GCW Writing Guide

Judging Procedure

In GCW, members often contribute by judging RP contests. Obviously, every individual will have his or her own judging preferences. We believe this is a good thing: writers should practice writing for a varied audience of various tastes. However, it is appropriate to establish an overall judging philosophy to keep things somewhat uniform. Here you'll find information about how to judge and what to look for.

Volunteering

Being a judge is as easy as picking a match. Each week a signup thread will be posted. You may volunteer to judge any match with an open judge slot. However, please try to judge matches near the level at which you ordinarily compete. This is simply to encourage groups of people to familiarize themselves with a group's work. If you begin by reading a few characters frequently, you can judge those characters more accurately.

Judging Criteria

Judging is subjective by nature, and therefore it is impossible to establish a set of criteria for judging. However, there are a few rules to live by when judging. Start by asking this question: How well does the roleplay accomplish its goal? There is no preferred approach to RPing in GCW, but every RP is attempting to tell a story in a certain way. You should judge how effective that RP is in telling that story and executing its style. A few other pointers:

1. Relevance is not mandatory in GCW. The RP can be about anything. If you're naturally disinclined to enjoy an RP that isn't abot wrestling, you shouldn't judge. However, any RP is expected to hold the reader's interest. The writer should construct an RP that effectively draws you in, regardless of what it's about.

2. Size doesn't matter. A 500 word RP can beat a 5000 word RP if it's more effective. The RP should do just as much as it needs to--no more, no less. If it's too short, penalize it. If it drags on too long, ditto. But don't give bonus points just because an RP is longer. Ask the question: did this RP accomplish what it set out to do?

3. Feedback is immensely appreciated by the writers. Don't post feedback until after the results go up, but if you want to go above and beyond, scratch out a few thoughts on each RP you read and post them in the feedback thread after the show. This would be a major bonus.