[Dragonstar] Dragonstar Adventure Writing Contest!

[d20Dwarf]

Dragonstar Adventure Writing Contest!

Fantasy Flight Games is now officially starting the Dragonstar Adventure Writing contest - open to everyone to submit your kick-ass Dragonstar adventures. Participants have from now until May 15 to submit their adventures, when the Dragonstar development team will review the adventures and choose a winner. The winning adventure will be formatted and made available for download on the Fantasy Flight Games site, and the author will receive an autographed copy of the Starfarer's Handbook, Guide to the Galaxy, and Imperial Supply! So start writing 'em out now and email the adventures to wil@fantasyflightgames.com

Submission Info: All submissions become the property of Fantasy Flight Games. Adventures must be 5k-10k words, and presented in either .rtf or .doc format. (When using Word, do not use any styles!) Use Dungeon magazine guidelines for all stylistic and punctuation issues (including what to capitalize, italicize, and bold). You may use any Dragonstar source material available. You may only use Open Content from the d20 System Reference Document or other companies, close your books! Use Dungeon magazine format for encounters, including monster shorthand for standard monsters. All new NPCs, monsters, and tech must be statted out at the end of the module in an appendix. Please include maps where necessary.

To see the FFG statblock for use with monsters and NPCs, go to the Dragonstar page on our Website, found at http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/dragonstar.html

Useful Links
Fantasy Flight Games Website: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com
d20 System Reference Document: http://www.opengamingfoundation.org/srd.html
Dungeon Magazine Adventure Guidelines: http://www.wizards.com/dungeon
Send your adventures to: wil@fantasyflightgames.com
Send questions to: wil@fantasyflightgames.com


Have fun!

Join the Dragonstar Yahoo Group at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DSD20

 

[d20Dwarf]

Correction

I edited the last post to include the phrase:

"All submissions become the property of Fantasy Flight Games."

 

[FlyingMonkey]

Re: Correction

I edited the last post to include the phrase:

"All submissions become the property of Fantasy Flight Games."

I've haven't participated in one of these contests and maybe it's me and my lack of exposure to legal matters but I don't get it... Why do submissions have to become the property of FFG?

Is this because the adventure is set in the Dragonstar universe therefore the submission becomes a derivative work? And is this kind of clause typical in these types of contests?

I do intend to join this contest but I don't want to surrender elements of my homebrew campaign to FFG. I intend to publish stuff from my homebrew DS campaign on a fansite. Are DS adventures written by fanboys such as myself that are published on the web belong to FFG?

And here's another can of worms, what about stuff that I've posted on the DS mailing list? Does that too become property of FFG?

I realize that those may be separate issues. And don't get me wrong, I enjoy FFG's products a lot... I just need clarification and a little legal enlightenment.

FlyingMonkey
FFG Fanboy

Edited: Removed some grammatical gremlins.

 

[d20Dwarf]

Re: Re: Correction

I've haven't participated in one of these contests and maybe it's me and my lack of exposure to legal matters but I don't get it... Why do submissions have to become the property of FFG?

Is this because the adventure is set in the Dragonstar universe therefore the submission becomes a derivative work? And is this kind of clause typical in these types of contests?

This really is a legal catch all phrase, intended to protect FFG from future liability, both forseeable and unforseeable. For instance, should something in a future FFG product resemble something that was in a submitted adventure (possibly even spilling over to anyone licensing our property), then FFG could be the target of a lawsuit regarding that material.

In essence, we would rather be too careful than not careful enough.

I do intend to join this contest but I don't want to surrender elements of my homebrew campaign to FFG. I intend to publish stuff from my homebrew DS campaign on a fansite. Are DS adventures written by fanboys such as myself that are published on the web belong to FFG?

And here's another can of worms, what about stuff that I've posted on the DS mailing list? Does that too become property of FFG?

FFG's Web policy is quite loose. In essence, feel free to publish what fan-created material you will to the Web as long as you credit FFG with the appropriate copyrights (providing links to our site is much appreciated as well). And of course we always reserve the right to edit this policy at any time, though I don't foresee it happening. We love it when fans expand on our material, as long as they do so in a way that does not hurt FFG or infringe upon our copyrights.

So, to answer you question, no we do not claim ownership of fan creations on the Web or elsewhere. There is a difference between that and the adventure contest, however. In this contest, you are directly submitting content to us. This is different from posting it to a Website. For professional submissions, we will not even look at a manuscript or game without having the person file a submission form that protects us from liability. So, instead of doing that with this contest, we are simply adding that clause.

That said, if you or anyone wishes to post your submission to your site or to the Dragonstar mailing list or anywhere else then contact me and we will work something out.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

Roll Savoir-faire DC 15

Fair enough. I'll have to tweak the events, npcs, encounters and locations so to rip out anything that might resemble stuff from my homebrew setting/campaign.

And I'll make these elements more generic and closer to main-stream Dragonstar - which is probably what you're looking for anyhoo.

I do admit feeling a bit panicked with the addition of "property of FFG" clause. Now that I am a little more clear on where you are coming from, I feel a little more comfortable with the submission process.

In any case, I'm glad the legalese in the submission process does not signify a shift in FFG's policy towards FFG game-websites and fan-created material and it is not a turn for the worse.

FFG's fan-friendly attitude, the healthy policy towards expanding its game universes and active participation in the gaming community forums/lists are a few of the things that set that company apart from the rest of the pack.

Your clarification and savoir-faire are much appreciated, Wil. Thanks!

FlyingM0nkey