By Jose Garcia.
(This is the beginnings of a rough draft of a guide I'm developing on running Shadowfist events. I've had a lot of people clamouring for how to advice on running Shadowfist tournaments so I decided not to wait until I was finished before posting it. It's rough and unedited but I hope it helps.)
Here's a short how to article on how to run a Final Brawl Tournament.
If you're running a Shadowfist event we'll be glad to support you with posters and prizes. Just contact us at (206) 232-3040 or at jgarcia@halcyon.com at least four weeks in advance of your event.
This depends entirely on the situation in your area which you know more about than we do. However if you're stuck for a place to run an event try a local store with a good sized gaming area, if you need help finding a Shadowfist friendly retailer in your area give us a call we have a database of retailers that want Shadowfist events run in their stores.
It also helps to advertise, flyers in all your local game stores and clubs are the best place to start. Be sure to spread the word amongst Shadowfist enthusiasts and game store clerks in your area as well.
This is our preferred staple tournament format. This is a four player, open deck (players bring their own decks), double elimination tournament. Running it is pretty simple, get a stack of index cards and when each player signs up have that player print their name on the card. When it comes time to run the event shuffle the cards thoroughly and arrange the cards on tables in groups of four, as you place each card call out the name on the card signaling the player to take his seat. Within a few minutes you'll have everyone seated. Chances are that you didn't get a number of players divisible by 4 so you'll need to make a few games 3 player games to adjust. This is the closest this tournament format gets to a bye.
Then make note of the time and announce the round has begun, players seated at the heads of tables go first. You'll need someone in the room at all times to answer rules questions. When time runs out let anyone who is in the middle of a turn complete their turn (within reason, give them two or three minutes before you time them out).
After each game is completed the winner of each game writes a W on their card and a L on each of his vanquished opponents' cards, collects the cards, and hands them to you. If you are on hand when a game ends do this yourself, otherwise instruct the winners to do it for you. At the beginning of the next round repeat the process of laying out the index cards but if a player has lost two games (and thus has two L's on their index card) put their card aside, they've been eliminated from the tournament. Enter them into the australian rules tourney (see below).
This process continues until you've whittled the group of contenders down to 2 to 5 players then you hold a final game to determine the winner. This will take 5 rounds if you have 40 to 120 people but can be done in four rounds if you have 30 or less people and if you're willing to make the final game 5 player.
As an option, before you begin the tournament you may want to ask everyone if they're facing off one of their friends. Its quite likely that friends signed up togethor which means their index cards, even after thorough shuffling, are adjacent to one another. Ideally you don't want people playing with their friends (and most players would prefer it if they aren't grouped togethor with their gaming buddies). Ask anyone who is grouped with their friends to raise their hand and play musical chairs until you've dispersed any clumping (make sure that people bring their index cards with them when they change seats!).
Copy this out onto a flyer and hand it out to people:
This tournament is only open to players eliminated in the Final Brawl Tournament. The Australian Rules tournament has a loose and informal format; you are given a number of distinctive cards called score cards which you must sign as soon as you receive them. The winner of any game takes one of each loser's score cards. There isn't any ladder system or set format of who you play in Australian Rules, you are free to challenge anyone you want either in a duel or in a multiplayer game. However you are only allowed to play any individual player once so after each Australian Rules game you must find a different mix of opponents to play with (although there's no restriction against playing with opponents you faced off with in the starter deck or final brawl tournaments). And there is a time limit, when the tournament ends the gig is up, all Australian Rules games end, any Australian rules games in progress end, continue playing out the current turn, if there's no winner at the end of it the winner is determined by the guidelines in the tournament rules. No Australian rules games can be started within 15 minutes of the tournament end time.
If and when you lose a game you must give an opponent one of your score cards, you must give them a card you signed not one you won from an opponent. If you run out of score cards with your signature on them we'll supply you with more, you won't be disqualified but the extra cards will be deducted from your score.
How many score cards you'll be given for the Australian Rules Tournament depends on what round of the Final Brawl Tournament you were eliminated in. You get 2 score cards for each round of the tournament you participated in. For example if you were eliminated at the end of round two, you would receive 4 score cards. If you were eliminated in round 4 you would receive 8 score cards.
Jose Garcia
Shadowfist Co-Designer
jgarcia@halcyon.com
Last modified: April 5, 1996;