The One Page Dungeon Contest 2012 has been chugging along quietly for a few weeks now. Time for an update!
We have a very big pool of judges this year: *ten judges*! I was surprised to see how quickly the pool filled up. I feel more comfortable with more judges because that allows some of us to drop out without putting the contest in jeopardy.
We have *seventeen sponsors* and *thirty nine prizes* assuming I did not miscount. I’d love to reach out to more small publishers – is there an “industry forum” where all the small publishers go and hang out?
We have received *thirty eight submissions*. There are still prizes to win! 😄
I find the result very impressive because last year we had 37 submissions two days before the deadline and this year we have reached the same number of submissions with more than two weeks left to go.
last year we had 37 submissions two days before the deadline
From what I have seen online, it would seem that people might decide not to submit an entry because of the following two reasons:
1. they see a blog post or two with a fabulous entry and feel like they cannot compete
2. or they feel like the license being required of them goes too far
Here’s why you should submit an entry anyway:
If your entry isn’t as awesome as another entry, please remember that judges will not just look at the visual aspects. Yes, some entries are picked for the quality of their map, or the quality of their layout, fonts, or whatever makes an entry *look* good. But there are other criteria as well!
Plus, we try to spread prizes around. We want to capture *all* the aspects of what makes good adventures. Maybe there is an awesome traditional dungeon, but is there a good pirate entry? A good zombie entry? A good tactical encounter? A good NPC? A good relationship map? There are many ways to win.
And finally, I keep returning to something I said back in 2009:
Should I aspire to write as the pros? I don’t think that would be time well spent. The One Page Dungeon Contest gives me the opportunity to compare my work with ordinary DMs from all over the world. I can learn from the successes and failures from others. That’s why I hope that the contest submissions will remain a crazy mix of things. […] I want to compare my entry with authors in my league.
If you feel your dungeon doesn’t look as polished as some of the very polished dungeons out there (they exist, I admit it) – at least you’ll make *me* happy! I like to see what other people produce when they’re not polishing it for weeks. I want this contest to be for the Do It Yourself crowd. 😄
As for the license, here’s what I wrote on the first FAQ:
*Do I retain full control over my submission?*
(This is of course not legal advice. If you need legal advice, you need to ask a lawyer.)
You remain the author and owner of your One Page Dungeon Contest submission. Nobody can claim to have written your submission, nobody can prevent you from building on it, republishing it elsewhere, using whatever license you want, for money or for free.
What you cannot do, however, is *revoke* the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license—other people are free to build on your submission, republish it elsewhere, for money or for free. They cannot change the license, and they cannot remove your name from the work, but in all other respects, they are free to continue using your submission even if you have taken it elsewhere, changed it it, built upon it, etc.
Here’s an example: You are writing a megadungeon and submit a sublevel to the contest: the crypt of the vampire El Dente. Anybody else can make a copy of El Dente’s crypt and publish it, as long as they keep your name on it and as long as they are using the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license. They might even sell it for a buck even if anybody who has it can make copies for free. At the same time, you can continue making changes to the crypt and incorporate it into your megadungeon. Maybe you added Arrian the Heretic to the crypt. Arrian wasn’t in the original submission and therefore he’s not covered by the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license. Nobody else may take Arrian and copy him. Nor can they copy, change or distribute your megadungeon unless you give them license to do it. All they have to work with is your original submission.
In the end, you’re free to do with your submission whatever you want. Others are free to do almost anything with your submission, except for removing your name (”Attribution”) or changing the license (”Share Alike”). All can build upon it, expand it into a megadungeon, and sell it for money. But only you will be able to use a different license.
I hope this illustrates that publishing something using the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license should not be a problem for most people.
Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike
And finally I started about *thirty threads* on public forums and noticed a handful more, *countless blog posts*, a handful of which I suggested to the authors but most of which were written by contestants – *thank you very much!! :D 👌 – an incredible hundred and fifty two likes* on the Facebook Page and **hundred and one +1** on the Google+ Page (and *ninety two circles*). By contrast, I don’t see any Twitter posts tagged #1pdc.
Anyway, this is where we are. A little *less than three weeks left to go*.
Good luck! 😄
#RPG #1PDC