Wizards of the Coast Announces D&D Forgotten Realms Character Creation Contest‏

Morrus · Jan 20, 2012

Have you ever dreamed ("dreamed" might be too strong a word; I didn't write this release, though!) of seeing your character come to life in the hands of Forgotten Realms creator Ed Greenwood?

IDW Publishing and Wizards of the Coast have just announced the Forgotten Realms Character Creation Contest, in conjunction with the launch of the all-new Dungeons & Dragons: Forgotten Realms comic book series. Launching in April 2012, the comic series is written by Ed Greenwood himself!

Chosen by Wizards, IDW and Greenwood, the winner will see his or her character appear in a future issue of the series! Runners up will also have a chance to win a slew of cool prizes. Winners will be announced on the Wizards website on or before April 1, 2012.

To enter, create a heroic tier character (1st – 10th level; no gods or demigods) using the Dungeons & Dragons sourcebooks: Heroes of the Feywild, Heroes of Shadow, or Neverwinter Campaign Setting, and follow the on-screen instructions set forth on dnd/promotions.aspx to (i) complete and submit an entry form which includes your name, address, email address and phone number, and (ii) up to 100 words of flavor text (colorful character background descriptions). Entries are limited to one (1) per person..

All completed entries must be received by Wizards no later than 12:01 a.m. PST on February 10, 2012. For more contest information and how to enter click here, or read the full rules here.

One Grand Prize Winner will receive a prize package consisting of:

Inclusion of the selected winning character in a forthcoming issue of the Dungeons & Dragons: Forgotten Realms comic written by Ed Greenwood and published by IDW.
One set of Retailer Incentive Cover issues #1-6 of the Dungeons & Dragons: Forgotten Realms comic book series published by IDW ($24.00).
A copy of the Dungeons & Dragons: Forgotten Realms issue their character appears in signed by Ed Greenwood. ($4.00).
One copy of Lords of Waterdeep board game ($50.00).
One copy of Dungeons & Dragons: Shadowplague published by IDW ($25.00).
One copy of Dungeons & Dragons: First Encounters published by IDW ($25.00).
One copy of the 10th Anniversary Collector Edition of R.A. Salvatore’s War of the Spider Queen Vol. I ($16.00).

Quickleaf · Jan 20, 2012

Here's to hoping an ENWorlder wins !

Official Rules Wizards of the Coast Forgotten Realms Character Creation Contest said:
The Entrant specifically acknowledges and agrees that Wizards will have the right, without restriction, to use, reproduce, publish, and distribute entries submitted without payment of any compensation or consideration to any entrant or any other person or entity (except the prizes awarded to the Winners pursuant to these Official Rules.

Clauses like this make Quickleaf a sad panda.

RangerWickett · Jan 20, 2012

Am I reading it right that you're only allowed to make satyrs, pixies, hamadryads, revenants, shades, or vrylokas who are executioners, blackguards, binders, bladesingers, berserkers, vampires, skalds, protectors, or witches?

Kzach · Jan 20, 2012

Oh yay, another competition for North American residents only.

On Puget Sound · Jan 20, 2012

Quickleaf said:
Here's to hoping an ENWorlder wins !

Clauses like this make Quickleaf a sad panda.

I understand the feeling, but it's kind of necessary. Otherwise, years down the road they will introduce an iconic pixie vampire, and someone will say "Hey, I submitted a pixie vampire to your contest in 2012; you copied my idea. Pay me!" And yes, a judge would probably rule in their favor, but it would cost them time, money and risk.

Shayuri · Jan 20, 2012

But it also means if I submit a character, and they decide it doesn't win the contest, they can still use it for something else, later, with no recognition of my involvement.

Not saying they -would-. Just that they -could-.

Also, I think you just have to include some material from one of those books...you don't have to use a race or class. There are feats and spells and other things in them too that including would fulfill the "must use one of these" clause.

At least, that's how I read it.

Viktyr Gehrig · Jan 21, 2012

Shayuri said:
But it also means if I submit a character, and they decide it doesn't win the contest, they can still use it for something else, later, with no recognition of my involvement.

Difference being, if you beat them to the punch, they're not stupid enough to sue you over it; their expensive lawyers would explain to them why a lawsuit would be a very bad idea. Since you don't have expensive lawyers, they can't afford to assume that you're not stupid enough to sue them.

The last thing any reasonable person wants to do is to go to court over anything and the biggest part of any good lawyer's job-- no matter what field of law they practice-- is keeping their clients as far away from courtrooms as possible. The problem is, our society is full of unreasonable people and bad lawyers and the two are inexorably drawn to one another.

Morrus · Jan 21, 2012

Shayuri said:
But it also means if I submit a character, and they decide it doesn't win the contest, they can still use it for something else, later, with no recognition of my involvement.

Is that really so terrible? It's just a D&D character entered into a competition in the hope of winning a prize; it's not like you'll have written War & Peace or anything. And the character will have been based largely on their IP in the first place.

What they are actually doing to making sure you don't claim that some character in 10 years time is your creation because it bears some similarity. And, let's face it, given the potential number of entries, any character they ever design is gonna end up bearing some kind of superficial similarity to one of the entries.

This isn't about the character; the character itself is just a mechanism for the competition. It's about a competition that generates publicity for a comic-book. The character in itself doesn't hold any value; they can create a thousand characters a day if they need characters. Any value it eventually might gain is simply due to their branding investment into it.

That's why the "let me tell you about my character" joke exists. It's a common misconception that something, by virtue of its creation, automatically has value.

Albrecht79 · Jan 21, 2012

Shayuri said:
But it also means if I submit a character, and they decide it doesn't win the contest, they can still use it for something else, later, with no recognition of my involvement.

I recommend that you not participate in this contest. It is obviously a big risk :uhoh:

. If anyone is paranoid, I suggest that they read the fine print of any contest like this. Wizards of the Coast is not doing anything abnormal or unreasonable.

Viktyr Gehrig · Jan 22, 2012

Albrecht79 said:
I recommend that you not participate in this contest. It is obviously a big risk . If anyone is paranoid, I suggest that they read the fine print of any contest like this. Wizards of the Coast is not doing anything abnormal or unreasonable.

I'm about ten different kinds of paranoid. That's why I know how things like this work-- I study them obsessively to make sure they aren't used against me. In this case, there isn't a court of law in the United States that would support a copyright suit over something like this... even winning a lawsuit costs a lot of money, and inserting a clause like this into their contest rules doesn't cost them anything.

Wizards of the Coast Announces D&D Forgotten Realms Character Creation Contest‏

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Quickleaf

Legend

RangerWickett

Legend

Kzach

Banned

On Puget Sound

First Post

Shayuri

First Post

Viktyr Gehrig

First Post

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Albrecht79

First Post

Viktyr Gehrig

First Post

Similar Threads