Two Role-Players Enter as Contenders.
One Role-Player Exits as Champion!

MAFIARETURNS FIGHT WRITE CLUB!

Combining all the things you love about MR: gambling for big cash prizes, writing role-play, & lighthearted trash talk.

The Contenders

The players are the contenders, not their characters.  This is not an in-story write/fight club, but a community activity that involves writing.  Two players will be invited into the Write Club ring each time.  They will be given a topic upon which to write a story in the streets.  This topic will be chosen BEFORE the players are picked to avoid any favoritism.  The player with the best story (based on a vote by the MR community) wins the weekly prize.

Anyone is welcome to step into the ring to compete.  They just simply visit the initial Write Club thread (THIS THREAD YOU'RE ON NOW) and reply with links to three things they’ve written (on or off site) for our odds-maker to read and use set your starting odds.  Should a contender wish to take part but NOT to submit their writing, Contenders can do this - but - they must first express their interest (on this thread) and then consult with Don Shaggs privately.  As part of the deal for entering the competition as a dark horse, they must agree to split their initial purse 50/50 with the odds-maker.

Once we’ve done a fair amount of fights, we’ll show stats on each writer listing their odds and win/loss ratio.  Initial pairings will be based on oddsmaker numbers trying to ensure that writers of a similar skill level are against each other.  Eventually, however, everyone will get a chance to write against all the other fighters.

Fight Promoters aka Hype Men or Bookies

These are the guys who decide what the contenders will be writing about.  They also volunteer to provide the minimum prize pot for the fighters.  Why are they also called hype men?  They are out in the community pushing people to place bets so that they walk away with cash in their pockets instead of footing the bill themselves!  

Often times this will take the form of trash talking in chat rooms or on forum threads and can be a whole lot of fun.  It is possible for a fight to have multiple fight promoters (splitting the service fees collected & the cost of providing the purse for the winning writer) which can make things all the more fun when each promoter picks a writer as their own personal favorite and it becomes a war of words leading up to the fight!

Those wanting to be a fight promoter might even consider encouraging a writer to engage in a fight which they previously wouldn’t have - just so the writer and the promoter have an opportunity to make money together.  

Betting

Bets will be taken from the time the fight is announced (which will occur on the OoC Board in an initial thread by the Fight Promoter) until the time theme for the stories are announced.  Once the theme has been announced in the thread, no more bets will be taken and the writers will begin. There is a minimum of a $25,000 bet with a 5.00 percent service fee to the fight promoter. Bets can only be made in $25,000 increments.

DISCLAIMER: All bets made are between the gambler and the Fight Promoter.  Since death happens and we can promise that cash won't be lost during fights due to character death, all betting and is done at your own risk.

Writing

The topic will be determined before writers are chosen to avoid favoritism.  All stories written must meet a 500 word minimum and not exceed 10,000 words.  Contenders will have one week in which to write their story and return to the fight promoter’s initial thread advertising the fight, to share a link to their story.  In the event that only one writer finishes in time, he/she wins by forfeit.  

Voting

In the initial thread promoting the fight, the fight promoter will include a link to a google form were members of the MR community can vote for their favorite story in the streets.  Each vote must be accompanied by an active MR username to count.  You may only vote once.  Voting will be open for twenty four hours past the end of the writing period.  A winner will be declared by the fight promoter on the initial thread promoting the fight in the OoC board after voting has completed.

The Odds

Every fighter is given odds to win by the Odds-maker (see below) a number that is in the negatives indicate they are a long-shot to win (aka: not likely) if the fighter is indicated as having a positive number they are the favorite to win (aka: very likely they will win.)  Obviously you will win a large amount of money if an underdog wins, but it’s not always the right bet.  Only you can determine what’s the best thing to do when examining the odds.  Here’s an example of how odds might affect your payout.

SAMPLE MATCH-UP
Frankie-Messina (+200)
Tyler Durden (-100)

In this fight, Frankie would be the favorite to win and at +200 odds it means that for every $2.00 you bet on Frankie, you would win back your money PLUS $1.00 more.

If you bet $2000 on Frankie and she wins, you’d get your $2000 back + a profit of $1000.00.

If Frankie were to lose, however, you’d lose the full $2000.00.

Payouts

Each time there is a match up the fight promoter will agree to put up a minimum of $1,000,000 as the guaranteed purse paid to the winning writer.  5% service fee will be paid to Fight Promoters for their investment in the fight and hard work regardless of the outcome.  Winning bets will be covered by The House (see below.)  Payouts will occur as soon as possible once the winner is announced.

The House

The House consists of Don Shaggs & Frankie-Messina of the Nightingales who will put her portion of the house profits to be used as rp incentives, tipping great RP, and for prizes in events/games/contests hosted on the site.

Super special thanks to our odds-maker Don Shaggs of Las Vegas who helped educate me (Frankie) about betting on fights, KateLogan Jones TonyCastelli MarieCosta Luke Tony-Dicaprio VictoriaValium and SullivanBlack input, encouragement, and suggestions!

As our oddsmaker, Don Shaggs will read each of the three submitted writing pieces and rank each writer for their initial odds as well as help calculate payouts at the end of each fight.  Should a writer not wish to submit three (3) initial pieces of writing they may avoid doing so by consulting with Don Shaggs first and splitting their initial winnings with Don Shaggs 50/50.  

Those contenders who are in a crew with Don Shaggs will have their odds set by an outside source yet to be determined.

Write Club Flyer on Google Docs

Got Questions?  Feel free to ask!  

Shaggs I am throwing my hat in as a contender.

1. https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/1004348#15961431 - How LuckyLucy got her name.
    
2. https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/1015182#15961431 - A beautiful morning in Hell.
    
3. https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/1082280/tpass/a85caafab4559dfa54aa0b38679e5c4f#16947697 - The previously unshared wedding post of Capazzo and Charlie where Lucy makes her final appearance in story and I wrap it up with Frankie having been the one telling the story.

"COME AT ME BRO(S)!!!!"  Frankie strikes a pose for the crowd with a cup of tea in one hand and a feather quil in the other.  

Seems like fun to me. I'm in. I've got some newer stuff out there, too. But this was a fun trip down memory lane for me!

1. https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/64079#7452526 (Kates - Killing a Woman?)

2. https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/161831#2109081 (Crawford - Easter Rising)

3. https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/165825#21943911 (Crawford - End of Innocence)

Well, I guess it's time to flex my writing muscles lest they atrophy,

My current works:

1. https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/1100262#16827471

2. https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/1078817#16827471

3. https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/1080312#16827474 (This is somehow shelved because I'm computing/rebalancing the algorithm and process; plus it's hard work!)

A little buffet of my past characters: 

1. https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/1080363/tpass/00605cf4ea38faf14c68af06be2f6477#168247841  (JessicaConiglio)

2. https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/1067553#165352024 (Freddie_Lou)

3. https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/910620#143523319 (Billie_Faegan)

Eat your hearts out! <3 

https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/80804#6073410 (LoveGun)

https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/427201#8191741 (FourLoko)

https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/433765#8513501 (FumikoHashimoto)

Boom Boom Dollar

GYAH! That 1st one for JessicaConiglio (JacquelineBlack) really hurts my heart. I'm sad no one got to see that masterpiece between Jess and Roger(Me) We were nearly finished with it too. Damn you Cletus! :P lol. Oh well... I suppose everyone gets to see it now. ANYWAY!

For my three...

1.) https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/907107#143516932 - (Thomas_OShannon)

2.) https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/1057613#165337219 - (John_Shoaltz)

3.) https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/1064971#16533721 - (John_Shoaltz)

Anyway... These are the three I picked.

I'd love to be a contender please.

1. https://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/2130010-GoT-challenge-Week-1-House-GreyJoy (KissMeSlowly 2017)
2. https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/831055#12481351 (Aislin 2016)
3. https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/883434#13588841 (KatarinaGenovese 2016)

Takes out her boxing gloves and does a few punches in the air

Let's Gooooo!

We're going to announce first match up tomorrow.  Odds will be announced at that point and betting will begin for the first match.  If you'd like to join the write club, there's still time.  Please reply here with three samples of your writing and we'll get you onto the roster!

Hello. I'd like to step forward as a possible contender for the snazzy-named 'MR Write Club'. Please find below three pieces of my work.

"I. An Opportunity" - https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/1101264#17131242

"II. Body and Soul" - https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/1102208#17127611

Post from Shaggs' Hot Dog Business (Reply #6) - https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/1101145#17127617

Thank you,

Amnesia

Glad to have you with us Amnesia!  We'll hopefully have our first match up announced shortly!  :) 

I want to try my hand at this. 

We'd love to have you Salvatore_Lucania - just reply here with three samples of your writing (doesn't need to be here on MR) that way our odds maker can give odds on you when we match you up with your opponents.  :)

https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/1102846#16817087
https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/1098855#16949945
https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/1099800#16949942

CONTENDER FAQs

Some Questions I've Been Asked by Writers and How I Replied.
 

1. Will the story be like fictional narrative -or- an opinion piece? or are we free to write as long as according to the topic?

Ideally it's narrative (I believe we've very strongly alluded to the idea that the posts will be RP in nature) but I never expressly forbid anyone from writing ... well, anything!  So, all that to say you wouldn't be disqualified for writing whatever you wanted.  The winner, however, is determined by a vote of the community so keep that in mind.  You are playing to an audience, so to speak and I have to admit... we have a LOT more people following this than I expected at first.  No pressure.  ;)

2. is it okay to separate the story in multiple posts, or it's just one loooong post for the story?

I think you can post in multiple posts if that is what you'd prefer - again no real rules against doing it however you like (other than not longer than 10,000 words so we don't have folks reading more than just a short story.)  I might suggest to you that if you're going to do that you write it in back ally first and then move it out to the streets as we've had a lot of trolls and spammers lately and I'd hate for you to be in the middle of your story (say three posts in) and boom someone posts in the middle of it.  Ideally that shouldn't make readers not vote for you - but who knows what people will decide to vote for?  *shrug*

3.  Are these posts "in character" as our characters or what's the deal for that?

I didn't set a guideline for that.  If you want to write a narrative about your character or some other - I don't see why we wouldn't allow that ... it is in the streets after all.  Just make sure that everything is "in character" in the sense that it's appropriate for the Streets board and follows those posting guidelines.  Personally, I'd love to read more about your current character (and I suspect others would too) just keep in mind you are writing for an audience and since they choose the winners - write what you think people will enjoy reading!

You might want to check the Towers but maybe you have. I'm all too familiar with the underlay for the overlay. You are so young Please enlighten the community what in hell you are trying to deliver to the msasses?