I would like to discus the possibility and practicality of a Holy Grail War

[Necromantic]

So I have recently taken up the Immense task of 100% completing Fate/Stay Night. I have already seen Fate/Zero, so I am at least adequately knowledgeable about the Holy Grail wars. As such I thought it would be awesome to make one of my own here. However I have some major problems staring me in the face.

(Note Spoilers are for the identity and name of the weapons of Servants in the Fate series.)

I want to keep everyone's Servant's identity a secret, even from myself as I plan to partake. However the problem lies in the possibility of Noble Phantasms being far to strong... This may be a concern, but I can see it being no problem as well, considering noble Phantasms are outright ridiculous. I mean for god's sake

NO KIDDING LEGIT SPOILER

Gae Bolg instantly hits one's heart, Excalibur can One-Shot a giant demon that no other servant, not even Gilgamesh and his Gates of Babylon could destroy, and also... Gates of Babylon.

Soooo, maybe that is a minor fear.

This is just an effect I'd love to add in. Not having other characters know exactly where the others are. if this were to be added, it be more like a massive mystery game than an RP, but still Id be cool, so I shall leave it at that. If anyone has anything to say about that just say so. (Also since the noble Phantasm would give away the servants name, In the event that they use it, send it as a pm to the one(s) who are present to see it happening.

Now the biggest problem I see is in the killing of characters. Obviously characters are going to die in a Grail war. I'd love to have to not use a complex dice and stat system if I can. If possible the "status" system from Fate/Stay Night would be optimal. Now when it comes to fighting, obviously it is important to have these stats mean something. It is also Important that a High Level Noble Phantasm on a lower level servant could potentially kill a High Ranking Servant.

As awesome of a premise as the Fate Series is, I can imagine it being very difficult to do in a roleplay setting. With that said, if anyone would like to give their thoughts, or want to help out please just post below. And if you'd like to help, but have no idea what in the world the Fate series is, just say so and I shall pm you a more detailed description to explain.

Now... Let the brainstorming begin!

[Lucius Cypher]

Honestly, the only thing that I can think of that could help you immensely is the players. They're the ones who start the problems and solve them. Mainly, you need to find the kind of player who isn't just joining the RP to "Win" per say. I mean sure, character wise they want to win. But you need to find people who are willing to collaborate with each other, do things that really makes them think of the decision that have major consequences and benefits, and can accept defeat. Those who don't accept failure cannot achieve perfection, as it's build on the bodies of those who couldn't make it. Find people willing to be one of those corpses, who's also willing to make other people those corpses. They're hard to find I'll admit, and I'm no genius; this could be a disaster. But you had asked, and I have answered.

[Art of Fun]

^ Nailed it.

When it comes to an arena/PvP elimination RP like a Holy Grail War, the biggest factor is the players and how willing they are to work with you and the other players to make sure things go well. This goes without saying in every RP, but more so in this case. I personally think that in an RP Holy Grail War, which is an open and collaborative environment, you've kind of got to take the 'absolutes' present within the Nasuverse with a grain of salt, otherwise you could just potentially Gae Bolg everyone to death. If they're all making their own servants, then make it a rule that things like Barbed Spear that Pierces with Death are not allowed in the same capacity of which they are presented in F/SN to ensure that other Servants might actually have a chance.

This shouldn't always be the case, anyway. The Fifth War was weird and has a bunch of exceptional servants.

On a somewhat related note to that; dogdang not every Berserker needs to be an unstoppable murderhouse like Herakles.