Adventure Writing Competition (Version 2.0)
In a Nutshell
We are looking for D&D 3.5 or system neutral adventures written by amateurs or semi-pros.
The best adventures will be selected and published as a free PDF as part of our Open-Playtest. Later all the winning entries will be collated into a module and placed on sale for 6 months, both as a printed module and a PDF.
The winning authors will receive 100% of the profits from the sale of both the print and PDF editions.
This is not a strict competition. We want the best possible adventures so 6d6 Fireball will help and guide you. Start by sending your ideas and a rough outline of your adventure to Competition@6d6Fireball.com and we will give you our thoughts and advice on what to do next. This feedback process is unlimited and continues right up until you submit your final entry.
Joshua Kitz, who wrote are first winner, has written a great article called Five Things I Learned Writing a Competition Winning Adventure. It is well worth a read for all aspiring adventure writers.
Themes
All entries must incorporate one or more of the competition themes. New themes will be added every few months but old themes will remain valid indefinitely. A theme does not need to be central to an adventure and it could be just a small, random encounter. However the judges will favour adventures that feature the theme heavily.
Autumn 2009 – Heroes or Villains
Our character figures are collected into a pack we call Heroes or Villains because each character is on the edge. They could be destined for greatness or terrible evil. Read more about the characters here. These are just starting points for characters, in your adventure you may change or develop their stories as much as you like.
Spring 2009 – Bearded Devils
6d6 Fireball are releasing four Bearded Devil figures, including 1 boss Bearded Devil and 3 underlings. All of them armed with Glaives. Adventures should include one or more Bearded Devils and ideally four of them.
Open Playtest
To raise the quality of the finished module, a PDF of each winning entry will be free to download from the 6d6Fireball site for no more than three months after it wins. 6d6Fireball will encourage people to download, play and provide feedback on any mistakes or typos in the PDF and any thoughts on how the adventure can be improved.
6d6Fireball will offer free downloads of the finished module to everyone who contributes to the open playtest.
The Rules and Small Print
This competition is open to all non-professional and semi-pro adventure writers. Anyone who is or has been employed full time by a games company is ineligible.
Competition entries must be supplied as plain text files, be a minimum of 2000 words long and incorporate one or more of the competition themes.
All entries must be original and not previously published (physically or digitally) in any form.
All entries must comply with the D&D 3.5 Open Gaming License or be entirely system neutral.
Winning entries are selected by 6d6 Fireball. The judges decision is final.
The winning entry will be edited and type-set by 6d6 Fireball and released as a free PDF via the 6d6 Fireball website.
In addition, the winning entry will be included in ‘the module’, which will be for sale in print and PDF form.
‘The module’ will be on sale for 6 months from publication.
All profits from the sales (print & digital) of ‘the module’ will be divided pro-rata among the winners based on page count.
‘The module’ will be released when a suitable number of winning entries have been received.
Copyright and all other forms of intellectual property for the adventure remains with the author(s). By entering the competition you are granting 6d6 Fireball an exclusive licence to distribute the adventure in digital or print form as described above and to use it to promote 6d6 Fireball’s range of products and services. You grant this exclusive licence for 12 months from the date of entry or 6 months from its inclusion in ‘the module’, whichever is longer.
The profit generated by sales of ‘the module’ is the difference between the sales price of ‘the module’ (after any discounts, promotions, commission payments, 3rd transaction processing costs and similar) and the cost of producing ‘the module’. Production costs include, but are not limited to, the physical production costs (paper, printing etc), fonts & artwork costs plus specialised services such as proof-reading and type-setting. In short, everything that 6d6 Fireball has to pay money for. There will be no costs associated with the time and labour of 6d6 Fireball personnel.
Full details of costs and sales, plus the names of, and amounts paid to, the winners will be published on the blog once ‘the module’ is removed from sale at the end of 6 months.
Winners
Summer 2009
Autumn 2009
Gold Strike! by Mitch Hamilton (Announcement) PDF due around the end of October.
