Everyone loves reading a good war story, but there are plenty of things that can go wrong that will make war stories tedious and uninteresting to read. The following set of rules and guidelines has been provided for your benefit and for that of your potential readers. This is required reading for anyone who wants to post a war story; you will receive an infraction and your thread will be deleted if you post a war story that is not in compliance with these rules.
1) Smogon sponsored tournament battles excluded, you may only post war stories of battles that you've lost. If you wish to author and post a war story of a non-tournament match that you've won, you must FIRST submit a finished draft of your war story via PM to ONE of the following moderators for approval before posting: Kumar, LordS, Phuquoph, Synre, tenchi17, Mekkah, Obi, Roy, Carl, Groudon80 or Aeolus. If your chosen moderator disapproves your war story, DO NOT contact a different person for permission. Also, if you wish to write a war story about one of mods in the list... send the request to them, not to one of the others. Make sure to mention who approves your war story in your thread should you receive an affirmative answer.
The goal of this rule is to increase the quality of the influx of war stories seen by this forum. Nobody wants to read about your battle where you beat Smogon Admin Ravenclaw 5-0... we want to read about close, interesting matches. The staff believes that this rule will go a long way in achieving that goal.
2) Under no circumstances are you to trash your opponent in a war story. Providing your thoughts on what they might have been thinking regarding the match is fine, but we don’t want to read things like, “man, he was getting cocky there!” Obviously, moderator interpretations reign supreme in all cases.
3) War stories about tournament matches may not be posted until the completion of the tournament or until such a time as both players involved have been eliminated. The purpose of this rule is to prevent the premature exposure of details of teams to be scouted in later rounds.
4) Avoid poor grammar, employ correct punctuation, present your story in a readable format, and provide an ample amount of interesting commentary on the battle log. All stylistic and technical aspects are subject to moderator discretion which is, as always, supreme and not to be questioned.
5) If you just had a great battle but are unsure of how to write about it, here’s a format to help you get started:
Note: we don’t want to limit creativity so this format will NOT be required but remember if it doesn’t follow the other requirements it will be locked.
a. Define the rules used in the match before detailing the battle.
b. State the teams of both battlers clearly beforehand (just the names of the pokemon used is sufficient, but pictures are pretty).
c. For the battle itself, highlight important turns and maybe give a little of your insight as to what you were thinking at the time.
d. Explain certain moves and the reasons you did things that may not appear obvious to the average reader.
e. If a pokemon faints, state the score. 6-6 means both players have 6 viable pokemon and if one faints the score drops to 6-5, etc.
f. Give a recap of what the reader should take away from your battle. If you’re not really sure, reconsider whether or not you should be posting your story.
g. Examples of format can be found in the war story archive. I personally like skarm’s war story and suggest using it as a guideline.
6) Have fun writing your story! If you don’t enjoy telling us what happened in your battle, what makes you think we would enjoy reading about it? If you’re excited to tell us about your battle, it will show in the writing, making it more enjoyable for everyone.
Thanks,
The Smogon Community
1) Smogon sponsored tournament battles excluded, you may only post war stories of battles that you've lost. If you wish to author and post a war story of a non-tournament match that you've won, you must FIRST submit a finished draft of your war story via PM to ONE of the following moderators for approval before posting: Kumar, LordS, Phuquoph, Synre, tenchi17, Mekkah, Obi, Roy, Carl, Groudon80 or Aeolus. If your chosen moderator disapproves your war story, DO NOT contact a different person for permission. Also, if you wish to write a war story about one of mods in the list... send the request to them, not to one of the others. Make sure to mention who approves your war story in your thread should you receive an affirmative answer.
The goal of this rule is to increase the quality of the influx of war stories seen by this forum. Nobody wants to read about your battle where you beat Smogon Admin Ravenclaw 5-0... we want to read about close, interesting matches. The staff believes that this rule will go a long way in achieving that goal.
2) Under no circumstances are you to trash your opponent in a war story. Providing your thoughts on what they might have been thinking regarding the match is fine, but we don’t want to read things like, “man, he was getting cocky there!” Obviously, moderator interpretations reign supreme in all cases.
3) War stories about tournament matches may not be posted until the completion of the tournament or until such a time as both players involved have been eliminated. The purpose of this rule is to prevent the premature exposure of details of teams to be scouted in later rounds.
4) Avoid poor grammar, employ correct punctuation, present your story in a readable format, and provide an ample amount of interesting commentary on the battle log. All stylistic and technical aspects are subject to moderator discretion which is, as always, supreme and not to be questioned.
5) If you just had a great battle but are unsure of how to write about it, here’s a format to help you get started:
Note: we don’t want to limit creativity so this format will NOT be required but remember if it doesn’t follow the other requirements it will be locked.
a. Define the rules used in the match before detailing the battle.
b. State the teams of both battlers clearly beforehand (just the names of the pokemon used is sufficient, but pictures are pretty).
c. For the battle itself, highlight important turns and maybe give a little of your insight as to what you were thinking at the time.
d. Explain certain moves and the reasons you did things that may not appear obvious to the average reader.
e. If a pokemon faints, state the score. 6-6 means both players have 6 viable pokemon and if one faints the score drops to 6-5, etc.
f. Give a recap of what the reader should take away from your battle. If you’re not really sure, reconsider whether or not you should be posting your story.
g. Examples of format can be found in the war story archive. I personally like skarm’s war story and suggest using it as a guideline.
6) Have fun writing your story! If you don’t enjoy telling us what happened in your battle, what makes you think we would enjoy reading about it? If you’re excited to tell us about your battle, it will show in the writing, making it more enjoyable for everyone.
Thanks,
The Smogon Community