by Jaykobell » 12/22/2010 11:21 PM
(As a sidenote, every 'you' in there is a general you. Not to be taken personally. :] <3)
My first answer is to limit it to one couple, if only because your attention and efforts will be completely focused in that one couple. I... suppose, if you feel like you can manage more couples, you can enter them? But every couple must have a completed RP. If you feel like you can handle more than a single couple, then I don't see anything wrong with entering multiple, either with the same partner, or alone, or with a different partner.
It's open to 'every' couple as in... homosexuals and every breedable is welcome. xD You also don't have to have been active since X date, etc; there's no restrictions.
As for being judged harshly... it's mostly from a writing point of view, but also concerning the story and the consistence of the RPs. That's what I also meant by being able to handle more RPs. It might look like your posts were jumbled or shortened because you were tired or inspired/preoccupied with another RP/character. This does not consider things like typos, colored dialogue, etc. Cause that'd be silly. :u
But, your RP has to be... impressive, for lack of a better word. Sometimes you read books and you think, 'Dang, this author's style just sucks.' And sometimes you'll read a book that will have run-on sentences, but they'll be linked so perfectly that you don't even notice. Syntax and cie won't be considered either, but writing well helps in making an RP believable. Know what I mean? Just saying 'I love you' won't make the couple anything special, nor will it make us (the Mods; I'll get Draiz and Kodai to read and judge along with me; and if anyone doesn't feel like participating, they're free to PM me if they wanna be judges too) feel any strong love. We want to become attached to those characters, and we want to feel good after reading it. Doesn't mean it has to be giddy happy... xD Make us cry if you want, or make us laugh our heads off.
But it'll ultimately come to taste as well. Someone might lack in character exposition (making the characters a bit bland) and have a good RP, but that doesn't necessarily leave a really amazing feeling to the reader. However, they might be super old and never have bred, or they might've bred like, just a few times. That would probably be enough to make them win, because the contest is about giving a chance to those who haven't bred/bred much before.
In this case, in a nutshell, 'harshly' might refer more to 'high expectations'. You have bred often, so show me your characters truly love each other. Show me how much your characters truly deserve the room to have their own children.
This also means that, if two RPs are tied, the one whose owner(s) haven't bred often will win between the two (because ultimately, that's the purpose of the contest; aswellasmakingpeopleRPRPRPoho -punt'd-). There will be more than a single room awarded by category, though.
So long-winded, but basically, higher expectations. Did I answer at all? xD;