Author's Games Hall of Fame

Third Appearance: AG Samurai

AG Samurai was completely unique with aspects in AG's that had never been done before - until this time. This Games had no voting. Writers were still eliminated, which was decided in mini-tasks that took place in between the main tasks. These elimination tasks were called Battle Task. Two writers would go head-to-head and in their entries, their armies would fight each other. One writer would win, and the loser would be eliminated. In the story, the loser's army would be defeated by the winners and become part of the winners.

Samurai was an epic conquest taking place in Japan in the 1500s. The Samurai Lord Nobunaga Oda sought to take over Japan and he fought other Samurai clans along the way. These clans were portrayed by the writers, who invented their clans and a character within the clan connected to the leader. Most of them made their clan leaders. In the end, there were 15 clans; 15 against the might of Nobunaga.

Each task pertained to a realistic situation a clan on the brink of warfare would face. The sponsorship task gave them a few options; 1) you're the son of the clan leader and your father just died and someone is trying to take over your clan. 2) You are a new leader and an army of ronin - samurai without masters - have just come to attack you. 3) You are the son of the clan leader and he wants you to become high general, so to do this, you have to convince an order of monks to go to war with you. 4) You are the son of the clan leader and your father has decided to marry you off to other clan. Both clans live in a small valley that just overcame a harsh famine. You could be a son marrying a daughter or a daughter marrying a son. 5) If you have any ideas for your character's back history then I could approve it and you could create your own.

Each option had many different ending scenarios and the 15 writers all started off strong. The character Shiro Askura, written by wordsmith-- immediately took the lead, followed closely by ZSB2000's character, Hirotei Imagawa, ariel_paiement1's character Kyou Asai, JesterheadJohnSnow's character Jyubei Takeda, Several7s character, Naoki Hojo, and D-Willy45's character Yuudai Kato.

The first clans battled against each other and the first armies were wiped from the pages of history as well as the competition. Each Battle Task, based on the writers' entries and how many troops and supplies they had, as well as how they wrote, would determine the winner. Even winners and losers both would face loses. I would determine how many soldiers they would lose, how much supplies they lost. Then their scores for regular tasks would determine how much gold they won which they could use to buy more. Some clans faced little loses and others faced heavy wons every battle and struggled to hang in the fight. This competition was just as much about strategy as it was about writing.

Task One left many of the clans in disarray after being attacked by Nobunaga's forces. Many of the clans had to choose whether they would try to seize control of Japan, or whether they would submit. More battles began as the clans turned on each other and Nobunaga simply let them have at each other's throats. This left the clans empty of resources and they had to find some desperate way to get more. Some clans had revolted, others had diseases begin to spread, leaving many more clans wiped from Japan and only the strong remained.

Then, Nobunaga struck again. Allies betrayed each other, men were taken prisoner and information was spread from clan to clan, camp to camp. Eventually, Nobunaga was betrayed by one of his own and many clans joined in the fight.

Yet betrayals and assassinations happen all the time. They can happen to anyone, anytime, unexpectedly. In the finals, the writers were required to write their own character's assassination.

Kyou Asai written by ariel_paiement1 went up against Kairi Saito, written by . Both wrote their entries with exceptional skills that made all of us cry our hearts out. Kyou had a peaceful ending with all loose ends tied up. The entry left us feeling as if we were reading the pages of history for ourselves. Kairi's ending gave us chills and left us feeling satisfied and wanting more all at the same time.