Keep the fantasy in the story and materials
SpiritCauldron supports two creative competition modes: Alchemy and Spirit beast. It organizes entry activities, named contestants, judges, rounds and recognition alongside an event outline. Alchemy can mean designing a paper recipe or describing an imaginary elixir; Spirit beast can mean a drawing, clay model or habitat story.
Neither mode is a laboratory, animal contest or health practice. Do not ingest mixtures, heat chemicals or involve live-animal trials. Choose suitable craft materials and explain the actual task before adding fictional terminology. The title can make an ordinary design exercise engaging without pretending to assess real magical or medical properties.
Set the creative brief and scoring workload
Enter the common event details and competition entries, then whole-number Competition rounds from 1–10. The mode is entered as Alchemy or Spirit beast. Add unique entrants, a whole judge count from 1–20 and an award description. Named entrants cannot exceed the event headcount.
List actual creative disciplines in the entries box, such as Recipe illustration or Habitat explanation. Each round plan repeats those disciplines rather than inventing a different brief for every round. Check the total scoring workload: entrants × judges × rounds × three criteria must not exceed twenty thousand score cells. More rounds also mean more practical time for viewing and verification.
Understand the two rubrics
Alchemy uses Recipe story, Visual design and Explanation. Spirit beast uses Creature design, Habitat story and Presentation. Both apply weights of 40%, 35% and 25%, with 0–10 marks. The result creates a score row for every judge in every round; all required marks must be entered before calculating a judged ranking.
The final score averages the weighted totals across all those judge-round rows. It is not the sum of separate round victories or a best-round score. Equal final scores share rank. Separately, each creative round receives floor(60% of event duration ÷ round count) minutes, with a minimum of one. These round allowances need to be reconciled with the five-phase general outline.
Fictional example: two rounds of creature design
A club has twelve guests, three entrants named Ari, Bea and Cleo, and two judges. Enter 120 minutes from 13:00, two rounds, Spirit beast mode, the disciplines Paper companion and Habitat card, and Story ribbon as the award. Each round receives thirty-six suggested minutes; the score sheet has four judge-round rows per entrant.
For Ari, enter 8, 6, 10 on every row. The weighted total on each is 8 × 0.40 + 6 × 0.35 + 10 × 0.25 = 7.8, so the average is also 7.8. Bea’s equal sevens produce 7.0; Cleo’s equal sixes produce 6.0. Calculate after completing all sheets to obtain that ordering.
The host allocates seventy-two minutes to the two making rounds and plans the remaining forty-eight around briefing, display, scoring and closing. The generic outline’s five twenty-four-minute phases are not an additional two hours. The written award is a plan for a real host to distribute, not an automated prize service.
Make judging understandable and constructive
Show the rubric before creation starts and explain what a strong response looks like in terms of the task. Do not reward expensive materials or public performance unless those were explicitly part of the agreed criteria. Provide a written presentation alternative and time for judges to read it.
Check permitted craft equipment, drying time, cleanup and supervision. Keep names distinct and scores private until verified. If you want different round weights, changed criteria or a knockout stage, that is outside this tool’s current controls; do not imply the score sheet implements those rules. Save the reviewed result and export a backup before replacing a contest draft.
Questions before you begin
Can the two modes share exactly the same rubric?
They share weights but use different criterion names. Select the mode that matches the actual task and explain its rubric to entrants.
Are later rounds worth more points?
No. Judge-round weighted totals are averaged equally. A different round-weight system is not implemented here.
Can we use real substances or animals?
The intended use is safe fictional craft and storytelling. Do not use ingestion, heated chemicals, unlabelled mixtures or live-animal trials.
Will the tool choose a prize for us?
No. It records the award wording you enter. The host decides what is suitable and manages any actual reward.