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I'm running a tournament at the end of the month, and I want to make sure that all goes smoothly and that the players have a good time. To this end, I'm trying to be organized. I've come up with the missions for all three rounds and a system for scoring. I'd like to get some feedback. Would you like to attend a tournament with this set up?

Here are the missions I've come up with. They're obviously based on the rulebook missions, but with multiple objectives. I've used Yak's idea of kill point ratios for one of them.

Mission 1
Mission 2
Mission 3

For each round, in addition to 20 battle points, a player can earn 5 sportsmanship points and 5 painting points. Three prizes will be awarded.

A prize for best overall will be awarded to the player who achieves the highest number of total points. Ties will be broken with battle points.

A prize for best general will be awarded to the player who achieves the highest number of battle points. If this player is the person who won best overall, it will go to the player with the next highest total. Ties will be broken first with sportsmanship scores, then with painting scores.

A prize for best appearance will be awarded to the player whose army looks the nicest, as determined by a players' vote. The painting score does not factor into this. The player who receives the most votes and who has not already been awarded one of the above prizes will win the prize for best appearance.

Score sheet

In addition to feedback on what I have here, I'd also welcome general advice on how to run a good tournament.

Looks really good. I like your scenarios and the bonus points.

The scoring sheet looks solid, but the middle-tier sportsmanship score presupposes friendliness. I've certainly encountered players who were challenging to handle socially but whom I didn't think were cheating or deserved a zero.

As far as general tournament advice... let me get back to you. There's definitely been stuff posted here in the past.

Sadly, that KP system doesn't work any better than GW's.

Higher fraction...ya gotta be kidding man. lol Have you really thought this through? Getting gamers to figure out fractions...

Follow the KISS princicple.

My advice:

http://yesthetruthhurts.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-run-successful-tournament-rtt.html

I agree with most of Stelek’s advice.

Expanding on the topic of not playing in the tournament:

Have a ringer player, in case there are an odd number of registrants. If you have a small tournament, in a pinch you can fill in yourself, but this is not ideal. You should be free to answer rules questions, look out for poor sports, and start inputting scores as soon as early finishers complete their games. If you must fill in, be sure you use an army that plays FAST. Ideally something with a low model count (so setup, packing, and play go faster), whose rules you know backwards and forwards. Depending on your group, it is also often good for it to be a medium-to-low strength army; one which provides an interesting play experience but will not walk over an opponent. I prefer to have the ringer play against whoever is presently ranked lowest in the tournament, so it is a bit of a consolation game, and it is least likely to affect the overall standings. In the first round, it’s a little trickier to determine. Random is okay, though I prefer to have the ringer play against a newbie or a friend in round one.

Much as it pains me I also have to give credit where due and say that I kind of like Stelek's KP solution.

I also agree about the ringer army.

40k tournaments should use victory points. It says so right in the rule book. I understand why GW events would use kill points however they are horrendous and any decent tournament organizer would scrap them for the victory point rules on page 300.