BrokenPromise

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

And you're weekly update for those who don't wanna sift through a giant post for the horror shenanigans.

>Faith is having a mental break down, and is presently aiming her harp at Mia. No shots have been fired yet.
>Grosket (ent) has been withered, set ablaze, and is holding Viva and Reaver with the intent to bite their heads off. Quite banged up.
>Grisbar (dragon) was drained by an assassin and decapitated by a samurai without master or honor. *DED*
>Ampodryl (wolf) Has knocked Elora prone, has spirit animals set upon her, and is firing lasers at Connie, Shoggy, and Emily. Still sulking behind a cloaking veil. Battered a bit.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

”HI ELI!”

— Vermin Killer

_{@PlatinumSkink}

The portal wasn’t the only thing Eli noticed. There was a murder of crows pecking around the warehouse the team had just escaped from. Some of them were showing a feint magical signature.

One of the crows turned to look in Eli’s direction. Then another, and another, and another. Their magical signatures were powering up too, as if more mana was being flooded into them.

Their movements were inconspicuous, but they were closing in on her position.

---

"Time to pull a fast one!"

— Trixy

_{@ERode@FamishedPants@twave@Crusader Lord@Flamelord}

Trixy was pleased to see so many people make use of her acorns. It was nice to see that strangers could trust her so easily. That wasn’t something she was sure she could do. Though Shane volunteering might have assuaged their concerns.

The monster queen was pretty durable, but it looked like it was on it’s last legs. Trixy would have gladly put it out of it’s misery, but it sounded like Amaryllis wanted to try and save it with a white coin. This seemed like a big mistake, but it wasn’t like Trixy was wholly unable to empathize with the gluttonous magical girl. Under different circumstances, she might have been gobbling up everything in sight. And Trixy had to wonder how Hyun would look as a normal magical girl. Would she be a cutie? A hottie? Maybe on that level where she’s a super cutie or mega hottie? Sure Hyun was repulsive, twisted being, but it was impossible to know if this was their own doing or unfortunate circumstances. Either way, trying to usher more cute girls into the world was the right thing to do.

Trixy had her plan ready. She was going to fire some vine-creating bullets at Hyun. All she’d need was some magical girls with strong backs and weak minds to pull on the vines to get Hyun down.

Then Mariette showed up.

"Wha?!" Trixy was surprised for two reasons. First was that Mariette had suddenly appeared without warning, and was getting in the way of Amaryllis’s plan to try and save the monster girl. Secondly, that was Mariette! Veronica had wanted a word with her. Trixy’s vines wouldn’t coil around Hyun if Mariette was just going to burn them off, so it was clear what had to happen here. A true win/win for everyone.

"Oh no you don’t!" Trixy moved her rifle off of Hyun and fired at Mariette. Unless Mariette was faster than Trixy was, the vine would wrap around Mariette’s waist, at which point Trixy would just have to pull her off of her platform.

And catch her before she fell. Mariette was a cutie too after all.

---

“All those flavors, and you choose to be salty.”

— Tetrad

_{@AtomicNut@DarkwolfX37}

---

Banshee killed her opponents and raised them to fight by her side. Tetrad bargained with her foes until they left the area. It was clear who had the better tactic, but a winner hadn’t been decided yet. Her yellow knife missing was a small setback. Undead tended to shrug off paralyse effects.

At least she could fly now. she had a lot of ways to avoid the incoming specters. Shift to the left, roll to the right, spin up, sink down.

“Ha! Whoh! Hyea! Ho! Mray! Yeah! Huzza! Hrah!”

But this would not win the fight.

Shion did not seem to hear Jimmy’s advice, otherwise she probably wouldn’t be blasting Banshee’s body like that. The spirit summoner had a soul gem on her somewhere. But Tetrad was going to try and solve this without killing her if she could, so maybe it was best Shion didn’t know how to kill the banshee. That wasn’t to say Tetrad didn’t enjoy Shion’s assistance. She was pulling some crazy Buttercup agro, which was something Tetrad could make use of.

While Buttercup was doing everything in her power to break through Shion’s defenses, Tetrad threw a yellow knife at the monster girl, aiming to nail one of her legs.

If yellow knife hits

When the knife struck, Buttercup was briefly paralyzed. Tetrad followed up with another knife, this one just being her normal weapon. Banshee was strongly opposed to ending the fight, but Buttercup’s seemingly lower level of aggression would mean Bipartisan should have no problems draining her fighting spirit.

“Settle down Buttercup, Or do you prefer fat ass?” Tetrad threw a blue card to heal the monster girl once she had simmered down. Since she could no longer float, Tetrad landed beside Shion. “Leave the screamer to me, my spells don’t work on the undead.” Tetrad was now protected by a blue barrier. It would normally divert small projectiles away from her, but she doubted it’s effectiveness against the specters. With nothing left in her hand to call upon, she drew a few more cards and waited for the Banshee’s next move.

If yellow knife misses

“Crapola!” She missed again? No point crying over spilled milk. Once she was over the roof, she threw a blue card. Mid flight it suddenly poofed into a barrier that closed around Tetrad and Buttercup. All Tetrad could do was hope this kept her opponents at bay long enough for her to followed up with a knife attack, this one just being her normal weapon. Banshee was strongly opposed to ending the fight, but Buttercup’s seemingly lower level of aggression would mean Bipartisan should have no problems draining what remained of her fighting spirit. Provided she managed to hit this time.

With nothing left in her hand to call upon, she drew a few more cards and hoped to hell she didn’t trap herself in a barrier with an angry monster girl.

”Where we made, just to suffer?”

— Faith

_{@PlatinumSkink}

Raven Bianchi? The first name wasn’t familiar, but Lotus spoke many times about Amber Bianchi. They both worked at a hardware store together. They were both good at their jobs, even Lotus could admit as much. But Amber was also a cutthroat businesswoman who was willing to do anything to move up the ladder. There was a vacant management position, and they both wanted it. They had many of the same qualifications, and had both been working for the same amount of time. Lotus was the harder worker, but she lacked the same “assets” Amber had.

Amber got the position easily.

But it wasn’t enough to have a position, you had to hold it. Lotus and Amber had grown more bitter towards each other. They would attempt to smear each other, sometimes at the detriment of the customers and other employees. But in the end everyone would side with Amber. She had the charisma to win the management position, and she had to charisma to get Lotus fired.

But who was Raven Bianchi? A daughter? A cover name?

It didn’t matter anymore. She was helping Lotus’s murderers. She was an enemy.

Faith allowed Ronin to guide her towards their destination. But then Ronin let go of her hand and-

_{@AtomicNut@Shifter_Master}

Much like Reaver had anticipated, the ax-like edge on his barrier cut through the wet vines. Ax swinging at tree, tree swinging at ax, it didn’t matter. It was sadistic yet ingenious. Reaver was using Grosket’s strength against it. The beast whaled. The fingers split and separated, the arm unraveled.

Revealing something Reaver should have seen coming.

Ronin, Faith, and Reaver were all in the vicinity of the ent. But the ent was only interested in reaver. It opened its hand wide, revealing the giant beak of some exotic bird hiding behind its vines.

Flesh and vine were easy enough to chop, but not so the beak of a bird. A finch has a bite strength that is many times stronger than that of a T-rex, and its beak has to be able to withstand all of that pressure. The massive beak hidden in Grosket’s arm plunged into the barrier. The ax-like edge was great at cutting, but it compromised the barrier’s ability to absorb shock and was decimated by the blow. What came next would be a treat for the masochist.

The beak slammed into Reaver’s legs, but between the barrier and the wet soil, the blow was not hard enough to break anything. That didn’t stop the beak from opening up and biting onto Reaver’s hips. With a tug, Reaver was pulled from the vines, which had dug their thorns deep into his arms. The flames coating his body made the damp vines on Grosket’s body smolder, but they could not burn away the vine hedge in time. The tug was enough to flay the flesh from Reaver’s arms. Grosket was already crushing Reaver’s hips when he picked him up, and he was ready to clamp his opposing hand over him.

But them mommy showed up.

Viva unloaded her guns on Grosket’s legs. It didn’t seem to bother the ent much, but it got it’s attention. A vine suddenly rose in front of Viva’s bike, and she was thrown. Grosket was able to determine her trajectory and grow his arm out, snatching her out of the air. While Viva would feel the ent trying to crush her in its grasp, she would be able to easily strike Grosket with a withering spell. The effects went to work immediately. The vines shrank and yellowed, sap and blood dried up, and Viva would soon learn what Reaver already know. Under all the vines and sap was an abomination. You cannot wither what is already rotten. It wasn’t entirely visible, but with the vines shriveling on the beast’s form, it was possible to smell the fetid flesh beneath. This was not alleviated by the fact that the dead vines no longer smoldered, but caught fire. It was not only Reaver, but Grosket and Viva who were set ablaze.

A beak pinching Reaver’s hips, a hand wrapped around Viva’s torso, and flames engulfing them all. Grosket’s face swung open revealing the giant skull once again. But he was not attempting to blast anyone with acid. The abomination’s mighty jaw swung open and it prepared to bite the heads off of his opponents as they burned.

_{@Majoras End@Ariamis@PlatinumSkink}

Nightwing uncanny mastery over darkness allowed her to step to Grisbar’s back even in full moonlight. From there, it was a simple matter to drive her weapon into the dragon’s back. It howled as its vitality was drained and drained and drained. But then Nightwing would feel herself falter. She had been through an intense interrogation routine, Fought off magical girls and horrors alike, and was starting to feel the strain as she used the last bit of her mana.

Though killing Grisbar this way was futile. Like so many others, she would realize its body was undead as well as alive. Something that shouldn’t exist and yet does. The weakened roots dropped Grisbar’s torso to the ground, where the vibration knocked Nightwing off of her feet. She wasn’t able to hold up her transformation and could just barely stay conscious. In a flash of light she was back in her casual clothes, unable to defend herself from the threat she was standing on.

The stone covered zombie turned its flexible neck around to look at the assailant. Grisbar opened its jaws wide, revealing a cavern of jagged rocks. All Nightwing could do was surrender to her fate before the dragon closed in on her.

Then a tiny ronin seemed to flash step to her position. Her arm was extended and her katana was pointed outward where the sun would rise. Then with a smooth motion, she sheathed her blade. It made a satisfying click, and Grisbar’s thin neck slid off of its torso and fell to the ground, where it shattered into a hundred pieces.

With the horror dead, Gaia was able to take control of the area. Moss covered what remained of the horror’s body, and the barbed vine hedge withered away.

The dragon-like strength left Hilaria, as did the dark ring Grisbar had granted her.

”Time to save the day!”

— Tonya “Mac” Murphy

Tonya “Mac” Murphy

Age: 24/11 | Gender: Female/Female | Illusion, Gravity
Body | Power of Friendship, Regeneration, Third Eye | Moirai
Coercion, Soul Jar, Martial Training, True Sight, Parasite, Gifted, Awareness, Overcity Shift, Mystic Artifact

Magical Overload, Paragon, Blessing, Gifted Item | Monster Form, Big Brother, Arrogance, Vendetta
Redirected Magic, Second Specialization | Non-Standard Limbs, Destroyer

STR: 05 | AGI: 04 | VIT: 05 | MAG: 03 | LCK: 03
+44
STR: 21 | AGI: 21 | VIT: 21 | MAG: 20 | LCK: 15

Earnings this post: Zilch

Remaining: 0 Gold, 2 Silver, 2 Bronze
Total: 7 Gold, 118 Silver, 130 Bronze

The tiny ronin might have needed a little bit of a hand with this one. While the ronin lacked the strength to cut the head off the dragon, Mac was able to guide her katana through the neck of the beast for a clean kill. It would have been easy for Ronin to notice someone was holding onto her sword, but illusion magic could manipulate almost any sense, and she was none the wiser.

Go ahead little ronin, you earned your victory!

_{@AtomicNut@Ponn@FamishedPants@Ariamis}

As soon as the beam went off, the magical girls sprung into action. Mia bombarded the area with popcorn rockets, while Sakura flew through the air for a killing blow. The beam continued to inch closer to Hilaria and Shoggy. Hopefully something would happen soon.

Sakura could see it as she closed in. The faint silhouette of the hound unleashing the sea of souls. Before she hit the ground, she pointed her palms at the Wolf’s head and let the lightning fly. 

It was brief, it was loud, it was over in an instant. Everyone was blinded by a flash before the crack of thunder rang in everyone’s ears. Sakura forced her eyes open just in time to see the aftermath of the Sparky Heart Justice Breaker Lance. 

The lightning bolt was powerful enough to disperse the cloaking magic. The sea of souls had stopped, and there was a giant black scorch mark on the ground wreathed in dead grass, There was also several dozen charred vines laying in a heap. Which was odd, considering that Sakura fired her attack at Ampodryl specifically. That was when it hit her.

She had cooked a dummy horror. 

Ampodryl was using the limited light to hide behind a vine hedge, which it had shaped like itself. Since the sea of souls ripped souls out of people, it would be ineffective against the soulless vines. The horror had been planning on baiting them out, and it worked. 

*Crunch*

Ampodryl bit down on the device Elora had placed in its mouth. Thyere were a few burn marks from where a stray corn cob missile had burned it, but it was still standing strong. Sakura’s true target stood there, watching her plummet to the ground.

Sakura would not meet an unfortunate end as a small-sized splat on the ground, instead being caught in the arms of Emily who had been nearby, watching for this sort of thing. Carrying the untransformed girl much like a princess, Sakura would feel some mana slowly flowing into her as Emily gently set down on the ground. 

"You're so reckless!" she chided, glaring in the direction of Ampodryl. "Are you okay?" she asked Sakura. "I'll try to get you back on your feet but it's not a fast process."

Ampodryl prepared to lunge after them, but was startled by Elora’s sudden laser fire. She was gaining altitude, and appeared to be out of harms way. However, the sudden crack of a vine whipping itself at the cyberbox caught girl off guard. She fell to the ground, where swarms of animal spirits set upon her. They would not kill her though. Ampodryl was far too sadistic for that. If one of their own was wounded, they would have to come closer to rescue her. Just because Ampodryl was keeping them alive didn’t mean that their stay in its layer was going to be comfortable.

Before the veil of shadow closed around Ampodryl once again, its three eyes lit up. Without turning it’s head, it fired a trailing laser from each of its eyes. Connie, Emily, and Shoggy were each tracked by one of the eye lasers. This beam would not be impossible to dodge, but it would be very precise and catch up to them if they stopped moving even for a moment.

Mia would hear the sound of harp strings being pulled taught. If she looked out the corner of her eye, she would see Faith aiming her harp at her. She was only able to stay at Mia’s altitude thanks to a magical note. She was a good distance *away, but it wasn’t hard to see her lower lip was quivering.

”Why… Are you helping… Lotus’s murderers?”

*^{near the border of the dragon zone.}

How do YOU do 1x1s?

Right now I am in a RP which uses a player/player collaborative style as others have said, but we write the posts from one POV (to make it easier to read through later). My partner's character is the POV because she writes more convincing internal dialogue than I do and I adore reading it, while I generally try to write around it with action, more 'neutral' observations, scene-setting, and of course, my half of the romantic banter 'cus we are shipping trash.

@Roach

I haven't had much luck with 1x1, but I tend to do this with collabs for the very same reason. It's interesting to see it come up here.

Weird Spacing Above Table

@HeroYes, I had the same problem. Important thing is to make sure there is no spaces between the code parts (cell, row, table, etc.) like so...

ARCANA	CHARACTER	PERSONA	PLAYER
	Felix Volpe	Reynard	Ryteb Pymeroce
	Gloria Hathaway	Circe	Landaus Five-One
	Rose Hadley	Kore	Crimson Flame
	Fiddle Astor	The Mothman	Smike
	Cara Lucero de la Barrera	Philomena	Hero
	Tyler Blackmore	Sun Tzu	The Jest
	Alistair Parton	Horatius	Nimbus
	Thomas Robinson	The Black Death	Aurrorian
	Kirsty Ramaswamy	Gregor Samsa	Lugubrious
	Jory Hesson	Rasputin	Riegal
	Laurence Newman	Desdemona	LetMeDoStuff
	Adonna Borromeo	Wendigo	Kal
	Leo Gremminger	Sol	Scribe of Thoth
	John Doe	Minos	Not Fungus

Yes, it makes things kind of disorganized if you have to edit it. But look at the raw version of this post. If you create the lines in the correct spots, you won't have any problems.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

“You fuckin’ posers.”

— Veronica

_{@Majoras End@ERode}

Veronica dismissed Fine’s warning with a wave of her hand. “Beacon, Ascendancy, I don’t care what branch they come from. The lot of those righteous fools are as incompetent as they are stubborn.” She stepped towards the exit. “Though there are enough people fighting the monster queen at the moment. Eliza! Maura! Let’s go to the park. The Horror may be more than the locals can deal with.” It was a simple matter for her to phase through the door and take up a seat next to Myria. “You don’t mind giving us a lift, do you?”

---

“Pro tip for doujin VNs: Second choice is usually the right one.”

— Su Fang

_{@Erode@Ariamis}

The fact that Justine was part of some legendary evil didn’t surprise Su at all. Nor did it such news scare her. Justine was a threat she had beaten before. They’d reduced her castle to ruble and thwarted her ritual. The only surprising part would be if she still served the same horror she had been serving. Su was no expert on it, but she heard they weren’t especially tolerant of failure. But how did Helga work for Justine and not know more about her? Wasn’t she part of Justine’s elite four? Something she’d have to ask her about when they were in better company.

When Helga cracked a silly joke, Su took her entire hand and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “I’m glad you’re feeling better.” Su grinned. Even if she felt conflicted about Helga right now, she admired her ability to live in the moment. She was already cracking jokes seconds after having a panic attack.

Su started to walk when Helga grabbed her hand, asking her about her last trip to the overcity. “We were running from-” She looked at the Ascendancy girls. Come to think of it, they could turn around and attack at any moment. It probably wasn’t a good idea to spend any more time around them then they had to. “…Point is, we went straight for an over city portal. We didn’t really do any sight seeing. Though there was this one place I saw. Later I’ll take you to see it”

After a short walk, they were at a bridge with something snoring underneath. “That’s not how the last portal sounded.” Su fret her brow. She hadn’t been with this group for a full minute and she was already sick of them. The Ascendancy girls could attack any second, that fire girl could explode any second, and Helga was, well, a handful. If Helga was going to do something to Su she had ample opportunities to do it already. But her true relationship with Justine was clawing at the back of Su’s skull, and she was all too oblivious to the danger. This was a situation she had to get out of as quickly as possible.

They came this way looking for a portal. The fire girl said it would be here. They could hear a snoring troll as well. Therefor…

There had to be a portal under the bridge

Of course.

The troll was just guarding it. That made sense to Su. Trolls were dumb creatures, so they were likely unable to master magic. “I think she’s telling the truth. You can go eat or whatever you were going to do.” Su jumped off the bridge and landed under it. There wasn’t a troll, but there was a cave. The mouth of the cave was covered in trash, as well as some glowing green goo. It smelled, was wholly uninviting, but it was pretty fancy as far as troll hideouts went.

Su waved the smell away from her nose before turning to Helga. “This is a perfect hiding spot for a portal.” She reassured Helga. “But it looks like the path ahead forks. I’ll follow the left wall and you the right. We should run into each other at some point. Then we can tell the other one if we encountered the portal.” Helga looked concerned. Su just snorted in response. “I have the wind on my side. If I get close enough, I’ll be able to feel the troll breathing. I’ll call for help if something’s amiss.” This was enough to convince Helga that Su would be fine. So they placed their hands on their respective walls and split at the different paths.

As Su walked along the wall, the passage started to get darker. The luminescent slime was getting covered by more and more trash. Meanwhile the snoring got louder and louder. There were several times when Su had slowed up because she suspected she was right on top of the troll, only to realize the wind wasn’t moving. She wasn’t sure how long she had been progressing like this. It had to be at least ten minutes and she had yet to join up with Helga. The light continued to dim, but never went out. Though it wasn’t long before every wall of the winding catacomb looked the same.. Su began questioning herself, wondering if she was following the correct wall. Depending on how the labyrinth of walls were assembled, it was possible that there was an “inner wall” that never connected with the one Su was following. That would make it possible to miss the location of the portal. She also had to wonder if Helga was still following her instructions, or if she had been attacked by those magical girls. The more she wandered, the more her mind did as well.

Fifteen minutes.

Thirty minutes.

Eventually Su lost track of time, but it felt like she had been down here for hours. At least the slime was getting bright again, that was a sign she was getting closer to an exit. And she’d have to hurry towards it to. She could hear the sound of Helga doing battle with something.

“Hold on a little longer Helga.”

Su immediately broke into a run, allowing her hand to slide along the left most wall. There wasn’t time to creep along quietly anymore. If she could hear fighting from here, it would likely wake the troll.

Actually, the snoring stopped, hadn’t it?

There was no time for caution. Su hopped into the air and flew as fast as she could. The winding tunnels slowed her down a bit, but Su was confident she’d make it to Helga. But this would turn out to be a mistake. A large object jumped out of the darkness and shoved Su. Its timing was a little off and they missed her torso. But catching her hips was enough to throw Su into the opposing wall. Once her hip bounced off the wall, Su fell out of the air and into the trash. She was on her arms and knees, and wasn’t sure if she had broken her hip. She wouldn’t have time to assess her wounds before her attacker grabbed her arms. She was hoisted to her feet and pinned against the wall. Once she recovered from the vertigo, she could make out her attacker.

It was the troll. He was stubby looking, but was easily three or four meters tall. His long nose had a wart on the tip of it, and his skin was as coarse as tree bark. A pair of overalls hung on his shoulder with a single strap. He also wore a straw hat on his head, but it looked like he had taken a bite out of it some time ago. Su attempted to pull her arms free, but it was no use. She was not a very strong magical girl, and the troll’s meaty fists enveloped her arms from wrist to shoulder. She’d have an easier time breaking out of metal shackles.

It became clear what had happened. There was a space between the walls where the troll had been hiding. He must have just woken up, heard Su coming, and sprung into action while she flew through. Had Su been more cautious, she would have picked up on the giant’s breathing and avoided an obvious trap. It was more than a little humiliating to be caught by something known for its stupidity. Though in hindsight, the number of errors Su made to get to this point were numerous. She trusted a stranger, she split from Helga, and it wasn’t like this was the only portal out of the over city. This was an earned failure.

Su grit her teeth. Trolls were carnivores. The only reason they bothered to catch humans was to eat them. She was defenseless like this. What few spells she could use would not work on the troll. All it had to do was pull off her arms or bite off her head and it was over. She resigned herself to her fate. Then the troll used it’s foot to push an iron bucket towards Su’s feet. When Su looked at it, she noticed it was a dairy pale with the word "MILK" drawn on it with a crayon.

“...What?”

Su ~ Not Really Fin

There wasn’t a portal under the bridge

It was silly to even consider it.

The fire girl didn’t seem too interested in anything but getting something to eat. Who knew what sort of mental mutations she had? It wouldn’t have surprised Su if all the smoke and fire wasn’t her doing. Sending a group of strangers towards a troll was exactly the kind of bullshit Su would expect someone like that to pull. And the Ascendancy was here as well. They likely knew who Helga was, and would Jump her and Su as soon as they got the chance. Su did her good deed for the day. It was time they split before something happened.

“I think the queen of cinders should go fire up that portal for us. That’s a very strange sound for it to be making.” Su turned to look at Helga. “You wanted to look at a shop in the over city, right? There’s one on the way to a portal I know of. We’ll just stop there.” And then maybe Su could ask Helga a few questions and put these negative thoughts to rest. “But before I go, I’d like to know something.” Su turned to the Ascendancy girls. “I was offered purification a week ago. Circumstances made it impossible to accept at the time. I won't get into details.” Her hand tightened around Helga’s “But I’d like to know more about it.”

This was probably a mistake. They hadn't attacked her yet though.

RPGC: General Discussion

I was half joking. But fair point. If the concern is just "new/shy" contestants that should work.

Though I feel that the voters are the frail ones in this particular instance. It's been a while, but I can't remember many contests where the number of voters surpassed the contestants. the only exception is the few times contestants were allowed to vote. That's something I'd like to see change.

RPGC: General Discussion

But if we are going to go for the whole anonymous entries thing, there can be no point during the contest where the contestants can talk to the people who are voting. Consider it protection for the voters. We'll also have to put a stop to reoccurring characters, like how the bard Mikhal appears in quite a few of Calle's stories. She might as well announce it's her work if he shows up.

RPGC: General Discussion

@Calle How's this?



I can make the font bigger, but I thought it was less intrusive like that. Tell me what you think, or show me a sample image if you'd like to try something else.

RPGC: General Discussion

@Roach Oh yea, you're right.

But does that change my point all that much? It's impossible to gauge how many people have taken interest in a contest without thread discussion. But I'd be okay with switching things up. I personally never felt compelled to answer back to someone when I've been mentioned. But lol at that flame war. That's a rather severe example, but maybe contestants do need protection from stuff like that.

RPGC: General Discussion

I feel like option number 2 is better, if only because it makes the contests feel more lively. A lot of people don't like to critique, so it can make the contest section look dead. I also think that when people see other people voting, it kind of encourages others to do the same. Only downside is that I know seeing other people's votes can influence how others vote. But at this stage, the contest section needs to do everything it can for that sweet sweet exposure.

@Calle By the way, Frizan use to have picture thumbnails for the contests above the status bar. If you tell me the dimensions, I can make one for you. Unless he'd rather do that himself of course.