Spheres of Power Creation Contest

[Adam Meyers]

The Spheres of Power worldbuilding Semi-contest has begun!

One of the goals of Spheres of Power was to let GMs and players step out of the pre-determined molds and make something new. We have an entire chapter in SoP about this full of sample worlds, sample organizations, and sample characters built with the system.

Now that the system has been out for a while, we want to see what you've made with it! From now until June 6th we invite everyone who wants to enter to post a link to their creations to our facebook page. (https://www.facebook.com/DropDeadStudios) On June 6th we'll hold a general vote, and the one who posted the best work wins one book of their choice (Spheres of Power, Wizard's Academy, a Skybourne book, etc.). Entries should be complete worlds: descriptions, casting traditions, NPCs, incantations, spellcraftings, and anything else they want to include (see SoP chapter 7 for examples, longer is not necessarily better, and no entry over 10,000 words will be considered).

While they won't be part of the official contest, we also invite anyone who wants to to post up any awesome creation they've made to the facebook page, even if it isn't a complete world: favorite NPCs, their character's spellcrafting repertoire, casting traditions, organizations, or whatever else they want to show off. Even if it doesn't enter them into the contest, their work will still be considered for the PDF (see below).

I'm calling this a semi-contest because while it is a contest with a prize and everything, we're also planning to paying you. The winner and any runner's up judged to be of sufficient quality (although honestly page-count will be more of a deciding factor than anything else) will get the offer to have their creation written up and included in a PDF titled "Worlds of Power". We pay 2.5 cents per word for anything used, and will be considering worlds and any independent creations we want to include.

As always, we reserve the right to disqualify and delete any entry, such as if it involves plagiarism or anything that would make it too inappropriate for the Pathfinder Compatibility License. Artwork is fine and can certainly enhance an entry, but unless you own the rights to the artwork in question it cannot be considered for use in the final PDF itself.

[Crake]

If we don't happen to have a facebook account, is there another way one could enter this contest? Also, if we win and get our worlds published in Worlds of Power, will we be required to give up the ownership of that particular piece of intellectual property, or simply allow it's publishing in the PDF?

[AmberVael]

Seconding Crake's questions!

Also...

...see SoP chapter 7 for examples, longer is not necessarily better...

We pay 2.5 cents per word for anything used.
I can't help but feel there is some dissonance here. Maybe a different compensation scheme might help encourage quality over quantity? I don't think its a big deal as both pieces have their merits, its just that they seem to be at odds with one another, which is well, odd. :smalltongue:

[Adam Meyers]

I'm more than happy to simply do a one-time rights contract; the world would remain your property, and you could do whatever you wanted with it in the future. If you don't have a facebook account, I'd prefer it if you posted your work or the link to your work on the dropdeadstudios.com forums; I'm trying to keep things centralized, if for no other reason so I can direct people easily to the various entries.

As for the pay by word; we pay by edited word, so bloating the entry with unnecessary fluff won't increase the amount you'd get paid. If you're giving us 10,000 words of top-notch material we'll buy that all up in a heartbeat; we just wanted to discourage the kind of rambling increase-the-number-of-words that drags the quality of the work down.

Other than money and copies of printed books, though, there's really not many compensation schemes that we really have the power to grant. Maybe a pizza party at Gen Con?

[Vhaidara]

I actually have an item in mind that I was going to give to one of my players. If I can get my PFSRD store account sorted out and download the new version.

I've also had a few class ideas bouncing around, as well as a Summoning Sphere for people who want to summon lots of little minions instead of a few big ones.

EDIT: And that ignores the feat that I have in mind, which I am more than willing to give you guys for free. Mostly because it would probably be worth less than the cost of transferring me the money for it.

[AmberVael]

As for the pay by word; we pay by edited word, so bloating the entry with unnecessary fluff won't increase the amount you'd get paid. If you're giving us 10,000 words of top-notch material we'll buy that all up in a heartbeat; we just wanted to discourage the kind of rambling increase-the-number-of-words that drags the quality of the work down.

Other than money and copies of printed books, though, there's really not many compensation schemes that we really have the power to grant. Maybe a pizza party at Gen Con?

I think what I was imagining was more of flat rate system, perhaps tiered to account for some different levels of effort (takes more work to write a world than a feat), but not differentiating much between similar kinds of submissions due to the ideal of quantity not equating to quality.

But I think this is more philosophical nitpickery than anything practical. Payment per word is pretty standard for minor freelance writing from what I've experienced, and it keeps things easy and simple for everyone. I'm not worried about it and I don't really think you should be either.

Pizza party sounds like a fun idea though.

[Adam Meyers]

More or less I wanted to see people's creations, and I wanted to show off people's creations, and this was the best way I could think of to do it.

[AmberVael]

More or less I wanted to see people's creations, and I wanted to show off people's creations, and this was the best way I could think of to do it.

Sounds good to me! So, to move back to your far better topic-

I've been considering that an old setting of mine (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?130893-Triad-Campaign-Setting&p=7268499) could be quite readily adapted to the Spheres of Power system, and indeed is fairly well suited to it despite being made several years earlier. The Armorist class is a great fit for the necromancers, who wield echoes of the legendary treasures of the dead. The spirit binders of Kalah's temple could be reworked to revolve around the Conjuration sphere and the Summoning advanced talent. And the entire system is more suitable to my description of True Magic than anything I had available before (at the time of its creation I was considering the invoking classes, mainly warlock).

Since I've already made that setting I'm not currently submitting it for the contest, especially as I have another idea I'd like to develop (gothic victorian alchemists who delve the planar dark and plunder other worlds), but it might be worth glancing at, and I probably could do some adaptation if anyone was interested.

[Adam Meyers]

Sounds good to me! So, to move back to your far better topic-

I've been considering that an old setting of mine (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?130893-Triad-Campaign-Setting&p=7268499) could be quite readily adapted to the Spheres of Power system, and indeed is fairly well suited to it despite being made several years earlier. The Armorist class is a great fit for the necromancers, who wield echoes of the legendary treasures of the dead. The spirit binders of Kalah's temple could be reworked to revolve around the Conjuration sphere and the Summoning advanced talent. And the entire system is more suitable to my description of True Magic than anything I had available before (at the time of its creation I was considering the invoking classes, mainly warlock).

Since I've already made that setting I'm not currently submitting it for the contest, especially as I have another idea I'd like to develop (gothic victorian alchemists who delve the planar dark and plunder other worlds), but it might be worth glancing at, and I probably could do some adaptation if anyone was interested.

Dark planar alchemist pirates. Sounds good to me!

[Adam Meyers]

We've had quite a few people tell us that they have something they want to get ready for the contest, but don't have enough time. Therefore, we've decided to extend the deadline to June 13th. If you have something fun you'd like to enter, now's the time to send it in!

[Vhaidara]

Thank you. I've made some progress on the summoning sphere, but I'm running on steam for inspiration to fill out talents (I even have some advanced talents in mind, because some of them need level gating)

[Adam Meyers]

At this point, we have had 4 submissions to the contest:

James Mars's two docs: One (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tyFV_dRGW2DxNZYj8gw9jgjsp2WQzJSFxI3AiXISjFk/edit) and Two. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_z6-7_8J4iimlFByldqd2xRzqoT81xxMsFxoznE5PeQ/edit)

The World of Erda. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vt6LrZk_QxCFXRxXNddAJha1xtM66gzNxGD1RAG0WwI/edit)

The World of Irhardt. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/17Bq663PXVUgpnvqTdzMeGHUMb7VWDN_YiPgeA_RKp50/edit)

And Grimoire (http://spiltinkimaginarium.blogspot.com/2015/06/worldbuilding-semi-contest.html), which comes with a map (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10206003730989133&set=o.153541634694924&type=1).

We'll be reviewing the entires ourselves over the weekend, and starting general voting on Monday. If you have an entry and it isn't included in the above list, PLEASE get it to us before Monday!

[Adam Meyers]

Voting is now Open!

From now until Saturday, we will hold open voting on the submitted worlds. Take a look over the entries and cast your vote here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HVTMT35

The entries are:

Grimoire: http://spiltinkimaginarium.blogspot.com/2015/06/worldbuilding-semi-contest.html

Irhardt
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17Bq663PXVUgpnvqTdzMeGHUMb7VWDN_YiPgeA_RKp50/edit

Erda
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vt6LrZk_QxCFXRxXNddAJha1xtM66gzNxGD1RAG0WwI/edit

and Alsaria
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tyFV_dRGW2DxNZYj8gw9jgjsp2WQzJSFxI3AiXISjFk/edit

Thank you to everyone who submitted a world!

[Adam Meyers]

We have the contest winner, and it's Grimoire! (http://spiltinkimaginarium.blogspot.com/2015/06/worldbuilding-semi-contest.html) Congratulations to the winner and everyone who entered!