Finally we can annouce the finalists and the winner + runner-up of the Dark Reign Short Story Contest.

The challenge was to write a short story centered around an exciting new location that can be used in 40K roleplaying games.

The 4 finalists are:
Spinnaker’s Landing (Luddite)
Vitrum Palatium (Colin Young)
The Kevictus Installation (Deker Alexander)
Wild Spyres (Matt Barron)

It was difficult to even pick the four finalists. Let alone to pick one winner and a runner-up. But the judges chose:
Winner: Spinnaker’s Landing (Luddite)
Runner-up: Vitrum Palatium (Colin Young)

The winner receives a $50 gift voucher from DTRPG and the runner-up a $20 gift voucher from DTRPG. We will contact both this week.

The stories will be posted on Dark Reign as webarticles and also as one (big) ebook (pdf).

Here are some remarks about the submissions from the judges (in no particular order).

The Knife Wound (Cliff Hanson)
- Good story and pacing
- Location not central to story but interesting premise
- Hot chick is evil a bit overdone
- Location has lots of roleplaying potential

Vitrium Platium (Coling Young)
- Good story and pacing
- Good to see (likable) female protagonists
- Interesting location with good roleplay potential
- Great cliffhanger

The Kevictus Installation (Deker Alexander)
- Good pacing
- We loved the Cherub scene (you have to read it )
- Interesting location but kept a bit too mysterious
- Interesting story but a bit unclear. A great intro to a longer story

Yunis (Cody Kersh)
- A great buddy movie using the 40k setting (with humor)
- Interesting focus on exploration/discovery. Good pacing
- Interesting location
- No "cartoon evil" bad guys
- Good interwoven story

Birth of an Entity (Jepper Bree)
- Good (3) interwoven stories
- Good Necromunda alternative
- What if Goldman Sachs had a planet for itself
- Final is a bit too chaotic
- Interesting roleplay location

Wild Spires (Matt Barron)
- Great pacing
- Evocative descriptions
- Interesting/unique location
- Great humor
- Great characters
- Good cliffhanger, want to read more about the team

Spinnaker's Landing (Steve)
- Excellent story
- Complete package (story, background, game info)
- Interesting location with lots of roleplay potential
- Intro to a longer story
- Great portrayal of Nobles hunting
- Good dialogue

As you can see, we liked them all a lot