User blog:Chrono Nexus/The Chunin Exams: Phase 2 Guide

Hi folks! These are some guidelines for the upcoming Phase 2 of the Chunin Exams.

Objectives
The primary objectives are for your teams to acquire both a scroll of heaven and a scroll of earth, survive the forest of death for the five days of the second phase of the exam, and to arrive at your destination on the last day.

Rules and Violations
Abiding these rules is non-negotiable. If a character is found that violates these rules, that character and all other characters of that user will be expelled from the exams.


 * 1) No godmodding. You have what your character has at the start of the event. No substituting skills and abilities afterward will be tolerated. This means, no adding powers or techniques. No changes to the character except ones related to presentation- the character art, appearance, history, or the fixing of spelling/grammar errors. Your powers and abilities are locked-in.
 * 2) No metagaming. Your character can only employ knowledge a genin would reasonably possess. You cannot know every single weakness and the secrets of your opponents' techniques except by fighting them and figuring it out.
 * 3) No autohitting or autododging. Your Genin, except in areas related to their expertise, are fighting on equal terms. That means, if your character is at a disadvantage and is being attacked by another Genin, there will be consequences. You can still attempt to dodge, but it is still going to hit- you are required to include a response to their actions that includes the substance of what they've done. For example, if you are attacked with a Kunai as you are in a grapple, you are taking the hit. Even against equal opponents on equal terms, you cannot auto-dodge. Conversely, you cannot autohit. Do NOT under any circumstances try to dictate the results of your attacks by writing them in absolute terms.
 * 4) If you are absent, you lose control. We aren't going to wait for you to post forever. If you are absent during the time of a turn, you will be overlooked... if you have another player as a partner, you can elect him to make choices for your character in your absence.. if not, the other players (your opponents) will dictate the results of their characters' actions upon yours without your input.
 * 5) If you are absent for too long, you lose. Sorry, but this is a necessity. If you can't participate, then your presence only serves to slow down the RPs and puts a drag on the event. You'll be ditched, and I'll come up with a reasonable explanation for what happens to your characters (example: sound genin being used as bodies for Orochimaru's technique).

TLDR; Respect the other users' contributions to the battle, don't be cheesy. If you have to win by cheating (by having information your character can't, autohitting, autododging, godmodding...), I will withdraw you from the exam.

Posting Guidelines
I'll be walking you through the process of how the fights for the second phase will be organized.

Assigning Encounters
Encounters with enemy or rival ninja teams will be randomly assigned. Every team will encounter at least one other rival team at least once a day. Which team you encounter, and at what time the fight occurs will be randomly determined. The terrain you fight the team in, will also be randomly determined from a pre-written list.

Determining Advantage
I'll decide which team has advantage based on several factors. The first and most important, is whether the team has a sensor-nin or not. A team that lacks one, vs. a team that possesses one, will likely be given advantage. A team that has had a larger amount of preparation time since their previous battles, will be weighted towards gaining advantage. A team whose members describe their actions at length at the end of their previous battle, as an explanation of steps they'll take to ensure advantage, will be weighted towards gaining advantage. "Advantage" means going first. Having advantage also affords you the privilege to have pre-prepared the terrain to some extent (think traps). The assumption is that you've had some time to prepare a defense against intruders. Having advantage is useful for performing ambushes against enemy teams.

Actions
Teams act on the same turn. A turn lasts for twenty-four hours in real time. Each team member is allowed to take up to three actions on their turn. These actions can constitute moving, defending, and attacking, but this is a very simple explanation. I'll give a more detailed explanation below. If a team member doesn't can't take her turn during this twenty-four hour window, he or she may give another user on her team the rights to post in her absence. You must tell me this on my talk page in advance, if you grant this right to another user. Actions taken out of turn (on the enemies' turn), and characters that exceed the three-action limit are considered to be in violation of the rules. Please warn me when this occurs, I'll see to it at that the post is fixed. Multiple violations will result in being ret-conned out of the story.

Actions, continued
There are three basic actions types, which are described at length below. Keep in mind, that unless it pertains to a genin's specialization, it is assumed he is equally skilled at a form of combat as a fellow genin. A player may also have voluntarily given his character a lower level of skill in a particular category. You are allowed to perform any combination of Attacking, Defending, or Moving with your three actions. '''I reserve the right to modify your actions, if I feel that you're guilty of attempting to autohit/dodge, godmod, or metagame. In cases of dispute over the results of an action, send me a message on my wall, and I will review the case and decide the results.'''

Attacking: Attacking is an offensive action taken against another character. When you attack, make sure to describe the method of attack (genjutsu, ninjutsu, taijutsu, a barrage of blows, etc), who you are attacking, and the objective of the attack (killing, disabling, distracting, interrupting, wounding, etc). If your opponent Defends against your Attack in response on the following turn, your attack becomes a partial success (the defender must adequately describe some detrimental effect of the attack), unless he defends with his specialization vs. one of your generic skills (his superiority in his favored skill will win out; he takes no damage or foils the attack). If the defender does not acknowledge attacks directed at him, the attacker is allowed to describe the effect of the attack on the defender; the defender has relinquished narrative control over the results. Tip: Always acknowledge attacks against you. You'll live longer.

Defending: When you defend against an attack, always describe your method of defense, and the specific attack you are defending against (both the attack and the character the attack originates from). If you attempt to defend with your specialization, it is presumed that you'll have a perfect defense against a generic attack (an attack the other ninja isn't specialized in). When Genins' attacks and defenses are evenly matched (when both use their generic skills, or when both use their specialization), it is assumed attacks are a partial success. You may defend other characters with your defense actions. You may only defend against as many attacks on your turn, as you have actions to take (three).

Moving: Moving is, obviously, movement. But it can also comprise any action that isn't obviously attack or defense oriented. Stealing an object from the enemy, attempting to escape an encounter, and changing your surroundings would be some functions of the Move action. You can move others with your action, however, this requires a move action for each character you are attempting to move (carrying someone on your back takes twice as many move actions as just yourself). Moving is also useful for ending an encounter. If you've disabled or impaired your opponents' movements (via injury, traps, or other impediments), movement can end the battle. If they can't keep up with you, you can simply run away.

Ending an Encounter
Encounters are to last no more than two weeks in real time. This means, you have an upper limit of seven turns your team can take for the encounter. If you have not reached a resolution on your encounter by that period, I'll review the roleplay, and decide the ending for you. I'll be looking for the skill of the writing of your attacks, which team is most heavily injured, the status of the scroll, and other factors. The outcome will either be victory or failure for either team, or a draw.

Ending Phase 2
After the final day of phase 2 (the fifth set of encounters), the teams that possess both a scroll of heaven and earth will advance to the preliminaries, and those that do not, will be withdrawn.

In Closing
The point of this phase of the exam is to encourage cooperation and collaboration between team mates. Being a lone wolf, is a good way to get captured or killed. I strongly encourage that you look out for eachother during battles, and pay attention to the actions your enemies' take against your friends.