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Acrophobia Team/Clan Rules

(created April 21, 1998; Last amended 08/12/98)

*Note to all Captains: In the event that you or any of your players has a problem with any player on my team, please PM (Red Message) me or Co-Captains BamaGal or Byte Me2 so the matter can be taken care of in a proper manner. I prefer PM's (Red Messages) so that none of the players are insulted, or embarrassed in an public fashion. Thank your for your cooperation. dcm77 Captain Hot Tubbers.

Acro Rules

This document was created and accepted as guidlines for acroing in Acrophobia by the following Teams/Acro Groups: Mage, C9ABAL, Dust Bunnies, Acrobats, Ozzians, Couch Taters, Super Spa Floaters, Dome Rules, Flying Toasters, CHAOS Community, Yc~High Fivers~, The Acro Faction, Dungeon, Alley^^Cats, Couch Rules, Acromaniacs, Toaster Philes, Fellow Teens Unite, Java Clan, Acroholics, Basic Grunts, Acro Invaderz, Unknown, 2nd Spring, SLR's, Crazy Acrophiacs Anonymous, Silver Bullets, Tater Teens, The "X" Teens, Rocket Scientists, Purr-fect, GenerX, "X" Team, Simply Irresistable, Acrophobia Waves, and Cancunites.

The Acroteam Community Introduced Acroteams as an exciting feature of the Acro Community! For those of you unacquainted with what the Acroteams are all about, we welcome you! The following will help povide you with a general outline of the beliefs we hold, and the rules we follow.

We assume that a general knowledge of the rules of Acrophobia itself are known before reading this document. For those of you unaware of the rules of BeZerk's Acrophobia, please refer to the link below.

1l. The general Premise and Coordination (for BeZerk Acrophobia)

A match is played between two (2) Acroteams at a designated time and location. Each Team will have a designated Captain who will be in charge of coordinating his/her team. More on the styles of play will be provided later. However, it is important tounderstand the concept of "team play" first and what it entails.

Coordinating Match Dates/Times Let's suppose that Team A wants to challenge Team B to a Team Match. The Group Leader of Team A will get in contact with the Group Leader of Team B and a date and a time will be set. Usually, a week in advance is a good rule to follow, although for teams who know each other very well a shorter notice may be fine. After a date and a time are set, it is the Team Leader's responsibility to field a team from their members. IN GENERAL, each team is responsible for fielding seven (7) members. The Group Leader does not necessarily have to be one of those seven. More on these numbers will be addressed in both the next section, and the "how-to-play" section.

*Note: A complete list of Acroteams and Group Leaders are provided at the end of the page.

Coordinating Match Location 2.A - Match played in One of the Clan/Team Rooms.

For an Acrophobia team match that is played in the Clan rooms (1, 2, 3, or 4) in BeZerk's Acrophobia, the room is selected before the scheduled match by a team Captain, who has recorded the match in the Room Reservation Calendar (calendar located at Team Acro's site currently, future calendar will hopefully be at Acrophobia's site.) The room being already reserved members simply need to show before match start time, typically five (5) to ten (10) minutes before hand. Questions have been raised as to whether a full room is needed in order to have a match, and the answer is no. For alternate methods of play when there are non-teamers in a room, see the next section's scoring rules.

2.B - Match Played in one of the regular Acrophobia rooms.

An Acrophobia team match that is played in an EMPTY room in BeZerk's Acrophobia. This room is selected before the scheduled match by a team Captain, who has been chosen beforehand (the Captain does not necessarily have to be the Group Leader). His/her responsibility is too coordinate the chosen team members for the night, and to help find a room in Acrophobia for the match to occur. There are several methods for coordinating team members, one of the most common is as follows:

About a half-hour before a scheduled match, a team will gather in ICQ chat (ICQ can be downloaded at http://www.mirabilis.com). The team Captain will keep in contact with the other team Captain using ICQ messaging. When both parties are ready (hopefully before the scheduled start time). One Team Captain ( or a scout selected by the Captain) finds an EMPTY room in Acrophobia and then immeadiately messages his team as well as the other Captain as to what room to go to. All participants should go to the designated room as quickly as possible, to fill the room with team members before any non-players drop in. (see section III, dealing with non-team players). If all goes as planned, a total of fourteen (14) players will be in the room (making it full, seven (7) players from each team).

Questions have been raised as to whether a full room is needed in order to have a match, and the answer is no. For alternate methods of play when there are non-team members in the room, see the next section's scoring rules.

3) Coordinating Match Start

It is extremely important that when team paticipants enter a room for a match, they are NOT to enter acros, or VOTE for any acros that do appear. Only when all participants arrive is the match to begin, and only when BOTH Team Captains agree to start. In general, it is usually custom to wait until the 3-Letter round comes up, although if both Captains agree otherwise, any round can be started on.

III. Styles of Play and Scoring

There are two (2) main styles of play: Regular and Couch (or Dome) Rules. Each method of play generally has two (2) scoring possibilities: Face - Off and Cumulative scoring. An Acrophobia Match is played as a Best 2 out of 3 games process. Keep in mind that the guidelines for scoring are just that, guidelines. If both Team Captains agree on an alternate method of scoring BEFORE a match begins, that is also acceptable.

1.) Styles of Play

Regular: This is your run-of-the-mill acroing. Topics are chosen from the available ones listed on the screen, by the previos rounds winner.

Couch/Dome Rules: The difference in Couch/Dome Rules is that the winner of the previous round INVENTS a topic of his/her own. They then announce the topic BEFORE the letters for the next round come up. A common practice is to use the /me command to announce the topic, so it appears in purple. For example, /me TOPIC=VVAMPIRES would produce that in the chatbox (in purple) signifying what the topic would be for the next round.

*Note: The first round of any game is straight General Acrophobia (since no previos round winner has been determined). In addition, the Face - Off is played under General Acrophobia.

2.) Scoring:

a. Face - Off Scoring

This is the most simple method. The Team that wins the game is simply the one whose team member won the Face - Off. If both Face - Off players are from the same team, th team wins automatically. Otherwise the winner of the Face - Off determines the winner of the game.

b. Cumulative Scoring

This is the more team - oriented approach to Acrophobia. The team winner in this format is the one that has the most COMBINED points (per game). The total number of points is determined by adding all seven (7) team player's points, and then addind a bonus five (5) points to the team that won the face - Off. Points accumulated in the Face - Off are not tallied in the final score.

*Note: There has been much talk among the Acroteam community as to whether cumulative scoring should entail all seven (7) scores of each team. We have had problems with players getting booted during the middle of the game, or where a team could not field a full team of seven (7). In this case, it is at the Captains' discretion as to how to proceed. Many acro matches have been played cumulatively, but using only the top four (4) or five (5) scores from each team. Again this is a judgement that needs to be made before game time. This method can also be used when there are non - team members in the room.

*Note: If cumulative scoring is being played, there is a possible problem if a player from one team makes the Face - Off and plays against a non - teamer. It is recommended that the Captains decide beforehand (if they see this situation might occur) how best to handle the Face - Off bonus.

c. Ties and Face - Off Bumps

In the event of a tie or a Face - Off bump in either Face-Off or Cumulative Scoring, the team with the leading scorer, or the highest cumulative score prior to the Face - Off will be considered the winner.

Acroteam Ettiquette:

Much has been made of how Acroteamers reprresent the Acrophobia community. We make up a sizable portion of Acroers, and our numbers continue to increase. Because of this, it is EXTREMELY important to conduct oneself in a courteous manner. The following details general points on dealing with non - team players, as well as play within a match itself.

l.) Interacting with non-team members in a room.

Occaisionally, upon entering a room before a match, a non-team player will enter the room that was designated to be the match room. This has created some problems in the paast, as the non-team members were not made fully aware as to what was about to take place. There is really only one (1) accecptable procedure, and it is as follows:

Non-members should never be TOLD TO LEAVE. The first step to interacting with a non-member is complete silence from any team member who is not the Captain. Once this has been achieved, the Captains will politely explain what is occuring and ask the (asking after explaining is okay, asking before is not) if the non-member could find another room. The key to success is diplomacy and dissemination of onformation. Nine times out of ten, the non-member will be understanding and find another room. Explain to the non-team player that the room room has been reserved for a pre-arranged team competition. Point out that it is a special interest/clan only room. It may be helpful to explain the concept of team acro, and to refer them to the team acro page for guidelines on starting or joining one.

However there are times when a non-member will refuse to respond, or refuse to leave (or both). In this case, continue silence. Even more importantly, do not start the match. Eventually after a round or two of no acroing, no voting, and complete chatroom silence, other than the team Captains, the non-member will become bored and find another room.

If the non-team player still refuses to leave, it is recommended that the two team Captains use the PROBLEM PLAYER feature to report the non-teamer. The two team Captains should then follow up by filing a complaint about the non-team player to BeZerk at: Acro-comments@bezerk.com. You should identify who you are, and what team you represent, identify the non-teamer in question, and be sure to include a log of the event,

If even this fails, DO NOT pester the non-teamer any more. From here, one of two options can be pursued: Either a new acro room can be found, or a six (6) on six (6) or a (five (5) on (5), depending on the number of non-teamers) match can be played. Some teams inact the cumulative scoring method to defeat an imbalance in the room. This can be used at any time during the game using the top scores from both teams to achieve a balance between the two, whether it be 6 on 6 or, 5 on 5 and so on.

*Note: If there is only one non-teamer present and the room is full, it is usually a good idea to send an ICQ message to the team member who is unable to play.

Match Etiquette: There are five (5) main rules to follow during a team match. All of these are self-explanatory, so no comments will be provided.

Never write acros that are considered cheating. If an acro has 3 letters, write a 3 word acro. Do Not use _ or . to join words, and do not use run-on words.

*Note The Dungeon Team generally DOES allow this style of acroing. If you are scheduled to play this team, make SURE the rules are known to both Captains before the game.

Never give clues as to which acros are yours until AFTER the voting phase. (at which point it would become pretty obvious anyway) Always listen to your team Captain. He/She is the outlet through which problems with non-members, or concerns about the match are filtered. All problems should be addressed to the CAPTAIN. Never argue or be exceedingly competitive with a team member from the other team. Remember, Acrophobia is not a life-or-death proposition. It's fun (see the last section). Never write acros that use the name of a team member, or the the name of the team itself. This is referred to as "pandering" and is inappropriate for team play. Miscellaneous Items:

There are a few bits and pieces that do not fall into the previous categories.

Team Tags: Most Teams have some sort of identifier that they use during team matches to distinguish themselves. They are helpful in adding cumulative scores quickly, and asisting in ensuring that an equal number of players from each team are present. A tag can be anything a team wishes ( for instance, The Castaways use a {-- attached before the player's name, while CHAOS uses a !! at the end of a player's name.)

Time-Outs: In general Time-Outs are not recommended. However, in the event that a team member is booted, ONLY the Captain can call a Time-Out. During that period, there is to be No acroing or No voting. Usually, the delay is very short. If more than a coupleminutes progress, the match MUST continue. Again this is left to thediscretion of the Captains.

Rescheduling Naturally, for most of us the real world comes knocking once in a while. On game night, a full team might not be able to show up. In fact, there are times when hardly anyone will show. If this is the case, if in the opposing team's Captain's judgement to decide what method to utilize. A forfeit is an option if the match is cancelled less than 24 hours before the scheduled match time, but that is not recommended. Usually some option exsists that will salvage the match, whether it be playing with a reduced number of team players, or or rescheduling the match at a later date.

Conclusion: As noted, this is not the "Bible" of acroteam play, as not every aspect of team play is covered to the utmost detail. However, these are the general guidelines to follow. If they seem confusing to those not involved in team play now, the best solution is to take part in a team match. After a couple of matches, the whole process becomes a lot clearer.

The MOST important goal of team play is camraderie and fun. If these goals are not accomplished every time a match is played, then the teams have failed. The acroteam community is a unique opportunity to be not only competitive, but more importantly to make new friends and enjoy oneself.

Below is a link to Team Acro's Home Page If you have any more questions.

(c) 1998 Acrophobia is a registered service mark of Berkeley Systems, Inc. This page was created by an individual independent of Berkeley Systems, Inc. This sites contents do not necessarily represent the views of Berkeley Systems, Inc.