Game of Tomes

Who Will Claim the Iron Tome? by Dani Adventures

The Game of Tomes is a competition for writers who participate in National Novel Writing Month and are regular Twitch viewers, or who enjoy participating in virtual write-ins with a competitive (but friendly!) spirit. Although it was designed by writer Twitch streamers who are part of the World Anvil community and the Anvilite Streamer Corps, it is open to any and all participants in NaNoWriMo.

World Anvil Explains the Game of Tomes! (Twitch Clip)
Thanks for the support, Janet & Dimitris!

Game of Tomes 2020 Video

We suggest you watch the video in full screen to see everything clearly.

If you would rather listen to Sable go over this article on stream, offering explanations as she goes, check out the sidebar links!

The Conflict

Prelude

2020 was a disastrous year on the third planet in the Sol system. As if the widespread political and social turmoil, and the vicissitudes of climate change weren't enough, a global pandemic known as Covid-19, a Coronavirus infection, forced most of the world into lockdown conditions. In response to the health risks of gathering in public spaces, NaNoWriMo headquarters informed their Municipal Liaisons, including Sable Aradia, that they would not be authorizing any in-person events for NaNoWriMo 2020. Fortunately, the ASC Wrimos had the benefit of the Anvilite community to gather with online. Inspired by the #NaNoHouseCup, which is masterminded and organized by Elayna Mae, a number of ASC writers who participate in NaNoWriMo agreed to pit their word counts against one another in a month-long winner-take-all battle for the Iron Tome. Sable Aradia of House Lapin laid the challenge, and six ASC Wrimos accepted her invitation.

Deployment

The Game of Tomes is open to anyone doing NaNoWriMo who joins in participating streams and redeems their word counts, whether they are officially registered on the NaNoWriMo site or not. Each Wrimo assigns themselves to one of the great houses, depending upon inclination and habits as a writer, or just personal whim. Their word counts in the streams of participating streamers are counted towards the overall totals of their chosen house by selecting the appropriate channel point reward, marked by their house's banner as a Twitch emote, and entering their word count in the space one might typically type a "highlighted message".

NOTE: It is your total word count during participating streams that you should report with the Channel Point Rewards! It doesn't matter whether those word were accumulated during a sprint or not! If you prefer to write at a steady pace, just be sure to redeem your Channel Points in the stream in which those words were written.

Each individual writer might:

Swear their undying loyalty to a single house, if and until their house falls
Form or join a lesser house, which then gives its loyalty in turn to the banner of one of the great houses
Give their loyalty to one house, then later change their mind; and this may be done repeatedly
Function as a mercenary, either by joining and leaving houses at a whim, or by trying to win concessions from one of the other lesser or greater houses by offering their support

Participating Wrimos are considered to be part of the last house they served at the turn of the deadline, and will live or die with that house.

Mercenaries

It is contrary to the spirit of the competition to introduce any real stakes. Mercenaries may NOT sell their services for any real monetary value. However, mercenaries may ask for trade-in-kind, or for things with real value, such as bits and Twitch subscriptions, as long as their portion of the monetary value (ie. the portion of the subscription fee that isn't kept by Twitch) is going to a charity. Mercenaries may choose the charity they support or donate to NaNoWriMo or another charity supported by Game of Tomes streamers.

Nathalia Books, Varangian Guard by Nathalia Books

Lesser Houses

Participating Wrimos who do not lead a greater house may choose to form a lesser house instead. This includes both streamers and non-streamers. Lesser houses must REGISTER, using this form, prior to October 15th. That lesser house must "bend the knee" to one of the greater houses, on a temporary or extended basis. This must be done publicly on the Twitch stream of the house leader one is bending the knee to. A lesser house may change its allegiance at the beginning of each new elimination period -- and only at the beginning of each elimination period -- if desired. This must be indicated by a public bending of the knee, as above. A lesser house may only consist of one person. However, that one person, upon declaring themselves a house, is thereby bound to the rules of lesser houses. They may not change their minds and act as individuals later in the competition.

Registrations for Minor Houses in 2021 will open on September 1, 2021

The Undead Horde

The Undead Horde begins with only the Night Monarch (leader of their "house"), but swells their ranks by taking a random third of each fallen house's strength, as described in Conditions. No one else may start as Undead.

Battlefield

The battlefield for this conflict is in the Twitch write-in streams of participating streamers. Only the word count totals from live participating write-ins count towards the overall house totals. Individual word count totals acquired off-stream, or in non-participating write-ins, are not counted. Neither are word counts acquired by watching VODs after the streams have aired.

Conditions

Attrition

At the end of every five days, as calculated in UTC, the overall scores of the houses are tallied. The great house with the smallest overall word count is officially eliminated from the competition. This result will be announced on stream.

November 5: 6th house eliminated
November 10th: 5th house eliminated
November 15th: 4th house eliminated
November 20th: 3rd house eliminated
November 25th: 2nd house eliminated
November 30th: The Final Battle - last surviving house vs. the Undead Horde!

The Final Battle, unlike the other elimination periods, will not be tallied until NaNoWriMo has ended for ALL time zones.

Undead

The names of the members of the eliminated house, and their bannermen, will be entered into a random name selector. One third of them will be drawn randomly to be drafted into the ranks of the Undead Horde. If they are drafted, they must represent the Horde for the remainder of the Game of Tomes. "Mercenaries" who shift their allegiances will be counted as being part of the last house they joined before the end of the elimination period. The members and bannermen of the eliminated house who survive the Undead Horde may then choose one of the surviving houses to represent instead.

Dancing with Death

If a participating living Wrimo submits word counts to the Undead Horde, either accidentally or intentionally, the words they submitted disappear into the ether, and benefit neither a living house, nor the Horde. Further, that Wrimo is automatically submitted to the Undead Horde draft, since clearly, they were getting a little too close to zombies. They are not guaranteed admission into the ranks of the Undead.

Bending the Knee

If a house leader -- whether they lead a lesser or a greater house -- survives the Horde, they must then appear on the stream of the leader of the new house they wish to serve to "bend the knee." This can be done with a live appearance, a chat conversation, the use of emojis, or any other method as appropriate to the stream and streamer. It is assumed that their house members will change their allegiance to the new house, but they are under no obligation to do so. A leader of a great house whose house falls may no longer display their original house banner on their streams, as their house is considered to have been destroyed. The leaders of lesser houses are not bound by this restriction. However, if the leader of a lesser house becomes part of the Undead Horde, their house is considered to be destroyed, and they must also take down their banner, and not display it on stream again for the duration of the Game. Alternatively, lesser and greater houses whose leaders are drafted into the Undead Horde may feature a corrupted version of their banner instead, displaying their allegiance to the Undead.

Responsibilities of House Leaders

House leaders agree to tally the word count totals of their houses, and the Twitch names of the members of their house when eliminated, and report this information as detailed in The Engagement. The house leaders may not reveal the current totals at any time in public, on stream, Discord, or any form of social media, which allows "mercenary" play. The only time in which total word counts will be revealed is on the stream in which the next elimination is announced. Whether a house leader is the head of a major or minor house, the role of a house leader is to inspire and encourage their bannermen. This is all about fun and about helping each other to succeed. Lead by example, be there for your bannermen, and use positive reinforcement to make NaNoWriMo a success for them, and for you.

The Engagement

Any Twitch Affiliate Wrimo may host the Game of Tomes on their streams, and participate in the competition themselves. Please REGISTER using this form prior to October 15th.

Registrations for participating Twitch streamers for 2021 will open on September 1, 2021.

Streamers who wish to participate will find the necessary info and resources here:

Game of Tomes - Point Reporting and Points Setup

Generic article | Mar 29, 2021

Game of Tomes Image Resources

Generic article | Mar 27, 2021

Great house leaders should report the total word counts accumulated in their streams using this form.
Other streamers, whether they lead a lesser house or not, should report total word counts from their streams using this form. (Note that the form will not be accessible until the start of the Game.)
When reporting results for a minor house, add the total to BOTH the field for the minor house AND the field for the major house.

Included in the reporting forms is a link to upload screenshots of the channel point Rewards Queue, which can be accessed from the channel points rewards page, as instructed in the above article. The results will be tallied in a spreadsheet. If a minor house leader is not a Twitch Affiliate, or is not a streamer, they will only be able to count the words accumulated in other participating streams. Our system doesn't work otherwise. However, this is a very supportive community. Announce that you'd like to reach Affiliate so that you can help organize the Game of Tomes, and let one of the great house leaders know, and we're sure it won't take long!

Reporting for Lesser Houses Lead by Streamers

Ideally, it would be easiest if a lesser house decides to directly report their results as if they were part of the great house they have bent the knee to. Since the text field in which word counts are submitted during the stream can contain any text, they may also keep track of their lesser house totals separately by typing the name of the lesser house in the text field, long with their word counts for the sprint (ie. "301 Sauropoda," "205 Kitsune.")

If, however, a lesser house leader wishes to create a channel point reward for their own house on their own channel, they agree to keep track of which of the greater houses those points will be counted towards, and to indicate this on the screenshot reporting graphic. They also agree to keep track of, and communicate to the great house leaders, which participants are part of their house. If mistakes are made, unattached word counts will simply not be counted, and unattached names are automatically submitted to the random name picker for possible draft into the Undead Horde.

Thank you very much to Bob O'Brien for creating this excellent tutorial video! Note: If you'd prefer to use a calculator to record results rather than the spreadsheets, that is fine; the key is reporting with the reporting form, including the screenshots

Remember, this is a Game

Although this event is designed to get the competitive juices flowing to inspire greater word counts, it is meant to be a friendly competition. There are no real stakes involved. There are no prizes or punishments for success or failure. Our hope is that participants will encourage and support one another, and any rivalries will be all in good fun. Put simply, anyone being a jerk may be banned from participating in the event by a consensus of the leaders of the great houses, who are also the event organizers.

Outcome

We hope that the Game of Tomes will make NaNoWriMo more fun and more effective for all participants! Good luck, and happy writing!

Final results will be announced live on stream on Sable Aradia & Erin Righ's Twitch channel on December 1, 2021.

Aftermath

Success and partial success in NaNoWriMo has helped thousands of writers all over the world to achieve their dreams, boost their self-confidence, and celebrate their joy in writing. We hope the Game of Tomes will contribute to that in a positive way!

Historical Significance

Game of Tomes 2020

Military Conflict | Apr 1, 2021

Legacy

The Dead

The following article details the Undead Horde and the final members of its ranks in 2020 (there will be a new article created for 2021):

The Undead Horde 2020

Organization | Mar 27, 2021

Included Conflicts

Game of Tomes 2020

Conflict Type

War

Battlefield Type

Planetary

Start Date

November 1 Annually

Ending Date

November 30 Annually

Conflict Result

Great fun and higher word counts for everyone!

Maps

ASC Members Through Out the World
Our community is truly international. Use this to find out more about the streamers, to catch streamers in or near your time zone, to team up with other streamers in similar time zones, or help plan shared streams for broadcasters in different parts of the world.

Launch Stream

If any of this is confusing, maybe watching the launch stream will help!

What is NaNoWriMo? (8:25)
Why people do it and NaNo success tips (11:10)
Pantsers, Plotters, and Plantsers (32:28)
Video: The Houses (35:27)
Acknowledgements, shout-outs, intros to house leaders (41.01)
Basic rules (45:04)
Channel point system setup & reporting (51:53)
How to participate (56:00)
ASC NaNoWriMo event calendar (56:55)
How to get involved as a streamer (58:45
How to represent your house on any participating stream (1:00:38)
Changing loyalties (1:01:07)
More on getting involved as a streamer (1:02:06)
Lesser houses (1:04:15)
More on adding your word count (1:09:00)
Banners for lesser houses (1:11:43)

Leaders of the Great Houses

The current leaders of each house are:

Coffee Quills (House Mollusca, Japan)
Cryssalia (House Avis, Malaysia)
DaniAdventures (House Apis, United States)
Darth Nikolas (House Meles, United States)
Sable Aradia (House Lapin, Canada)
Siobhan the Writer (House Chiroptera, Canada)

The Night Monarch (leader of the Undead Horde) is Erin Righ (Canada)

House Apis Banner by Dani Adventures

House Avis Banner by Dani Adventures

House Chiroptera Banner by Dani Adventures

House Lapin Banner by Dani Adventures

House Meles Banner by Dani Adventures

House Mollusca Banner by Dani Adventures

Undead Horde by DaniAdventures

ASC NaNoWriMo Event Calendar

NaNoWriMo

ASC Event | Sep 19, 2020

"National Novel Writing Month [NaNoWriMo, or just NaNo for short] is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing." - NaNoWriMo.org | Click here for more!

You might be a House Lord, or a minor house leader, but sooner or later, you dance with the Reaper.
— Erin Righ, the Nite King, with NO apologies to Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey

All the Twitch will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, Writer, Reader, Word walker, prince with the swift Emote. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.
— SecondhandSamurai of House Lapin, with apologies to Richard Adams

To have so many tentacles grabbing for the Iron Tome that nobody else can touch it!

Undead Horde

Led by

Strength

The Nite King, Erin Righ - see Sable Aradia

He/Him

Undead Horde by DaniAdventures/SableAradia

Casualties

N/A

Objectives

To plod on steadily with their ever-growing army of undead Wrimos, slay the living en masse, and deny anyone else the Iron Tome through raw attrition!

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