Custom Pokemon Contest Rules and Guidelines
As many of you have probably noticed, this guild has a few inhabitants that are not native to the canon pokemon world. These creatures are Fakemon! Pokemon that have been created by this guild's very own members, and on rare occasions, made available through special events. Now it is time to add to the Fakedex; it's time for the Custom Pokemon Contest!
As many of you have probably noticed, this guild has a few inhabitants that are not native to the canon pokemon world. These creatures are Fakemon! Pokemon that have been created by this guild's very own members, and on rare occasions, made available through special events. Now it is time to add to the Fakedex; it's time for the Custom Pokemon Contest!
General Rules:
Now before we get ahead of ourselves, here are a few rules for this contest, these are important to know before getting started, because if one of these rules is broken, your entry can potentially be disqualified, so please read and follow the rules carefully!
- Dates and Deadlines
- -The submission period for entries has been extended to June 15th, 11:59 PM (CT). You must get your entries in by this date, late entries will not be accepted.
-You can request to change your entry before the deadline is up, but any entries or changes to previous entries requested June 1st and onwards will not be accepted.
Fakemon Submission Rules:
- -One entry per member.
-You may collaborate with other people on ideas for fakemon with other members and people, however keep in mind that should your collaborative fakemon place in the contest, the prizes will not be duplicated, therefore it will be left up to the collaborators to figure out how to split the reward.
-No Mega Evolutions
-Any and all entries must be PMed to SpectralEternity
-You must have at least made a character profile in the guild in order to participate in this contest
-By submitting a fakemon to this contest, you agree that should your fakemon place and be added to the guild fakedex, guild members who claim it from giveaways may keep their fakemon, even if you, the creator, are no longer a member of the guild. You may request that upon your leaving the guild that no more of your fakemon can be given away, however you may not ask guild members to stop using your fakemon, or ask the mods to remove it from the fakedex.
-Winners of the previous fakemon contest will be asked to remain out of this contest in order to give other members a shot at placing. Similarly, members who have 3 or more fakemon in the guild Fakedex will not be allowed to participate in contests. However, if there are less than 6 entries by the submission deadline, members who placed in the previous contest who do NOT have 3 or more fakemon in the guild will be given priority and allowed to submit entries. If by then, there are still less than 6 entries, members who did not participate in last year's contest who have 3 fakemon in the guild will be allowed to submit an entry. Then priority will fall to members who participated in the last contest and have 3 fakemon total, then members who didn't participate last contest who have 4 fakemon, then members who did participate in the last contest with 4 fakemon, and so on until there are at least 6 entries. Until there are 6 entries, no submitted entries will be put up, and the judging period will not start until 6 entries have been submitted.
-An entry's layout coding should be bare basics such as bolding, italicizing, underlining, and size adjustment to separate sections. The only images that should be used is an image of your fakemon or links to references for your Fakemon's description. All entries will posted anonymously by a mod for judging, and we don't want your Fakemon entry layout giving away your identity! After the judging period is over, if your fakemon is a winning entry and you have been approved by a mod to post your entry in the fakedex, you may then edit your entry's layout to look the way you would like it to be presented.
-If you have any questions regarding the rules and guidelines of this contest you may post and ask them here or PM SpectralEternity C:
Submitting An Entry:
All entries must meet the minimum requirement standards, you may, and are encouraged to, expand upon the minimum requirement, however all entries must have at least the following information;
- -Species Name
-Type (2 at most, no new types)
-Abilities (1-2 regular, 1 hidden, no legendary exclusive abilities)
-Provide an image or physical description of your entry; This is not an art contest, so if you can't draw, or don't want to draw, feel free to use an image online or write a physical description for your pokemon. However, you MUST define whether or not you are the artist behind the pictures used, if any.
-Pokedex Entry; Make a pokedex entry for your pokemon! Give it an entry with flavor text, weight, height, history, behavior, diet, and other detailed information telling the members of the guild as much as possible about every aspect of your pokemon.
-Moveset; Give your fakemon a list of the moves it learns while leveling up, this is mandatory. You may also give your fakemon an egg move list and a move tutor move list as well, but this is optional. Please also note that fakemon will NOT be allowed to have Legendary Exclusive moves as learnable moves in their moveset.
-One original attack or Ability (optional): Each entry is allowed to have one choice of a unique attack OR ability that will be exclusive to that pokemon's evolutionary line. Please do not create overpowered abilities that make your fakemon able to dodge every attack no matter what, or moves that do system breaking amounts of damage.
If you plan to make a custom attack, you must give your original attack a type and define whether it does Physical or Special damage. You must also explain if it affects a single target, or multiple targets, and if it effects multiple targets, what is the range? If this needs clarification please ask a mod or take a look at this list of Multi Target Moves to get a visual. Please also note if the attack has increased or decreased priority, and if so give it a number rating (+2, -3, etc).
If you plan to make an Original ability, it cannot exceed the three ability limit, meaning your custom ability must take up on of the three available slots. You must also list and describe what it does, how it activates, and all the information that is needed for a guild member to know what the ability does for their pokemon.
-Need help making a fakemon? Take a look at our Fakemon Creation Guide for some helpful guidelines, hints, tips, and tricks!
Voting Period:
- After the submission deadline passes, if there are less than 6 submissions, the submission period will be extended briefly to allow members who placed in the previous contest or with more than 3 fakemon in the guild to submit entries until the minimum 6 entries has been met. Afterwards, the contest will be closed for a judging period, this period of time will depend on how many entries have been submitted by the end of the submission period and possible extentions. All entries will be put up anonymously and randomly during this time, titled "Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3" and so on, this way voting is fair and unbiased.
All members can cast their votes in this contest, however we would like to ask that if you know that you cannot take the time to read through and judge entries on equal standards and without bias, that you kindly bow out for the sake of fairness and allow others to vote instead.
If you are to vote, you MUST judge ALL of the entries in the contest, as you will be given ample time to do so, because as mentioned previously, the judging period of time will be adjusted depending on how many entries we receive so that all who would like to cast their votes may do so.
If you plan on judging, read through our Fakemon Creation Guide, because the information there should not only help give you an idea of the criteria you should be judging on, but it also explains some basic pokemon standards that not a lot of people know about.
- Submitting a Scorecard:
- All scorecards must be PMed to SpectralEternity and will be put up anonymously as they come. This feature is to encourage voters to be honest in their opinion of an entry without fear of it hurting relationships in the guild. However, this feature should not, and will not, be used as an excuse to be rude and overly critical of another members work. Scorecards should have constructive criticism in them, not just bash the entry. This is not to say that you cannot point out anything negative about the entry, but there is a difference between calling an entry unoriginal and stupid, and saying that an entry is unoriginal and explaining WHY in a constructive manner so that the creator can make improvements if they wanted to resubmit the entry in the next contest.
There are five categories to judge per entry, they are Originality, Detail, Creativity, Cohesiveness, and a Personal Rating. When looking over entries, judges should start with 0 points, and then add points up to 5 for each category depending on how well, in the judges opinion, the creator met the requirements for that category. Zeros are the lowest, and indicate that the entry does not meet any of the categories requirements, and 5 being essentially a perfect score for that category, meeting and going far beyond the requirements. Please only use whole numbers, no half points or quarter points.
Along with giving a number score to each of the categories, judges must also provide comments and critiques for each category after giving their scores to briefly explain why they ranked each category with the rating they gave. Please give at least a few complete sentences, not just one or two words for each category. This requirement is put in place to help judges really think through their scores and put their thought process into words so that other members can identify issues others see with their entry and understand their scores better. It is helpful and essential to this contest, we aren't asking for high quality essays here, but just enough of an explanation to show the creators of the fakemon you are judging that you aren't giving a score of 2 in a category just because you feel like it, but rather there is something legitimately wrong that they could fix if they knew what the issue was.
Comments and critiques must be constructive; you can say that you don't like something without being rude about it. Judges should be pointing out issues as fact, and giving helpful tips or suggestions for the future to aid the creator in building up their fakemon for future contests. Additionally, please fact check your criticisms before submitting them. It's not fair to give someone low scores for something that isn't true. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but there is a way to explain your thoughts without flat out putting down other people's hard work.
Remember that entries should not be judged comparatively; do not rank one entry based on another entry. Each entry should be evaluated individually for how fully the fakemon reached it's potential.
If you have submitted an entry but would still like to judge in this contest, you may do so. Due to the anonymity of the entries and the voters, you do not have to make a mock vote for yourself.
Explanation of Categories:
Below the scoring will be broken down for each category of the scorecard. Your scoring does not need to be based on these suggestions alone, but this should give you a clearer idea of what you should be thinking about when deciding the numeric score for the categories.
- Originality:
- This category looks at the unique aspect that is necessary of a fakemon. While it is near impossible for every idea to be completely original, there is a difference between having a unique concept that isn't used in the canon pokemon world, or isn't very common, and taking something directly from another source and putting it into the pokemon world without changing anything to be your own idea. When looking at an entry's originality, it should follow these guidelines:
- -The creator does not borrow ideas from other sources, and if they do, it is minimal, or barely noticeable. Most of the ideas should be their own instead of the entry being a carbon copy of someone else's work. If it would be a stretch to say that something was copied, like the fakemon's design having a tail similar to an absol's, or the type being the same as rotom's mow form, then you probably shouldn't dock points for it.
-The fakemon is something different and unique in the pokemon world, perhaps by using a type combination that isn't canon or very common, or the design of the pokemon is different than any other canon pokemon by using an object or animal base that the pokemon world does not have.
-If this Fakemon evolves, the creator should try to make up a different and creative way for it to achieve this.
-If the creator made a custom attack or ability for this pokemon, it should be unique or original compared to the canon attacks and abilities already available.
-The entry should have enough information available to be original. If there is not enough information to know about the entry, it's not possible to judge the originality, and the default should be a lower score due to lack of information.
Detail:
- Detail is an essential aspect for this contest. If your entry ends up winning and becoming a guild fakemon, members need to know what to do with the fakemon, and their only guide is the information you provide. They need a thorough and detailed description for every aspect of your fakemon, not have questions on how the custom attack or ability works, and so on. If there anything vague or confusing about an entry that seems incomplete, that entry is probably lacking in detail. When scoring for detail, a judge should consider the following:
-An entry should go beyond the minimum requirement, expand on ideas, and provide a lot of information about the fakemon.
-You should be able to understand what the creator is trying to get across about their entry, meaning everything should be written and described clearly so that it is easy to visualize and understand.
-There should not be anything vague or confusing in regards to the entry. If the entry is very vague in it's descriptions of the fakemon, it is not detailed enough.
-You should not find any gaping holes in the provided information that make the entry seem incomplete.
-You should not have any questions about how something works, why this fakemon does certain things, or acts a certain way after you finish reading through the entry.
-It should be obvious that the creator payed attention to the little, finer details of their fakemon, even if it's a small fun idea, it should stand out and make the fakemon more enjoyable.
-The entry should explain why and how certain aspects of their pokemon work the way they do.
-If this entry doesn't use an image for their pokemon, it should give a vivid explanation of the entry, particularly one that you can envision well. Exceptional entries should be able to have both a picture and a description, and the description shouldn't just explain the obvious, but rather also cover things that may not be visible in the provided image.
-The entry should clearly describe the mechanics of how their pokemon evolves, or how their custom move/ability works.
Creativity:
- Creativity is another essential key to a Fakemon entry. The Creativity category embodies the imagination put into the fakemon entry, how well the creator did coming up with the different ideas that make up their entry, like how the pokemon acts, walks, communicates, eats, and battles. Members need to know the history behind their pokemon, and how to RP it according to how the creator envisioned their Fakemon. It asks if the ideas were interesting, fun, scary, exciting, and they make the judge feel something. Here are a few other thoughts to keep in mind while judging creativity for an entry:
- -The creator should make up why this pokemon exists, or explain the culture, background, and/or history of their pokemon.
-The story or design of this fakemon should stand out, be attention grabbing, and interesting.
-The creator should explain where their fakemon might be from in the Pokemon world, what it eats, how it moves, and/or how it behaves around other Pokemon.
-The fakemon's custom attack or ability should be creative, or have a description with imagery for how it might appear when activated or used.
-There should be lots of interesting information provided about the fakemon's diet or the way it acts that made you admire this pokemon, even if it isn't your favorite entry.
Cohesiveness:
- How well does this pokemon fit in with the pokemon world? That is what the cohesiveness category asks. It makes sure that judges take a look at the mechanics of the fakemon in comparison to the guild's systems and makes sure things are fair, logical, balanced, and fit the pokemon world. Some things a judge should consider while ranking this category are:
- -This entry's attacks, abilities, and evolution method should make sense and fit the pokemon.
-The fakemon should feel like it could be a real pokemon that the pokemon company could have made and put in a new game.
-This entry should establish connections to the pokemon world and make a place for it.
-The custom attack or ability should fit in with the canon pokemon abilities or moves in that it should seem like a move or ability that could be in the games, and should not feel too over/under powered.
-The fakemon should be logically sized and weighed for it's species and how it functions in the pokemon world.
Personal Rating:
- The personal rating is the wildcard category. Here you can give the entry a score based on all of your personal opinions and overall thoughts on the fakemon, all the thoughts and feelings that you can't really explain or catagorize, or give reason to. You can also use this category to comment on anything that you haven't yet addressed in the other categories, but that you feel might be important to point out. There are no guidelines to use here, this one is all you!
This is the layout for the Scorecards, please do not change it. We want a uniform scorecard for all judges and it helps the anonymity factor.
[size=15]Entry #_: Fakemon Species Names[/size]
Originality: /5
Detail: /5
Creativity: /5
Cohesiveness: /5
Personal Rating: /5
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Total: /25
[size=13][u]Comments and Critiques[/u]:[/size]
[b]Originality[/b]:
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[b]Detail[/b]:
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[b]Personal Rating[/b]:
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Originality: /5
Detail: /5
Creativity: /5
Cohesiveness: /5
Personal Rating: /5
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Total: /25
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Here is an example of what a well thought out, constructively critical scorecard should look like. Not everyone is expected to write nearly as much as this, however this is what a well written and thought out scorecard looks like;
Example Scorecard
Entry #5: Flurry, Wispard, and Saberal
Originality: 5/5
Detail: 5/5
Creativity: 5/5
Cohesiveness: 3/5
Personal Rating: 4/5
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Total: 22/25
Comments and Critiques:
Originality:
This fakemon is extremely original. There is no canon snow leopard pokemon in existence, and the combination of Ice and Fire types has not been used before. Normally I would call this out for being a contradictive type combination and dock a point off cohesiveness, but you do such a good job explaining why it works without being detrimental through the use of it’s ‘Spirit Fire’ that it just works. It’s history is unique and everything about this pokemon really stands out. Nice job!
Detail:
This fakemon is thoroughly detailed, with long in-depth explanations of each featured mechanic and aspect of how this pokemon works. From the history and lore to the individual pokemon analysis, everything went above and beyond the minimum requirement. Those Flurry sprites are adorable, and I can’t decide which looks better, the shiny or the normal sprites. Alas this isn’t an art contest, so I can’t judge this on the art itself, but I like how you made the sprite of Flurry’s snow phasing animation! I can judge that, because it’s going above the minimum requirement. The learnset is nice and filled out, spread out evenly over several levels. There was a detailed description of each stage in the evolution, from the way it moved, acted, ate, it’s size, even it’s breeding information in spite of the fact that it doesn’t breed, you still explain why that is and how each evolution acts in the face of a relationship, which is nice to have as a point of reference. This category gets a 5/5 from me~
Creativity:
This pokemon has it’s background and lore set, with unique spins on things like it’s diet. It feels nice to read through specifics like how it’s favorite treats are Basculin and bowls of moomoo milk, because even on such a bland subject you made it interesting and even incorporated pokemon interactions through it by outlining how these pokemon hunt. The custom attack is very unique in that Ghost type attacks don’t really have a means of healing. I also like the way this attack fits the pokemon it was made for, I could totally see a Wispard or Saberal running around and using Exorcism on ghost type pokemon in accordance with it’s history and lore. The moveset is certainly unique because of the typing Saberal and Wispard have It’s method of evolution is also unique and ties right in to it’s story as well. Just all around creative and tied together. You really connected the dots and thoroughly explained everything there was to know about these pokemon, which I appreciate.
Cohesiveness:
This pokemon certainly has a fitting place in the pokemon world, described with great detail in it’s lore and continued in the descriptions for each pokemon individually. It already has ties to the pokemon that it hunts and eats, ties to shamanistic trainers, and yet it makes sense why they haven’t been around for so long as well the way you described it. The method of evolution makes perfect sense, as I said before in the creativity section, the attacks in it’s learnset are primarily a mixture of fire, ice, and ghost, which match it perfectly. I would agree with Starlight that the learnable TM list is quite a bit extensive, but I didn’t dock points for that because the TMs that it can learn make sense, and personally I don’t mind so much because there’s still a limit of four moves per pokemon, so even if the TM list was lengthy people still would only be able to pick and choose four moves out of all the possibilities. However, I do also agree with Starlight in that the weight of this pokemon seems off, even for a pokemon that’s partially in both the spiritual plane and the realm of the living. To be hungry enough to take down a whole Mammoswine for a meal just doesn’t match up with the lighter weight, both due to the need for a heavier body for power and the physical need for a pokemon who eats so much to be a lot heavier. I can see how this relation could be made though, keeping with the nature of Sabertooth Tigers taking down Mammoths, this being a sabertooth snow leopard taking down a Mammoswine. An adjustment on the weight however is certainly needed.
Your custom move as a power of 90 is quite a bit high for having so many added affects, considering that other health absorbing moves have a lower power or a limitation like a pokemon needing to be asleep in order for dream eater to work. Though I see where the effects of this move come from, maybe remove the chance of burn for all pokemon this is used against and just have it burn Ghost pokemon? That way it keeps with the idea of burning spirits with spiritual fire. I would also reduce the power to 80 at least, if not something more along the lines of 60-75.
There is also the matter of Wispard and Saberal’s hidden ability Wonder Guard. So far Shedinja is the only pokemon to have this ability, so giving this to Wispard and Saberal is about the equivalent of giving it a legendary exclusive move. However, while I dislike things like that, I have been known to accept them if there is a legitimate reason behind it, and this pokemon certainly has one. You explained that Wispard and Saberal’s wisps act like an extension of their host pokemon by doing things like protecting their pokemon from attacks. That would certainly connect to an ability like wonder guard, though I’m slightly wary of this. Wispard and Saberal do have four weaknesses, one of which does x4 damage, and all of those weaknesses are really common attack types. I’m struggling, because it is explained and it’s certainly workable, but I just feel like this still needs a point docked for this however, because I’m still not certain this ability is completely cohesive with the mechanics of the guild. It makes sense for the pokemon, and there are certainly lots of mechanics that would remove the effects of this ability like other abilities such as Mold Breaker, or moves like Soak that replace abilities, Ring target could also be placed on it... I don’t know. I suppose it just makes me uncomfortable. Maybe you could give it a few more weaknesses to balance this out?
Personal Rating:
Overall I give this pokemon a 4/5. Everything about this entry is wonderfully detailed and creative, it’s perfect in that regard, but the weight and the custom move should be altered, and I would caution you to be wary of that Wonder Guard ability and think about my suggestions please. c:
Final Scores and Prizes:
The final scores will be tallied up using an averaging system, adding up all the points for an entry and dividing it by how many scores were given to get the average score. For the sake of not having ties, we will not be rounding the averages, that way if it comes down to decimal points then we will know who had a better average.
For the sake of anonymity, we will only announce the usernames of the winners, so if you are not one of the winning entries and you would like to re-submit your entry again next contest with improvements, then please don't reveal which entry is yours.
But of course, what sort of contest would this be if there weren't prizes? There will be rewards for the top three entries:
- 1st Place:
-Your Fakemon at level 15 and the option of it also being Shiny
-One Event Item of Choice
-One Lucky Egg
2nd Place:
-Your Fakemon at level 10 and the option of it also being Shiny
-One TM of Choice
-One Lucky Egg
3rd Place:
-Your Fakemon at level 5
-One Lucky Egg
Now, on a more serious note; when the results are in and the contest is over, it is understandable if your entry does not place in the top three rankings to feel upset, however please do not take that as a reason to go through the guild forums complaining about the results or insulting the votes or opinions of other members. You may say and do what you like in private chats to vent with friends to get the feelings off your chest, but bogging down the OOC with sore attitude will not be acceptable in this guild. Any member seen behaving in this manner will be reprimanded, and this rule will apply henceforth for future contests.
The top three winners will be posted once the judging period is over and the scores have been tallied. Once the winners are announced, if you are one of the winning entries, please talk to a mod to confirm that your fakemon is good to go and ready to be posted up in the fakedex. Once you have gotten approval, you may claim your prizes and modify your entry to post up in the fakedex with any fancy layout formatting you desire.
Good luck to everyone, and let the contest begin!~
