Thursday, July 29, 2010

Draft - Appearance Scoring Checklist for the Open

OK,

The linked file is a ROUGH DRAFT of the appearance scoring checklist and value possibles; remember we go by percentages, in terms of its impact on Ren Man and individual prizes/awards

The point here is that army is scored for overall theme and appearance on the tabletop, plus presentation and army-wide heavy conversion

One individual mini is scored for advanced painting techniques and attention to detail

One individual mini is scored for advanced conversion techniques

Armies, minis, and converted minis that score max or very close to it will be entered into final consideration for the individual army/mini/conversion prizes

Judges will all be on the same page with regard to scoring, and any army that scores exceptionally low or high will be reviewed by another judge for integrity

Let me know via E-MAIL - MVBRANDT@GMAIL.COM ... WHAT YOU THINK.

This'll get published tomorrow, I have a lot of private contacts heads'ed up for feedback as well.

- Mike

APPEARANCE SCORING DRAFT V1

9 comments:

  1. I like it. But I could be biased since I think my Daemons if I took them would score almost perfectly :)

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  2. Quick Question:

    Do the individual model scoring (conversion/paitned) count toward the total appearance score or is it just the overall army score?

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  3. I'd like to see something between "minimal-to-no conversion" and "then entire army is heavily converted." Maybe a halfway point at 5?

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  4. I think the display board might be a bit trivialized. Some folks at tournaments create beautiful dioramas for their minis. One of those off-the-charts dioramas would addmore than 4 points to visual power.

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  5. People who have gorgeous armies often have gorgeous display boards.

    Similarly, people just wanting to game the system can BS together a display board to check the box and get BS points.

    Basically, people with display boards get a leg up points wise on equivalently good looking competitors, but do not trump the actual army appearance (or fall behind) of a better or worse looking army with it.

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  6. I don't like the large jumps between "The Army is Very Well Painted" and "Even at a glance"; and "The Army clearly contains all three factors of coherency" and "The army is uniquely and fantastically thematic". One is 20pts and the other 15pts. I would suggest sticking to the 10pt differences that most of the rest of the choices in both have.

    I understand this is there to make the judging of this prize easier but I think it is still excessive.

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  7. On reflection, I agree with Kazzual's comment.

    Sure, someone could throw together a display board, but the same can be said of painting. I mean you can just as easily game the conversion score by gluing a bunch of shit from different kits together. I know I've seen several armies that are considerably more converted than anything I've ever run that don't look half as good as my armies.

    If it's a BS board, then award it BS points. If it's a truly impressive board, it should be worth more than the 2 point difference between a tray stolen from the mall food court that's seen some flock and a really impressive diorama worthy of Games Day.

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  8. My two cents as a non-antendee but possible format adpoter:

    --I have never cared for scoring of 'theme'. I think it detracts from the paint judging and favors certain armies over others. You've also given minimal criterea as to what is themed and what isn't (the example of a bad moon ork army is a poor one imo, many ork players paint their units as different clans purely for unit markings -- and having a mix of clans is far from unfluffy). I can see two different judges scoring this quite differently and that isn't ideal.

    If an army has a strong theme that draws people, then the fav army votes will reflect it. But penalizing someone for a lack of theme (purely by the judges estimation) is probably gonna draw alot more ire then you would think.

    --I also think you will have a hard time scoring this for 96 players in one day unless you have an army of experienced paint judges. Just waaaay too much going on on that sheet.

    --Display board scoring can give undue advantage to local players, as transporting crazy displays across the country is not always feasible. Astronomicon dialed back their points for display based on feedback on that very topic. Just another thing to consider.

    --The large jumps in points without variation will cause many players to question the scoring. I'd consider some middle ground or have a very very conrete way to decide above average from very well painted and very well painted from best in the room. Differences in judges opinion/way of determining average/excellent/top notch will also cause some issues here.

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  9. All SUPER useful input, that I think Geoff is pretty effectively addressing ... I need more experience in the appearance department to do it on my own for a good first go, hence the inclusion of input from ya'll and others, and the adjustment to confirm a "formal" appearance judging chief with decades of creative experience to manage that process.

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