EVE Sports: Rookie-ship Bushkazi

Tired of hearing about great combats but never getting involved? Ever wondered what the attraction of player-versus-player combat is but can't justify the ship loss? Intrigued by the upcoming EVE Tournament and wonder how you can get some action? Or maybe you just want to spruce up your existing PvP with some unnecessary and elaborate rules.

You need an EVE-Sport. Read on.

It's a strange boiling pot of creativity, comedy and plagiarism that brings about good ideas and the Old Pond Pub provides just such a boiling pot of strangeness. Several conversations have taken place over the last couple of weeks that have led me to write this post, so all due credit to the contributions of the Old Pond Think Tank. Basically, I was looking for a way to make PvP an attractive proposition to combat-shy or new players and I also wanted to organise a bit of local fun.

This essentially spawned into two concepts; Rookie-ship Bushkazi and The Indy Cannonball Run. I'll be covering Rookie-ship Bushkazi in this post and will save The Indy Cannonball Run for a later blogpost.

Rookie-ship Bushkazi

First of all, credit for the original inspiration must go to Flashfresh, Persephone Astrid, The Bastards and apparently Afghanistan. What follows are rules adapted from The Bastards' original concept as detailed on Flashfresh - The Pirate's blog. They are essentially a simplified, (mostly) non-lethal interpretation of the original rules. The twist comes from Kinroi Alari's peculiar obsession with using Rookie-ships in every aspect of EVE.

In an nutshell, Rookie-ship Bushkazi is a non-lethal EVE-sport wherein competitors vie to tractor a cargo container into their goal-zone. It should be good fun and gives players an opportunity to experiment with player-versus-player combat mechanics without too much fear (this is EVE - there's no such thing as a safe lunch...or something).

The following set of rules is just a guideline and obviously can be changed by mutual agreement to suit all competitors.

ROOKIE-SHIP BUSHKAZI RULES & GUIDELINES

1. SHIPS AND TEAMS
2. SHIP FITTING
3. REFEREE
4. SETTING UP THE FIELD OF PLAY
5. RULES OF PLAY
6. LOCATION SELECTION APPENDIX

There are four possible locations in which a match can be conducted; Null-sec, Wormhole space, Low-sec and High-sec. The potential hazards differ in each location These should be considered in choosing a location and appropriate steps should be taken.

Null-Sec: This presents a travel risk for those not already situated in an appropriate null-sec system. The logistics of access to appropriate ships and equipment may be difficult. There is a risk of 'pitch-invasion' from uninvited guests.

The arena location should be selected and prepared with caution and the referee should be prepared to make use of the directional scanner throughout proceedings.

Wormhole-Space: Similar risks to null-sec, but reduced travel/logistical concerns. Risk of poorly-timed wormhole collapse.

Low-sec: Low-sec may easier for many high-sec inhabitants to travel to, but many of the null-sec risks still apply. Participation without 'can-flipping' (see high-sec advice below) will result in loss of security standings.

Hi-sec: CONCORD does not sanction any aggressive actions in high security space, including Electronic Warfare. Therefore in order to avoid CONCORD intervention, all competitors must 'can-flip'. This is an unfortunate and complicated necessity of playing Rookie-ship Bushkazi in high-security space. In order to avoid confusion, the following method is recommended:
END OF RULES


These rules are a work in progress, but are a flexible enough framework for people to amend them according to their needs. The advantage is that the costs for entry are so low, everyone can have a go.

The only preparation required is the gathering of the Rookie-ships, which can be done easily enough by docking with any station in your pod. Obviously access to an industrial ship would aid in transporting your ships to the agreed arena system. Also a stockpile of low-cost modules and drones is a bit of a requirement.

I understand that The Bastards aim to host competitions in the future, so this 'Rookie-ship class' will be good practice for getting teams together for entry into their their high-end 'Formula 1' Bushkazi (they use frigates, destroyers and cruisers).

We'll be organising a few play-testing sessions in the OLD POND PUB in the near future, so we'll be generating stacks of Rookie-ships for that purpose. If anyone else tries these rules out, I'd be grateful for some feedback.

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