D&D 5E Will you enter the Dungeon Master Challenge?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And it will be on Peacock, and on both the Twitch and Youtube channels of both G4TV and D&D.

The five people who subscribe to Peacock are going to be very confused.

 

[Ancalagon]

but if the rights to non-winning entries don't revert back to the authors it's nothing but a rip-off: avoid with all haste.

That is unacceptable to me as well.

 

[Parmandur]

The five people who subscribe to Peacock are going to be very confused.

I signed up for the free level of Peacock to watch some NBC thing or other. Ads don't bother me none.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

The five people who subscribe to Peacock are going to be very confused.

Peacock is free for most of the content, so I have used it quite a bit. I do not have normal TV, so watching NBC shows a week after they air on the network is fine with me.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

No, 'cause anything I write wouldn't follow their requested/desired lore. ('course, it wouldn't be written for 5e either, so there's that...)

Good in principle to see they're doing something like this; but if the rights to non-winning entries don't revert back to the authors it's nothing but a rip-off: avoid with all haste.

It has been a while, so you may have read this by now, but most contests require you to give up the rights to anything you submit:

"Entrant acknowledges and agrees that he/she/they is/are the sole author of his, her, their entry, that he/she/they own/owns the copyright in and to his/her/their entry, and that the entry does not infringe any third-party rights (including without limitation, copyright, trademark, trade dress rights, or rights of privacy or publicity). By entering this Contest, entrant hereby grants Wizards a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide license 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). By entering this Contest, entrants agree that Wizards may post their entries online and has the right to use the entries, including, without limitation, by making it available for download, along with entrant’s name on Wizards’ website and in any and all publicity and advertising or other promotions by Wizards without any further attribution, notification or compensation to Entrants."

Also from the eligibility requirements:

"The Contest is open to legal residents of the 50 United States and District of Columbia, Canada (excluding Quebec), the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, France, Spain, Australia and New Zealand."

Quebec seems to almost always be left out of contests that include the rest of Canada, so just that is never a sign other Canadians cannot participate.

 

[Reynard]

That is unacceptable to me as well.

Why? Ideas are cheap. We (DMs and writers) come up with a dozen a day. You can replace the one you "gave" WotC in a couple hours' work, and the next one will probably be better anyway. And, if nothing else, you wouldn't have even created the thing if not for the contest anyway.

I think most people use "I don't want to lose my rights to that thing" as an excuse. It's a justification for not wanting to do the work or for not wanting to experience the rejection.

But by all means: write that thing and then put it out there. Give it away. Sell it on DMsGuild. Publish it in PDF and POD. They can't stop you. They didn't tent the trap format. Create it. Do it.

 

[ersatzphil]

Why? Ideas are cheap. We (DMs and writers) come up with a dozen a day. You can replace the one you "gave" WotC in a couple hours' work, and the next one will probably be better anyway. And, if nothing else, you wouldn't have even created the thing if not for the contest anyway.

That's my take. The contest got me off my duff to write something I wouldn't have otherwise, and got me thinking about interesting parts of WotC-owned IP. If I'm completely honest, it also got me to read the 'Traps' section of Xanathar's guide, which I somehow hadn't done before.

Besides, it's exactly 1 trap and 1k words. It's not like we're giving away the store here.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yeah, it would be exceptionally surprising if WotC realized you were reusing something you submitted (assuming you didn't make the Top 10, in which case, I expect your trap to be in an Extra Life PDF soon) or give a crap about it, so long as you don't trumpet that's what you're doing.

 

[ersatzphil]

Additionally, from the contest terms:

At Wizards sole discretion, any material that is not used may be released to the Entrant or Contestant for the sole purpose of publication on DMs Guild after the completion of the Contest.

If you want to publish it on DMsguild, I suspect they'll be pretty chill about it, but who knows.

 

[Lanefan]

It has been a while, so you may have read this by now, but most contests require you to give up the rights to anything you submit:

"Entrant acknowledges and agrees that he/she/they is/are the sole author of his, her, their entry, that he/she/they own/owns the copyright in and to his/her/their entry, and that the entry does not infringe any third-party rights (including without limitation, copyright, trademark, trade dress rights, or rights of privacy or publicity). By entering this Contest, entrant hereby grants Wizards a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide license 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). By entering this Contest, entrants agree that Wizards may post their entries online and has the right to use the entries, including, without limitation, by making it available for download, along with entrant’s name on Wizards’ website and in any and all publicity and advertising or other promotions by Wizards without any further attribution, notification or compensation to Entrants."

That most contests do this still doesn't make it right, or ethical.

That bolded clause should only apply to compensated winners, and never to any non-winning entrant.

"The Contest is open to legal residents of the 50 United States and District of Columbia, Canada (excluding Quebec), the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, France, Spain, Australia and New Zealand."

Quebec seems to almost always be left out of contests that include the rest of Canada, so just that is never a sign other Canadians cannot participate.

I wonder why just that short list of countries?

@Helldritch upthread pointed out why Quebec is often left out of these things.