Mercenaries, Dark Knights, and Charity Fundraising Rules

 

What are Mercenaries, Dark Knights, and Merchants

Each of these Game of Tomes / Tourney of Tales player options were not affiliated with a House. They offered their word count for a specific time period to a House in return for funds raised for charity or promises of good deeds or similar things.  
 

The TL;DR on How They Work

A Mercenary or Dark Knight used the Twitch Polls to collect votes on who “won” the words written by the mercenary during the stream. (Mercenaries and Dark Knights were NOT permitted to auction off words written off-stream.   A Merchant exchanged words, Twitch bits, or donations for digital or physical products. It is contrary to the spirit of the competition to introduce any real stakes. Mercenaries were NOT permitted sell their word services for any real monetary value. However, mercenaries were able to ask for trade-in-kind, or for things with real value, such as bits and Twitch subscriptions, as long as their portion of the monetary value (i.e. the portion of the subscription fee that wasn't kept by Twitch) was going to a charity.)   Mercenaries were allowed to choose the charity they supported or donate to NaNoWriMo or another charity supported by Game of Tomes streamers.

 

An Example

Gregory Lemon raised funds for the Kids Need to Read literacy program.

 

Notes for Game of Tomes (November)

If a House Leader was eliminated while having the support of a mercenary, they were permitted to "will" the services of that mercenary to another House of their choice.

 

Notes for Tourney of Tales (April and July)

In the Tourney of Tales, The Great Houses of the Realm gather for a medieval-style tournament. Traditionally, there would have been no mercenaries during Tournies. But GoT did allow a form of mercenary called a "Dark Knight”.

 

Details: GOT Charity Fundraising Rules

The rules as of March 2022.   Streamers taking part in the Game of Tomes and Tourney of Tales were able use the events to raise funds for real-world charities. We welcomed and encouraged these charity drives.   The following rules were created for a streamer to be included on the list of Charity Streamers. These rules ensured all activities were above reproach. Potential Charity Streamers were required to agree to these rules before announcing themselves as a Charity Streamer.

 

Game of Tomes Disclaimer of Liability

Game of Tomes, their staff, or any other streamer would not be held liable for the actions of a specific streamer. It was the responsibility of each charity streamer to follow the local, state, or federal laws regarding charities, donations, or raffles. Each charity streamer was responsible for their own actions and was not to hold claims against Game of Tomes, their staff, or any other streamer.

 

Generic Charity Streamer Rules

All Charity Organizations receiving funds raised during the Game of Tomes were required to be approved by GoT staff. Generally speaking, these were charities recognized by the USA IRS as a 501(c)(3c) non-profit organization (or the country of origin’s equivalent). https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organizations/exemption-requirements-501c3-organizations

Charity Streamers were REQUIRED to provide a plan for how the moneys were to be collected and expected payment date of the collected funds to the selected charity. This was required to be provided in writing (email.) Pre-approved plans are included below. The collection site (Twitch, Paypal, Ko-fi, etc.) was required to be specified in the plan.

Charity Streamers were REQUIRED to present receipts of donation to the GoT within four (4) weeks of receiving the funds. If this was not possible, an explanation was required to be provided to GoT Staff in writing and for discussion. FAILURE TO PROVIDE PROOF OF DONATIONS or RECEIPTS resulted in expulsion from future Game of Tomes or other punitive actions as deemed fit by GoT Staff.

Twitch Affiliates are paid on the 15th of the month after funds are collected. The donation was REQUIRED to be made within four weeks (28 Days).

Streamers using financial platforms that released money after a period of time were REQUIRED to donate the collected money within four weeks (28 Days).

Other common collection sites included: PayPal, Ko-Fi, etc.

 

Charity Drive Plans

The three rule sets for collecting money were based on previous charity drives run by GoT Streamers. They included Donation, Mercenary, and Merchant. (All defined below.) A streamer was permitted to choose to run with one or more of these rule sets.   For example, A “Merchant/Donation” or “Mercenary/Donation” were easy to combine. A “Mercenary/Merchant” was allowed but might have been too much for one streamer to handle in a single drive. Regardless, clear communication to viewers and donors was expected.

 

Donation Rules

The “Donation Rules” cover collecting financial donations for a charity without any exchange given to a House or donor. This were able to be included with any other plan for those who wanted to help the charity but did not play the game or want to receive any rewards.

All Charity Streamers were REQUIRED to declare in their stream what constituted a “donation.” Viewers should have clearly understand what type of financial transaction would benefit the Charity or go to the Streamer. Some examples of Donation Rules included:

All Twitch Bits via Polls

All Twitch Bits (regardless of source)

All Twitch Subscriptions

All Ko-Fi Donations (or other platforms)

All Ad Revenue for the Month

 

Mercenary Rules

A “Mercenary” used the Twitch Polls to collect votes on who “won” the words written by the mercenary during the stream. (Mercenaries were NOT permitted to auction off words written off-stream.)

All Mercenary word count reports were REQUIRED to include the word “Mercenary” along with the submitted word count.

A Mercenary held a Poll (via Twitch) and the results of the poll determined the GoT House who would receive the words.

Mercenaries were able to use other polling software that collected money if they were not Twitch Affiliates. They were required to share the platform with GoT for review in the submitted plan.

The “Mercenary” required Twitch Bits to vote in the poll. They were permitted to give everyone a “free” vote but extra votes cost bits. House with the most collected bits would receive the words.

In the event of a tie, the “Mercenary” had multiple options:

Split the words between the two houses.

A “run-off poll” between the tie-holders determined the winner.

If a tie was between a Living House and the Undead, the tie went to the Living.

UNDEAD RULES: If the “Mercenary” was in the Undead Horde, they were able to continue to use the polls to raise money for their charity. However, a Living House was required to have MORE THAN DOUBLE the votes to win the words away from the Horde.

Tie Examples:

 

Mercenary Teams

Viewers within a Mercenary’s stream were able to donate their word count to be auctioned. These team members could report their words separately to the House who won the poll. They needed to include “Mercenary” in their submission. Mercenary Team Members were able to delegate the reporting to the Mercenary Streamer.

 

Merchant Rules

A “Merchant” exchanged words, Twitch bits, or donations for digital or physical products. Clear rules had to be established for currency exchange rates for those who allowed for words and bits to be combined.   It was recommended that 10 words equal 1 bit, 100 words equal 10 bits. A digital profile badge could be purchased for 100 bits or exchanged for 1000 words.      

Questions?

These rules are obsolete, as the system no longer supports them. However, if you have questions, please ask on the GoT server or in one of the organizer streams. If we don't know the answer right away, we'll get back to you. Though, if the answer is here in the rules, we'll direct you to this document.