Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-30530552-20171101175001

In my race to make sure all my work was done and to hide from trick-or-treaters, I neglected to put this up. Sorry about that.

Link to the Competition Gallery here

Now, contest-goers and especially new-contest-goers, this is what this is all about: This is a contest done every month (DUH) where every participant, using the Template provided below, makes an OC, filling up the different sections to flesh them out.

Participants can add and change anything they want to their OC until the deadline arrives, at which point future edits are ignored and the current judge will judge them as soon as they can. Tomonth, the judge is Me.

The kicker here is that every Competition has a Theme, decided by the current Judge. It can range from specific kinds of allusions like "Historical Figures" or "Greek Mythology", to more thematic choices like "7 Deadly Sins" or "Major Arcana of the Tarot", to having to make a specific kind of character or story, like "Bonds" or "Prodigies".

After judging, the entry with the most points wins. Their Creator gets 3 privileges: They are the next Judge for the next Competition, they can decide the next Theme, and they can brag as much as they want until they piss everyone off, at which point they should just shut up (or not have started to begin with).

Of course, they can let someone else be the next Judge for whatever reason, or let others decide the Theme, as with me, as I'm hosting for Spirit while she's bogged down with work.



In any case, this month's theme is Aquatic Animals (Fittingly, as I'm a fish). This means you need to select an animal that spends its life in a body of water for the vast majority of its life, and incorporate it into your character in some way directly. A couple of theme specific rules:

1. Sea-faring birds such as gulls and pelicans are not acceptable.

2. Reptiles and Amphibians who transition between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems are to be handled on a case-by-case basis, be sure to ask if you wish to use one of these.

3. The animal must be directly incorporated into the character in some way, no fleeting mentions of an aquatic creature that was important to them, even if they forced a driving character moment or drastic change such as a Grimm Shark attack.

4. Creature must actually exist in real life and be proven in some format, so no merfolk as your base animal (this would be fine to use for an outside reference though, if you were so inclined.)

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DA RULES:

1) Participants have until the deadline to make and edit their OCs. Any and every edit or entry made after the deadline will be ignored.

<p style="font-weight:normal;font-size:14px;">2) Participants must use the Template provided below.

<p style="font-weight:normal;font-size:14px;">3) The OCs must, at all costs, follow the established and/or obvious Rules of Canon. Those are: <p style="font-weight:normal;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:14px;">You can use Grimm as influence, at the risk of making the OC an Edgelord, but that's it. <p style="font-weight:normal;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:14px;">4) OCs must not be directly affiliated with the main cast, be they the heroes or the villains. That means that knowing who Pyrrha was is OK, being in the same school period as Pyrrha is OK, but outright being friends with them is not OK.
 * Color Naming Rule: Unless the OC is from before, during, or shortly after the Great War that happened 80 years before RWBY's story begins, the OC's name must be a color in some language, sound like a color, or remind of a color, either in their First Name or Family Name.
 * No Grimm-People Hybrids of any sort. Aside from nothing in canon stating that such a thing is even possible, the very concept is a paradox: If they don't have Aura, they're not people (note that even Penny had Aura). If they have Aura, they're not Grimm (since Aura comes from the Soul, which Grimm explicitly lack).
 * No Aura-using Androids. Penny was stated to be the 1st and so far only one of her kind. Do note, Metal Prosthetics are OK, so yes, you can go make your OC be all "I never asked for this".

<p style="font-weight:normal;font-size:14px;">5) Do not bring characters from other works of media. This means, Not using: Naruto, Goku, Sonic, Link, Samus Aran, Batman, Megaman, etc. Using them as inspiration, influence, basis, is fine (as long as it still fits the Theme), but don't downright bring them or make a carbon-copy of them.

<p style="font-weight:normal;font-size:14px;">6) In the Off-Topic section of the Forums here, there are OC, Weapon, and Semblance threads. Any creation of yours posted there, can be used here (modified to fit the Template of course), as long as: <p style="font-weight:normal;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:14px;">Also, a clarification: If they were posted during the month the Competition was taking place, they are disqualified if used. In other words, they will be worth 0 points.
 * It was not posted between the Contest's date and the last month - in this case, October.
 * It was not used in any previous contest. Although, you can modify them to an extent that they are noticeably different.

<p style="font-weight:normal;font-size:14px;">7) The OC and their stuff, like Weapons and Semblances, must be your own creations, original or unoriginal. You can ask others for advice however.

<p style="font-weight:normal;font-size:14px;">8) If you use someone else's creations, you must provide proof that that person gave you their permission. Otherwise, automatically disqualified. 0 points.

<p style="font-weight:normal;font-size:14px;">9) The 1st full (or closest to full) character that you post is the one that will be judged. You can modify them as much as you want until the deadline. Do note: Anons cannot edit their posts, so they would be forced to post multiple times for even the smallest "fix".

<p style="font-weight:normal;font-size:14px;">Because of this, it's recommended for anonymous users to just make an account so they can edit their posts and save the trouble (and not clog the drains that "lead to the ocean").

<p style="font-weight:normal;font-size:14px;">Important Note: Wikia is infamous for eating up posts without warning, basically acting like you posted them but then posting nothing. Edits are also affected. Please copy your work before posting any entries or making any edits.

<p style="font-weight:normal;font-size:14px;">10) First-time (and for me, second-time) entrants will be given 10 bonus points if their score is below 70. This is to give them a "fighting chance" against Veterans. Do note though, that more often than not, this only manages to sugarcoat the defeat. The chances of you actually winning with those bonus points is pretty low, so try not to depend on them.

<p style="font-weight:normal;font-size:14px;">11) If the participant is gonna make an OC that has no weapon, Semblance, or Huntsman Training, please tell the judge ASAP so I can make alterations to the Template and make a special one for the OC in question.

<p style="font-weight:normal;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:14px;">The Deadline will be November 18 at 23:59:59, or in other words, the moment Nov. 19 arrives, no more edits and entries. Time is slightly extended, given that I forgot to post this in a timely fashion.

<p style="font-weight:normal;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:14px;"> Now, the people who made the Wikia system have been a little wacky these last few months, making changes nobody asked for and nobody likes. They're probably recovering blood addicts, but still. Among these changes was removing the UTC clock for no good reason whatsoever, s o for now, we'll just keep swimming with  this thing  to guide ourselves. Template and Grading system will be posted later.

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<p style="font-weight:normal;font-size:14px;margin-bottom:0px!important;">I wish you all luck, and if you have any questions, please contact me directly via my Message Wall, PM through Discord, or here while quoting the topic in question. <ac_metadata title="Monthly OC Competition - Version 31 - Fish Are Friends, Not Food"> </ac_metadata>