discuss betting, strategies, or just talk about your favorite competitor! (tiny cat: rise to the top main thread can be found here)

next match begins september 16th!

[ADMIN]: Welcome to the Tiny Cat: Rise to the Top! Official chatroom! Please enjoy your stay and be kind and courteous to others.

• three rounds in a match, each round eliminates the bottom three tcps (in the even of a tie for 7th, 4th, and 1st place a straight coin toss decides the victor)
• tcp compete on a series of 9 obstacle courses (3 are randomly selected each match) 
• base roll for each round is 1d10 plus stats (including bonuses given by the course) 
• each tcp starts with 2 “features” (types, conditions, anomalies, and modifiers) 
• (designer modifier is not counted as a feature and all tcps are designer)

• bet currency on which tcp will win each match 
  
• players start with 200 currency 
  
• get twice back the amount you bet if your tcp wins + the amount other players bet divided equally among the winning players 
  
• if your tcp is knocked out in the first round you get no payout, in the second you are returned a quarter of your bet, in the third you are returned half your bet (rounded down, returned currency is not counted in the winners’ pool) 
  
• players can bet on multiple tcps in a single match
  
• every match a player sits out for gives them 10 currency (must explicitly say they are sitting out before the match starts) 
  

• players can purchase new features for their chosen tcp 
  
• blessings: players can purchase a god’s blessing for an upcoming match, they wear off after the match (not literal blessing but specific advantages themed after a morbit god)
  
• a competing tcp may only receive one blessing per match and multiple tcps can receive blessings from the same god.
  
• players may transfer currency to other players. they may not do this in exchange for anything outside of tc: rttt. the exchange may be a gift, or it may be the players pooling their money to purchase a shop item. the player doing the purchasing has the final say on what is bought, though a plan may be worked out with the transferring players in the discussion thread(s). do not loan players currency or expect them to pay you back.
  

• there is an in-character chat thread here where you can roleplay as morbitians following/betting on the game!
  
• the ooc discussion thread can be found here.
  

VAPOR
typeless tcp, limb anomaly (disembodied/floating arms), tail anomaly 
skills: 1 speed, 0 strength, 2 endurance, 1 determination, 0 maneuverability, 1 calculation, 0 jump

DECOR
soda type tcp, fluid anomaly (clear and has edible glitter in it) 
skills: 0 speed, 1 strength, 1 endurance, 0 determination, 1 maneuverability, 0 calculation, 2 jump

TINT
fish tank/cylinder type tcp 
skills: 1 speed, 3 strength, 0 endurance, 0 determination, 0 maneuverability, 1 calculation, 0 jump 

TARMAC
slushie type tcp, atmospheric modifier 
skills: 0 speed, 0 strength, 1 endurance, 1 determination, 2 maneuverability, 0 calculation, 1 jump 

TORRENT
crash test dummy/wool type tcp 
skills: 1 speed, 1 strength, 2 endurance, 1 determination, 0 maneuverability, 0 calculation, 0 jump

SUNSHINE
typeless tcp, melty modifier, skin anomaly (glowing), overclocked
skills: 0 speed, 0 strength, 1 endurance, 2 determination, 0 maneuverability, 1 calculation, 2 jump

BLITZ
typeless tcp, tail anomaly, skin anomaly (no change in texture but more easily generates static electricity) 
skills: 2 speed, 1 strength, 0 endurance, 0 determination, 1 maneuverability, 1 calculation, 0 jump

FIZZ
alligator type tcp, gummy modifier 
skills: 0 speed, 1 strength, 0 endurance, 1 determination, 3 maneuverability, 0 calculation, 0 jump

MOSSY
cactus type tcp, plush modifier 
skills: 1 speed, 0 strength, 1 endurance, 0 determination, 0 maneuverability, 2 calculation, 1 jump

STARSTRUCK
typeless tcp, fluid anomaly (fluid has little stars in it), eyespot anomaly 
skills: 1 speed, 0 strength, 0 endurance, 2 determination, 0 maneuverability, 1 calculation, 1 jump

---

courses

TRAMPOLINE MAZE
tcps bounce on trampolines to get the lay of the land in this gigantic corn maze! 
skills: calculation x2, jump x2

SUPER SLIDE
tcps race down a giant slide, dodging obstacles and picking up speed. 
skills: speed x2, calculation x2

HOT AIR BALLOON CLIMB
tcps climb rope ladders from one hot air balloon to another to reach the top! 
skills: strength x2, endurance x2

MIRROR MIRROR
tcps must navigate a hall of mirrors while avoiding hidden trap doors. 
skills: calculation x2, determination x2

BALANCING ACT
tcps must balance eggs on their head and reach the finish line without them falling. 
skills: determination x2, maneuverability x2

FLOWER FIELD
tcps race to find small tokens hidden in a tall field of flowers! the amount of tokens depends on which round it is. 
skills: speed x2, endurance x2

WATERFALL CLIMB
tcps must hop from rock to rock to reach the top of a massive waterfall: warning, slippery when wet! 
skills: maneuverability x2, jump x2

JELLYBEAN TOSS
tcps must throw complex-sized jellybeans to hit the targets. 
skills: strength x2, determination x2 

KEEP THE BALL ROLLING
tcps must balance on large rubber balls and race to the finish! 
skills: endurance x2, maneuverability x2

---

skill guide

speed: how quickly a tcp can move. keeps them from being left behind.
strength: how strong a tcp is. keeps them from losing their grip or being knocked over.
endurance: how well a tcp can take a hit. keeps them from getting tired out.
determination: how badly a tcp wants to win. keeps them from giving up. 
maneuverability: how well a tcp can get through difficult terrain. keeps them from getting stuck.
calculation: how well a tcp can plot their course. keeps them from being caught in unnecessary obstacles.
jump: yahoo!

Snow falls.



You can see a statue through the fog.

A giant stone chalice with two figures perched on platforms at its sides.
The non-descript bodies reach out across the wide rim of the chalice,
holding hands over the gap.
Snowflakes cling to it, freezing against its surface.

The snow is lighter just in front of you, and near the chalice,
but far beyond it, a blizzard rages in the fog, obscuring your vision of anything beyond the statue.





Falling snow sticks to the massive window in front of you, bringing your focus back inside.

You are sitting cross-legged on the concrete floor.

You feel dizzy.
Did you just wake up?





You can't remember anything.

Rated 16+. The Following is a interactive project/anthology where one-shot stories are generated via audience prompting and ideas. 

A one-eyed sorcerer lounges on the couch of a tiny little basement with a monitor setup in front of them. They watch the feed in front of them diligently, every once in awhile punching in a series of inputs on the buttons and dials on the rig attached to the television. In the sits a rancher unit keeping a protective eye over the process, making sure this rabbity wizard doesn't bite off more than they can chew with their otherworldly experiments.

Finding things at a standstill from time to time, the sorcerer breaks their silence for a little assistance.

You are a mad scientist, with a Major in Creepy Crawlies and Minor in Beasts Below Beds. You finally got the funding you need to make
your first monster, and just enough bits and goo to make 1 Simple Small Monster.

You’d love to make it really funky, get all experimental as Mad Scientists tend to do, but your resources are simply too few to make
anything elaborate. But! If your sponsors like this monster, you’re sure to get more funding! Which will get you one step closer to your
goal… whatever that was, again.
 
Now, the instructions you were given with this monster was to show your sponsors what you’re capable of.
The bits included were:

• 1 Venti* of bio-goo (Bio-goo can be anything, but each container can only be used once. Once used, it cannot transform again.)
  
• 1 lizard eye
  
• A bundle of bones, more than you’ll need for this project. 
  
  

Warning for dehumanisation, denial, violence



Kaje: Hey, you see the news?
Fairbit: What

Fairbit tabbed away from the session stream and opened a browser as he typed the short reply, navigating quickly to one of the main TCP hubs he frequented. He scrolled through the recent threads and announcements, trying to find out what his friend was talking about.

Kaje: It’s on the Starleo site
Kaje: New update on the video game

He found the page, and absorbed it's contents, pausing for a few moments before responding.

Fairbit: They’re really going ahead with it?
Kaje: Yep, seems so
Fairbit: Geeze
Kaje: You gonna play it when it comes out?
Fairbit: I mean if it really simulates the real thing as much as theyre saying then I guess I would
Fairbit: It really seems impossible to me though
Fairbit: You know people have made TCP games before? I played flash games of it when I was at school
Fairbit: None of them are actually anything like playing TCP though
Kaje: Wasn’t there that one made by a god that was pretty great?
Fairbit: Yeah but I think it was actually a bootleg? Piggybacked off the original’s coding or something. Hard to find stuff out about it, only people who know the details were gods and theyre not easy to talk to.
Kaje: I think Starleo’s really going to do it though.
Kaje: I heard they’ve got AIs helping them out.
Fairbit: Constructs?
Kaje: Digital, ones that do programming for a living.
Fairbit: Nice. How are they going to do the actual tcps though? Just giving them a bunch of behaviour patterns and algorithms won’t work
Kaje: Well, this is very speculative, but I think the AIs will be active in the sessions. Like, helping control the tcps and creatures, make them more flexible, editing their code on the fly
Fairbit: Eh, that’s cool, i guess.
Kaje: Not interested?
Fairbit: Well, there’s no way the AI is going to convincingly fight itself. Like if it's controlling two hostile tcps that meet, it can’t exactly hide its plans from itself right? It would have to pretend everything. Doubt that would really be that fun.
Kaje: Idk, I think you’re too pessimistic. Haven’t you ever watched a play? Actors can be really good at their jobs sometimes. Besides, wouldn’t it be better for some parts to be pretend?

Fairbit sat back. He didn’t respond. He was fairly certain Kaje was baiting him with that last line. They acted cool and upbeat, but they had a mischievous streak, and liked a bit of trolling sometimes. It was rather annoying, Fairbit knew Kaje didn’t actually care one way or the other about the issue, but he did. He was a stubborn person, he had to admit, and he didn’t like backing down from an argument. He should’ve just ignored Kaje’s quip, but too much time had passed for him to act like it was nothing now, and he felt an awkward reluctance to talk further. He closed the chat box and tried to ignore the hanging feeling of a conversation left unfinished.

He returned to the session he’d been watching. One aggressor, three defenders, one pacifist. It was getting pretty close to the end now. The aggressor only had two tcps left, though they’d managed to put up a good fight up to that point, costing the other teams several of their own tcps through clever use of the terrain. He’d have to keep the strategy in mind next time he played in a tunnel network. The pacifist player had mostly managed to stay out of the fighting, though they’d done some interesting experimentation with their own abstract tcps as well, getting them to work together in a surprising way. He scribbled down a few notes on ability usage.

He switched over to the trio of tcp teams, just in time to see the second-last of the aggressor’s tcps being held down by three others. It was large, and even with their numbers it seemed to be taking them quite a lot of effort to keep it restrained. It continued struggling and snapping at them, attempting to skewer them with its sharp horn even as another tcp slowly stepped over its body, holding a large sword, and brought it down on the fierce tcp’s neck. It quickly stopped moving, it's fluid pouring from the cut and staining the ground and feet of the other tcps.

But he knew it hadn’t actually died. It had been transported to that tcp paradise place. It was obvious, really, if you just thought about it. If you were going to make a game that involved creating, and then possibly ending, the lives of real, sapient entities, the least you could do was provide them with an afterlife. The kill command worked as a soul marker or something like that, tagging tcps for possible extraction. Of course, you couldn’t exactly tell anyone this, otherwise it would ruin the game. People wouldn’t take it seriously if they knew their tcps weren’t actually in any danger. Still, Fairbit had figured it out. The creator of TCP was a bit… well, he had a few problems, but he seemed like he tried to be good, in general, and Fairbit was confident his speculation was correct, in fact he was certain.

And it didn’t hurt that TCP was possibly the best game that had ever existed, either. It was really good.

So sure, he would play some simulated copy of it, if it was good enough, and it was an admirable goal to recreate it. But he sure as hell didn’t want to be guilted into doing so. He just wanted to play the game. That was all.

This is a loose, chaotic card game that I would like to try playing here on the forum. Probably around four players would be ideal, but i don't think it matters too much. The basic premise is it's a card game where the players make all the cards that will be used, so the bounds for what can happen are only limited by your creativity.

Rules:
Before the game begins, I will ask each player to, in secret, design a number of cards for the game. The number will depend on how many people are playing, but it'll probably be around 10-15.

These cards will form the deck that we'll be playing with. I'll deal out four cards to each player, and then the first round will start.

Each round, I will secretly ask each player to tell me what card they're going to play, and on what target, if applicable. Once every player has selected a card, I will make a post revealing all of them, and they will take effect (in order of player signup for the first round, and then cycling through for further rounds). The played cards will then go to the discard pile, unless they stick around on the 'board'.

Once the round is over, every player draws a card, and the next round begins. If a player goes to draw a card from the deck and it's empty, the game ends.

There is no inherent win condition for this game, but since it's a good idea to have one, we'll use points. Whoever has the most points when the game ends is the winner (this means at least some of the cards the players make will need to give or take away points).

Examples
So, these rules are quite vague. This is by intention, to leave space for players to fill while making cards. Here are some examples of cards you could make:

-AI
Play this card on the board. Add AI to the end of the priority list as a player. Each round, AI plays the top card of the deck, with a random target if applicable. If AI ends up winning, feel bad.

-Four Dimensional Chess
Take a random card from target player's hand and place it in front of you face down without looking at it. The next time a player targets you, trigger the facedown card three times, with you choosing the targets.

-Comfortable Chair
Play in front of you. Each round, you may skip playing a card if you want.

-Linear Algebra
If one player's point total is the sum of two other players' point totals, gain the sum of all three players' point totals.

-Garbage Man
Play in front of a player. Whenever they would draw from the deck, they draw from the bottom of the discard pile instead.

-Dinosaur Party
Gain 10 points for every dinosaur-related card on the board.

-Amplifier
Play in front of a player. All effects targeting that player occur twice.

-Capture The Flag
Play in front of yourself. Whoever has this card in front of them at the end of the game gains 100 points.

-Overclock
Play every card in your hand, with targets as you choose.

-Open Shop
Play in front of yourself. Each round, you may sell a card in front of you or in your hand to another player for 10 points.

-Required verbosity
Discard all cards in play with descriptions that are a single sentence in length.


So basically, there is very little off-limits in terms of what your cards can do. You could make cards interacting with the board, the deck, the discard pile, players' hands, the priority list. You could make a series of cards that specifically synergize with each other and you can use one to summon others from the deck or discard pile. You could make cards that create entirely new rules, or get rid of existing ones. You can also just make cards that give you a few points or maybe let you draw an extra card; they don't all need to be complicated. I will say, however, cards that involve having players make extra decisions between or during rounds probably aren't a great idea, since that will slow down the game.

If there is ambiguity in the cards (such as what counts as dinosaur-related) that's fine, the game isn't meant to be completely strict, and I will help resolve what should happen. If anyone has any questions or suggestions, feel free to post them here, I've never run this game before.

Players:
1. King-Clod
2. victorianflorist
3.
...