The official rules for this year's event, there are several ways to achieve the medal requirements. You can choose which option is the best for your style of picture taking and writing. There are also new medals for this year's event and the House Points for each medal are the same: 25 points for Bronze, 50 points for Silver, and 75 points for Gold. Also, I want to give a big thank you out to Livielove for coming up with new totals for the first option. She deserves a round of applause for her contribution.

Option 1:

Bronze Level

1-5,000 words (total) OR 1-100 pictures (total) OR 1-4 Chapter "Updates"

Silver Level

5,001-10,000 words (total) OR 101-199 pictures (total) OR 5-7 Chapter "Updates"

Gold Level

10,000 words+ (total) OR 200+pictures (total) OR 7-10 Chapter "Updates

Option 2:

20 slides/pictures
or
1000 words
or
10 slides/pictures + 500 words

You publish an update, and it reaches 40 slides/pictures, or 2000 words, or 20 slides/pictures + 1000 words first, it would count as two updates, and so on.
With the tier system we created, a long writer could feasibly write one 10,000 word update and have it count for 10 as one way of defining an update was a post with 1,000 words - does that make sense? So if someone wrote two updates in September, but both of them were 5,000 words long, they would qualify for the top tier medal. Similarly if someone wrote a post with 200 pictures their post would count for 10 updates and they could win the gold tier medal.

A total goal for the month is 10,000 words or 200 pictures.

I hope this is clear and understandable for everyone, I have been working with Livielove and Mpart, as well as the mods to try and cover all the bases for everyone's play styles. If anything is still unclear, post a question here and one of us will do our best to answer it.

Is there any chance you could put the month's total for each award somewhere clear so idiots like me can find it? Such as how many pictures/words etc you would need to total over the month for each award.
I'm probably just going to go on with my 60 picture updates (I have no idea how many words I put), so I'd like to know how many posts like that I need for each award... Does this make any sense?? I'm not even sure this makes sense to me...

I have edited the rules to include the new medal level totals for Option 1 and the end goal for the whole month. I hope this clears things up for everyone.

Thank you so much!! Also props to you, Ani-Mei, for taking on this event!! I don't know if there's anything I can help with at this stage, but if there is, PM me!

Thanks guys, time to take a break now, it's dinner time now.

Thank you to @Ani-Mei for leading this event and @Livvielove for suggesting the rules!

Ah! Finally!
Last year's rules weren't fair at ALL for the people who naturally wrote big updates. It's great to see some evolution on these rules. THANKS @Livvielove for making sure this came around. SimNaNoWriMo just got less stressful and more achievable XD

I have to say, I'm slightly confused by the second option though. What are the prerequisites for getting the bronze, silver and gold medal for option 2? It's not specified whether it's different or the same. If it's different, that's adding complications that wouldn't be necessary.
If it's the same...it seems a bit useless to have option 2? Because by doing option 2, you're ALSO doing option 1.
Because FOR EXAMPLE, let's assume I did 3 chapters in a month with 30 slides each. For Option 1, I get a bronze medal. For Option 2, I also get a bronze medal....
So in the end option 1 and option 2, both mean the same thing. To avoid confusion and levels of complicated, wouldn't it be simpler to just rely on option 1 for the rules? Since they're more comprehensive?

Blamsart wrote:I have to say, I'm slightly confused by the second option though. What are the prerequisites for getting the bronze, silver and gold medal for option 2? It's not specified whether it's different or the same. If it's different, that's adding complications that wouldn't be necessary.
If it's the same...it seems a bit useless to have option 2? Because by doing option 2, you're ALSO doing option 1.
Because FOR EXAMPLE, let's assume I did 3 chapters in a month with 30 slides each. For Option 1, I get a bronze medal. For Option 2, I also get a bronze medal....
So in the end option 1 and option 2, both mean the same thing. To avoid confusion and levels of complicated, wouldn't it be simpler to just rely on option 1 for the rules? Since they're more comprehensive?

I think the point of Option 2 is to clarify the minimum requirements to constitute one update. These are the rules we went by last year.

I'm excited by the new rules, I think I could definitely get to gold this year, counting by words/pics rather than actual updates! I may not be quire so verbose as some of the story writers on here, but my chapters are usually a good 1500-2000 words, with about 80 pics, so should count for more than one each!

Thanks! I'm looking forward to this!

Samali (somebodysangel) is right, Option 2 is laying out the requirements for one update.

When does this actually begin?

September 1st. This month is mostly for those who haven't been on in a while to be aware of it, it's also for preparations like pre-playing ahead so all you have to do is post the updates once September starts.

im so happy to see the return of SimNaWriMo just when i was looking at potentially starting a new challenge on the sims