August Contest - Places of Myth and Legend
Posted 2nd August 2008 at 05:14 PM by Jürgen Hubert
Updated 26th August 2008 at 05:25 PM by Jürgen Hubert
Updated 26th August 2008 at 05:25 PM by Jürgen Hubert
The Arcana Wiki is a new wiki project which attempts to gather information from the real world - on history, mythology, fiction, geography, and any other conceivable topic - and then add rules-free adventure seeds and gaming suggestions to it. If you ever browsed a Wikipedia article and thought for yourself: "This would make for an awesome adventure!", then this wiki is for you.
To stir up some more interest and community participation, I offered a contest for writing up Mythological Creatures page for the Arcana Wiki. This contest has recently ended, and so I now want to start a new one.
The topic for the August contest is Places of Myth and Legend. I will accept two types of submissions:
While they are appropriate for the Arcana Wiki in general, places from modern literature - such as R'lyeh or Numenor do not count as viable contest entries.
Contest entries should detail basic information about the locale, links to other websites with more information or a list of book references used, as well as a list of adventure and campaign ideas. See the wiki entry for Pilatusstadt, a sunken legendary city of Germany, for an example what an entry should look like. The best entry - as judged by me - will win a $25 Gift Certificate at the ENWorld Online Store, which is also valid for RPGNow/DriveThruRPG.
To submit an entry, follow these steps:
1. Search the Arcana Wiki to see if no one else has submitted an entry for this locale already.
2. Write the entry for your creature, and [url=http://www.enworld.org/forum/blog_post.php?do=newblog]publish it on your ENWorld blog[/urk] (the entries will be judged on their blog entries, since the wiki entries might change over time). Use the following template:
(Note: If you find it impossible to register at ENWorld, you can send your entry to me per email to jhubert@gmx.de, though I much prefer publication on the ENWorld blog to attract more attention.)
Do not enter any game rule information - the Arcana Wiki is intended to be system-independent.
3. Register at Wikidot.Com so that your entry at the Arcana Wiki can be properly attributed to you (becoming a member of the Arcana Wiki is not required for editing it, and your entry will be attributed to you as long as you have registered at Wikidot.Com and are logged in when you enter it).
4. Enter the same information into the wiki. If you are submitting a real-world location, go to the page of the appropriate country and add a link to your location there (if the country in question does not have an entry yet, create one). If you are submitting an entirely mythological locale, go to the Mythological Places page, edit it (click on the "edit" function at the bottom of the page) and enter a link for your locale. For example, the link for the Aufhocker looks like this:
Then save the results and click on the new link. You will be automatically taken to the "edit" page for your new entry. Follow the instructions of the page template (and if necessary, read this page for further explanations of the wiki syntax).
5. Notify me of your entry by commenting on this post and adding a link to your blog post to your comment.
The deadline for this contest is August 31st, 2008. After that date, the winning entry will be judged by me as soon as my time permits.
Happy writing!
To stir up some more interest and community participation, I offered a contest for writing up Mythological Creatures page for the Arcana Wiki. This contest has recently ended, and so I now want to start a new one.
The topic for the August contest is Places of Myth and Legend. I will accept two types of submissions:
- Entirely mythical places - those who never existed in the real world. Avalon or Atlantis are good examples.
- Real world locations that nevertheless have significant myths and legends attached to them. The Brocken and the Bermuda Triangle count as such.
While they are appropriate for the Arcana Wiki in general, places from modern literature - such as R'lyeh or Numenor do not count as viable contest entries.
Contest entries should detail basic information about the locale, links to other websites with more information or a list of book references used, as well as a list of adventure and campaign ideas. See the wiki entry for Pilatusstadt, a sunken legendary city of Germany, for an example what an entry should look like. The best entry - as judged by me - will win a $25 Gift Certificate at the ENWorld Online Store, which is also valid for RPGNow/DriveThruRPG.
To submit an entry, follow these steps:
1. Search the Arcana Wiki to see if no one else has submitted an entry for this locale already.
2. Write the entry for your creature, and [url=http://www.enworld.org/forum/blog_post.php?do=newblog]publish it on your ENWorld blog[/urk] (the entries will be judged on their blog entries, since the wiki entries might change over time). Use the following template:
(Note: If you find it impossible to register at ENWorld, you can send your entry to me per email to jhubert@gmx.de, though I much prefer publication on the ENWorld blog to attract more attention.)
PHP Code:
[b]This is an entry for the [url=http://www.enworld.org/forum/blog.php?b=606]Places of Myth and Legend Contest[/url].[/b]
[size="5"]Basic Information[/size]
(In this section, write down factual information about your entry - everything you have learned from secondary sources)
[size="4"]Sources[/size]
(Enter external links to any relevant sources you could find, as well as relevant literature.)
[size="5"]Game and Story Use[/size]
[list][*] (Enter your story and campaign ideas as a bulleted list)[list][*] (If some ideas branch off from other ideas, enter them as higher-level bullet points)[/list][/list]
3. Register at Wikidot.Com so that your entry at the Arcana Wiki can be properly attributed to you (becoming a member of the Arcana Wiki is not required for editing it, and your entry will be attributed to you as long as you have registered at Wikidot.Com and are logged in when you enter it).
4. Enter the same information into the wiki. If you are submitting a real-world location, go to the page of the appropriate country and add a link to your location there (if the country in question does not have an entry yet, create one). If you are submitting an entirely mythological locale, go to the Mythological Places page, edit it (click on the "edit" function at the bottom of the page) and enter a link for your locale. For example, the link for the Aufhocker looks like this:
PHP Code:
[[[Pilatusstadt]]]
5. Notify me of your entry by commenting on this post and adding a link to your blog post to your comment.
The deadline for this contest is August 31st, 2008. After that date, the winning entry will be judged by me as soon as my time permits.
Happy writing!
Total Comments 9
Comments
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Ok to call Dulce mythological as opposed to fictional?
http://arcana.wikidot.com/dulce-base-new-mexico-usaPosted 3rd August 2008 at 10:48 PM by Committed Hero
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Just because it's modern it doesn't mean it isn't mythological.
And UFO mythology is a valid field for this entry. Just a small criticism, though: In the "Basic Information" part, you should present the factual information about this place - i.e. add qualifiers such as "according to conspiracy theories", "allegedly", and so forth - similar to how the Wikipedia does this. If the location isn't provably real, it shouldn't be implied that it is - after all, there are quite a lot of real world locations in the Wiki.
Do that and use my template to add it to your ENWorld blog as well, and you are the first entry for the August contest.Posted 3rd August 2008 at 11:04 PM by Jürgen Hubert -
2nd entry
Posted 4th August 2008 at 03:05 AM by Committed Hero - Nice! Just remember to add entries to the ENWorld blog - since wiki entries can be changed by others, and I must be able to judge a version written by you alone.Posted 4th August 2008 at 06:50 AM by Jürgen Hubert
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Posted 11th August 2008 at 08:17 AM by jdrakeh -
Second Entry (Ys)
Posted 11th August 2008 at 09:20 AM by jdrakeh -
New entry.
Posted 12th August 2008 at 11:34 PM by Committed Hero -
Yet another entry. . .
Headless Valley at the ENWorld Blog and at the Arcana Wiki. I'm trying to stick to more obscure mythical places, as I figure that they will be more interesting for readers. Committed Hero is giving me a run for my money!
Posted 13th August 2008 at 08:40 AM by jdrakeh -
And an even more contemporary myth. . .
Stull Church at my ENWorld blog and at the Arcana Wiki. A local legend whose origins are shrouded in mystery but that apparently date back to at least the mid-1960s, the story of the Stull Church is well known in both Douglass County and Shawnee County and has been traded around campfires for at least two generations. I couldn't confirm it, so I didn't mention it in the wiki entry, but I believe (based on interviews conducted with Stull locals when I lived in nearby Topeka) that the legend originated in the 1960s.Posted 13th August 2008 at 12:34 PM by jdrakeh
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