OOC Guidebook

Thank you for your interest in Maximum Japan Pro-Wrestling.  We aim to be a low-stress, micro hybrid efed which provides a fruitful environment for you to explore your creative and literary ambitions.  The purpose of this Guidebook is to orient you to what MAX Japan is all about, how things are fun and what we expect from you as a handler. 

MAX Japan is the story of a Japanese pro-wrestling group told from the prospective of an English language broadcast team.  Wanting to appeal to a global audience, the bulk of the company's presentation occurs in English - this means that most of the staff (broadcast, interviewers, etc) are fluent in both English and Japanese. 

Additionally, much like other feds - MAX Japan operates in a fictional universe.  Thus, we have our own fictional venues to which we travel and will at times on broadcasts acknowledge the existence of other feds to help build our own world, so to speak.

Hybrid efed simply means that we are a cross between competitive and angled. 

We employ a competitive element based on the assessment of the writing quality put forth by the handlers.  These elements will influence the decision-making as the stakes (title matches, tournaments) get higher.  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.

We adopt aspects of angled feds by utilizing discretion at management level in terms of how we want to push stories.  Because we operate on a touring schedule and have more shows than an average efed, it would be an impossible calculation for every match to be competitive.  The story arcs between characters occur at a macro level and may contain many twists and turns.  However, you must keep in mind that writing participation absolutely affects the decision making process.  For example: we might have an idea of where we'd like to go with a story but if a handler produces an exceptional effort in how they present their character - an audible may be called. 

Most feds typically require handlers to submit ideas and work out stories collectively, but we tend to stray away from that.  We want to keep things spontaneous for the reader, allowing you to bring up the results and not know the story from start to finish. 

So what does this all mean? MAX Japan is a back and forth process.  At the executive level, we will at times push your character in different directions to see how you respond then we'll read your RPs and try to creatively reflect what you're doing in our results, maybe even put our own twist on it.  We hope that this gives MAX Japan an organic feel.  If we're not quite sure how you'll react to something, then you'll be contacted and given a sense of what to expect.  Don't fret though because we are not going to take creative liberties with your character.  Quite the contrary - we're here to help you build your character up as much as possible.

We are a touring promotion which means shows occur more frequently than the average fed.  Instead of a weekly show, MAX Japan operates on a tour that lasts 2 or 3 weeks and features shows every second or third day.  Thus, shows are written as a summary comparable to a digest of highlights depicted on a nightly sports recap shows.  The more important a match, the more you'll likely see of it on "television". 

However, MAX Japan may also run "standalone" events which occur outside of tours.  These events are typically larger in scale or feature some kind of theme (fan appreciation, benefit show, etc) that would otherwise interrupt the flow of a tour. 

We divide the roster into two categories: contracted and freelance fighters.  Contracted fighters are expected to compete on every tour while freelancers are cycled in and out of tours throughout the year.  Contracted fighters will be the drive and focus of most of our stories simply because they are around more often.  However, if your freelance character wins a title in MAX Japan then you are obligated to compete until you lose it.  Failure to do so will result in the title being stripped from you and declared vacant. 

Whether you decide to be contracted or freelance is entirely up to you.  It depends on how often you'd like to participate in our fed and what role you see for your character.  As a hybrid fed, there isn't a whole lot of writing required (a single 750 word role play per tour) and since we do summary results, segments are not necessary either. 

For the purpose of realism in Japan and to emulate pro-wrestling and broad athletic norms, there is no male vs. female fighters here.  Of course, joshi is a noteworthy staple of Japanese wrestling and is something we are willing to get into IF the interest is there (enough characters to warrant a division). 

RULES

OUT OF CHARACTER BEHAVIOUR

Failure to follow these rules could lead to you being removed from the fed and/or banned, but fortunately it's not a tough list.

a) Be kind and don't insult one another.
b) Don't stress out. This is a game, your character will lose sometimes - roll with it.
c) If you cannot make an RP deadline then let us known by PM or DM as far in advance as you can.

IN CHARACTER BEHAVIOUR

We reserve the right to suspend or ban for any reason. Having said this, we do want you to spread your creative wings and explore unique ideas, concepts and themes in your writing but please, use your common sense! We recognize that there are fine lines. For instance, many consider the popularly used term gaijin (外人; trans. foreigner, non-Japanese) to have negative connotations (the more formal and less controversial term is gaikokujin, 外国人). Moreover, putting native Japanese fighters over gaijin wrestlers was a major aspect of early puroresu. Even in North America, stories have often traded on cultural or national sensitivities (Sgt. Slaughter, Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkoff/Boris Zhukov, even the [new] Hart Foundation). All this is fine. Be interesting.

Our point is this: we can tell the difference between writing a character in good taste and being a jerk. If you cross a line, we’ll let you know. If we do let you know, modify your content. Otherwise, happy trails.

ROLE PLAYING

a) TYPES OF PROMOS

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.

REMEMBER THAT THESE POSTS COVER AN ENTIRE TOUR SO COMPLAINING ABOUT INDIVIDUAL MATCHES IS POINTLESS

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.

b) PROMO LENGTH

All competitive RPs are capped at 750 words.

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

c) OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER

CARDS CHANGE - SO FLEX, ADAPT.

There are two reasons we say this:

1. Often at the beginning of a tour, particularly when we have a tournament going, we can't schedule the entire tour from the get go. So, during tours, we have to make some cards on the fly (the one-shot events are more stable). This means it's not all about your opponent so tell your story.

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.

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JUDGING DECISIONS

a) Competitive Writing Assessment

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).

(b) 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).