[EDIT: OK, this is now officially underway. Deadline is November 1st and I am open to anyone wanting to discuss ideas]

Anybody up for another scenario contest? I would sponsor the prizes (and shipping them). A friend of mine got FFG to send him a bunch of official print copies of the Day Late and Shilling Short scenario and a Few fully bound copies of JOURNEY TO Black Fire Pass (with their unctut, collectable cardstock pregens). We would mail a copy of DLSS to every qualified author entry (and a JTBFP to the top3) and then I was also thinking of sponsoring a gift certificate or two for stuff for the winner. Complete scenario entries could be hosted permanently on the Liber Fanatica website (with the ok from the Ordo Fanatica of course).

I'm not sure if any of you are interested in writing (it seems we lost 50% of our writers between editions), but what say ye? Anyone interested should say so here. As soon as we get at least 10 responses to commit, I'll get it underway. I NEED RESPONSES FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN WRITING, READING OR HELPING TO JUDGE! RESPOND HERE.

Here is my proposition for a 2012 contest. Again, if I get enough interest, I'll consider posting this officially.

My Two-fold Goal: 1) Encourage authors to write WFRP scenarios through the revival of the annual scenario contest with prize(s). 2) Encourage Convention Play of the WFRP

Proposal: 3rd Edition Convention-Playable Scenario Contest:

PROPOSED Deadline: November 1st, 2012

Although we would prefer a Convention-Playable scenario, any 10+ page playable WFRP3 scenario is acceptable for entry.

PREFERRED:

Assumptions: It is assumed that GMs running the scenario have access to the Core set, Winds of Magic, Signs of Faith and Adventurer’s Toolkit (i.e. everything included in the Player’s Guide and GM’s Guide). References beyond those should be summarized in a sidebar where possible.

Minimum Scenario Content: Scenario must be all-new/original. Not including pre-generated characters, the length should be from 10-40 pages or between 5000-13,000 words and be playable in 3.5-4 hours. Part-II should be added as a separate entry if scenario is expected to go over this time with additional expected play-time listed (shoot for an additional 4 hours). Adaptations to previous editions may be included in a separate appendix.

Submission Formatting Recommendations: 11 or 12 point readable fonts 2-column except for appendix, maps or handouts, and 1 inch margins maximum.

Pre-Gen Character Formatting: If pre-generated characters are included the following format is recommended: Section 1 - Character sheet, Section 2- summary of cards needed, Section 3 - Attitudes towards other PCs. It is ok to instead reference specific Liber Fanatica 7 pre-gens rather than including new ones, but you may wish to include attitudes towards other PCs section.

Formatting layout: Page 1 - Title Page with Blurb, Author(s), and legal disclaimer. Other minimum formatting requirements: rank/career minimum expected to play, course of expected play (scenario synopsis), background, content (by Act and Encounter). It does not have to be a railroad, but it does require a “most common course of expected play.”

Stat Block: It is assumed that all GMs have the Core Boxed Set, but not the Creature Guide or Creature Vault. Monsters found in the Core Set may simply be referenced, otherwise more complete information or summary side-bar. NEED STAT BLOCK FORMAT

Judging: Liber Fanatica and anyone who wants to help, including writers who submit (can't vote for your own).

1e, 2e adaptations: Appendices with 1e, 2e, or Zweihander adaptation stat blocks, etc. do not count towards word count.

Prizes : Each author that meets at least minimum content standards get a copy of DLSS (official print copy, max 1) and hosted on Liber Fanatica website. Runner up gets the printed J2BFP. Winner gets: Journey to Blackfire Pass (with cardstock pregen’s- official copy) and some gift certificates or dice or something (TBD). [edit: the cardstock is UNCUT career sheets for the miner, trollslayer, agent, and hunter, not a "character sheet."]

[Edit: additional information:

Email me your submissiondirectly at [email protected] . SUBJECT HEADER: WFRP scenario contest sumission (or something like that so it doesn't go to spam). If you're having trouble with formatting or ideas, feel free to email me and I'll be happy to provide suggestions.

Somewhere in your submission (preferably at the bottom of your cover page in small point font should be the following disclaimer:

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay © Games Workshop Limited 1986, 2005. This edition © Games Workshop Limited 2009. Games Workshop, Warhammer, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, the foregoing marks’ respective logos and all associated marks, logos, places, names, creatures, races and race insignia/devices/logos/symbols, vehicles, locations, weapons, units and unit insignia, characters, products and illustrations from the Warhammer World and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay game setting are either ®, TM and/or © Games Workshop Ltd 1986-2009, variably registered in the UK and other countries around the world. This edition published under license to Fantasy Flight Publishing Inc. Fantasy Flight Games and the FFG logo are trademarks of Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved to their respective owners.

jh

Are you obliging writers who submit to judge other entries? Seems like a wrong move to me for two reasons.

1) A lot more work for writers, especially if a large number of people enter. This may put people off.

2) A clever but underhand entrant might claim that the stronger scenarios are weak and vice versa in order to improve his or her own chances of victory.

I would just explain what sort of thing you are looking for from a scenario, allow for some wriggle room and then judge accordingly yourself.

Dave Allen said:

You've been watching too much 'Come Dine with Me.'

Ok, I have.

I used to be quite partial, but after Prawn Cocktail/Roast Duck/Eton Mess #56 I got bored. Still, it is a fascinating exercise in Game Theory.

Good questions. If writers don't want to help judge, that's up to them. This is for fun, not profit and some people are too busy to help out. I'm personally going to have an entry and i'll also be judging (but won't vote for my own.). This isn't a winner take all contest and we're offering something from the stacks of promo material that FFG sent out (hopefully put to good purpose this way as well). I'm actually not expecting that many entries, because WFRP3 just doesn't seem to have the sheer number of writers that Black Industries had volunteering for them 5 years ago..but hopefully we can stir that up.

Every entrant that sends a qualified entry gets a copy of Day Late, Shilling short (official printed version, max 1). There are something like 60-70 copies of these in our stack. First come, first serve. Once they're gone, they're gone. The cost on my back will be for postage.

The runner up get a printed copy of Journey to Blackfire Pass and the cardstock pre-gen characters. Again, the cost on my back will be postage.

The winner will get a copy of Journey to BFP (with cardstock) and I'll sponsor maybe a $30 gift certificate or some dice packs or something. I'm volunteering to pay for something reasonable, because I presume FFG doesn't have the manpower to do scenario contests anymore for WFRP3.

I know many of us have printed our own copies of Journey To BFP, but we have the OFFICIAL printed copies with the uncut cardstock character sheets (a real collectable

So, anyways, let's drum up some interest on this topic. As soon as I get at least 10 responses to commit, I'll get it underway.

jh

Hi,

I'd be interested in contributing. Not so much for the winning, but as part of a community push for some fan made scenarios.

I might screw up on the "able to play in 3-4 hours" though…

Awesome to have you on board. I enjoy your regular posts, so I'm sure you can put together a likable scenario

Anyways, in regards to the 3-4 hours of play time, that's up to the authors experience. I expect some wordy writers may want to have 2 entries (part 1, part 2, etc.).

jh

Provided that it gets underway before summer's over so I can have plenty of time to work, I'd participate!

Great idea!

I put your proposition on the Daily Empire and linked it back to here.

I think it's a great idea and I hope it works out. I don't think I have the writing skill to pitch in, but I'll be happy to read and review others works.

I'll give it a go. I am only gaming one night a week at the moment so that gives me a free evening every week to try and write something.

Count me in as one of the judges, Jaye

Unfortunately haven't got time at the moment to write scenarios.

All the best,

Ralph

Great. We'll need judges too

Keep 'em coming folks. This benefits all of us.

jh

I'll do one.

I'll have a go too.

Sounds like fun, I will enter if you like

monkeylite said:

Actually, forget I said that. I didn't read all the restrictions (were they edited in later or did I just space them?). I thought we might be able to write a scenario that we wanted to write for other players. I don't really see the point of putting all those arbitrary restrictions on stuff. It all seems a bit needless. I had fewer restrictions put on some of the stuff I did for FFG.

Honestly, I'd suggest you rethink that, because your two main goals, contradict each other to a degree: do you want to encourage people to write a scenario or do you want to have convention scenarios?

Why put a minimum content on? Lots of people don't have time to do very long scenarios. Also, I know from experience working up to wordcount can take a while. Now, I can toss off 20,000 words no problem, but for people not used to that, 5,000 words can be a lot. Similarly, why stop people at 13,000 words?

Why restrict it to a convention scenario. For a start, WFRP3 isn't all that convention friendly, and istm there are things you have to do for a convention scenario in regards to set up and hooks, which don't usually apply to campaign play and I would suggest that campaign play scenarios would be much more desirable to the average fan.

Why 2 columns, I mean really?

I wouldn't disagree with you about the columns, minimum word length or convention-focussed stipulations, which I too think are a bit arbitrary.

I do think a maximum word length stipulation is a good idea, because it does prevent people from just writing up their campaign notes and giving you a great long messy article to read. I also think a good short scenario tends to see more use than a lengthy one (easier to drop into campaigns and conventions and so on). An upper limit of 13,000 words strikes me as a decent limit in that regard.

Because it's a competition I do think it is a good idea to tell people what sort of thing impresses you in a scenario - then you can judge according to such criteria, but the more formal restrictions you put on it the fewer people will join and the more may drop out or send in something half-baked.

So I would say Emrikol would be best placed saying "I want people to adopt these strict rules (deadline, wordcount and so on), and have these informal guidelines (playable in 4 hours, could make for a good convention game, clearly formatted and so on) in mind when doing their scenarios".

This way people wouldn't be put off by stipulations they didn't care for - but they have fair warning about why they might not place highly if they eschew a number of the guidelines.

I found that a very helpful approach when I ran similar competitions, especially when it came to judging between two scenarios of very similar quality - I could just say "well they are more or less as good as each other, but contestant A stuck to the brief more so he gets to win" in such instances.

However, I do think such an approach may be undermined by Emrikol's decision to have a commitee of judges, which I think is a mistake. 1 judge (him) would be better, he could appoint people to help provide him with second opinions of course, but really there should be a single judge who makes his criteria for judging clear.

IMO.

I agree with the post above. Personally, I am not fussed about winning anything, I just fancy writing a scenario that others might get some fun out of too.

Guidelines for criteria etc are useful, and I can see that it may be easier if there was one judge who perhaps just got feedback from others.

Or perhaps you could split the competition into two categories and have submissions of one sheet scenarios such as the ones suggested by doc_cthulhu in another thread?

I'll be the dissenter (as usual,) and say that I like the idea of using the contest to build a library of convention scenario content. I actually bought a box set specifically to take to conventions, but I'm not a big fan of FFG's short scenarios, and I seldom end up having time to write a quick story to bring with me, so it hasn't gotten used. I'd definitely run stuff at the cons I attend if I had a handful of appropriate scenarios to use.

On the other hand, I LOVE one-pagers as well, so I suppose I could also enthusiastically get behind that, too.

Whatever--hats off to getting a contest started in any form!

Good questions about this stuff. Trust me we thought long and hard about the formatting and when we chose to sponsor this. We chose the "convention-playable" theme and formatting for several deliberate reasons.

* Convention-playable scenario. WFRP3 has only one full-length convention scenario (journey to bfp). There are ENDLESS wfrp2 scenarios written with every theme imaginable. We don't need "just another scenario." Our goal is to grow this hobby through an expanded convention presence for WFRP3. As convention scenarios translate easily over to home play, it is more win-win for both avenues.

* WFRP3 is very convention friendly, but it has considerations. Other game systems, including boardgames, pull this off every day of the week and they have more losable parts than this game. How is the author going to help out the GM in this regards? Innovation is king.

* Formatting: Each round of convention play needs to fit in about 3-4 hours. Multi round scenarios should be thought of that way as well. In relation, this is also useful for home play.

* Length/word count: Authors need to be concise and useful at the same time. A developed scenario is the goal, not a one-sheet.

* Two column: It is much easier to prep/read-on-spot/GM a 2 column scenario when you are at a convention.

* Adventure Synopsis: Neither sandbox, nor railroad should be the goal, but a scenario lacking even the most rudimentary overview for a GM is a major pet peeve of most GMs.

Lastly, we felt that the scenario contest should be revived. Our decision was that once we have at least 10 writers who will step up, we will sponsor it. We don't expect that this format is for everyone, and there's no hard feelings if you choose not to participate because of formatting concerns, but we'd rather have you on board.

Jay H

..

Fair enough, I will see what I can do.

Kudos for trying to set this up

Good deal

Monkeylite brings up a good issue about WFRP3 and convention play. Pre-generated characters will need a stat-block for sure, but it's up to the author to on whether to produce it as a character sheet: "Rules Light", "Components Reduced," or "Full Components Required." In convention play, I've done all three. Full components seemed more "risky" for possibly losing something.

Another consideration is whether it is for experienced players or if it is a "noob's welcome" scenario. Time to teach this game runs about 15-20 minutes if the GM is pretty savvy for a group up to 5 players. 6+ players tends to have more trouble in the time allotment because players aren't experienced in assessing dice, so that slows it down quite a bit.

jh

Emirikol said:

Yeah, I genuinely wouldn't want to bring my stuff to a convention, if I didn't know who was gonna turn up and start messing with it.