Question regarding the 7-Day RPG Contest

[Morrus]

Discussion moved from thread. The whole "please on post entries in the thread" thing seems to be something everyone's struggling with !

 

[Morrus]

I have a system I have been working on for 10 years. It is called RIN, and it has a little original artwork along with it. It is also incomplete. I would enter it, but I am not willing to hand over the rights just by entering. However, I may throw together a quick game and post it.

No I wouldn't enter something you've worked 10 years on; it's not worth it. This is designed for something you whip up this week in a few hours. Like those 24 hour RPG contests, but less frantic!

 

[Morrus]

So, I've made a few changes to the rules (relaxed them a little - I'm *really* not trying to get hold of your labour of love and force you to watch me make millions off it and a movie trilogy; it's just a bit of fun). My expectation was that I'd get a dozen or so entries, maybe be interested in publishing a couple of them, and then I'd return the rest and (probably) end up hiring the authors of the ones I wanted to publish to polish them up and maybe expand them if necessary. I figure that's easily covered under "I may approach contestants with an eye to publishing" line though, just in case I don't actually want to publish any of them.

 

[Henry]

For consideration of those who are concerned about exploitation via this contest:

Are any of you concerned with the following scenario, which is a real possibility:

Contestant A: $1000
Contestant B: $0 & gets published
Morrus: -$1720.00 (after taking winning fees, art costs, time for layout and the actual revenues into account)

In which case, A and B are the ones making out like real bandits here. People can be a bit misinformed here when it comes to the profits of most RPG projects.

In more likelihood, if it isnt like the above it'll be more like "Morrus +$2000" or something, not some oil baron lighting his cigars with $100 bills and extinguishing them in a bowl of contestant tears.

 

[tablehop]

No, I'm a fairly successful RPG publisher/author myself and this contest is pretty awful all around. "Gets published" isn't any kind of real reward. (Especially when someone else is making all of the actual profit from your work.)

So, I've made a few changes to the rules

So you changed the rules after at least three people had entered and agreed to a previous set of rules?

 

[Morrus]

So you changed the rules after at least three people had entered and agreed to a previous set of rules? [/COLOR]

You seem angry. All I've done is waived something I was getting before and PMd the people who entered. It's far easier for everyone involved for me to just notifiy them and get their acceptance that way. If I don't hear back from them, I'll take that as non-agreement.

 

[tablehop]

It would be a lot less suspect if you'd had a list of exact changes and version histories to consult, considering there are things like money and IP ownership on the line. It's messy and unprofessional.

 

[Morrus]

It would be a lot less suspect if you'd had a list of exact changes and version histories to consult, considering there are things like money and IP ownership on the line. It's messy and unprofessional.

"Suspect"?

 

[Dour-n-Taciturn]

I honestly don't intend my submission to be any kind of groundbreaking project, it's more of an elaborate house rule set amalgamated from several existing (copyrighted) systems. I'd prefer to see this contest as a repository of ideas that are put out there for a "what the hey", just to see if anyone will give them a read. I have no problem with the rules, as they stand.

 

[tablehop]

Quibble over word choices however you want; my point remains. When you've got things like money and IP ownership involved, you need to have clear and consistent rules. If you change a set of rules after people have already agreed to them (which is already questionable) then you should at least have prior version histories available or a detailed list of how the rules have changed. Especially considering you're taking over ownership of the winner, previously had it set to take over ownership of the losers as well, and you're asking people to indemnify.