Thursday, July 13 - Sunday, July 16, 2006

At DEXCON 9/INTERCON NORTHEAST in East Brunswick, New Jersey

RULES AND REGULATIONS

Updated 4/27/06

All members of your team, including you, are required to be registered members of DEXCON 9/INTERCON NORTHEAST, by whatever means necessary (paid membership, GM membership, staff membership, etc.). Your team will not be considered confirmed until all of its members are registered for the convention.

1) By registering your team, you are designated as the CAPTAIN of the team, and all correspondence and decisions will be negotiated with you and you alone.

2) Each team may consist of between 2 and 4 members. Under no circumstances will a single person or more than 4 people be considered qualified for this competition.

3) Once registration is accepted, a team is considered to be confirmed, and arrangements will be made immediately for the hotel stay and other details necessary for the team to compete. If more than eight teams register before the deadline (Midnight, June 16, 2006), a special runoff will be held to pare the competition down to eight teams.

4) You and your team are responsible for appearing at the DEXCON 9/INTERCON NORTHEAST Registration Area at the East Brunswick Hilton no later than 10:00AM, July 13, 2006 to check in and prove your eligibility to compete.

5) You and your team will enter your private hotel room (designated by Double Exposure, Inc.) at 12:00PM on July 13, 2006. Once the door is closed, you will have no further contact with the outside world for a period of 24 hours, other than one designated Double Exposure staff member who is charged with taking care of your needs and reasonable requests.

6) For the period of time between 12:00PM on July 13, 2006 and 12:00PM on July 14, 2006, the following restrictions will be in place:

A) All cell phones will be surrendered and held by Double Exposure staff.

B) The hotel room phone(s) will be removed.

C) Any other computer equipment will be surrendered and held by Double Exposure staff.

D) A single computer will be allowed for each team in each room, WITHOUT internet (or wireless) access. That computer will have various reference sources on it to enable each team to research necessary information for the integration of the three mystery themes (explained in rule 7).

E) All team members will be responsible for telling a designated outside contact where they are in case of emergency. If an emergency occurs during the 24 hour period forcing a team member to leave (either because of illness or family crisis, etc.), that team member will be officially (even if not virtually) disqualified from further involvement in the competition. However, the remaining team members (even if it is just one person at that point) will be able to continue and complete the competition.

F) All food requests will be made prior to the 24 hour period to minimize contact with the outside world. All food will be delivered by Double Exposure staff. If outside food is requested, the team is responsible for cost (plus tips).

G) All materials needed for the creation of a LARP will be provided, including pens, pencils, paper, a working printer which connects to the computer in the room, dictionary, envelopes, index cards, poster board, rubber bands, paper clips, etc. Any additional requests will be considered on a case by case basis.

7) Each team, once settled in their room, will receive a sealed envelope containing the three mystery themes which must be incorporated into the finished LARP. Once this envelope is received, each team will get to work creating a finished LARP in 24 hours which utilizes the three themes. As a starting point, identical reference sources will then be made available to all teams which specifically go into detail about each of the themes to ensure that all teams start at the same level of knowledge.

8) At noon on Friday, July 14, 2006, each team will be removed from their room and all items which were surrendered will be given back. Each team is responsible for presenting the Double Exposure staff with a sealed envelope containing a complete, ready-to-run LARP. This envelope will NOT be opened again until it is time for the team to run their game (explained in rule 14).

9) The envelope MUST contain the following items:

A) An individual character sheet (as detailed or simple as necessary) for 12 individual players, plus designations for FIVE of the characters who can play in the game at a minimum (in other words, each final game must be ready for a minimum of five players and a maximum of 12 players - however, it will be played for the first time with 12). Characters 6 through 12 should be numbered in the order in which they should be inserted into the game (or if that would be too much information for the players, then the Gamemaster Reference (see subrule D below) should contain that information).

B) 12 identical copies of a WORLD sheet (again, as detailed or simple as necessary), which explains the world the players will be playing in and the background information regarding their current situation.

C) 12 identical copies of a RULES sheet (again, as detailed or simple as necessary), which explains the system being used, how conflict is resolved, how characters utilize their abilities, and how they interact.

D) A Gamemaster Reference (again, as detailed or simple as necessary), which explains any special information which the GMs of the game must know to run the game (remember that the game must be ready to run by ANY team of gamemasters).

E) Any additional materials which enhance the game (i.e. item cards, skill packs, reference material, posters, maps, etc.). Note that to equalize the financial capabilities of each of the teams, no props will be allowed which do not fit into the game envelope.

10) Any additional generic materials which are necessary for the game which should not necessarily fit into the envelope will be provided at the time of running of the game. Each team should be prepared to obtain or provide these materials (i.e. dice, playing cards, pens, markers, dots, etc.).

11) The complete LARP should be optimized for two full hours of play. The Gamemaster Reference should contain information on a tentative schedule of events, whether these events should be player driven or gamemaster driven, to enable a team of GMs to correctly run the game for two full hours. The actual slot for playing the game will be three hours, which includes 30 minutes for setup and 30 minutes for tear down and wrapup.

12) The actual LARP may be any genre the team wishes, take place in any era or location the team wishes, and may include any type of content that the team wishes to conveny. There are no age restrictions on the game because the players of the game will be assumed to be over 18. Hence, adult material (if the team feels it will enhance the game) is allowable. However, under no circumstances should any created LARP in this competition force any player to act out or otherwise convey themes related to Rape, Child Pornography or Terrorism, or to act out any sexual or violent scene other than in the virtual abstract (i.e. forcing a player to kiss another player or physically hit another player would not be allowed, although needing the character to convey the action is). Each LARP may be as serious or as humorous as the team sees fit - note that the scoring system (shown in rule 15) will balance these factors out. No game may use any element of scavenger or widget hunting, nor may any game involve the destruction or potential destruction of any hotel property.

13) Each of the games will be designated a random time slot, beginning at 3:00PM on Friday, July 14. The same team of 12 players will play in all eight games to ensure the fairness of the competition. The time slots are as follows:

A) Friday, 3:00PM - 6:00PM
B) Friday, 6:00PM - 9:00PM
C) Friday, 9:00PM - 12:00AM
D) Saturday, 9:00AM - 12:00PM
E) Saturday, 12:00PM - 3:00PM
F) Saturday, 3:00PM - 6:00PM
G) Saturday, 9:00PM - 12:00AM
H) Sunday, 9:00AM - 12:00PM

Final scoring and tallying will take place at 1:00PM on Sunday, and the winning team will be announced at 2:00PM on Sunday. All games will be played within the East Brunswick Hilton function space during DEXCON 9/INTERCON NORTHEAST.

14) The 12 players who will be playing in all eight games will be chosen by Double Exposure, and will be experienced role players. At the start of each game, the team which is presenting the game will open their sealed envelope and designate characters as they see fit to the players. They will then run their game for the players during the time slot, and finish by the end of the time slot (including wrapup and Q&A). Note that GMs are not allowed to substantially embellish the printed material of the Character Sheets and/or the Gamemaster Reference, although minor tweaks are allowed. Infractions will be ruled on and subsequently punished (by point reduction) by the IRON GM judges. Basically, all great GM ideas should be planned out within the 24 hour writing period, and remaining plot twists should be left to the players.

15) The following scoring system will be used to judge each game:

A) Game Tension (sometimes referred to as drama, but also an indication of the intensity of the game if it is humorous): 0-10 points.

B) Integration of Mystery Elements (how well the team has seamlessly merged the three elements into their game): 0-30 points.

C) Originality of the game (how unique an experience it is to the players as a game experience): 0-30 points.

D) Overall Satisfaction with the game (this includes how well the plot was designed, how well subplots got tied together, how many twists were involved, and generally how much the players enjoyed the game): 0-20 points.

E) Technical Merit (this is a special category which is judged by Shane Amerman and 2 other designated LARPA personnel, which addresses issues such as the clarity of the writing, the necessary complexity of the written material, the completeness and preparedness of the game itself, etc.): 0-10 points.

Each of these scores will be tallied up and a final score of 0-100 points will be given to each game. The winning team will be the team which scored the highest. In the event of a tie, a special runoff election will be held by all 12 players AND the 3 judges to determine the winner (via private ballot).

16) The winning team will receive $500.00 in cash, presented as a lump sum payment via check to the CAPTAIN of the team. It will be the Captain's responsibility to further disperse the prize to other members of the team; Double Exposure, Inc. takes no responsibility for this step at all.

17) The final scores and all rulings of the judges are final; there is no provision for appeal of any kind, and by registering for The 2006 IRON GM Competition, each Captain (and therefore his or her represented team) agrees to abide by all rulings as final.

Register NOW to ensure your team's place in the competition!

We expect this competition to fill up very quickly, so make sure you register as soon as you know you will be competing!

For further information, send eMail to: info@dexposure.com