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Roland St. Jude
2006-12-09, 10:08 AM
The Gift Contest

"'Tis better to give than to receive." ~Person angling for a better gift.

This month's contest is to describe and design "The Gift". The theme is, as is true with most gifts, surprise! Your gift may be a physical item, a less tangible benefit, a one time boon, a whole slew of benefits, or something altogether unexpected. Perhaps the term "gift" is meant less literally, perhaps even in a sarcastic sense. :belkar:

The contest begins with the posting of this thread and will continue until midnight, January 1st (Eastern US Time, which makes it 4 a.m. GMT January 1st). Yes, this contest closes simultaneously with the New Year in the Eastern US timezone. Please remember, as always, to follow the general contest guidelines (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1396387&postcount=2).

The Rules:

1.) You will be creating a something known colloquially as "The Gift." Its formal name, given by you, should be something else to help differentiate your entry from others.
2.) Your entry must include the following:

A description of "The Gift" with both backstory and stats (as applicable).
A good entry will demonstrate the surprise theme.
Entries should be for D&D only, and not specific to any particular setting (e.g. Forgotten Realms or Eberron.) Try to avoid referencing non-core books if at all possible, but do what you have to do.
Each new entry should be started on a new thread here on the Contests board, dedicated to just that set of items and the discussion of it. Put the tag [GIFT] in front of the title of that thread. Any thread without this tag will not be officially entered.
Post on the Entry Thread to let the mods know that you have completed your [GIFT] entry. We'll try to keep a post with all the entries listed in one place for easy reference. This post in the Entry Thread is where you must post a link to your thread to be officially entered.Categories of voting and judgment will include the following:

Best Overall Gift
Best Articulation of the Theme
Funniest Entry
Rookie Award
Roland's Choice (Staff) AwardIf you are eligible for the Rookie award (this is your first entry in an official GitP Design Contest) please note that in your post to the Entry Thread. Otherwise, everyone is eligible for everything else no need to indicate anything.

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to post them to this thread. Good luck!

P.S. This contest is intentionally very wide open and allows for a broad range of designs from item to creature to template and so on. Consider it my gift to you. :smallwink:

The Vorpal Tribble
2006-12-09, 12:44 PM
So basically this can be... nigh anything? PrC, template, item, monster, spell, you name it, just as long as its a surprise gift or anti-gift?

Roland St. Jude
2006-12-09, 01:28 PM
So basically this can be... nigh anything? PrC, template, item, monster, spell, you name it, just as long as its a surprise gift or anti-gift?

Exactly. It's very short on direction, I'll admit, but hopefully it makes up for that with FREEDOM!

My thought was to try to open the doors wide and let people design whatever their hearts desire. You'll note there are not just stickied threads, but a full-on Forum Announcement across all of GitP Gaming about the contest to try to boost participation (and general interest).

Mike_Lemmer
2006-12-09, 01:40 PM
Between that and the # of categories, there should be some swift competition.

Roland St. Jude
2006-12-09, 01:55 PM
Between that and the # of categories, there should be some swift competition.

A fella can dream...

headwarpage
2006-12-09, 02:06 PM
Hmm... I've got a PrC idea I've been kicking around. Maybe I'll throw it into the ring if I can polish it up to my satisfaction.

Myatar_Panwar
2006-12-09, 02:50 PM
Hmmmm, so I think I kind of get it..... It can basically be anything? But does it have to even be related to gifts? Although I dont really know what you mean by the whole "surprise" thing.

Hmmmm.... I think I have a monster idea..

Roland St. Jude
2006-12-09, 02:56 PM
Hmmmm, so I think I kind of get it..... It can basically be anything?

Yes. A creature, a template, a spell or spell-like ability one gains, an actual item. It could be just about anything.


But does it have to even be related to gifts?

Yes. Whatever it is, it should be called, considered, or otherwise be "a gift" (or more properly "The Gift", I suppose.)


Although I dont really know what you mean by the whole "surprise" thing.

Well, exactly how you work the Surprise theme in is up to you. Sometime that pretty easy; other times that's the hard part.

Good luck with the monster idea!

Were-Sandwich
2006-12-10, 06:42 AM
Just to clarify: we can have more then one entry, right?

Roland St. Jude
2006-12-10, 09:44 AM
So it would appear... (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/announcement.php?f=16&a=19)

5. You may have multiple entries for a contest that will compete separately (which means they compete against each other as well as all other entries), unless otherwise specified in the Announcement thread.

Were-Sandwich
2006-12-10, 10:46 AM
Good. And can we post them in Homebrew first?

Roland St. Jude
2006-12-11, 12:07 PM
Good. And can we post them in Homebrew first?

You are correct.

Madmal
2006-12-11, 01:16 PM
Well, its my first time on this contest, so i'll try to do my best (prays to have time to complete) i was thiking of some kind of trap...their are the best definition of suprise here...but i'd see where my warped mind leads me to....

Bearofbadnews
2006-12-27, 05:00 AM
Hey, I was wondering if anyone here had the time to look over my entry and at least make a suggestion about LA and CR.

Here's the link. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30203) (Or you can click on my signature link.)

I kind of hate to solicit comments this directly, but I haven't gotten any comments yet, and I am running out of time before the contest is over.

Roland St. Jude
2007-01-01, 02:03 AM
Contest Closed! Voting Thread will be up sometime in the next 24 hours.

The Glyphstone
2007-01-02, 06:14 PM
I'm kicking myself repeatedly...building such a great entry, posting it in the kick of time...and forgetting to make a link in the Entry thread.:smallconfused: :smallmad:

ehunter
2007-01-03, 01:39 AM
New entry --

Peregrine
2007-01-07, 10:52 AM
Man that was tough to vote for. I'm pleased to say I read through all but the latest entries before the contest closed, and commented on several for a change. And still at the end it was tough... but the one I felt best articulated the theme also became my vote for best overall, and it was tied for funniest with another (which happened to be a rookie entry, so that took out that category for me)...

So yeah. My votes actually only went two ways in the end. But looking back at my list of 'consider for this category' notes, there was a lot of competition. I think all entrants should be congratulated. :smallsmile:

The Vorpal Tribble
2007-01-07, 11:31 PM
Thirty minutes, folks...

Roland St. Jude
2007-01-08, 12:05 AM
Aaaaaannnnd.....it's closed. Winners list should be up some time today.