Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently asked Questions

Okay, so maybe they aren't asked frequently. But still, if you're confused about anything in my contest, this page can help. It focuses mainly on helping you not answer questions wrong in the Contest, and on unusual situations which may crop up and how they are resolved. Ctrl+F may help you.

You may PM me at Sal's Realm, Zybez, Tip.It, or YouTube (all links to my profile) to ask me further questions about my contest

You may skip to the following sections: Miscellaneous Questions, Questions about Playing, Questions about the Scoresheet/Trophies, and Questions about Rewards and Trading.

Miscellaneous Questions about the Contest

Question: If I don't follow the Rules, can I get banned from the contest?

Answer: Well, it depends on which rule you're talking about. Most rules deal with how I run the contest, and thus cannot be broken. However, you can get banned if you attempt, in some way, to cheat. Impersonation falls under this category, and you can also get in trouble on the forums you do it at. The only other rule you could really break is the no rwt one, which definitely can pose consequences for you in my contest as well as in RuneScape. But in general, it's pretty hard to get banned from my contest (I haven't had to do it a single time yet!). Still, I also reserve the right to give lesser penalties, such as not allowing you to purchase rewards, or taking away points from your Current ₧ stat.

Q: Can I get points in your contest if I pay you RuneScape items or real world money or fake awards or YouTube subscriber-ship?

A: I will not accept bribes. Also, I will not engage in Real-World Trading (exchanging contest points for stuff in RS is rwt), because I am against rwt. If you want contest points, you will have to earn them!

Q: Does this contest in any way break RuneScape's rules?

A: No, it does not, unless they make a rule against screenshot fakes

. In fact, I am against breaking RuneScape's rules, so I deliberately avoid doing so.Q: What is the unit of "currency" your contest uses?

A: Well, I call them "points", but I find it more convenient (and cool

) to represent them with the Peseta sign, ₧. Unfortunately, it has no alt code, so you have to copy/paste it in order to use it. In BBcode or HTML, you could also type ₧ to get it. I guess you could also write "Pts" (the individual letters), but it doesn't look as cool that way.

Points also have a visual representation as an "item". Each point appears as a seven-sided coin, with a number indicating is value on the front, and a symbol on the back. Normal contest points and generic points are silver-colored. Bonus points are blue, Award points are red, and Goal points are green. Non-generic Award and Goal points have colored text saying what they were earned for. You may click the links in my previous sentences to see detailed images of these points.

Here are generic points as they would appear in the inventory, with various amounts per pile (the amount shown is the minimum to have a pile of that size):

Click here to see a close-up of those.

Questions about Playing the Contest

Question: If I answer a question, but someone else answers it correctly before I do, what happens?

Answer: Even if your post and their post are a second apart, they will get the ₧ for being first. Even if you were right, you will not get any ₧. However, there is also no penalty for getting it wrong once it's been answered.

Q: What is the penalty for getting a question wrong?

A: The only penalty for making a wrong guess is that your Accuracy % statistic (see the scoresheet) will decrease. However, you want to have a high Accuracy, because it can earn you points vial Goals and during bonus ₧ distributions. Accuracy will also determine your rank if you have the same Total Earned as somebody else.

Q: I keep getting questions wrong in your contest, but the stuff I'm saying isn't wrong!

A: You should make sure that, when you're answering a question, you're actually answering what it asks - it seems like common sense, but many people lose Accuracy % for not actually answering what the question asked. Here's a hint - questions are separated into three categories, and although there is some overlap, the "Finding Easter Eggs" category is generally asking "what" or "where", while "Understanding References" tends to ask "why". You should re-read the question if you're trying to answer a "Finding Easter Eggs" question with a "why" explanation, or trying to answer an "Understanding References" question with where/what a reference is. For example, "the player has 666 lifepoints" may be an answer to a Finding Easter Eggs question, while "666 is the number of the devil in Christianity" would be an explanation to an Understanding References question.

The third section, "Figuring out how I Faked it" fortunately, is harder to mix up on, since almost all its questions tend to ask "how".

Q: I see an Easter Egg in your fake, but you forgot to put it in the questions?

A: Not all Easter Eggs and references get put in the questions, just like not everything I did to make the fake goes under "Figuring out how I Faked it". You'll often see me use numbers such as 1337 (leet) or 9001 (IT'S OVER 9000!) in a fake and never make any question of it, since those references seem too obvious to be worth even a single point.

Q: Am I allowed to use a search engine or wiki to help me answer contest questions?

A: Of course. After all, there's no way for me to enforce a rule against that

. However, if a question asks you to explain something, please don't just copy/paste whatever you found. If you paste paragraphs off Wikipedia and I have to read through them, I will mark any irrelevant facts as "incorrect guesses", and your Accuracy stat will plummet. If you're going to seek the help of a search engine or wiki, please actually try to understand the results you find and paraphrase the important parts in your answer.

Q: Part of a question is "[Sealed]". Should I still try to answer it?

A: You can try if you're certain you know what the [Sealed] part is, but you will lose Accuracy % if you get it wrong. You're probably better off waiting until the question that seals it has been answered, or answering that question yourself and waiting until I say whether or not you were right.

Q: If I think I've earned a goal, but you never gave it to me, what should I do?

A: Tell me about it! I may have missed giving you that goal, so be sure to remind me!

Q: I got a question wrong. Can I try answering it again?

A: Sure! There's no limit to how many times you can attempt a question, unless I actually tell you to stop (and I only do this if I feel your guesses are cheap, e.g. on a matching question where the possible answers are limited and you just do random guesses). So unless I tell you to stop, feel free to guess again! Just be careful not to let your Accuracy % plummet, if you care about it (see the 2nd Question about Playing the Contest, above).

Q: Do I have to post answers to a contest's question? Or can I PM you instead?

A: It is okay to PM your answers so long as you do so at a forum where the contest is available (note that for questions not on this page, you must only post/pm at the forums the specific question was posted at). You may PM me at my profile at Sal's Realm, Zybez, or Tip.It.

Q: Why didn't you make the contest available at my forum?

A: First, I only make it available at Sal's Realm of RuneScape, Zybez, and Tip.It. Even then, I only make it available at some of these forums for a specific fake, because if I made it available to all of them, the questions would likely be answered within a day unless a fake had many questions. I try to be fair and rotate which forums get the contest, and if the forum is in some way related to the fake or its creation, it is more likely to get the contest for that fake.

Q: If I answer the contest questions at my forum's copy of the topic, even though the questions are not posted there, what happens?

A: Nothing. You can only earn ₧ for answering questions if you answer them at the forum they are posted at (unless they are on this page as well). If you answer the question at a forum that I did not post it at, and it is not on that page, I will not count your answer. Anybody is free to take that answer and post it at the correct forum at this point.

Q: If you do not post the contest at my forum, can I go to another forum where you did, and register an account there? Also, if I can't yet post on that forum, is it okay for me to PM you the answers?

A: Of course! My decision to limit the contest to certain forums is not to limit who participates in it. It's to limit how many people participate in it. As long as you post/PM at the proper forum, I am fine with it, and the ₧ you earn will go to the proper slot on the scoresheet (assuming you have the same name or tell me you are the same person!).

Q: You don't have any contest topics running at the moment. Does that mean there are no questions to answer?

A: No, you may visit this page and see if it has any open questions (and it usually does). The questions there apply to a wide variety of fakes, rather than just one specific fake (or set of fakes) like my contest's topics at forums do.

Q: What are all the things I can do to earn points, besides answering questions?

A: There are several other ways to earn points. First, you can check out Goals to see if there's any goals you can earn - most will require answering questions anyhow, but it's a nice bonus. Second, if you have a high rank and accuracy, you can wait for a Bonus ₧ Distribution (See Rule #8), or even cause one to happen if you deliberately avoid answering the bonus parts to enough questions. Okay, so both of those choices still involve answering questions to some degree.

If you're good at faking, you can try to make a fake that's good enough for me to give an award to, but keep in mind that I'm a rather tough rater when it comes to flaws, taking several points off for them (not contest points, rating points!), and I don't give more than 1 point for a fake being funny. Generally, I have to rate your fake 10/10 or higher before I will consider giving it an award. Try to make sure your fake is at least as good as (or preferably better than) the other fakes I've given rewards to (yes, that page links the fakes I've rewarded. Try focusing on the later ones, as RS's graphics have improved and I've gotten tougher with ratings).

Ways to greatly boost your chance of getting an award include having few mistakes, trying something impressive to fake (e.g. 3D faking or otherwise making realistic custom objects from scratch), putting a lot of effort into it, focusing on small details (e.g. if there's anything you can edit to suit your fake, edit it. For example, if it's relevant to your fake, you can change a few interface tabs, or include a few numbers that make references), making a multi-part fake, adding humor, or doing something that's advanced enough that you have me wondering how exactly you did it. An absolutely guaranteed way to get an award is to have absolutely no flaws at all, but it must have a significant bit faked, too.

Finally, if you don't like time/effort and you don't like answering questions, your last option for earning ₧ is to get another player to trade them to you. Click here for details.

Questions about the Scoresheet and Trophies

Question: How is your contest scoresheet arranged?

Answer: Please look at this sheet for an explanation of what each part represents.

Q: If a name is crossed off on the list, what does that mean?

A: It means that they have been banned from the only forums I knew them at, and thus are unlikely to get back into the contest unless they manage to get unbanned. However, if they are unbanned, they can return to the contest at any time they like.

Q: How is rank determined when people have the same Total Earned?

A: Rank is determined by Total Earned, Accuracy, Finds, Fakes, Fk-Awd (fake awards earned), Awd-₧ (₧ earned from fake awards), Goals, and Goal-₧, in that order. If one or more stats are equal, the next stat in the list determines your rank. If all stats happen to be equal (which is likely among people who have never answered a question right, or people who have never participated in the contest) then your rank will be the same as theirs, and players with the same rank will be placed on the list in arbitrary order.

Q: Can my rank go down if I purchase rewards?

A: No, purchases only effect your Current amount of points, while rank is mainly determined by Total Earned (see above).

Q: What does a negative "Current" stat mean?

A: It means that person is in debt. See Rule #9 for details.

Q: What is the difference between Trophies, Awards, and Rewards?

A: Trophies are like milestones, given to a person for earning a certain amount of ₧ in my contest, and each trophy can be earned by several people. "Awards" refers to faking awards, and they are unique awards given to people for faking, not for participating in this contest. Faking awards, however, do give points in my contest. "Rewards" are what I use to refer to the "prizes" you can purchase from me using your contest points. Rewards are custom-made things you can request from me, with a large variety in terms of cost and appearance.

In cosmetic terms, a trophy consists of a graphical fake meant to look like a RuneScape item, in the form of two images. One is an inventory image, and another is the image you would see of the item in a chatbox or the Grand Exchange Database.

Visually, a fake award from me is a bit more complex (see the ones I've given here). Although the award itself is a fake item (and I do give both an inventory and chatbox/GED versions), the item rests on a scroll. The scroll is not unlike a quest reward scroll, except it is more verbose and also shows another nine fake items.

Rewards are all visual in some way, but are too varied to describe - some are cursors, others are fonts, and some are even 3D models. Please see this page for details.

Questions about the Rewards and Trading ₧

Question: When you make me a reward, can I do anything with it?

Answer: It depends what "anything" means. Yes, you can do almost anything, but there are a few restrictions. Namely, you must not claim that you made it yourself. You can make modifications to it, and you can use it in videos and forum posts, or whatever you like. But you cannot say that you made it yourself, and it remains under my copyright (unless of course it's a generic request, such as a Pokemon cursor, which would mean that I don't necessarily have any rights to it, but neither would you). If used as part of a contest entry, you must mention that I made that part. You do not have to say I did it unless you enter it into a contest or use it in a video. If you just make a casual forum post and use a custom emote I made you, then you do not have to give me credit unless someone asks who made it.

Note: if the reward in question is, say, a cursor, and all I did is take an image you made and converted it into a cursor, then I am not claiming I made the cursor, and you do not have to say I made it. But you should still admit that I converted your image into a cursor

.Q: Can I use a contest reward you make in a school project?

A: Er, if your teacher is fine knowing that you did not make that part of your project, then yes.

But if you claim you made it yourself, then you should be ashamed and feel bad about yourself and blah, blah, blah, plagiarism, blah, copyright violation, blah, blah... Okay, so odds are your teacher wouldn't find out that you plagiarized, and you'd have no real consequences. But if you do claim you made something you didn't, then let me say that it's people like you who make a little of me die on the inside.

Q: If I get 500₧, can I force you to make me 100 underbanners?

A: Well, technically, yes. But first, you'd need to come up with 100 unique underbanner ideas

. Also, know that I am in no way obligated to fill out a reward request, even if you meet the requirements. I'll only decline requests that are blatantly ridiculous, but just keep in mind that no law says I must make you a reward if I don't want to.

Q: If I make a reward request, how soon should I expect it?

A: I can't tell you until you've made your request. That would vary heavily based on what the request is, and how much work/responsibilities I have at the time you make the request. I'll try to get it done as soon as I can, but if I can't do it for a long time, feel free to remind me (so I don't forget!). Also, I will not charge you ₧ until I have completed the request.

Q: Can I buy a reward for somebody else?

A: Sure, as long as you don't claim you made it yourself when you "give" it to them. Remember that it will still be restricted to all the restrictions any of my contest rewards have (including that they are under my copyright). If they are a player of my contest, you can also trade ₧ directly to them, if you prefer.

Q: I can trade points?!

A: Yes, if you would like to transfer points to somebody else, you may. Simply ask me, and I will ask them if they would accept the request. You can request either to give or receive ₧, but if you want to receive ₧, you may want to ask them first! I will not complete a transaction unless both people have agreed to the trade. No, there's no limit to how much you can trade, so you can give all your points to somebody if you would like. However, you cannot trade yourself into debt - you must have at least 1₧ to give! Likewise, you cannot make a trade request that would put somebody else into debt, either.

Q: But can't trading ₧ be abused to mess up the contest?

A: In what way? When you trade ₧, they are traded from your Current ₧ stat to someone else's Current ₧. In this way, they count as a "Purchase" on both of your accounts, and one of those purchases is the negative of the other. Points are neither created nor destroyed, so the only spots on the Scoresheet to change are both of your Current ₧ stats. The contest totals are not effected, and your Rank is not effected by Current ₧.

Q: Can I, er, "lend" ₧ to somebody and expect them back?

A: Nope, sorry. You can't "lend" coins in RuneScape, so you have to admit that a request like this is a little ridiculous. If you want to temporarily give someone ₧ and expect them to give them back, I'm afraid you'll have to do a trust trade.

Q: Do you care/inquire why I would want to give points to someone else, or why they would give me their points?

A: Well, you can keep your reasons private, but naturally I'd be interested. I don't mind if you are trading ₧ between each other, for example, because one of you is making a graphic for the other, or just because you are friends. However, I would like that you do not trade points between each other to "buy" a faking award off someone else; people should really only give fake awards to people for actually faking. Also, I am strictly against real-world-trading, and yes, exchanging points between each other in my contest and then exchanging items in-game would be real-world-trading.

Q: If I trade points to someone in your contest, and then they give me items in RuneScape in exchange for the ₧, does that count as rwt (real world trading)?

A: See the last sentence above. From Jagex's perspective, my contest ₧ count as something outside their game, so trading ₧ for RS items is real-world-trading. I mean, sure, you can be friends and just give ₧ and items to each other for being friends. But if you are explicitly giving ₧ for RS items, this is against the rules. If I somehow find out you are using my trading feature for rwt, as unlikely as it is for anyone to do so, I will reverse the transaction (well, at any rate, the ₧ one...), and may even drop both you and your partner's Current ₧ to zero or the negatives, or (in particularly severe situations) I may take away your ability to make trades and purchases altogether, and may even ban you from my contest. Now, obviously I don't honestly expect anybody to do rwt for my ₧, but I'm just saying this right now so there is no confusion on the matter.

Q: Can I sell someone my ₧ for real world money, or buy ₧ off someone for real world money?

A: Er... Sure, but isn't that a little sad? (No offense, but I think rwt in RuneScape is sad, so I don't see how my contest ₧ could be considered worth exchanging for legal tender). I have no qualms about you trading real money between each other, but I will not provide the means of doing this. You must figure out how to give each other the money, and (due to legal concerns) I will not handle the money at all. Once again, this means that you'd be doing a trust trade, because the trade of money is between you and your partner, and the trade of ₧ is regulated by me.

Q: Can I buy ₧ off you for cash? Or could you buy my ₧?

A: Sorry, but I don't take bribes, and ₧ are not a valid commodity in my eyes. Technically you don't even own the ₧, they are a virtual quantity used in my contest, and thus they mean nothing (in monetary terms) to me. I don't mind how you exchange ₧ with other people (unless you break RS's no-rwt policy), but I would feel guilty if I took your money and gave you ₧ (because in my eyes I'm not giving you anything), and I have no obligation or need to "buy" ₧ off you.

Q: What if I request a reward that someone else has already requested?

A: If you happen to request a reward that is exactly the same as something someone else requested, I will notify you of this. If it is not a 3D reward, and it is not a generic "convert this image into a cursor" or some other unoriginal request, I cannot give it to you until I have contacted them about it. They will be given four choices: allow me to give you the award free, charge you full price for it, charge you half price for it (rounded down) and give them the points I charged you, or not give you the reward at all. Note that they cannot ask me to charge you full price and get the points for it; if they want points, you will only be charged half.

If the reward is a generic request (such as converting an image (that is not theirs) into a cursor or icon, or making a font straight from a videogame), then the original requester will not be given these options, nor will they be contacted. They cannot claim monopoly over something that they did not at least come up with the idea for, and asking me to convert a file does not count as an idea. Thus, if you happen to request for me to do exactly the same thing, I will not charge you any ₧ at all for it, and will merely give you a link to a download of the file.

If the reward in question is a 3D reward, then the situation is essentially the same: if the object in question is something that already exists in RuneScape, the original requester has no say in whether or not I give it to you for free.

However, if it is a custom request, such as a request for a custom weapon that does not exist in-game, or even a request for a modified version of something that does exist (for example, a Zamorak Platebody with the rune part recolored black), or a specific arrangement of equipment on a character (even if each individual component already exists in the game), then I will ask the requester before I make it if I should put it in my Blender RS Model Library. They can say no, or they can tell me how much to charge for other people's uses of it (they can also make it free if they please). They can also earn points from other people requesting it, but no more than half of the cost they originally paid to buy it. If they have 0₧ in their "Spent" column (e.g. they have earned back all the ₧ they ever spent), they cannot earn points off it anyhow (thus you can never earn more Current Points than your Total Points via "selling" your models enough. I needed to put some sort of price cap on this!). Note that they can only choose to earn an amount of points that is less than or equal to the amount they charge people to download it.