Contest Rules

[AncientSpirits]

Design and submit your own spirit (anima/vestige) for inclusion in the upcoming supplement, Villains of Pact Magic! See your name and creativity in print!

Here are guidelines to participate.

The contest is held April 12 through May 23, 2008.
A public vote will be held from May 24 through May 31st.
The winners will be announced June 1.

The top 20 spirits, as voted by you, will be included in the upcoming pact magic supplement, Villains of Pact Magic. If your submission(s) wins, you will be given name credit and a copy of the final book or equivalent monetary compensation via Paypal.

The top 5 submissions will be illustrated.

To get started:

1. Design your spirit. Please follow the format in Secrets of Pact Magic.

You may design a standard spirit (ex. pages 70-71, SoPM), an epic spirit (ex. pages 317-318), or a set of anima spirits (ex. pages 196 - 198). Special consideration will be given to anima of the 7 deadly sins.

Please do not reference material that is closed content! For example, Bigby, githyanki, and Sharn are all the property of Wizards of the Coast and cannot be used. However, while Bigby is not ok, Bigelby is fine.

We ask that you write a minimum of 100 words for your spirit's legend (note: anima spirits do not have legends). You may write up to 1000 words for the legend if you wish. Longer may be accepted if the entry submission fits on 2 pages when formated. The legend can be prose and does not need to be fiction.

You may include new creatures as companions or summoned monsters as part of a spirit's description.

Please do not submit a spirit (vestige, anima) that has been published elsewhere. Note: Posting to a web site such as ENWorld or Paizo.com boards does NOT count as publishing (yay!), except in the case of gleemax.com, which stipulates that whatever you post, they own.

See pages 330-331 of Secrets of Pact Magic for creation guidelines.

2. Post your submission on this forum as a new thread. Please use your [SPIRIT'S NAME] as the title of your thread.

For multiple submissions, please make each submission a separate thread.
 
3. During the submission timeframe (April 12 - May 23), you are welcome to revise your submission in light of reader feedback. Voting will be based on your final submission. When you edit your submission, color it red when possible.

4. Please feel free to browse others' submissions, ask and answer questions, and so forth as you wait for the voting day.

5. If you would like to submit non-spirit related material such as feats, spells, magic items, NPCs, and so forth, you are welcome to do so. If a sufficient number of these are submitted, they may be voted on; and if reader feedback is positive, your feat, etc might be included in the final book.

For non-spirit submissions, start a new thread to indicate feats, spells, etc. Title a spell thread "SPELL [NAME OF SPELL]", and title similarly for other game elements.

6. That's it! Post questions about the contest itself right here.

[Margoyle]

Sweet, I'm getting started! 

[Deper]

So vesti- I mean spirits posted on EnWorld or Paizo =  .  Spirits posted on Wizards/Gleemax =  .

Got it.

[Khuxan]

We ask that you write a minimum of 100 words for your spirit's legend (note: anima spirits do not have legends). You may write up to 1000 words if you wish, and longer may be accepted if the entry submission fits on 2 pages when formated. The legend can be prose and does not need to be fiction.

Hi, a few questions:

• Does "Up to 1000 words" refers to the total, not just the legend section?
• What does it mean by "does not need to be fiction"? Does that mean it could be presented as fact, for example an encyclopedia entry from some lost codex?
• Spirits don't have to be particularly malicious, even though this is Villains of Pact Magic, correct?

Cheers,

Bill.

[AncientSpirits]

Hi Khuxan,

The "Up to 1000 words" guideline refers to the legend. The total write-up needs to fit on a 2-page spread after formatting, which is challenging to estimate until it's put into InDesign. A maximum of 2000 for the entry is advised, but isn't strict. If a submission gets an illustration, the illustration can be put with the spirit write-up, or it can be in a different section of the book if necessary.

"Does not need to be fiction" means you could write a faux encyclopedia entry from a lost codex, as you describe. The idea is, you don't need dialog or a narrative structure. Ideally, the legend section entertains / informs the reader.

Even though the title is Villains of Pact Magic, a fair amount of material will be for heroes (even if the heroes are the NPCs!)

Great questions! Thank you for posting them.

Dario

[jarla]

Hello Ancient Spirits,
I'm curious what happens when my story is too long? Shortening the legend of Cornelius Button feels like really unpleasant. The Nivea Nieces legend is shorter than usual. Could they go next to each other, fitting on 4 pages total? A big request I know....
Kindly asked from jarla, a big fan of Pact Magic!!!

[Flamewarrior]

First off, I apologize for posting the animas so damn late. But, well, will it be possible to comment on spirits during the voting period, or will we have to wait until folks are chosen?

[AncientSpirits]

You can comment at any time. Glad you were able to get in some entries! :-)
Tomorrow (later today?!?!), I'll alert folks re voting.