Urgent definition required.

[Scarey Nerd]

In the Complete Warrior description of the "Alabaster Cup", it says that there are 12 contestants (Well, it says a dozen, but I digress). Anyway, it says that in the last round, there is a single-elimination dueling tournament. However, I don't see how this can work, as you would have 6 1v1 duels, then 3 1v1 duels, then... A three-way duel?

What do you guys think? Or have I misinterpreted a single-elimination duel?

[Thrice Dead Cat]

Someone gets lucky in the last 1 versus 1 versus one fight, sitting out, effectively getting a buy while the other two duke it out.

[TooManyBadgers]

I'd expect random seeding and a free pass for the winner of one of the second-tier duels.

But if a 3 contestant duel opens a more interesting in-game possibility, that could work too.

[Erom]

Usually in 1v1 tournaments, you'd randomly assign by's to 4 people in round 1, so that you have 8 1v1's in round 1, 8 1v1's in round 2, then as usual from there.

Kind of a weird system though.

Is it possible that some contestants are meant to be eliminated by the last round?

[Erom]

Someone gets lucky in the last 1 versus 1 versus one fight, sitting out, effectively getting a buy while the other two duke it out.

Do by's in round 1, not in the semi-finals! Much fairer that way.

[nightwyrm]

Or the writers messed up and you should really up the number of contestants to 16.

[Scarey Nerd]

Exact word of the text:

At noon on the final day, the contestants gather for the final event: A single-elimination dueling tournament worth twice the usual number of coins. Characters can have any nonmagical equipment they like except for ranged weapons. They can cast spells as long as they don't do so before the duel begins. Each duel lasts for exactly 1 minute and is fully lethal, but both duelists have shield other cast on them by NPC clerics before the fight begins. You lose the duel if you yield to your opponent, fall unconscious, or have taken more damage than your opponent when the minute is up (in the judgement of the host, who has a keen eye for wounds).

[chionophile]

Yeah, the best way is to seed, 1-12, then give 1-4 a first round bye. 1 plays the winner of the 8/9 game, 2 plays the winner of the 7/10, 3 plays winner of 6/11, 4 plays the winner of 5/12. Assuming top seeds all win the second round, 1 would play 4 and 2 would play 3. Then 1 plays 2.

[Ksheep]

Looking at it… it says that there is a single-elimination match each day. Wrestling, jousting, then duel.

One way you could do it is have the 4 with the most coins sit out the first round, have them automatically accepted in the second round. Then you'd have 8-8-4-2. It's a bit sloppy, but it's the best workaround I can think of.

EDIT: It doesn't appear to be a typo, as there is nothing about it in the errata. I guess they just left it open for the DMs to figure out.

[Scarey Nerd]

Looking at it… it says that there is a single-elimination match each day. Wrestling, jousting, then duel.

One way you could do it is have the 4 with the most coins sit out the first round, have them automatically accepted in the second round. Then you'd have 8-8-4-2. It's a bit sloppy, but it's the best workaround I can think of.

EDIT: It doesn't appear to be a typo, as there is nothing about it in the errata. I guess they just left it open for the DMs to figure out.

I'm thinking I'm just going to up it to 16 contestants and make life easier. I had 4 standby NPCs, for occassions such as these.