Acrophobia Play Guidelines  

There are certain guidelines and restrictions set up for Acrophobia by Bezerkley, and others developed by Team Acro, all of which we do our best to comply with in tournament play. Several of those that everyone needs to be aware of are as follows:

1. In the "Clean" rooms, no "dirty birds" are permitted. If the AcroBot prohibits a word, it is not permitted to use an alternate letter or symbol in order to get around the Bot.

2. No use of Clan or Player names is allowed in your acros.

3. No reference should be made to a specific acro until voting is completed. This draws attention to the acro and can do one of two things... sway votes toward the acro or move votes away from it, depending on the situation.

4. Do not refer to your acro in any way until voting is completed. This includes apologizing for typos, referencing a part of your answer, stating that "what I meant" was... All of these actions can be construed as cheating because they indicate to the other players which acro is yours.

Acrophobia Play Tips:

There are several things you can do legitimately to increase your chance of receiving votes. Several of these that we have observed thru review of numerous game logs are as follows:

1. Use proper capitalization... if an acro is intended to stand alone as a sentence, capitalize the first word.

2. Use punctuation as needed... commas where appropriate, and periods, question marks, or exclamation points at the end, but do NOT use excessive punctuation... only one question mark, or exclamation, and when using an elipse, just use 3 dots (...)!

3. Avoid typos and misspelled words. Few of us are fast enough to look up our words in the dictionary and still get an acro entered, but TRY to get that spelling right! LOL!

4. Obscure references to things, places, or people that few know about unless they are literary or historical scholars, will rarely get you votes... you might want to aim your acros just a tad lower so the general population can get your drift! =)


Different Types of Rules: 

There are three basic types of Acrophobia rules and several variations currently being used. Each of these types deals with the topic area of Acrophobia.

When Standard Rules are being observed, the topics provided by the AcroBot are used. This means that the winner of each round is given the opportunity to choose which of the four topics provided by the AcroBot will be used in the next round

When Couch or Dome Rules are being observed, the winner of each round creates the topic for the next round, with the exception of the first round of each game which is usually General Acrophobia, though some teams allow the winner of the last round in a game to create a topic for the first round of the next game. The topic of choice is indicated by typing in the chat box:

/me TOPIC: WHAT I DID ON MY SUMMER VACATION

Always type the /me so that the topic will stand out in purple, and always type the word "topic:" so that your chosen topic will not be misconstrued as a comment. Typing in capital letters just adds additional emphasis to your topic, making sure that everyone is able to see it. If playing in a Couch/Dome Rules Tournament and no topic is given in the chat box, you should use the AcroBot topic of General Acrophobia.

The last basic type of rules that may be observed are Winner's Choice Rules. When playing in a Winner's Choice Tournament, the winner of each round is permitted to choose the rules for the next round.... Standard or Couch/Dome. If you choose to use Couch/Dome Rules, you should follow the directives for indicating the topic, as stated in that section above. If you choose to follow Standard Rules, you should select the AcroBot topic of your choice, and then indicate your choice by typing in the chat box:

//me BOT TOPIC

This indicates to the other players that they should use the chosen AcroBot topic. If playing in a Winner's Choice Tournament and no topic is given, you should assume that the winner has chosen to use Standard Rules and is just not indicating their choice in the chat box.

It is VERY important when playing in a Couch/Dome Rules or Winner's Choice Rules Tournament to indicate your chosen topic as quickly as possible. Start typing it the moment you know you have won the round.



Couch/Dome Rules Topics: 

We all have had one of those evenings when we are scheduled to play in a tournament and we are feeling especially "brain drained" or "mentally challenged". Because of this, we suggest that you create a list of topics to use, while you are feeling alert and creative! LOL! For those of us who NEVER feel exceptionally creative, we have put together a list of couch topics to be used by us all, and we sincerely THANK those of you who contributed to this list:

Italicized Ones Are TNT's

Graveyards
What's Under Your Bed
Make Up a Word And Define It
Pander Someone In The Room
Things People Do When They Think They Are Invisible
What's In Your Glove Compartment
This is Gross
Smell of Cheese
Old People Driving Their Cars
My Summer Vacation
Your Favorite Warm Fuzzy

The Eleventh Commandment
Your Acrophobia motto
Make up a ransom note
Backseat Shenannigans
Things screamed out in the delivery room
Your (or your significant other's) worst PMS symptom
Things not to buy second hand... used
Confessions
Smells in the fridge
Epic Tales
Things your mother NEVER told you
What the cannibal ate for dinner
Describe your favorite fantasy
Bumper Stickers
Name a crime and make the punishment fit
Describe a game WITHOUT saying its name
Three Wishes
Things you put off to play Acrophobia
I play Acrophobia because...
Create a hybrid animal
What's that smell??
Doncha hate it when ...
Obnoxious TV character
Songs of the Past
How to answer a wrong number (Phone)
Highschool hangouts
Excuses for exceeding the speed limit
I feel like wearing a disguise because...
Why I look forward to Saturday!
My favorite relaxing thing to do
Name a snazzy new beverage
Signs you're getting old
Create a bumper sticker
Quirky things men do
You accidentally swallowed WHAT?
Roadkill Cafe
Inquiring minds want to know
You say... he hears...?
Rhyme Time
ICQ
Your First Car
Rename the seven dwarves
Stupid Criminals
Ancient History
Under a Scotsman's Kilt


Keep in mind TNT's.... SOME of these topics should ONLY be used in Adult Language Tournaments! LOLOL!