I'm struggling with this concept in Project Succession!

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In the novel series of Project Succession, there is a contest that some members of the Thornwood Dynasty are participating in to win in order to become the next head of the dynasty and to unite the dynasty as a whole once again. The dynasty is split into three huge main branches due to a Succession Trial that happened eons ago. The reason why there hasn’t been a Succession Trial was because of what happened on the last one. So, the Thornwood Dynasty doesn’t have a proper head of the dynasty which has led the dynasty divided and chaotic.

Now, the Succession Trial is the contest that starts up again, but the issue that I am grappling with is how to create a contest where the members are fighting against each other? I’m not great at writing competitions in stories but I want to do so.

I’m struggling to figure out what I want this contest to have. I like to think it is like gladiator games, but it focuses on magic and inner family politics, but I am not sure.

What are your thoughts and feelings on this?
Let me know if you need more context for this thread.

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Do you mean like a Hunger Games type of contest? ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯

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yes.

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Members of a dynasty killing each other in a contest has always been silly to me. Like why would you take out your strongest members??

Maybe there’s a no-kill rule and a suspicious death happened so that’s why the last Succession Trial was a mess & divided the family.

Maybe there’s internal politicking, sabotage and rigging happening this time around and maybe the main character is policing the contest because some wizard or whoever divined that something bad’s gonna happen.

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I won’t be adding that to my story.

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As for the contest itself, there can be a preliminary round where the competitors have to defeat something (maybe a machine/ illusion/ dragon but not each other) using their skills. And then they are ranked and seeded for the second competition where they fight each other till someone yields (and no kills!)

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Hmm…

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Anybody else?