This idea came from a collaboration between me an a bottle of Jose, and I'll freely admit the Prize with be a pixilated trophy I'll poorly draw (or try and rope my friend with actual art skills to draw), but I decided to create a contest - and since it's kind of a loose one, I decided to post it in the Dragon's Den and let the mods move it if they feel it better belongs in the actual contest section.
What is the competition?
Who can give the highest quality feedback over the next two weeks.
Seems simple enough, right? Well, there are some rules.
A) The comment must be made in the Homebrew or Campaign Elements and Design section, or on the Wiki. (Yes, I know this rules out some projects, but this is the simplest way to make sure I don't get flooded with stuff that doesn't relate to Campaign Creation. However, if there is a thread that is not included in those sections that you feel should qualify, post here and I'll give it a yay or nay.)
B) The comment must be constructive: No "This idea is awesome." Provide some feedback beyond compliments (or just insults). Note that this comment cannot be made in reply to a setting of yours, but it also can be made in response to someone else's comment on a project, not just the original author of the comment.
C) You choose which feedback of yours you want to enter in the contest. I'm not giving exact length of response, but longer, more detailed posts will have a better chance of winning.
D) You can enter multiple comments. However, I'll be taking all your submitted comments into consideration when I judge this, so do keep that in mind.
E) Winners get a Gold, Silver, and Bronze trophy for their signature. All entrants that provide comments that meet criteria A and B will receive a participation award.
F) Only comments which are linked here by November 8th will be eligible for participation. Comments must be made prior to 10/26/2011 at 1AM will not be eligible. Comments made on the wiki should be copy-pasted here directly, so I don't have to figure out which one you meant.
It's entirely possible this is a horrible, horrible drunken idea, but I think a contest that encourages people to interact with the community at large should be fun. If you're intending to compete, letting me know in advance would be appreciated so I know what to expect.
Enjoy! BTW, if there are more than 10 entrants (not submissions, but unique people), the 1st place winner will receive a super secret bonus prize. (Trust me, it's worth it)
*Puts on commenting hat.*
This... is actually a pretty good idea.
Hmm, might be a good idea to post some setting material as well just to enjoy the fervor of the prize hunters :p
I'm up for it. sounds like fun.
Awesome, glad to see there's interest!
QuoteHmm, might be a good idea to post some setting material as well just to enjoy the fervor of the prize hunters :p
I'll admit that was part of the idea - give an additional motivation to review and to post new information. Sort of a win win. I'll probably run this contest once a month, just to keep the motivation up. Sort of the basic idea I had when the setting showcase was proposed, but more generally spread around and with a prize. :P
Also, updated the date to make it clearer when the contest ends.
Okay, just to help drum up some interest here, I'm considering revealing the secret prize early. However, I still want two more entrants before I do so. :P
Reminder: you must link any posts you want to be considered in this thread. :)
Good idea, would've been beast if the CBG's community was a bit bigger, but still nice.
Not taking the mic yet, mind you. But I might be convinced in the near future when I release the revamp of my Plaguelands campaign. (Having it right at first is tough sometimes... bleh)
I'll join if I can!
(Just need to get Leetz to post some new Arga stuff :P )
Quote from: Superfluous Crow
I'll join if I can!
(Just need to get Leetz to point some new Arga stuff :P )
Oh Christ, now the pressure's on.
@Magnus: A larger community is always more helpful...and believe me, I fully plan on working on some ideas to expand the community, then sending them to Nomadic and Sparkletwist to get their thoughts on it. More members is always good for any community. Also, do hope you decide to join it - the more the merrier, as you pointed out. :P
@Crow - I hope you can - I did my best to make entry as simple as possible, as long as you comment on settings and link them here, congrats, you entered. :D
@Leetz - MOAR AGRA!
we'll see what I can get ready by tomorrow.
My submissions (probably more to come):
[ic=On Xathan's Terra Macabre]Great idea!
A HUGE deal will be how you handle wars. You mention that the Great Old Ones war amongst themselves - over what? Sheer malice? Territory? Resources? Worshipers? Do their human armies fight for them or stay out of it? If the latter, do human armies go to war for other reasons (usually this requires a monarch's consent...)? If the Great Old Ones are minimally active in affairs of state, has this led to parliamentary/constitutional monarchies where a prime minister has most of the effective power? Do human armies have Lovecraftian weapons of war? Can occultists/battle-clerics cast spells?
The other big one will be religion. Are there any vestiges of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism etc, and if so, are these legal to practice, or not? It might be tricky to keep practicing some of these in the face of horrifying material gods - the common folk especially probably would rather worship Cthulhu than an abstract deity who doesn't appear to be actively interceding on their behalf. Is worship of the Great Old Ones via state religion/"cult of personality" common?
Other big questions:
- Have any Great Old Ones been killed? If so, by whom? What happened to their kingdom?
- Have the Old Ones brought any major scientific/cosmological knowledge with them?
- Do any real-world individuals exist in this world?
- Is there a human nobility? Are they all Servitors? If so, are they psychically controlled by the Great Old Ones, or can they rebel? How do they feel, in general, about their rulers?
- How has all this affected exploration? Does Europe have colonies in the New World?
- Medical technology - has it improved or is it roughly 1700s era?
- Why the mass exodus to/invasion of earth in the first place? Is there something significant here apart from humanity? Were the G.O.O. forced here?
- Labour - is it mechanized, done by Lovecraftian beasties, or done much as it was in the 1700s?
- Airships: yes or no?
...
Great answers! Glad the questions are helpful.
When I said Parliament I didn't mean like an elected body but more something akin to the historical English parliament i.e. a unicameral House of Lords (consisting of Servitors/nobles). This wouldn't be a check on the G.O.O.'s power but rather just a state apparatus for actually running the country - effectively a council of leaders with various duties (ministries or whatever). Was wondering if that kind of thing was around or if rule was a lot less centralized. Or maybe both depending on which country you're in.
Without the Protestant/Catholic religious conflicts the world will probably look very different. A slew of important questions, geopolitical and otherwise, to consider:
- Does a single Great Old One rule the Holy Roman Empire, or do multiple Old Ones rules its constituent kingdoms i.e. Germany, Austria, Belgium etc? In general, how has the HRE been affected? Is it more unified (scary), or has it Balkanized/fragmented (following real-world history a bit more closely)?
-Are Castile and Aragon separate states as they were in 1300 or have they unified to form Spain? If the latter, what precipitated the union (since in the real-world it was precipitated by a royal marriage - which wouldn't work well in this case).
- Are there institutionalized churches/religions, or is worship handled differently? If the former, who runs the church? Servitors? Mortal priests/popes? Are there pantheon religions or do people in each country only worship their own G.O.O.? Are there inquisitions, witch-hunts, etc? How much power does the priesthood have? In general, how religious is everybody? Do you pray nightly, or has the world become (ironically) more secular?
- How long do the Servitors live? A human lifespan? A couple centuries? A millennium? Forever (unless killed)? Do they worry about establishing dynasties and thus with all the usual stuff European nobles traditionally worried about i.e. marriage, heirs, inheritance, children, succession, etc? If they aren't interested in that stuff, the ENTIRE political system in Europe would look hugely different - which could be cool, but would also be challenging...
- The UK - fragmented or no?
- How about Russia/Muscovy? Is the Mongol Empire around in any form? What's up in Siberia?
- The Ottoman Empire couldn't exist since Islam isn't around. What's in its place? Historically it comes into being just around the time the Great Old Ones invade. Is it just a bunch of emirates, each ruled by a G.O.O. or a Lesser Old One, or has this territory been unified? Is the Byzantine Empire around in any form, given that its downfall was due to war with the Ottoman Empire?
- How fast was the original war of conquest? Overnight? Decades?
- CIVIL WAR. Does it happen? It can't happen over succession since that's fixed (one ruler, forever). It might happen over religion, depending on how that's handled. But would a Great Old One allow civil war to even occur? Would it stop civil war from breaking out (given that thousands of its own subjects might be destroyed)?
- Samurai: are they all Servitors? Cuz that would be awesome.
- This is historically the age of Enlightenment when people start rejecting traditional notions of morality, religious truth, etc and start turning to science and reason, to begin agitating for reform and constitutions. A proto-middle-class was emergent with the rise of capitalism, and egalitarianism/liberalism were very much on the rise. Given the autocratic rule of the Great Old Ones, how much of this is still going on? Is Europe locked in stagnation or are philosophes assembling in salons (underground or no) to discuss the day's major issues? Are intellectuals, looking to Atlantis for examples, beginning to question traditional values, or are we locked in a dark age of brutality and ignorance? Is serfdom still prevalent or is it being recognized as a barbaric institution?
- The Sanity issue. Do more people go insane due to the presence of so many sanity-corroding monstrosities? Are there institutionalized asylums packed to the gills?
EDIT: btw some people call what you're terming DaVince-punk "Clockpunk."
Also, I'm very curious whether Shakespeare existed and what he wrote instead of the various Henry/Richard plays!
Apologies for my Euro-centric questions. I'm just way more familiar with European history than everything else.
...
Alright, cool. Some questions about DaVincepunk and science/technology now:
- Are there any primitive (or less than primitive) mechanical computers, akin to the Analytic/Difference Engine, the Antikythera Mechanism, the Differential Analyser, etcetera?
- Are there advanced automatons?
- Are there Da Vinci tanks and helicopters?
- What are firearms like? Repeating pepperbox wheellocks? What's artillery like?
- Clockwork phonographs?
- What's the state of knowledge surrounding hydraulics, pneumatics, electricity, and steam-power?
- Is there a germ theory of disease, or does the miasma theory dominate?
- Do the common people understand that the Great Old Ones came from outer space?
- Do people believe in evolution? Now that the traditional religions have been thrown out, one would assume creationism has likewise been chucked, but in the real world the taxonomic record isn't complete enough in the early 1700s to really allow evolutionary theories to develop properly. Are theories of spontaneous generation in play?
- Is alchemy practiced in any form?
- Submarines?
- Trains of some kind?[/ic]
Maybe I should make a thread on Opus specifically for this...
Selfishness aside, I'm tentatively entering myself, but my schedule is crazy so I can't guarantee I'll get anything good done on time. All in all, I'll just make the effort to give great feedback where it's needed :).
Quote from: Weave
Maybe I should make a thread on Opus specifically for this...
Selfishness aside, I'm tentatively entering myself, but my schedule is crazy so I can't guarantee I'll get anything good done on time. All in all, I'll just make the effort to give great feedback where it's needed :).
Hey, that's the important thing. The entire purpose is to promote great feedback, and if a side effect is some wiki settings create threads and spur more feedback, all the better in my opinion. (I'll admit to being very bad at looking at settings on the wiki, largely because I find commenting awkward and hard to find out if the person replied without the simplicity of a thread. :P )
Also, woo hoo first entry, a couple days after posting! We've got 2 more weeks still, so keep 'em coming!
Only one entry so far. Remember, any comment you made in this time period on a thread not your own in elements and design or homebrews is eligible. I'm going to extend it another week to give time for people to submit entries.
If you feel that this entry does not meet the requirements, then please disregard
Quote from: Streampunk Knight
If you are going to use this I would limit it to only our solar system, or maybe even just the inner planets. Like you say in your post it might make the setting too large. But if you do want to go this route here is an idea. There is a G.O.O. that covers the entire surface of the moon its byproducts cause an atmosphere to form making it habitable for people to live on. The residents from a symbiotic relationship with the G.O.O.; they form their buildings from its flesh and grow food in its pores. In return the people must make sacrifices of the old, sick, and injured on a daily bases to the G.O.O. Sometimes, if the G.O.O. doesn't feel that there have been enough offerings it will take victims from their homes or right of the street. Since everything is made from the G.O.O. it just absorbs them directly into itself. Maybe its skin is somewhat translucent and you can see the person being digested.
That idea might be a little morbid.
Quote from: Xathan Of Many Worlds
It's a lovecraftian horror world where Elder Things have ruled the Earth for about 400 years - morbid is kind of the point. :P
As for that idea, I love it. If I do go that route, I'll almost certainly steal it - I just have to decide if I will. Definitely limiting it to our Solar System if I do, though I want to leave the Gas Giants as options so it'll go beyond just the Inner Planets. Good news is, I can start the setting without making a decision here yet, so I might let it simmer on the backburner for a bit before I do.
I'll offer up my "impolite review" of Cad Goleór.
http://www.thecbg.org/index.php/topic,154256.msg210687.html#msg210687
Yay! 3 entries! Keep 'em coming people, got 5 more days counting today for the deadline!
Not sure if this is an elligible entry, but here it is.
QuoteI finally took some time to carefully read some of Terra Macabre and I like it. The sole fact that it happens on Earth does incite me to continue reading. Now with the G.O.O's and Atlantis, you bring me back to my childhood when I created a setting called Atlantis : The Shattered Souls. It had something to do with Earth initially, but then the action was relocated on another world, another dimension even. The G.O.O's, which could have been called like that anyways, were Titans. Some were evil, some were good, some didn't care, blablabla. Anyways, this is very interesting to me.
I especially like how vast you've made the adventuring possibilities, allowing one to fancy himself a spy for the benefit of the Atlantean rebels or the G.O.O's (or any other ambitious faction), an explorer of the universe or underground, or an abomination hunter, to only name a few.
Even though at first read the politics seem incredibly simple, I see the potential for extreme complexity, double-crossing, temporary power shifts and the eternal power struggle between more than just two factions. It's unsuspectingly complete. One just has to use his imagination.
I must admit I don't know a thing about Da Vinci, nor clockwork, so I won't comment much on that. It –seems- to me that it's kinda unique, in its own way and I like that.
I've never been one for races other than humans... not that I am racist. In your setting I think you've done well though, not using the cheesy standard races like elves, dwarves and whatnot. Unless you just renamed them.
Another thing that catched my attention is how you make the use of in-character description of things, events, e.t.c. I've wanted to do this for Plaguelands, but I realize I'm not so good at it. I have to say you've inspired me to try more though. Kudos!
You gave it your all, went in depth with slang and language thing. That takes some serious thinking effort, especially with the naming convention you're using, Kudos again!
I'll keep it at that for now. I might have more to say later!
All entries are eligible! And I'm going to ignore what setting it was for - rather, I have a grading scale based on content, thought, helpfulness, etc that I'll use that's as unbiased as I could devise (thank God I know like 4 teachers who also are RPers who helped me design it).
About 24 hours left to enter! Get those comments in! Remember, any in the eligible forums can be used!
AH! Thought I had more time. Here is a late entry from me, hope it isn't disqualified for Microsoft product placement :p
Quote from: Me (!) on Terra Macabre FATE
I am a FATE novice as opposed to your two mentors, but I read through your thread (taking notes all the way; OneNote is the best software Microsoft has ever made) and I hope I can help out or at least provide you with some inspiration.
Going all the way back to the first post, there seems to a few minor discrepancies (to be expected for a WIP thread, of course!) namely the number of stress tracks and the skills that govern them. I remember the stress tracks as having static size, but might have changed with Dresden? Now they seem to be governed by Grit, Charisma and Determination. Yet these do not feature in your skill list later.
Tying the stress tracks to skills seems dangerous with broad skill categories; having a skill do nothing but affect the size of the stress track seems dull, but adding it to an existing skill makes it too powerful.
A have an idea for some more lovecraftian names for the stress tracks: Vigor and Psyche.
If you are still kind of interested in something akin to an addiction track, might I suggest something like a Desire track? If you group social and sanity under Psyche and add Desire you have three tracks which seems doable, and attacks to Desire might see your character pursue their goals or be tempted into bad deals and worse actions. Seems to fit the tone well enough, anyway. Would also be a good way to keep the plot moving if necessary.
A minor rules question: can I pick any number of skills as long as I observe the pyramid requirement you mentioned? And what is the lower level of the pyramid in this case, as I assume you are not forcing characters to assign the very worst rating (although you should certainly go beyond average to the bad ratings, just not all the way).
I don't really get the weapon categories; there should be something motivating a character to take a Category 1 weapon instead of a Category 3. This something might very well be the aspects tied to it, admittedly, but since all weapons have aspects it still seems a little unfair.
I realize that most warriors would rather hold a sword than a dagger in any fight, but this is a fairly cinematic setting which means that you'll probably have characters who want to use any and every insane combination of weapons available in their fight against ultimate alien evil.
I do like your example weapon aspects though, some of them are hilarious
As to the skills, many of them seem to be parallels to what one would consider an "attribute" in other gaming systems (e.g. might, dexterity etc).
I don't know whether this is a good thing, but it depends on your design goals. I feel like things that should be skills are things that are A) acquirable and/or improveable B) auxiliary to your character's nature. Things like might and dexterity reflect how your character looks, handles and acts (they are, in a way, a more ingrained part of a character) and I propose they might be better modelled with aspects. The problem aspects introduce, on the other hand, is a lack of range as it essentially limits you to being either "strong", "weak" or normal. (yes yes, these are horrible aspects; they are just for the sake of argument!)
I wonder whether FATE could handle some kind of modular/scaled aspect?
Since you said you were looking for more Lovecraftian skill names, changing Grace to Etiquette (or Gentlemanship?) might work, although Grace isn't half bad. "Technology" (as a skill name) kind of bothers me, but I am having trouble coming up with an alternative. After some thesaurus browsing I found Machinist to be an apt candidate, but I don't know whether it completely encapsulates what you want that skill to cover.
Here is another snippet for your judgment, it might not look like much, but it seemed to be exactly what the thread creator was looking for so I hope that counts for something!
Quote from: Me on Arga aesthetics and the subject of duran warships
Considering the cold climes they hail from, I think rowed and covered galleys make the most sense. No one wants to be on deck and in the masts during a blizzard. I can imagine the ships being low and sturdy and having reinforced prows to break through ice floes. I see dark wood, cured leather and brass carved with duran scripture emerging from a frosty mist while covered in rime and barnacles.
I'm thinking something akin to a combination of a roman war galley, an icebreaker boat, a viking longship and a temple.
A thought for next time, if there is one: nominations from recipients of comments. Could make the pre-game more competitive.
There will be a next time, and that's an awesome idea.
So, I swear that I've been holding off on this because I've been judging and weighing options and not because I've been completely distracted by school.
*cough*
Anyway, everyone did a great job - the reviews posted here were impressive, detailed, and exactly what a response to a thread should be. That being said, I do have to pick winners, and after careful consideration, the top 3 reviews are:
3) S. Crow's review on Agra aesthetics. While a shorter response than most, looking at the thread in context it is exactly what Leetz was looking for, and seems to be part of what sparked the ongoing partnership between Crow and Leetz on Agra, so it did it's job very well.
2) Steerpike's review of Terra Macabre. Much longer, but the basic reason for it's placement is the same: it is exactly the kind of help the thread's creator stated he need, and Steerpike took that to heart and went above and beyond with his level of detail.
and our first place winner....
1) Sparkletwist's Impolite Review of Cad Gaelor. It has all the elements of a great review, was unafraid to point out flaws in the setting, and most importantly, it was fun to read in its own right: while it is of course important for settings to be enjoyable to read, making your reviews helpful and enjoyable to read is something that makes the entire thread much better to read, contributing to the setting and the thread on different levels.
Well done everyone! I'll be getting badges out soon, and starting round two to run during winter break. :)
Congratulations sparkletwist. Congratulations to Crow and Steerpike as well. It always makes me feel good when I see the level of quality of the reviews on this site.
Congratulations Sparkletwist! I'll gladly pass on the imaginary contest-crown to you, the impolite setting reviews are great, so your victory was well-deserved!
Congrats! :P
Congratulations Sparkletwist. :)