brutal and new and unknown. There are no rules to break because they have not yet been made.

THE REAPING

These Games will run on a condensed timeline. The reaping will take place on Tuesday, May 4th to match members with a district position. Please see the Reaping Sign-Up thread in order to take part.

This year, the children in each district will be assembled in front of the steps of the Justice Building, where a public reaping will take place. The Treaty of Treason is read aloud. The names of the tributes are read off of paper slips drawn from glass bowls, the short ceremony performed by the district's Head Peacekeeper. Victors will be in attendance.

Tributes are not allowed to interact before the bloodbath begins and will be kept separate until the Games, including on the train to the Capitol. Tributes will be directly escorted to the train from the Reaping.

TRIBUTES

Each member will write a bio for their tribute — it may be a concise bio, but more in-depth bios are absolutely welcome. As per a standard Games, there will be one male and one female tribute per district, ages 12-18. All bios will be accepted by the GM and should be completed/accepted by 12:00pm EST on Friday, May 14th.

No combat stations will be granted these games. However, 4F and 4M will be given a slight advantage on starting damage, due to the arena's theme. Please see Starting Health Rolls for more information.

One relative (sibling or cousin) of a Victor from a previous Games will be allowed, as punishment for the events of the 4th Games. The writer for this tribute will be randomly selected via Reaping. That writer will be allowed to select the character they would like to write from a list of canon options volunteered by the Victors.

Content warning. One or more tributes may be allowed to commit suicide via feeding themselves to the sharks and/or drowning. This is not a required plot, just an opportunity for something that has been a popular plot request in previous Retro Games. If there is no interest then this will not occur. Accidental drowning is also allowed on a purely voluntary basis.

No career tributes will be allowed.

No tributes may volunteer to take the place of another.

Since this is an old games, all of these tributes are dead in present day, including the victor. As such, face claims may be used for posts, but not claimed on the official site face claim list (as it would be confusing for the staff). Any FCs used should be unclaimed or used with permission. FCs are not required.

Descendants of a tribute's family may be made in present day with permission from the original tribute's writer.

It is highly recommended to have general character ideas approved by the GM before writing a bio. This is to prevent bios from being rejected due to similarity with other character ideas that may have already been approved and/or significant overlap with characters or plots of recent retro games. Some ideas may also not be allowed yet due to wanting to spread landmark events out between a variety of retro games. For example, some things that will not be allowed these games are (but are not limited to): careers, volunteers, romance plots between tributes, pregnancy, alliances, and tokens.

THE BLOODBATH

Non-combat posting for the bloodbath will open on Saturday, May 15th at 12:00pm EST and initiative will not yet apply. Combat posting and turn order for the bloodbath will begin on Sunday, May 16th at 12:00pm EST and will end when only one tribute remains. Combat for the 5th Annual Hunger Games will take the form of a bracketed bloodbath. The brackets will be as follows:

Round One
Upper District tributes: 1F v. 1M v. 2F v. 2M v. 3F v. 3M
Upper Middle District tributes: 4F v. 4M v. 5F v. 5M v. 6F v. 6M
Lower Middle District tributes: 7F v. 7M v. 8F v. 8M v. 9F v. 9M
Lower District tributes: 10F v. 10M v. 11F v. 11M v. 12F v. 12M

Round Two
the last Upper District tribute v. the last Upper Middle District tribute
the last Lower Middle District tribute v. The last Lower District tribute

Round Three: Finale
the last Upper or Upper Middle District tribute v. the last Lower Middle or Lower District tribute

Turn order will be in effect for the entirety of combat. Tributes will roll new initiative for each round of combat.

A tribute may only be attacked twice per round. (An exception to this rule will occur if randomized dice are in use.)

Tributes are required to vary their attacks and may not attack the same target two rounds in a row. (An exception to this rule will occur if randomized dice are in use or if the fight is a 1v1.)

Attacking in the bloodbath is not required if it is not in character for your tribute. However, starting May 16th at 12:00pm EST any non-attack post will result in that tribute taking damage via mutts. The tribute will roll the mutt dice in their post. Mutt attacks will not count toward the two attacks per round limit on a tribute. See Mutt Dice for more info.

Writers may request additional mutt attacks against their tribute only in Round One of combat. Similarly, unarmed attacks are not allowed in Rounds Two or Three. Do not proceed to Round Two if you are not interested in being Victor. Plan ahead for your deaths — six way fights will go quickly.

Each tribute will roll for their starting health (everyone will start with 5-15 damage). See Starting Health Rolls for more information. This is to give the games a more manageable pace, but it's also to give everyone a sense of who the first tributes to die will be and prevent that from being based on OOC factors. For the 5th Games this damage will take the form of shark attacks. Please consider making this important to your characterization and make the most of a character's weakness if you roll high damage. Remember, these games are not about competition or victory — they're about the stories and giving the site a fuller history to look back on.

There will be no healing in effect this Games.

Weapons are non-transferable.

Thrown weapons become lost.

Upon the first death in each Round One fight a cannon from that ship will fire. Along with the sudden noise, the air will fill with smoke and the ship will rock with the force of the blast. Due to disorientation, two rounds of randomized attacks will follow. Afterwards combat will resume as normal. Although cannons will continue to fire for each tribute that dies, only the initial cannon will result in this disorientation.

THE VICTOR

Although the victor will be dead in present day, the winner of these games is highly encouraged to write a timeline, oneshots, etc of the rest of their character's life. Writing present day descendants will be allowed.

Please do not aim to win if you are not interested in writing follow-up content, as this is a major reason for these games. It is a huge honor to write a legacy victor and our hope is for that to be about much more than the title.