[STG PR/Contest] Book of Templates Deluxe Edition

[Frilf]

THE PRESS RELEASE
Greetings one and all! Silverthorne Games is proud to announce the Book of Templates Deluxe Edition!

This new enhanced edition of our best-selling Book of Templates product will feature a visual upgrade (read: pretty background graphics and borders, plus a few other eye-candy extras), as well as new templates, rules for applying templates to player characters (along with determining appropriate level adjustments/ECLs for each), additional example creatures, adventure hook ideas, examples of multi-template creatures, and more. An ultra-compact, "printer-friendly" version with no graphics will also be included in the package.

The best news is that The Book of Templates Deluxe Edition will feature the same low price as the original Book of Templates! Those who have purchased the original will receive the upgrade at no additional cost. Those who have not purchased the original Book of Templates can purchase the Deluxe Edition at no additional cost!

THE CONTEST
We're looking for creative uses of our templates to include as examples in the Deluxe Edition. If you have the product and have put some of these templates to use in your game, you can submit your altered creatures to us for possible publication in the new edition!

Entries will be judged on overall creativity, use of proper d20 mechanics, and smackdown factor (this is an intangible component that is hard to define, but we'll know it when we see it)

WINNERS
The top thirty entries (as judged by our staff) will have their submission published in the Book of Templates Deluxe Edition and receive author credit in the publication alongside their winning entry or entries, as well as on the Credits page as a contributing author. Further, the top ten entries overall will receive a free copy of our upcoming Races of Evernor (Part II) product!

Submissions must be received by November 30, 2002, in order to be considered. Contributors will not be paid and all submissions will become property of Silverthorne Games, but the contributor will receive proper author credit for the submission. There is no limit on the number of submissions per author, so enter as often as you like.

To participate: Send all entries to silverthornegames@yahoo.com and put "Book of Templates Contest" in the subject line.

Thanks and good luck!
Ian Johnston, Head Gnome
Silverthorne Games

 

[Crothian]

Does the base creature need to be out of Monster Manual?

 

[Frilf]

Yes, unfortunately. Due to the restrictions of the SRD (at least as I interpret it), templated creatures should be taken from the Monster Manual only. If the Tome of Horrors is out in time, creatures can also be taken from that source, since Clark reports it will be all OGC.

 

[Crothian]

Yes, unfortunately. Due to the restrictions of the SRD (at least as I interpret it), templated creatures should be taken from the Monster Manual only. If the Tome of Horrors is out in time, creatures can also be taken from that source, since Clark reports it will be all OGC.

Thanks, that's what I figured but I just wanted to make sure.

 

[jaults]

Yes, unfortunately. Due to the restrictions of the SRD (at least as I interpret it), templated creatures should be taken from the Monster Manual only. If the Tome of Horrors is out in time, creatures can also be taken from that source, since Clark reports it will be all OGC.

    Well, that makes no sense. Any monster released as OGC should be eligible, although I can see where, as a designer, you'd want to limit yourself to those monsters that have been completely released, including the name. Obviously, nothing from WotC other than those in the SRD are allowed (so nothing from MMII, for instance), but lots of monsters are OGC...

    Jason

 

[Frilf]

Well, the decision was made so that we wouldn't run into folks submitting critters whose content was OGC, but whose names were *not* OGC. With the creatures in the original MM and the upcoming Tome of Horrors, name-usage problems do not exist, to my knowledge.

With other sources where monster names are not OGC, it would be difficult to explain what the base creature was without the ability to print the name. Although the source material for said game stats would be duly noted in the OGL Appendix, it would require a bit of work on the consumers' end to track down what creature it referred to in that source document.

Anyway, the short and simple answer is: we did it for simplicity and easy OGC access. Hope that helps clear it up a bit

Cheers!
Ian

 

[tburdett]

Since I already bought the .pdf for the Book of Templates, how do I go about getting this updated version?

 

[jaults]

Well, the decision was made so that we wouldn't run into folks submitting critters whose content was OGC, but whose names were *not* OGC.

    So, it wasn't "due to the restrictions of the SRD?" That's fine, it is your contest; you can do whatever you want. I just wondered...

Thanks,
    Jason

 

[Frilf]

tburdett,

We have a record through RPG Now of everyone that has purchased the original Book of Templates. We will send an email out with details on how to get the new .PDF. We'll make sure you get it if you want it

Cheers!
Ian

 

[tburdett]

Thanks for the quick reply! I'll patiently wait for my email.