Welcome, everyone to the start of Author's Games: Fandoms 2, Task One! So far I'm super excited for all of your characters and can't wait to read the stories you're going to make.

Ready to get started? Here's your task:

Your characters have just recently been taken/kidnapped/recruited by your villain.

Your villain orders your characters to help them take over the first realm (any realm/fandom on the list of your choice) but your characters are hesitant either because they don't want to hurt anyone or because they hate being controlled. Show their struggle between doing what's right or obeying your villain and in the end, they're forced to do something they didn't want to do. This is about helping me get to know your characters and the dynamics between your characters and each other and especially the dynamics between them and your villain. What does your villain have over them? How does your villain control them? Is it magic? Blackmail? A loved one in danger? Show me how your villains control your characters and the dynamics between them.

So needless to say, when I score, not only will I be looking at the basics I always do (syntax, which is grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, run-ones, emotion, action, etc), but also the dynamics between all of your characters.

The Task itself is non-optional but you can add your own creative twists to it.

Remember that you must go to all of your characters POV's (excluding your villain) in order to keep them alive. If you forget a character, then next round, you'll have to kill them off. Feel free to go to your villain's POV if you want, but if you forget any of the other characters, they will die. This means that everyone should have at least four POV changes in the entries and yes, I will be counting and keeping track.

Since these are your first characters, they don't give you control over any realm just yet (unless you do the optional part below), but they can still die and in the future, all your characters will earn you control over the realms as you write them.

In this case, whatever fandom you choose to have your characters be sent to take over (in the task above, where they don't want to do something and are forced to do it) if you write that fandom and stay true to it, then I'll give you a piece of that fandom.

Here's some of the fun bonus stuff, and yes, this part is all optional:

Remember if you have connecting pieces of realms then you earn more Fandom Points each round. Two realms connected earns you 3 Fandom Points. Three realms connected earns you 5 Fandom Points. Four realms connected earns you 7 Fandom Points. Five realms connected earns you 9 Fandom Points. And six or more realms connected earns you 10 Fandom Points.

You naturally earn Fandom Points each Task based on the number of details about the fandoms involved. Please list these out at the bottom of your email so that I know exactly what details were included (such as names, places, locations, events, dates, world or race building details, etc.). It will make it easier for me to count. The number of details will determine how many Fandom Points you earn.

You can use Fandom Points to buy items from the SHOP. Please see the shop for what's available to buy.

OPTION YOU CAN DO:

If you want your villain to take control of the realms your four characters come from, then you may add in more bits about them being sent on missions to take over their home realm or the villain using an army/whatever they have, to take those realms over or make alliances, etc. Please make sure it's realistic (as in your villain probably can't singlehandedly take over a realm by themselves). If the details about these mentioned fandoms are true to the fandom, then I'll let you win a piece of that realm and your villain's territory will be expanded.

Word count:

You have to have at least 1,000 words in your entry and your entry cannot be over 2,500 words. Remember that between 0 and 100 words over is 0.1 taken off; between 100 and 200 is 0.2 and so on.

Due date:

Saturday, May 25th, 6 pm central. This gives you a week and three days to hand in. (Also, if you need an extension for emergency situations, please let me know and we can work something out, but you will take off late points if you're late. 1 for every hour over).

Deaths:

Naturally, fighting is inevitable in this. You're free to kill off as many other main characters from the fandoms as you want, but if you kill off a main character from another writer, beware. If your characters are killed off five times, then you have to kill off that character or use another one to sacrifice themselves to save them (or buy a save from the shop if you have the Fandom points for it). So be careful who you kill because it's a little mean to the writer who owns them. I do understand that some characters may have to be attacked for storyline purposes (such as if your villain attacks a fandom and thus, has to face off with the main character there) but if you don't feel comfortable killing off a character belonging to a writer, feel free to have that character captured in your story or something else that won't affect them.

If you do choose to kill off another writer's character, you have only two deaths you can use this round. As always, you may kill off as many non-owned characters as you want (main characters not belonging to a writer and yes if a character is killed in entry you can still claim it as a character next round. Like if someone killed off Pooh and I wanted to claim him as a main character next round, I still could).

Ballots:

If you want a fun writing challenge, feel free to list down your name or the names of other writers you would like to challenge for the next task. You can only ballot up to 5 writers this time.

Awards:

Across the Stars – Whoever wins this award will get me really into a ship with one of the characters being blackmailed. Show me their love and the character's desperation to save their loved one. In return, you'll be able to claim an epic ship from any fandom of your choice and use them as your characters next round.

I Hate You – Whoever wins this award will literally let me feel the hatred seething between one or more of your characters and the villain for what they're doing/blackmailing with them. The hate will be so intense, so you'll naturally win an epic reward of hating my grading so much that for Task Two, I'll ignore one aspect of it, which will help your scores next round.

Teamwork – Whoever wins this award will show me a great dynamic between your blackmailed characters. Keep in mind that great doesn't necessarily mean that they get along. A great dynamic is a dynamic either good or bad, that's written well. So you can write about your blackmailed team arguing the whole time and if it's written well, you'll win the award and the prize, which in this case is a whole teamwork worth of word count – aka 2,000 extra words for Task Two and a fun little bonus of an extra 500 words to help cover you for Task One if you went over.