<div align="center"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 24pt;"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: impact;"><span class="bbc_u"><strong>GM UPDATE #20!!!</strong></span></span></span></div><br/><hr/><hr/><br/><div style="text-align: justify;">     Keep in mind this system will <strong>ONLY</strong> be used for big fights (as there are really too many people for everyone to communicate effectively between posts or come to an agreement on the outcome - as I believe all authors writing on the same page is key to a good combat scene.) That's easy to do if there are only a couple but four, five, or more people tends to get pretty crazy.<br/><br/>     Below is a simple dice-bot tutorial for those of you who've never used it before. I myself am a primarily a fan of free-form, and hate dice-based systems - as they create too many annoying pauses in the action. However, using them prior to a conflict only ONCE, makes for a great fair-and-equal way to Free-Form the entire combat sequence in a way that keeps all involved writers on the same page. It has worked wonderfully in other free-form games I have GMed. In fact I think it helped those scenes to go over much smoother than the non-dice-rolled scenes. If you're willing to give it a shot, I believe you'll see how the way that <em><strong>I</strong></em> utilize it enhances free-from combat and placing-outcomes.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>     When you first click the button at the top of the Elliquiy Index Page titled "Dice Bot" you'll see something similar to the image below. You might feel better to know that you're going to ignore 90% of what you see. In GREEN I have highlighted the boxes you'll be putting info into. Everything struck-out in RED or not included in the picture, won't be used for what we're doing.<br/><br/>(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b52/jotunusmc/DiceTutorialMARVEL_zps4ca76659.jpg)</div><br/>It's pretty self-explanatory (pictures are great for that!), but in case you need some more detailed guidance:<br/><br/>In the "<strong>Character:</strong>" box you will put in the name of your character participating in the massive fight scene. Apocalypse will be the example for this scenario.<br/><br/>In the "<strong>Send To:</strong>" box you will put in the ID for the GM in your area, or the GM participating in the combat (they will normally be one and the same). I will provide a list of all the GM's ID numbers in this update. Currently in the example above is mine: 33664. This is an important part of the roll, as it sends the roll to the GM in charge (where I, or the GM sent to can see it when we click on the "see rolls made to you" link).<br/><br/>In the "<strong>Dice:</strong>" box you will leave it as 1. You never need to roll more than a single dice, ever. So this one is simple. One dice per character.<br/><br/>In the "<strong>Sides:</strong>" box, the number you will put in depends on how many people are participating on your side - Resistance or Vision. Myself or your GM in charge will tell you how many sides to roll with. Here is the key they, and I will be using for an equal distribution:<br/><strong>For 1 person - 2520<br/>     For 2 people - 1260<br/>     For 3 people - 840<br/>     For 4 people - 630<br/>     For 5 people - 504</strong><br/><em>For 6 people - 420<br/>     For 7 people - 360<br/>     For 8 people - 315<br/>     For 9 people - 280<br/>     For 10 people - 252</em><br/><em>You will likely only be fighting with a few other people on your side. Battles much larger than that I will probably personally set up; so you can essentially not worry about determining what number to put here - you'll probably be informed what to put.</em><br/><br/>For "<strong>Comments:</strong>", you will just be providing the location of the battle and maybe who you're fighting. Something like "Port Said Apoc vs. HYDRA/SWORD" or "NYC Resistance vs Carnage". Something like that, just to help describe what it's for (in case your GM is involved in other games using dice - but even if left blank, the character name alone you already provided should give it away.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>That was over-explanation in my opinion. Sides is the only tricky part, and I or another GM will provide that number for you. If you're curious as to why there is a key like that, it's because I had to choose a number that is evenly divisible by the numbers 1-10. That way everyone's roll equally contributes to the "Team Score" (a score both the Resistance and Villains will have).<br/><br/>The "Team Score" will be a combination of everyone's roll-outcome fighting on your side. The two sides scores will be compared and the team with the higher number "wins" the encounter. If your team loses, then the character who contributed the lowest roll will become captured.<br/><br/>Should your team ever be defeated by a margin of 1500 or more points (pretty rare), then the entire team is captured and whoever contributed the lowest roll will get a PM from me requesting permission for your character to perish during the battle. While it is not mandatory that your character die (if you are particularly attached to them - which is understandable for most OC's), letting them perish and picking up a new canon or OC is encouraged. I think the added sense of peril will add to the enjoyment of the game for everyone - as well as make it more believable. The chance of defeat, capture, and possible death (all known before combat even begins) will make every encounter different and unexpected - as well as give everyone a chance to try writing something they haven't normally tried before.<br/><br/>Your GM will be reading the individual rolls, tallying team scores, and informing you of the outcomes via PM - without a bunch of numbers. ^.^ For those GMs uncomfortable doing this, I will be more than happy to take the rolls on a fight scene and then send out PMs to all with a description of the results.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Here is an example of a pre-combat set of dice rolls and how they effected the fight. I'll roll them all completely random (as if they would really be rolled) - just for the sake of authenticity. I'll do a roll on fictional Port Said battle. As you'll notice here, its entirely possible for the GM to roll for every person taking part in the battle and pre-determining everything without the other players needing to use the dice-bot at all. However, it save your GMs a little extra work if you're willing to roll for yourself. And you probably want to be the one responsible for your own roll, right?<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u"><strong>The Vision</strong></span>-<em>3 components = 3 rolls</em>so<strong>840</strong>is used for each roll's "<strong>Sides:</strong>" box.<br/>Mr. Sinister - 088<br/>Apocalypse - 618<br/>His team of Elite Soldiers - 223<br/><strong>Team Total = 929</strong><br/><br/><span class="bbc_u"><strong>The Resistance</strong></span>-<em>4 components = 4 rolls</em>so<strong>630</strong>is used for each roll's "<strong>Sides:</strong>" box.<br/>Agent Brand - 218<br/>Nightcrawler - 352<br/>Loki - 614<br/>NPC Forces and Extras - 581<br/><strong>Team Total = 1765</strong><br/><br/>No matter how many people are on the team - the chances of winning are even - however the more people you have on your side rolling, the more likely you are NOT to get screwed by one bad roll. So let's break down the above scenario (I or your GM will be doing this for you and sending out a PM that looks like: )<br/><br/>Comparing the team scores - the Resistance is the clear winner, though not even close to the 1500 point margin that would require the losing side's lowest roller (in this case Mr. Sinsiter) to die. However, since the Resistance won the battle, Mr. Sinister is captured and the rest of the villains escape alive.<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u"><em><strong>That's it.</strong></em></span><br/><br/><strong>So if the above scenario were real, then everyone involved would free-form the entire combat scene however they wish - so long as the end result is: Resistance wins, Sinister is captured. Leaving unlimited ways for the battle to unfold - still <em>entirely</em> and <span class="bbc_u">100%</span> Free-Form!</strong><br/><br/>I shall make an extra special note that for<em>SMALL</em>engagements, if the involved parties can<strong>agree</strong>on the outcome - then there is no need for dice to play any part.<strong>Additionally, the death of a character will <em>NEVER</em> be mandatory</strong>- as stated when I originally created the game - any event that would SIGNIFICANTLY effect your character's physical, mental, or emotional state (to include DEATH) must be discussed with, and approved by BOTH the Lead-GM as well as that character's Player.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Keep in mind this massive post is an extremely large- overexplanation for a very simple process. Go ahead and test out a few rolls and you'll see how simple it really is. I just wanted to make sure I broke down EVERY step COMPLETELY so that it would limit the amount of "easy" questions anyone might possibly send me.<br/><br/>If anyone has any further questions about this, just shoot me a PM. It actually only took me about five minutes to roll for all parties and tally up the results. So it's really no big deal even if you all want me to handle every single roll - as this is only used for BIG FIGHTS, which won't happen frequently, let alone simultaneously. It's simple and easy, and I think will make for a good way of organizing the game and creating an uncertain path towards the end-goal. Something unpredictable and unplanned on our course for Apocalypse's eventual execution for his crimes against humanity and all of the Earth.<br/><br/>This most recent update took me almost two hours to do - mostly because I was trying to type it and do the quick paint edit on the screenshot, all with both my daughters sitting on my lap watching cartoons on my second monitor. Lol... Whew. It was a bit chaotic, let me tell you. My eight-month old wanted to push all of the green glowing keys on my keyboard the whole time! Hahaha.<br/>