The Epic Character Challenge

the Epic Character Challenge is one of the staple events of infinite Imaginations that occurs every year. Each time, characters from worlds far and wide gather together to challenge themselves, their authors, and their worlds. After the event, many walk away with a new outlook and new friends. They often decide to stick around in the server as well. An RP has been known to linger on for quite a while afterwards, too.

History

The first three ECCs took place in realms adjacent to the Infinite Imaginations server, but the realms have since conjoined. Now, all Epic Character Challenges are hosted within the Infinite Imaginations server. Portiions were also hosted on the NaNoWriMo forums and previously on TheProse.com, but the plan now is to primarily run on Discord with other portions here on WorldAnvil. The events began by only allowing one character per author to be entered, but the rules have since expanded to allow up to three characters to be entered into any one given competition at a time. The event was originally called "A Novel Competition", but the series was later renamed "The Epic Character Challenge" to be inclusive to all authors who weren't just writing novels and bring attention to the fact that character development was the main focus. Anyone from any world, realm, medium and genre could participate, even if the character was from a TTRPG or was simply a stand-alone fragment of the author's imagination. This was always the intent, but Wordi desired a play on words in the beginning (A Novel Competition meaning a competition that is novel, or not significant), but many people were confused by the title and thus deterred from participating. Additionally, the first ECC was the cause of death for Handsome Co-Host who was murdered near the end of the games show's events. Since then, Handsome has been revived and has not been killed again since (...yet).

Execution

Characters from different worlds are brought together under one roof in a game house called the Character Lounge. There, they can mix and mingle, getting to know each other until a Plot Twist arrives. in The past, these have been people from well known stories dropping into the lounge, portals to other worlds leading out of the lounge, and even pocket dimensions that put characters in a puzzle room-type scenario from which they must use teamwork to escape. Parallel to these events, new short story prompts are introduced every week that encourage the authors to focus on a section of their character(s)' lives and write what is called a Chapter. To tease these topics, puzzles are issued the day before a prompt. These are an optional fun solve that may provide a hint as to what the upcoming challenge will be. Some individuals prefer to participate only in the storywriting prompts, while others more heavily lean towards the Role Play aspects of the ECC. There were official judges in the past and winners were declared, but the event has evolved more towards simply having fun and improving yourself with no pressure to earn points. Still, many members felt it beneficial to have feedback and constructive criticism on their Chapters and so organized an unofficial opt-in judging system for fun. Prizes were also offered in the past to all participants, with varying levels depending on rank in the competition (as it was previously called A Novel Competition), but WordiGirl was unfortunately too bogged down running everything to properly get most of the prizes out. Some are still lost to the sands of time. If you somehow see this and were owed a prize, feel free to reach out to her and give her a gentle reminder!

Components and tools

The main tools needed for this are

A character (up to three are allowed)

An internet connection

An Infinite Imagination!

Participants

WordiGirl is the main host and Handsome Co-Host is the co-host, of course. There are several members of the community who participate with different characters sometimes, but there are also recurring characters who have visited several Character Lounges in the past. Sometimes, they canonically forget details of previous visits. Other times, they remember everything.

Observance

The event was first held in September/October. But since the hectic bustle of NaNoWriMo, the holidays, and WorldEmber immediately followed, WordiGirl decided to move the event to February/March. In 2024, due to personal life issues, the event was delayed further and did not begin accepting sign-ups until May. Though the event did not used to run for a set number of weeks, there were initially TWELVE "Chapter" challenges that each started and ended at odd times during the week, only allowing three to four days for completion. Due to participant feedback, the next ECC saw Chapters that lasted a full week, so the event as a whole was later shortened to run for a total of NINE weeks. The latest Epic Character Challenge is set to run for only SIX weeks.