Writing Requirements and Judging Decisions

One of the biggest advantages of a touring system is that we can advance both short-term and long-term storylines.  As mentioned in the OOC Guidebook, MAXIMUM Japan Pro-Wrestling is a hybrid fed and thus has a holistic view of the incorporation of writing and angles. 

Basically, as the stakes increase we will minimize the angled elements so that the competitive elements can take charge and give the fed a more organic feel.  In a more long term sense, active participation (RPing on time) is probably the most important step you can take.

PRE TOUR DEVELOPMENT: Show us how your character is preparing leading up to the tour, what's on his mind, etc.  Keep in mind that your character has a long road of matches ahead, so there's no need to focus on any particular match.  Tell YOUR story as this phase is more weighted to character development.

Although we always consider "competitive" elements, there are times when the story that is being told will have a basis in some decisions.  AGAIN, as the stakes increase - you control your own destiny. 

STANDALONE PROMOS: Every so often we will promote one night events.  RPs for such events go here and should be focused on the opponent at hand. 

TOUR REACTIONS: If you feel compelled to RP at any point during the tour, you can do so right here.  This is a character development area and although posts won't be considered during judges' decisions for the immediate tour, it could definitely impact long term stories.  Use this board as you see fit... as it is not inconsequential. 

All competitive RPs are capped at 750 words.

All tour reaction/character development RPs have an unlimited word count. 

There are two reasons we say this:

2. We like to surprise our readers so sometimes we have a twist or strange occurrence planned.  Thus, things will change and surprises will pop up.  If you do not like surprises, then this is definitely not the fed for you. 

These categories sum up to 15 points (5 each) and a score of 3 is average.  More points are better, less is worse. 

Event Hype = the extent to which, after reading your post, the reader is excited to see your character in action; Remember that YOUR CHARACTER IS COMPETING FOR MAX. Although we don't have a prohibition on the mentioning or acknowledgement of other feds, we caution you against spending too much time on them at the expense of hyping the match that's occurring in MAX. Judges do not care what you've done elsewhere.

Character Development = show the dynamics of the character, exploring new dimensions, and progressing on the story arc. Is the character growing or changing along the journey? What can we learn about them?

Reader Interest = This area is a bit of a catchall. Be original. We don’t want to see some run-of-the-mill promo that could be copy/pasted from another fed. This does not imply that you have to be zany or over-the-top. We just want to see unique material. Proofread for spelling and grammar. Try to describe your character and the scene. You don’t have to provide every single detail, just the salient ones. Don’t confuse the reader. Remember that you only have 750 words. There's not a lot of time for fluff.

We then put the scores together and rank them so we know stacks up against whom. For each tour, we're going to try and keep the average score below 10. If everyone just blows us away, we'll let it creep up a bit. The intent is not to be dogmatic but to keep the scoring system from becoming inflated (and thus, meaningless).

Because we recognize the potential for this to get a bit deterministic, we also have another category for scoring, which we call...

(b) "Luck" / "Chance"

There is a small percentage of the match that is determined by "chance" or "luck". There are a few reasons we're doing this:

(1) For realism purposes. The idea here is to capture the fact that sometimes a guy can have a good or bad night. We've all seen it. Sometimes a fighter just "rises to the occasion" and gives a great performance that exceeds his normal level. Other times, guys fall flat. Sometimes you botch that move or you have a swing-and-a-miss moment. It's hard to explain why these things happen but it's part of life, right? We're gonna reflect that here in a small way.

(2) It gives the fed a more organic, unpredictable feel. By taking a small percentage of the decision-making out of the hands of the bookers, it will help us keep things fresh.

Winning the head-to-head score will still be VERY important. Luck can only play a small role here. But when the margins are close between competitors, small considerations can make their presence known, can't they?

To give you a sense of the margins, take this example. If two fighters/teams are within a point (let's say Fighter A gets 11 points and Fighter B gets 10 points). there is a 20-25% chance that the victor will flip as a result of chance. If it's a 2 point margin, that chance shrinks down to 5-10%. So, we're talking quite low probabilities for the most part. You definitely don't wanna count on being bailed out by luck. But, hey, if you're a bit low, it means you still got a chance. And if you're a bit high, well, you let your opponent hang in there. That's on you.

(3) Correct judging error. Often, we employ multiple judges. When two guys are really close in score (i.e. 1 point or below), saying one person did better than the other becomes somewhat arbitrary, doesn't it? While we respect the judges' decisions, it's unfair to give absolute power here. As you can see from above, their judging is important. It's just not deterministic.

This doesn't mean that we've eliminated the draw / no contest in big matches. They will occur. If the judges initially tie two characters/teams on the competitive elements, this random element will need to be a certain size (a single point) to override the draw in favor of one of the other teams.

(c) Story considerations

Again, there are some story/angled considerations. The stakes of the match largely determine how much story/angle goes into things. The bigger the stakes, angles and stories are minimized so we keep the feel organic. In the middle of a tour, we will allow more angle to seep into the decisions in the short run (long run decisions over an entire tour are still largely competitive).

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Incorporation of Non-Playable Characters (NPCs)

It's worth providing some insight about how we integrate NPCs into the judging because they are a prominent part of our fed.

Each NPC has its own base skill level. Most of them are low-to-mid tier fighters, but a few will be mid-to-high skills. At the beginning of the tour, we determine how well the NPCs have trained, i.e. if they've improved or regressed. This value essentially functions as their RP score for the tour and is used the same way as a handled character.

It's worth reiterating this point from the OOC Guidebook:


Think of NPCs here as the House at a casino or like playing against the computer in a video game. Although they don't write, their training and development will be mentioned in the news updates and results as well. Again...


It is possible for NPCs to even win championships. Because most of our NPCs are dojo students, this would be very unlikely. However, it is a potential possibility during a tour for an NPC to emerge with a high skill level that could provide a very formidable foe. It could happen. Beware.