Library Lovers Design Contest

[Roland St. Jude]

Library Lover's Contest

For your creating pleasure – a new contest! This time, you will be creating a room (or perhaps a whole building!), specifically, a library. You will create both the library and its noteworthy accoutrements. All entries must be appropriate for a generic D&D setting.

The contest begins with the posting of this thread and will continue until Noon, June 23 (Eastern US Time). Please remember, as always, to follow the general contest guidelines.

The Rules:

1.) You will be creating at library, which may be as simple as a small room or part of a room or as elaborate as an entire building set aside as a library. Or perhaps it’s something more mobile. You will describe the library with appropriate description (fluff) and whatever stats (crunch) are appropriate.

2.) You will also create at least 8 items, one from each of the following categories plus others:

1. A non-magical text
2. A magical text
3. An epic text
4. An artifact text
5. An item of any magical or non-magical make (e.g. furniture, art, useful item, etc.)
6. A guardian of some kind (e.g. creature, spirit, spell, trap, etc.)


2.a) In addition to one entry in each of the above categories, you should create at least two other items suitable for your library. These items may fit any of the above categories or be an item that does not fit any of the above categories.

3.) All items created must be thematically linked. The theme is up to you, but it must be clearly stated at the start of your entry post. Stating that all items were created by or collected by the same person is not enough of a theme; they should all relate to the same type of person, place, effect, motif, etc. Please include flavor text for how the texts/items were created and for what purpose.

4.) Items 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.

5.) All items will need to list the relevant details as per standard descriptions, including magical aura, CL, feats & spells required for construction and cost as appropriate for the item.

6.) 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 [Library] in front of the title of that thread. Any thread without this tag will not be officially entered.

7.) Post on this thread to let the mods know that you have completed your Library entry. We'll try to keep a post with all the entries listed in one place for easy reference.

8.) Categories of voting and judgment will include the following:

Best Overall

• Best Library & Collection of Items
• Best Single Item (The single item you most would be interested in bringing into your campaign immediately; for this award, just choose ONE from someone's list to vote for.)
• Funniest Overall Entry
• Funniest Single Item (The single item you found most amusing; having this a separate item allows you to include a single amusing element without going for a whole funny concept.)
• Rookie Award
• Roland’s Choice Award (Staff Award).

(This was inspired by my recent reorganization of my library which turned up this scrap of paper which I keep meaning to have framed:

For him that stealeth a book from this library, let it change to a serpent in his hand and rend him. Let him be struck with palsy, and all his members blasted. Let him languish in pain, crying aloud for mercy and let there be no surcease to his agony until he sink to dissolution. Let bookworms gnaw at his entrails in token of the worm that dieth not, and when at last he goeth to his final punishment, let the flames of hell consume him forever and aye.

-Monastery of San Pedro Barcelona)

[Fax Celestis]

...are teams allowed?

[Roland St. Jude]

...are teams allowed?

Sorry, no:

6. Under normal circumstances, all entries must consist of the work of one contestant. In other words, team entries are not allowed unless specified otherwise for a particular contest.

[Fax Celestis]

Sorry, no:

Damn. Okay.

[Were-Sandwich]

Stupid lack of ideas.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

D'oh!

At first I couldn't think of a thing and then like five ideas sprang instantly to mind and now my problem is figuring out which to pick...

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Btw, for verification, what is the definition of the following?

1. A non-magical text
2. A magical text
3. An epic text
4. An artifact text

[GryffonDurime]

Wow...I really like this so I think I may take my first swing at one of these contests, but that is a good question...does a magical text just mean a wondrous item in the shape of a book of some sort?

[Fax Celestis]

Does a Legacy item count as a magical, epic, or artifact book?

[Roland St. Jude]

Btw, for verification, what is the definition of the following?

I'm not sure what requires definition here, but here goes:

"Non-magical" means not magical. Mundane or, perhaps, alchemical.
"Magical" means magical. And I suppose psionic would fall into this category (though it is also non-core.)
"Epic" means epic. That is, using the epic rules. So the text should be made using the epic rules or, at least, for an epic game.
"Artifact" means an artifact as that term is used in D&D 3.5. Roughly, an artifact is an item that is a relic of amazing power no longer (if it ever was) createable by mortal man. You know, a unique or extremely rare item of awesome power, often with drawbacks for the wrong (or sometimes for any) user. Either minor or major artifacts would be fine.
"Text" means a book, scroll, stone tablet, martial script, or other written item.

As usual, I am mostly content to let the entrants designate things as they see fit and let the judges decide what does or doesn't fit.

[Roland St. Jude]

Does a Legacy item count as a magical, epic, or artifact book?

I would say that depends on what its final, ultimate stats are. If they're epic level, I'd call it that. If they are artifact level, I'd call it that.

[Duke of URL]

Interesting... this one is going to require a lot more work, to come up with the minimum 8 related elements plus additional information about the library itself. I sat out the last competition because I wasn't interested in doing all the research into the community campaign setting, but while this may be just as much work, it's work developing my own ideas, not reading someone else's .

And... I already came up with one "theme" and a some item concepts for it... now to flesh them out and finish the set.

Thank goodness for the amount of time this'll be open for, though!

[Jack Mann]

You think you got it bad? I've got two libraries to stat out!

[MandibleBones]

This thing right here? This is going to be FUN.

[AngelSword]

Woo! New Contest! Unlike my last contest entry, this one won't be so dark. And I actually needed this statted out, so it's win/win (or I hope so).

[Cybren]

This is a contest I could get in to!
To the drafting table!

[Everyman]

This is an idea most excellent.

It's been a while since I've been able to do a lot on the forums. This is an excellent way to get involved once again!

[Kathy]

you know what? for the first time I think I'll join a contest...the theme seems so cool (I just love books!)

Great idea Roland!

[Kathy]

I've started adding my entries...Since it's my first time in a contest, I wanted to say that any constructive comments/criticism are more than welcome!

[Everyman]

When you say "create a 'guardian'", do you mean "assign a monster/trap from the Core materials" or "create a brand new kind o' monster/trap"?

[The Demented One]

Would a spellbook, containing original spells, count as a magical text?

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

when referring to the epic and artifact items. Are they specifically the item in question, or can they tell about such items.

[Roland St. Jude]

In the absence of a mutli-quote feature, allow me to answer the above three posts.

1. New.
2. Yes.
3. What it means is that the text itself is of an epic/artifact nature - not that it is a text about an epic item artifact.

[Everyman]

Thanks for the clarification, Jude.

[Autarch]

I love the idea for this contest, especially since some of my more recent sketching have been 'fantasy libraries' of sorts.

What I'm wondering is, I got the impression in one contest discussion thread that there were rewards for competition newbies. Will that be the case here? I hate to ask it, since there is no mention of this sort of reward in the first post... but it can't hurt to ask.

Oh, and a better question: I may not be able to get access to Epic rules... so I don't know what sorts of formating differences there are between an Epic item and a non-epic one. (for example, I've never tried learning about the epic spellcasting system, which I assume would have a large impact on pricing and requirements for magic items) I'm worried that my epic item will just be a weak artifact, and not an 'official' epic item. Is there an open source SRD for epic rules? Or will I not need to worry about it?

[AngelSword]

Actually, the epic rules are now a part of the SRD.

[Roland St. Jude]

I love the idea for this contest, especially since some of my more recent sketching have been 'fantasy libraries' of sorts.

What I'm wondering is, I got the impression in one contest discussion thread that there were rewards for competition newbies. Will that be the case here? I hate to ask it, since there is no mention of this sort of reward in the first post... but it can't hurt to ask.

Thank you for asking. I drafted this contest quite a while ago, before the idea of a rookie award came to me. So I'm glad you mentioned it because I, of course, meant to include it!

Oh, and a better question: I may not be able to get access to Epic rules... so I don't know what sorts of formating differences there are between an Epic item and a non-epic one. (for example, I've never tried learning about the epic spellcasting system, which I assume would have a large impact on pricing and requirements for magic items) I'm worried that my epic item will just be a weak artifact, and not an 'official' epic item. Is there an open source SRD for epic rules? Or will I not need to worry about it?

As noted above, with a link, the epic rules are in the SRD. If you have questions, you can always post a draft early (here or in the Homebrew forum) and get comments.

[Skyserpent]

Now, can the GUARDIAN, be counted as a "Funny Item"?

[Roland St. Jude]

Sure. This is here to fill space.

[Kathy]

Now, can the GUARDIAN, be counted as a "Funny Item"?

I sincerely hope so, since none of my entries is excessively serious...