The following advertisement has been posted through various means both digital and physical throughout the troll empire:
Are you willing to take on the dangers of exploring new planets, as well as fighting in mortal combat tournament for the opportunity to do so? Do you need a cure for a disease, or surgery you could never afford otherwise? If the answer to either or both of those questions is yes, then the Reconnaissance project welcomes you. Take the ticket from this notice to any spaceship port - you will be transported to the tournament's center on my own planet, where I will be waiting.
- Anguil Volant
Reconaissance-OCT is an exploration-based, troll-only (the species from Homestuck) Original Character Tournament, populated by fan characters of the species who have nothing to do with the comic's events; the tournament merely utilizes the planet of Alternia and the established canon about trolls to provide background lore. It it set on several as of yet unexplored planets, the ones the contestants explore and Anguil's home base, where the winners return after every round. An alternate prize offered to the winner alongside the host's cure or surgery for surgery disease is the usual fortune - providing they can survive the alien planets' hazards, and are not among the losers stranded behind without help or killed by their opponents.
Reconnaissance-OCT and its rounds provide examples of:
- All There in the Manual: The competitors' page lists everyone in the tournament, both trolls and the competitors themselves.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: The trolls have this, but they also run into plenty of strange aliens on the planets they explore. The Skullrunners are a notable example, who have no obvious flesh on said skulls, appear to possess eyes on a sort of collar around their necks, and appear to be capable of telepathy and generating small flames.
- Twitch has two pairs of eyes - false ones on her face, and a real set in her ears.
- Casual Interstellar Travel: The troll Empire is capable of this, and it's utilized to shuttle contestants to the tournament's center and between planets.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The trolls themselves, who usually wear outfits that display their blood color.
- Space Base: Anguil's, where competitors rest between rounds. It's filled not only with rooms for the trolls, but his various curiosities and projects (and staff). His villain status is questionable, but then, it's hard to think of a better word for someone willingly stranding children and young adults on strange worlds to likely die for whatever reason.
- Teleporters and Transporters: Every pair of contestants has one of these as their goal, after a good deal of trekking across the planet gathering data. It will take the first person to reach it home, while stranding the other there.
- The Teaser: Each round has these to hint at the coming pairings. They're often fairly obtuse.
- Blood Magic: Lavida is revealed to be capable of this, using it to heal their wounds from the first round.
- Single-Biome Planet: It's unclear if the entire planet is desert (mountains are mentioned in some entries) but most of what the competitors see is.
- All-Natural Gem Polish: The monsters on the planet feature this, being made of unnaturally shiny, smooth crystal.
- Lethal Lava Land: The entire planet is a subversion, as all the volcanoes on it are extinct, though hardened magma flows and hotsprings warmed by magma pepper its surface.
, the host of the tournament.