You are standing on the threshold of a cave. You are a fighter. These are your weapons. You are alone.
You are in no way required to enter the cave. You are in no way required to take any specific action. If you take an action which is not directly aggressive, you increase the likelihood that something will take an aggressive action towards you, and that you will be surprised.
If you move into the cave, or into the wilderness, you will find monsters. If you kill the monsters, you will get treasure.
You explain in the comments post what you do. Time is measured in actions, not in minutes or hours.
Everyone can play.
I put up a post that describes the initial situation. Everyone who wishes to play must answer their particular action within 24 hours of my posting the initial situation.
All those who enter the cave would then be given a post of what is in the cave. All those who descend from the cave would be given a post of what is in the wilderness. I will write as many different kinds of posts as there are decisions made. "Rounds" will equal one action taken by every participating person. Thus, all the persons in the cave will be given one action, all the persons in the wilderness will be given one action, and when everyone has taken an action, we will start again for everyone.
You have to kill to live, to get treasure and magic items, ordinary D&D. The format is AD&D, my combat system. If you're not familiar with my combat system, I will help you ... but familiarity with my combat system will be a plus.
You have to roll dice live to determine if you hit, what damage you do, etc. You have to have a camera and you have to post your die rolls on you-tube. Here is an example:
To discourage cheating, I will be rolling dice at the beginning of each round called a 'standard' die. This die will work thusly.
Suppose you need to hit AC 4 and you have a THACO of 20. Normally, this would mean you have to roll a 16 or better on a d20 to hit. Whatever number I roll on the standard die, however, that is the NEW 20. So if I roll a 12, then '12' is the '20'. This would mean you would have to roll an 8 to 12 in order to hit AC 4.
If I rolled a 3 on the standard die, then you would need to roll a 19, 20, 1, 2 or 3 in order to hit AC 4. These rolls will also be posted on youtube.
Why am I interested in discouraging cheating? Because I plan to give a $50 prize to the last person standing.
I will give this from my own funds. It will not cost a dime to play.
HOWEVER,
If you do not post your action within 24 hours of the time stamp on my post, then you are disqualified and you have lost.
If you die because you have failed to stop a monster killing you, you have lost.
If your die roll on you-tube is not legible, or if at any time the die you have rolled moves off camera, then that die roll is discounted. I suggest you roll in some sort of container as I have done, so that the entire movement of the die can be filmed.
I am not ready to run this contest. I have not considered every possibility, and I want suggestions. But I think it can be reasonably argued that many, many people could play at one time. Time between rounds will depend upon my ability to manage however many people are playing. A 24 hour minimum warning will be given before the next round is posted, and of course you'd have 24 hours after that to answer.
I think there would need to be possible choices that would enable people to PVP. Such pairings would teleport persons temporarily to a neutral plane of existence, and the winner returned to their starting place.
I think I'd like to award 10 times the normal experience I usually offer, to allow people a reasonable chance of going up a level.
All persons would run the same basic fighter, randomly rolled, with four weapons already chosen, etc.
Encounters both in the dungeon and in the wilderness would be rolled using the Dungeon random tables, divided by level, found in the Dungeon Master's Guide. Probably, the wilderness would be designated as one level higher than the beginning cave in the dungeon.
I don't want to pre-create a dungeon. I would rather create a set of tables which then the players had to try their luck against.
I also don't want any set list of possible actions. I want people to be able to innovate; I'd certainly want them to be able to parley. Unfortunately, I do tend to think this is ultimately going to come down to luck.
Everyone who went into the cave would experience the same encounter/results. Everyone who went into the wilderness would experience the same encounter/results. You'd only start to locate unique things when you shook off others and were able to go your own way.
If you killed an orc in a room this round, and others weren't able to, but they were still alive and fighting, whereas you had succeeded, then you would move on the next round, while they would remain behind.
You could ask me questions via email or a separate comment section before taking your action.
It is a bit like the movie Next, if you've seen that. Specifically, this scene.
All right, what haven't I thought of?
UPDATE:
Right off, short rolling does occur to me. Part of the reason I want to see it on camera is because I know people will cheat ... and throwing the dice from a half an inch up is one way (short rolling).
Trust me, if I need other people to judge your rolls, everyone competing will be there to help me keep you honest.
