Gods cannot be in families and can't marry mortal players. All your former familial ties would be broken at Ascension.

It's also a bit vague to say there should be some "labyrinth" of unspecified rp trials. I'm not trying to knock your concept, but when the admin team discussed having rp-based trials, we had a very hard time coming up with ideas that could be judged impartially. How would that work? I think if you try to come up with specific ideas and consider how they would be judged, you'll probably have a very hard time. We don't want this to come down to the admins essentially voting on their favorite player.

I agree, Xen. Giving someone a permanent blessing is going to draw the fighters just for the sake of having the blessing, even if they have no intention of going for the gold, as it were.. and that limits the chance of getting a solid candidate simply because someone who was a good candidate might not have any lessons in influence or dramatics and thus is at a severe disadvantage when it comes to even getting to the final challenge at all.

Bolting triggered to snort spores to a random sphere whenever bolting fires is what I'd use.

The alternative RP idea sound much better than the I'm a runfast/tank/sneakyperson way. It will be more work, but it is a proven(?) IRL interview method for many job. A senario where you have to respond, and are marked based on your responses to senarios, time based(off the cuff) and prepared senarios? Maybe it could be a combination event, again echoing IRL, a technical test based on combat, IC knowledge, etc and the RP test. Final cumulative score gets it.

I also saw the tag 2007 on the web page. Does this mean that if it works this might become an annual event?

If it works out I bet!

I can see the possibility for a lot of good things coming from this down the line. Its that the winners of each seal get permanent buffs followed by a massive free for all that changes the entire dynamic from a process geared towards producing rp-only gods into a wargames with absurd prizes.

In theory it looks as if you would be weeding out the ones who wouldn't be good in the god role because they would need to rally sufficient support. That doesn't pan out though. People that can't tank damage for more then a second are essentially disqualified because not enough people will want to support someone that would be such a risky investment.

As a bit of a confused and frustrated sidenote, why is it that so many things that happen in Lusternia are so completely different then from how it seems they were advertised beforehand?

I'm not sure I see what all the hating is for. Maybe I just don't hang around the forums often enough. Or maybe I'm one of the few people that have wanted to be a RP God since I started playing Lusty and met Fain I will be trying my luck at a lot of contests and will want to try for the final event, although I feel I have a little chance at either.

*second try at posting*
Maybe you don't want to be 100% impartial, agan think IRL Psychometric testing. Empoyers seek out the personality type that would fit the role they are advertising for. That isn't to say there is only one. But a weighted system. "if they RP's a ritual containing one person 2 points, if they RP's an event containing a whole org 5 points. the world 10 points. if they do it badly, zero points." Thats a simplificaction, but you get the idea. The thing here would be to get multiple gods involved in the process to ensure a balanced mark. With guidelines for marking, but overall for it to be up to the current gods. I mean IC, the Elder aren't going to want just anyone to ascend, they will want some input surely? This way they will be, OOC, and therefor IC too?

Here's one way to have an RP contest, that could be "double-blind" and prevent favored judging. I'm not saying this would be the way to determine the god role, but if we were going to have an RP judge role.

The competitors are given control of a denzien and must role-play the role. Only Estarra (and maybe Roark and Sior) know which player is in control of which character. That way, the Elder Gods can vote without any potential favoritism. Maybe have an event around it.

How would that be IC though?

I honestly am just trying to figure out ways to judge the contest impartially. I'm not sure it can be an entirely IC process. Maybe it can, but like Morgy said, ideas are welcomed.

Oh, no, I think this idea has a lot of potential, IF the right person gets the chance to compete and win.

I just don't think that the current method actually encourages the "right person" (or even a group of the "right people") to get to the finals, much less win.

Unfortunately, I don't think there can be any way to completely and impartially select between a list of candidates, but I have to agree with Fallen... this should be treated more as a job interview. Let the applicants shine! Let them impress you!

And remove the buffs from the Karma seals.

Keeping the buffs will increase the stress of these trials tremendously, as well as decreasing the fun of them, and will make the overall event much less successful.

This sounds like an interesting and exciting experiment, and I look forward to seeing how it turns out.

Where the final test is concerned, the idea of a roleplay-based challenge marries well with the proposed duties of the God-to-be, and it seems sensible to scrutinize the candidates, much as applicants to other positions, such as Guides, would be scrutinized. That said, 'good RP' is a highly subjective concept, and I can forsee people complaining about perceived favouritism.

Good luck anyway.

Even if you take away the buffs though, people will still be competing who don't want to become a god. I guess you could limit it to ONLY people who want to be a god can compete, but then no one else can participate in the contests, and some of them seem fun just for fun's sake. Hrmmm, dilemma!

Is there a possibility that there be second and third place runners-up for the contests so that the person that wins could hand off their right to compete for the Staff if they decide they'd just rather have the accolade of the contest without going for Godhood?

I like the core idea here which is to make them play a new role to see how they do in order to judge.

I don't think I'll have much respect for a god who only became that way because they had great running ability and a lot of thugs.

If someone had to play a new role entirely to demonstrate some level of roleplaying ability it would go over a lot easier.

I'd say far fewer people would be competing who don't want to become a God. There would be people like you who want to do it for fun, or for the contest... but there would be a LOT of people who wouldn't bother with them because there are different concepts of fun, or areas where they excel and would prefer to prioritize their attention on.

It gives the people who want to RP a better shot at getting it.

I don't think its a problem to compete if you're not interested in becoming a god simply because many of the contests will be fun for fun's sake.

That doesn't mean that they should get permanent buffs to use later though. This is a process to create roleplaying gods, why muck it up with permanent buffs for people who don't care?

Well, I don't fault trying to get all the players involved even if it's not just for the ascension. It's a way to give the entire player base some fun.