Sign Ups Begin on November 3rd

Full details about tier and roles will be included in the signup post so you don't have to jump back to this post for info.

The Character Scramble is a bloodmatch tournament where people compete to write the best story they can. At the beginning, everyone submits characters that meet the guidelines, then those characters are randomized and distributed evenly. From then on, each week there's a new writing prompt for everyone to follow. At the end of the week, everyone votes for who they think should advance, until we have our winner at the end. The winner at the end of the tournament gets to choose the theme, tier, and rules of the next scramble, along with a nice custom flair as their reward.

Click here to join the email list

Come join our official Discord Channel!

The book has been closed on Character Scramble 8. The shackles are off, the walls are broken, the debts have been repaid, and we move on to Character Scramble 9! This post right here is gonna do a couple of things. It's partially a hype post for the next scramble, it's an explanation of what to expect from the scramble to come, and it's a look behind the curtain as to why things might be different from the scrambles prior. It's a chance for me to receive feedback from you, and hear your thoughts on everything before it gets cemented into permanency. So if something seems a little wonky, or not quite right, it can be adjusted or clarified, and eventually perfect, just like me!

Theme and Tier

8 Seasons over 3 years, Scramble has done a LOT. Train hijacking, final destinationing, Hunter Exam taking, Steel Ball Running, Wrestlemania main eventing, jail breaking, house buying, Death Watching. It's been a wild ride. And each of these adventures had but one thing in common: gathering heroes and villains from across time and space to do battle with one another. So, y'know what, why not just embrace that fully?

That's right, I'm talking about a scramble based on Fate!

As a basic overview, Fate is a pretty wide branching franchise with a lot of complex lore from various media forms. But you don't have to worry about all that! The most basic premise is that is a tale of Masters, humans and mages of the modern day, bringing forth heroic spirits, power figures of myth and history, to do battle. They battle against other masters, with servants of their own, in the hopes of claiming The Holy Grail, an omnipotent device capable of granting the ones who claim it their greatest wish. Sounds perfect for this kind of thing, right?

But we're not done yet! While the basis of what the Fate Franchise and the Holy Grail War is is a perfect base for the character scramble, what does it tell us about the setting? Surely you can't have an entire season of people this strong confined to a single city? Instead, this scramble will be based on the scenarios establish in Fate: Grand Order! Your team will be zipping through time and space to legendary events in history, whether real or mythological, to do their battles. All with the promise that someday, some way, they will get their hands on the all powerful Grail.

If you want information on Fate, there's no shortage of ways to go about it. The Fate/Zero, Fate/Stay Night, and Unlimited Blade Works anime are all on Crunchyroll, and Fate/Apocrypha will soon be on Netflix. Besides that, there's visual novels out there if you know where to look (cuz I sure don't), or you could even try to learn from the Fate: Grand Order Mobile Game if you really want. Plenty of ways to dive in.

As for the Tier, well, it's actually TWO tiers. If you paid attention to the description above, submissions will be in two parts. The first of these is the more straightforward "combatants", your Servants. Servants will be Between 2/10 and 8/10 on DCEU Wonder Woman (not including feats from Dawn of Justice. You can tell these feats by their mention of Doomsday.).Effectively, this is around the mid to low end of Scramble 6's tier, with an easier benchmark to understand and scale from.

And then comes the more non-combative, but no less important role, of Masters. A peculiar bunch, to say the least. Masters in Fate range from useless teenagers to characters who could very well go head-to-head with your Servant submissions. Which is hardly what we want. So the tiering for masters is a little more... complicated than that for servants. There are three "parameters" to Master tier. First, Your master must be capable of leading DCEU Wonder Woman to beat 616 Venom a majority of the time with 30 minutes of prep time, without making it a 10/10 stomp. Neither your master nor Wonder Woman know anything about Venom (including his weaknesses to fire and sound), but if your master is able to figure them out, they are able to exploit them. Second, your character cannot be above 7/10 Captain America WITHOUT HIS SHIELD. And Third, they must be capable of communication, thought, and independent action. What constitutes as "benefits" will vary from master to master, but as long as it's SOMETHING, you'll likely manage to get through okay. However, at the end of the day, in the event of a dispute, the GM's are the final arbiters of what does and doesn't make a workable master.

Roles

For this Scramble, we'll be trying something a little different with Roles. Rather than a select number of static roles everyone adheres to, there is instead a pool of roles to pick from. You won't end up submitting a character to every role, but besides Master (which everyone must submit), you will select which role best fits the THREE servant character you want to submit. You cannot submit, nor will you receive, multiple characters to the same role (Backups excluded). Also, the example servants listed aren't necessarily in tier, but just give you an idea of what could be considered a normal member of the class. The Pool of Roles is:

Saber: Heroic Spirit of the Blade and most Well Rounded of the Classes. If your character is known to fight with swords, knives, katana, kukri, or anything of the sort, or fits none of these classes well but excels in all fields equally, this is the class for it.

Examples: Ruronoa Zoro, Meta Knight, Sephiroth, Link, Alexander Anderson

Archer: Heroic Spirit of the Bow and most dangerous of the Heroic Spirits when acting on their own. If your character is famed for fighting at range, or fits none of these classes well but is acclaimed as a "lone wolf" type, this is where you'll be slotting them.

Examples: Seras Victoria, Pit, Mikoto Misaka, Cinder Fall, Undyne

Lancer: Heroic Spirit of the Lance, famous for their agility and infamous for their poor luck. Characters who find themselves at home wielding spears, scythes, tridents, whips, and the like, or fit no other class but are known for their mobility or bad luck, belong as Lancers.

Examples: Aquaman, Momiji, Simon Belmont, Qilby, Donatello

Rider: Heroic Spirit of the Mount, acclaimed for their skill in Riding and for their unmatched speeds. Characters who are famous for riding something (or who act as mounts themselves), or who do not fit any class but are exceptionally fast, belong of the Rider class.

Examples: Ghost Rider, Iron Man, Tohru, Simon the Digger, Makoto Nijima, Khal Drogo

Caster: Heroic Spirit of Spells and Sorcery, known for their mystic talents and intelligence. Characters who fight with mystical powers, or who do not fit any of the classes but are best known for their intellect, are best suited as Casters

Examples: Pikachu, Aang, Storm, Amaterasu, Reimu, Harry Potter

Berserker: Heroic Spirit of Mad Rage, famed for their raw power and depleted sanity. Characters known for rage, insanity, or raw strength are the classic examples of a Berserker.

Examples: Kratos, Raiden, Eren Jaeger, The Hulk, Krieg, Guts

Assassin: Heroic Spirit of Assassinations, most notable for their underhanded methods and silent killings. Character who get by on Stealth or Trickery are those most commonly associated with the Assassin class.

Examples: Ryu Hayabusa, Kakashi Hatake, Batman, Solid Snake, Corvo Attano, Spiderman

Masters: And the only role which everyone will be submitting too, and the one we've already covered above. Check the "Tiers" section for clarification of what makes an appropriate Master.

Examples: Mercy, Batman, Artemis Fowl, Robin, Sora and Shiro, Hope Alazani

Signups

Last few bits of information of what makes a good character submission, and what makes a bad one (trust me, I have a lot of experience with this one). So, some general guidelines for submissions are:

• The Character must be Researchable! A respect thread is good, but barring that, scans that prove the character you're putting in are within the tier are necessary. If your character is from a work longer than 1 movie, 6 episodes, 20 Chapters/Issues, or a 5 hour game, you need to provide a Mini-Rt of at least 5-or-so feats, preferably covering the stats of Strength, Speed, and Durability at the very least. At the same time, getting the characters personality down is important as well. Links to individual comics, manga chapters, anime episodes, video game walkthroughs, or television show scenes can do a lot for getting the people who get your character to write them the best they can!

• Everything I just said? That goes for Masters as well. If your master provides a certain benefit, have some scans or gifs on hand of what they can do! A page of them coming up with a brilliant strategy, a list of gear they can give, examples of how their powers work, things of that nature are going to be required. And seeing as the master is so drastically weaker than the servants in physical combat, it's extra important to give those who receive these characters an understanding of what they do and how they act.

• Don't submit something just because it's a meme. As funny that you may think it is to submit Barry Bee Benson or Cory Baxter in an Iron Man suit, just... don't. People take this competition very seriously and want to write to the best of their abilities. There's no point to handicapping people with "Gag" characters.

• With that said, submit characters YOU like! We have a ton of roles for a ton of flexibility in submissions, so find a way to get in characters you want to see written. Don't feel obligated to submit someone you don't care for just because "Oh, looks like we might need more Lancers". Let me worry about that, while you worry about getting the characters you want to see in.

• Not everyone likes the same things as you. We all have different tastes, so worry more about making sure your character's in tier than if it'll be a popular choice. And don't argue against characters just because you don't like them!

• Duplicates are not banned, but if you see someone already submitted a character you wanted, think about submitting someone else. That person just freed you up a character slot!

• Sometimes, you gotta modify a character to make sure they're good to go. Maybe they have one durability feat or one power that puts them out of tier, or maybe they were in tier at a certain point and then got too strong. Specifications like "ignore X feat" or "Only up to Y arc" are perfectly fine and common, But don't try to force it. "William Shakespeare with the Carnage Symbiote" or "Superman with his arms and legs broken" is not an acceptable submission :P

• Listen to what other people have to say. The people here want to help you out and create the maximum amount of fun for both you and the other players. If they have questions or concerns about characters you submitted, try not to feel attacked or offended - they’re just trying to help you. That doesn’t mean you have to blindly agree with people, feel free to argue their points - it’s the point of the sub, after all! - but just keep your ears open.

And Lastly, know that The Tribunal, Submission Stories, and Round 0 are all making a comeback, so be prepared to write right out of the gate!

I ask of you... Are you my Master?