A D&D Song Competition

Lanefan · Sep 7, 2012

Morrus said:
Hopefully folks can actually see the discussion amongst all the song lyrics!

So, here are our initial thoughts:

Audio only, MP3 format

Two categories: parody (to an existing tune) and original

Public vote

Winner of each gets a video made (including singing if you want); likely animated rather than live-action

The two winning videos appear on EN World's YouTube channel and hopefulyl get shared by millions worldwide (but more likely only by seven people at 3am one Friday morning)

Need 5 entries per category to proceed or we fold the two together

One month to submit entries, one month of voting

Things we haven't settled on:

Rights (thinking entrant keeps copyright of their work but grants ENW perpetual worldwide license for use; doesn't affect entrant's own use of it)

Is that a decent prize?

Perhaps we could play them at the ENnies next year?

Voting mechanism

Any thoughts?

[MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION] - another question to resolve: any limit on number of entries per person/band/group/unit?

As for the prize, would someone else be doing the video for the winners?

Playing them at the ENnies would be cool - if the originals are any good maybe see if they can get played at the GenCon dance as well.

Lan-"we started working on what I hope will be our "original song" entry last night"-efan

ddvmor · Sep 7, 2012

Lanefan said:
As for the prize, would someone else be doing the video for the winners?

We were anticipating that I would be making the video. It would likely be animated due to the limitations of cross-pond collaboration, but depending on stuff like the location of the winner and their inclinations and who we can rope in, etc we may be able to get stuff like remote greenscreening done (it's not particularly difficult or expensive) or have actors stand in.

If neccessary, we can probably get a bespoke backing track done for the winner, if they need it, to record the lyrics over.

We'd work with the winner to create something that we can all be proud of. What we do depends a lot on the winning song.

Morrus · Sep 7, 2012

(The above is my brother, Darren, BTW).

Of course, we're missing something very important. A competition like this needs a catchy name!

Lanefan said:
another question to resolve: any limit on number of entries per person/band/group/unit?

My gut instinct says to allow multiple entries, but not allow anyone to spam the competition with entries. So, say, 2-3 entries max.

Janx · Sep 7, 2012

Morrus said:
(The above is my brother, Darren, BTW).

Of course, we're missing something very important. A competition like this needs a catchy name!

My gut instinct says to allow multiple entries, but not allow anyone to spam the competition with entries. So, say, 2-3 entries max.

I thought Dungeon Idol, coupled with the 1E PH cover wearing headphones kind of fit the bill as Danny suggested.

Morrus · Sep 7, 2012

Janx said:
I thought Dungeon Idol, coupled with the 1E PH cover wearing headphones kind of fit the bill as Danny suggested.

It's a bit close to the existing Idol franchise.

Janx · Sep 7, 2012

Morrus said:
Rights (thinking entrant keeps copyright of their work but grants ENW perpetual worldwide license for use; doesn't affect entrant's own use of it)

Is that a decent prize?

Perhaps we could play them at the ENnies next year?

Voting mechanism

Any thoughts?

I think the Rights sounds fair. It's something I'd advise originals bands to do to protect themselves from whiny ex-bandmates who take their material and go home, so the band doesn't have to stop selling CDs.

As for "Is that a decent prize"? I'll have to ask, what was the prize?

I don't mean to sound mean or greedy, but the side effect of this contest is that music folks are creating content for ENWorld to use. Somebody's got to make the video, and that's work, but the music writing/recording work and the video making are both work towards ENworld's benefit.

I know there's the possibility of millions of youtubers seeing the song, and that's exposure, but getting paid for exposure is a bitter prize for anybody who's serious in music. It seldom works out to be as valuable as the guy offering exposure thinks it is.

Now to un-DebbieDowner this. A real prize ain't gotta be gold and fame. ENWorld's got assets that are free to it, yet valuable to its members. Give out a Community Membership, some free product. Ample reward for members who took the time to contribute to ENWorld is for ENWorld to give part of itself to those members.

Janx · Sep 7, 2012

Morrus said:
It's a bit close to the existing Idol franchise.

How about:
ENWorld's Bad Mother Filker Contest
ENWorld Dungeon Filk Contest
ENWorld D&D Filk-off
Filk Out with your Sword out
Batttle of the Filks
Filk and Pie
Filk in yer Eye
Filk til you Die
Filk the Police

Morrus · Sep 7, 2012

Janx said:
As for "Is that a decent prize"? I'll have to ask, what was the prize?

A video.

I don't mean to sound mean or greedy, but the side effect of this contest is that music folks are creating content for ENWorld to use. Somebody's got to make the video, and that's work, but the music writing/recording work and the video making are both work towards ENworld's benefit.

Not really. I think you overestimate the benefit of it. The ad revenue we'd get from this would be miniscule. It's fun and community building. I don't expect to gain much from it, and I wouldn't want somebody to enter for any reason other than "this sounds like a fun thing to do". Nobody's gonan get famous or rich, but they might get a cool video they can show their friends and say "hey, I did that".

If you're thinking of it as work, you definitely shouldn't enter.

Mark CMG · Sep 7, 2012

Morrus said:
Of course, we're missing something very important. A competition like this needs a catchy name!

enSong

You might also put out a series of enBooks and enApps at some point.

Janx · Sep 8, 2012

Morrus said:
A video.

Not really. I think you overestimate the benefit of it. The ad revenue we'd get from this would be miniscule. It's fun and community building. I don't expect to gain much from it, and I wouldn't want somebody to enter for any reason other than "this sounds like a fun thing to do". Nobody's gonan get famous or rich, but they might get a cool video they can show their friends and say "hey, I did that".

If you're thinking of it as work, you definitely shouldn't enter.

I don't mean it like that in a bad way. Making stuff is fun. Just that some folks running music contests (like battle of the bands) think that the exposure is reward for the artist. As long as we're all just having fun making stuff, it's all cool.

it might possibly be worth running it as a different kind of contest. Instead of 1st place, etc, just rank it as "in" or "out". All the decent songs win. All the really bad ones (poor quality) lose. Then, just make videos one at a time, to fill the enworld channel with fun stuff.

A D&D Song Competition

Lanefan

Victoria Rules

ddvmor

I'm a little teapot!

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Janx

Hero

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Janx

Hero

Janx

Hero

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Mark CMG

Creative Mountain Games

Janx

Hero

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