FFA or tournament

We've already had a Naruto Exam FFA. With robuts.

I'm all for Pokemon tournament. There's plenty of potential for sillyness there.

I would like to point out that something that tests your knowledge on a matter relating directly to the RPG affecting said RPG is totally different than a matter totally unrelated.

It'd be like going into a company that programs tools for use in simulating wind tunnel fluid mechanics and giving a promotion to whoever can play best at baseball. No matter the luck, the research put in, the actual skill at programming, the people who don't even know the rules of baseball much less having played it will be at a massive disadvantage.

On the other hand, if the same group was quizzed on the libraries and functions of the language they were using to code, and awarded salary rewards/promotions/etc as a result, that would make total sense.



However, people who have never before played would be at a massive disadvantage, as they have no idea how to optimize builds, or what stat is more important overall, etc. Since we're not doing this to roleplay, the character creation is entirely stat-based and entirely about min/maxing. People who have experience with the system would be far superior than those who aren't.

It'd be simpler just to do rock paper scissors.

I would like to point out that all the people arguing against the 'trivia' point happen to be the same ones who always do well in them.

Also, that's BS that it's like fluid dynamics to baseball. They're both games, so it'd be like asking a football players about baseball. Consider they're both sports, most football players would be reasonably expected to manage at least a working effort with baseball fairly quickly, given that they're already athletes. Similarly, it's reasonable to expect all of us have played games with previous forms of stats-based character creation (especially given that there was a thread earlier this year on whether or not we should add stats to THIS game, which met with pretty broad approval).

Also, no questions in the trivia directly affect the RPG. They're all nonsense like "How many times did Lalah utter the phrase 'Wow Char, you're just like Roman Polanski' during the series?" Interesting nonsense, sure, but trivia is trivia because it's non-essential information.

Knowing who piloted a random mech in some old Gundam manga has zero bearing on my ability to play this game - pretty much all the trivia questions are well and truly beyond the level of basic Gundam knowledge. The last trivia I was in, the only questions I got right were the ones I googled, because they're all really obscure.

To borrow your analogy, it's more like quizzed the fluid dynamics people on whether or not Newton ever visited the Prime Minster of France, and if so, whether they discussed horseback riding (Exaggerations are fun!). It's technically related to their field's history, but has no bearing on their ability to do their job.

As for the belief that a stats-based system is hard to learn - really? 3 stats, with what they do clearly enumerated, would be that hard to manage for people? Ket's site lists "10 factors," but could easily be locked at constant values (e.g. experience or stamina). The only things you'd probably need to worry about are the 3 stats, and maybe equipment or jutsus, which could be easily standardized and limited to simplify the situation for everybody.

Again, as I said originally, I'm for a FFA because of the simplicity. But I don't think the "wah I dunno Naruto" claim is all that fair, especially as those who say it are for the most part the same people who dominate the trivia and are unwilling to admit at least some similarities.

Lastly, Isaiah was saying that because it was his argument I borrowed, I think. I didn't persuade him - he persuaded me.

Yeah. That.

I've never been in a trivia contest either.

Great post, Jon.