RP Judging Guidelines

The following is a Judging Guideline that Carnage Wrestling Staff and Match Judges are encouraged to use as they grade submitted match RPs. But in the interest of full transparency: this is a guideline and a guideline ONLY - meaning that there are members of the voting staff who do not religiously follow a points rewarding system. Basically Carnage Wrestling will always judge RPs based off of three main categories: Style/Presentation, Story/Character Development, and Promo/Match Talk. The purpose of posting this guideline is to help the members of this federation understand what it is that we look for when we read a match roleplay. We would like your writing to be presented as a story or script that details the life of your character and perhaps most importantly how that character is reacting/responding/handling the lead-up to the match that they have been assigned.

Some of our judges lean more heavily to Story/Character Development than they do promo. Some lean more towards Promo/Match Talk. All match judges have their own interests/biases, so we believe that any rubric system will inherently have some measure of subjectivity. The word limits and rules of the federation are to be respected at all times. But long story short, a well-rounded approach will always be what you're looking for.

Even the best writers in this game are still constantly looking to improve.

In this Guideline, The overall body of work is divided into three categories, and is graded with a score of 0-10 in each category, with ten points being the absolute maximum score one could achieve.

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Overall Presentation - The basics: spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Making sure that you're not switching between first person and third person, or past and present tense. If English is not your first language or you have a disability that otherwise makes it difficult to follow these rules, please let Staff know in private. As long as we can follow your story, we are more than willing to waive this section of the judging for the sake of inclusiveness.

Readability - No big block chunks; please use proper spacing so that its easier for your readers to follow.

Font Color - Does NOT add to this score. A good looking roleplay makes for a good reading roleplay in some cases, but sometimes colors can do more harm than good. Feel free to get creative with it; just don't make things an absolute mess.

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Your Character's Story is important here in Carnage Wrestling. It tells us, the reader, the whos, whats, and hows of the person whom you've chosen to play. It also tells us why we should care about your character, which should always be on the forefront of your mind when you're writing.

So, what is your character's story? How did it develop from the last time we've heard from him/her until now? Is it interesting? Does it have any effect on how this character enters their next match? Match Relevance and Good Storytelling are the keys for this. Please understand that if your character is talking about themselves, even within the context of a 'promo', judges should still consider this under their vote for character development.

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Strictly what your character says about your opponent(s). The promo should match the dynamic that your character is playing versus the dynamic your opponent is playing. (If you're a face, you wouldn't threaten your opponents family as an example.)

- Please don't read and reply to your opponents first RP with your First RP. We call this 'Direct Replying' and it's not a good idea to do this as it will be an automatic 0 points for the promo section of the rp.
- It is acceptable to reply to your opponents previous (past) RPs, anything they've said or done within any of the shows.
- Do NOT include Out of Character thoughts/feelings/'shots' in your In-Character promo. No one wants this drama. Your Roleplays are for Your Characters thoughts/feelings/'shots' ONLY and violating this will not only disqualify your entire RP, it is a violation of Carnage Wrestling's rules and may result in a warning or ban.

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In cases where we cannot accept a tie as a finish, the staff will then add overall x-factor as the fourth and final category. This is literally is the unexplained things that would make staff like one rp just a tiny bit more than another one. In some cases, that's really what it comes down to. It's completely subjective and it doesn't always feel fair.

But there are many excellent writers in this hobby and having two high-scoring pieces is akin to the nature of this game. Great RPs will lose. Staff will do everything they can to make all characters look good and have something to go off of, even in loss, especially if the effort is put forth by the handlers.