"I woke to find myself in a dark wood, for I had wandered off from the straight path..."

Existing Civ III tournaments, contests and group events are universally plagued by elements or shortcomings that lead often to compartmentalized results. Spoilers and privileged info are readily made available while games are still in progress. The game itself remains in flux through a patching process. The scoring system measures only a few elements of the gameplay. We at Realms Beyond are not satisfied to settle for these conditions and compromises.

The Realms Beyond is home to gamers who go beyond the norm, who creatively add depth to good games to make them better, who choose to set our own added limits to gameplay for the purpose of increasing challenge, varying gameplay flavor, and getting more out of the games we love. We discard the usual standards and venture into realms beyond, where we share our passion for gaming with one another, and with those who are like-minded.

We develop and refine our tournament as we go, with the help of the players. Each game is subject to rules, but we keep the framework light, the emphasis on excellence, the focus on the spirit of the game. Come and play. Share, compare, teach, and learn.

Overview

For each event, all participants will use the same map and objectives/ conditions/ rules. After the game is completed, players will post reports of their games and compare notes. The catch? Absolutely NO spoilers, or any sort of discussion about the game (even by email) while it's in progress. Want to know more? Read on to learn about tournament mechanics. Or, use the sidebar for additional information.

The Epic Formula

"Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story"

Each game will have a Sponsor. Any player can sponsor an idea, and will be in charge of the particulars for a game: map size, settings, opponents, victory conditions, type of scoring, difficulty level, any variant rules or mod/ map/ customization, and length of time for the contest to remain open.

If the designer has foreknowledge of the map (because it's been customized) they must recuse from the competition. However, if they play cold from the start on a random map, they wouldn't necessarily have to take the first random start to come along. The sponsor may play far enough in to see that the starting homeland terrain meets with their vision, just so long as they don't restart on same map or in any way offer spoilers to the field of players.

Because of the length of time required for playing, reporting on, and discussing each game, we anticipate that there will be more good ideas than available time to implement them. Therefore, each game would be subject to the approval of the Organizers, in order to garner an official place on the schedule. Organizers must approve the rules, any customizations (mods, etc), and will fit the game in with others, with an eye toward the integrity and balance of the series as a whole.

Games will be announced by an Organizer on the Civilization forum, and information will also be available on the website. Once a game is announced, players will have until the closing date to complete the game and write their game report. Do not post any information about the game before the closing date. At the end of the closing date, each player will have 24 hours to post their report (hopefully this should be no problem, because the report will already have been written). Then, finally, it will be time for the discussion (and, depending upon the game, the scoring)! The discussion will be open to everyone who would like to contribute.

While we encourage players to post complete reports for the Epics, we understand that this is not always possible. In this case, players may post a brief summary of their achievements, including any information vital to the scoring, as well as data such as finish date, win/loss, and whatever details they can include in the available time. If the game itself is incomplete, the player should save their game no later than the game's closing date, and post a summary of the game by the end of the reporting period. These games will be included in the official results as "retired" games, and will be eligible for scoring based upon the status of the game at the end of the closing date. Completed games are eligible for full scoring so long as a sufficient summary is posted. Full reports can be added later, if the player elects to complete a detailed report. The community will be interested in full reports even if they are late, but both playing activity and game summaries need to be completed on time. Players are also welcome to complete their "retired" games after the closing date and write about the "overtime" results, but can only be scored through the portion completed before the play deadline.

Also, players who will be unavailable to post their reports or summaries in the reporting window may have someone else do it for them. One way is to email the game sponsor and/or RBCiv staff and ask them to hold the report to be posted on Closing Day.

Tournament Rules