Charity Fundraiser - our own setting search!

[Rune]

Also, and this one would be directly for Morrus, I strongly suggest you make the restriction for entering this contest be that you are a full and contributing member of the community - and by that I mean paid membership. Not only will this thin the amount of submissions, but it will create an influx of money that can be used for administering the contest, as many (and I would include myself in this number) become paid members of the community.

This is a very interesting idea. I'd support it.

While I'm on the topic though, I became a contributing member of the community Friday via PayPal, but that doesn't appear to been noticed yet. What's up with that?

 

[alsih2o]

it took quite a few days for mine to go thru, then i realized i hadn't followed directions , but that isn't the most unusual thing in my life

 

[Rune]

it took quite a few days for mine to go thru, then i realized i hadn't followed directions , but that isn't the most unusual thing in my life

Yeah, but I think I followed the directions correctly. What did you do wrong?

 

[Morrus]

While I'm on the topic though, I became a contributing member of the community Friday via PayPal, but that doesn't appear to been noticed yet. What's up with that?

I do them in batches every 3-4 days - I'll be doing a batch tonight/tomorrow.

 

[Crusty Older DM]

Telflon Billy for Setting Judge

I have a "crappy" background in the industry, does that count?

Count? Hell, the "crappy" part is a bonus!

Besides, it's more than I have.

 

[Tiefling]

Also, and this one would be directly for Morrus, I strongly suggest you make the restriction for entering this contest be that you are a full and contributing member of the community - and by that I mean paid membership. Not only will this thin the amount of submissions, but it will create an influx of money that can be used for administering the contest, as many (and I would include myself in this number) become paid members of the community.

I dunno, seems kinda odd to ask people to pay in order to contribute their time to a charity, especially considering that the vast majority wouldn't win and therefore wouldn't get any money back for it.

 

[Morrus]

I dunno, seems kinda odd to ask people to pay in order to contribute their time to a charity, especially considering that the vast majority wouldn't win and therefore wouldn't get any money back for it.

I agree that restricting it to community supporters is not such a good idea. However, the entry consists of one's WotC setting entry, and therefore requires no time. It's only the winner(s) who would end up having to do some work.

 

[Rune]

I must say that I'm a bit more comfortable with the idea of having the initial batch of entries selected by a panal of judges, ennies style. They wouldn't even have to be blind, at that point--I trust 'em

The final selection could be popular vote (of 10 pagers, methinks) that was, in fact, blind.

My real question is about copyrights and product-identity, however. Do the authors retain the copyrights of the entries that don't get selected? What about the ones that do? Who gets ownership of the private identity of this stuff (this is for charity, after all. Seems like it shouldn't be such a big deal for the author to keep it.)? I ask this stuff because my entry to WotC was not cooked up specially for that contest, but one I've worked on for years and hope(d) to publish someday, whether it wins selection contests or not.

 

[Morrus]

I must say that I'm a bit more comfortable with the idea of having the initial batch of entries selected by a panal of judges, ennies style. They wouldn't even have to be blind, at that point--I trust 'em

The final selection could be popular vote (of 10 pagers, methinks) that was, in fact, blind.

My real question is about copyrights and product-identity, however. Do the authors retain the copyrights of the entries that don't get selected? What about the ones that do? Who gets ownership of the private identity of this stuff (this is for charity, after all. Seems like it shouldn't be such a big deal for the author to keep it.)? I ask this stuff because my entry to WotC was not cooked up specially for that contest, but one I've worked on for years and hope(d) to publish someday, whether it wins selection contests or not.

Yikes, I've no intention of doing anyone out of their work.... IF I end up doing this, then all I'll be concerned with is making sure I'm covered legally.

The real question is about the copyright of the winner, of course. Those that don't win aren't even a factor. Perhaps the easiest way to handle it would be to designate the entire text as OGC, title included.

 

[Stevenrs]

I like this idea, but if all you ask for is the same one page blurb WOTC asked for, it seems as though you're just going to get a blizzard of re-submitted ideas (after all, it's not like it's going to take anyone any real effort to resubmit what's already written) - and WOTC got 11 000 entries. If even 10% of people send them into you, that's a LOT of material to go through.

I would suggest changing the game a little - ask for submissions to be in a new format, including a new length (maybe two pages, or 2000 words?), and a new template (rather than asking for a core ethos statement, who are the heroes, etc, ask for a sample settlement, a description of a typical tavern/restaurant, and a hierarchy for a temple - or something completely different, whatever). This will require people to put a little more effort into the contest than just resending what they've already written, and might cut down on the number of entries.