Jack Vance Spell Naming contest

[Drifter Bob]

This is an unofficial announcement, but I have it on good authority that Pelgrane Press has decided to respond to some suggestions on an EN thread by sponsering a spell-naming contest in the very near future, and I wanted to give EN folks a heads up.

Remember Mordankeinans Faithful Hound? Tensors Floating Disk? Otiluke's Freezing Sphere? If you liked those spell names or think you have a knack for coming up with them, you may be up to the challenge: name five or more existing D20 spells in the old-school "Dying Earth" style, and invent "dismal failure" and "illustrious success" outcomes for each renamed spell, in accordance with the spell failure rules from the Primer of Practical Magic.

You do not have to own the Dying Earth, the Primer or any Pelgrane Press books, the guidelines on how to do this are simple and they will be posting all the details on their website.

First prize is a copy of the Dying Earth rpg signed by Jack Vance himself and by all the game authors (including Robin Laws)

Second prize is a copy of the (D20) Primer of Practical Magic signed by the author (me)

Third prize is simply too good to mention here, but it's my favorite by far.

Should have the link up sooner rather than later....

JR

 

[Gez]

Interesting...

 

[Piratecat]

Cool! I love Dying Earth. What a fun game.

 

[Psion]

Hmmm. Wonder how many people are going to run over to Chris Pound's Dying Earth spell name generator and pick out their favorites.

 

[Drifter Bob]

Hmmm. Wonder how many people are going to run over to Chris Pound's Dying Earth spell name generator and pick out their favorites.

We are actually encouraging people to use the name generators for the wizardly names which often accompany spell titles. If folks choose to use computer generated spell names altogether, and can choose the cleverest from the batch, I for one have no problem with it, selecting clever names to suit existing spells would still be a challenge, IMO. We can then see who does better with a given approach... it will be an interesting contest of human imagination versus software, in the vein of Kasparov vs Deep Blue.

Keep in mind however that a spell failure and spell success is also required, and I don't think there is any software available to generate that (yet!)

DB

 

[Li Shenron]

Detect Self

 

[Drifter Bob]

Gentlemen, start your engines!

The contest is a GO!

http://www.dyingearth.com/contest.htm

 

[Maelstrom]

spell naming contest

The contest is a GO!

http://www.dyingearth.com/contest.htm

The Disjunction of Necromantic Impetus (d20 - Undeath to Death)
Success: The burst radius is doubled to 80 feet
Failure: The undead are "healed" (all damage is removed)

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Well, since I won't have children, I guess I could try naming something else...

 

[Drifter Bob]

The Disjunction of Necromantic Impetus (d20 - Undeath to Death)
Success: The burst radius is doubled to 80 feet
Failure: The undead are "healed" (all damage is removed)

That is an excellent example Maelstrom, but don't forget, to qualify for an entry you have to do at least 5.

JR