How to Duel Guide

It is highly recommended that all current duellers read these guidelines.

How to Duel

To make the competition fun and worthwhile for all participants, then it’s important that your duelling posts are developed and interesting to read.

A one-sentence post with only one spell being used is not going to score highly.

Let’s begin with some stylistic pointers:

-Lay your duel post out in a clear, coherent manner. Use paragraphs and line breaks in between each paragraph. Try to use correct punctuation and grammar, and italics are good for emphasis. Feel free to use any media at your disposal: pictures, sounds – anything you feel may add to your post.

-Write at least two, if not more, paragraphs per duel post. You won’t score highly if all your posts are one sentence long.

Now some general duelling tips:

-If you’re the first to post in the duel, why not set the scene? If you haven’t been told where your duel is taking place, then create something. You could add obstacles to the duelling arena, set up a trap for your opponent and much more. Be creative!

-Here’s perhaps the most important duelling rule: you cannot control what your opponent does. As an example:

RIGHT: “Amy cast the stupefy spell towards her opponent, hoping against hope it connected with the target. She held her breath as the red light shot towards Raistlin. Would it hit him?”

WRONG: “Amy cast the stupefy spell towards her opponent, grinning in satisfaction when it hit him dead in the chest. Raistlin fell to the ground, knocked out.”

You must wait and see how your opponent reacts to your spell and not decide the outcome for them.

-Having said this, you should not make yourself impervious to the spells coming towards you. If you deflect every spell that is cast on you then you won’t score very highly. Yes, the spell might hit – but how do you react to that? Defence is as important as the spell casting itself.

-Be creative with the spells you use! By all means, use known spells from the HP universe, however you’ll score more points if you develop your own spells and incantations. Use any language you wish, and remember to provide a translation and let your opponent know what the effect of the spell will be.

-Do not ignore anything your opponent says. If they say that they have conjured a pack of rabid wolves – you cannot simply pretend they don’t exist in your next post. You have to acknowledge and deal with them, and for this you’ll earn more points.

-Unforgivable spells and spells from which there can be no return are forbidden.

Good Luck with the duels!

The following may be useful when coming up with Latin-based spells:

http://www.translation-guide.com/free_online_translators.php?from=Latin&to=English

http://www.appliedlanguage.com/free_translation.shtml

Remember, not all spells have to be in Latin. Creativity is a must!