Contests

Information on current and forthcoming competitions.

Reinvention 2007 Contest!

It's here! I finally got around to writing something about the forthcoming Re-Magi-Nation Contest 2007, tentatively name Reinvention! Take up the challenge of breathing new life into a tired old cliche and win fabulous prizes such as:

  • A Lifetime's Supply of Nothing At All
  • Brand new RPG ideas to use as you wish!
  • The Respect and Envy of your Peers*
  • Plus, much, much less!
  • NEW! A copy of the Indie RPG Victoriana game, Perfect (kindly supplied by Joe McDonald - ask him for full details)
  • NEW! An original illustration by Miguel Santos inspired by the winning entry.

*Peers may be neither as respectful or envious as advertised.

Here's the basic outline of how the contest will work:

  1. All entrants must sign in by posting a brief 'hello' message in the appropriate thread in the Contests Forum. Please don't sign in if you don't intend to take part.
  2. A bunch of random boring old ideas (such as elves, cyborgs and nazis) will be thrown into a hat and shaken mercilessly until they cry for their momma.
  3. The contest begins on October 1st. Each member will be given a concept randomly chosen from the hat, and must come up with the most unusual, original and compelling new variation on that idea that he or she can.
  4. After ten days, all entries will be collected and judged by… well… anyone I can persuade to help. Or maybe via vote. Hell, it's all for fun, does it really matter who wins?
  5. Ok it matters, and I'll find a way to decide, and post the winners here. Who knows, you might even get a prize!

Rules

Each entry must consist of two things, loosely termed 'Fluff' and 'Crunch'.

Fluff is the meat-and-bones of the idea. Tell us about your concepts in the most interesting and compelling way possible. There is no set format to this, so be creative in how you present it. You could include short fiction to illustrate your concepts for instance, or detailed sociological breakdowns, whatever helps you get your ideas across, but no artwork. This is a contest about imagination and writing ability, not drawing. Sorry.

Crunch are the game rules. If you want to you can write a complete mini-RPG system to showcase your ideas, and that'd be great. If that's too much work or you don't know how, you can use an existing system with an open license of some sort. See the Author Resources page for some examples. Your entry must include some rules though, and if they are new, innovative and totally off-the-wall, all the better! You don't need a complete game, either. If your idea turns out to be just a new playable race for an existing game, that's fine. Just don't forget to include rules to allow people to use that race and any special abilities they might have.

Once again, please don't include any artwork at all. You can layout your work in an attractive fashion and use technical diagrams and tables if they help, in fact please do, but artwork or anything else that might unfairly influence the judges' decision is forbidden.

Entries will be judged on three qualities, Fluff, Crunch and, above all, *Imagination!* The games that win will be the ones that combine brand new concepts that we want to play with a well-written background and innovative rules systems that support it well.

The length of your entry is not important, but in effect the more information we have the better an idea we can get of your vision. Just don't go too over the top, as too much irrelevant information can be just as bad as too little. Don't forget also that you'll only have ten days to complete your submission and send it in for judging, and you don't want to end up stuck with a half-finished entry, do you?

Finished entries can be accepted in the following formats: PDF (preferred), Word document, Rich Text Format, Plain Text.


That's it for now! Everybody have fun, and if you have any questions post them in the forum or send me an email through the Contact page.

Let's get those creative juices flowing, people!