The Golden Quill Award

While Doug Rhea of North Texas RPG Convention and I were exploring my idea of the Three Castles Award™ last year, I was also nursing another idea in the vein.  This one is more personal and depends less on voting. It's my personal choice.   It's not limited to RPG but includes all table-top games.   It doesn't require someone submitting a game, but if the author or publisher feels strongly about their creation, they may do so.  It's meant to recognize truly inspirational and original game design.  I will be looking about the net as I always do, searching for that needle in a haystack; or if some fan, author or publisher of said game feels I should have a look at a particular piece,  I will read reviews if any, attempt to query the author/designer, explain the award and thereafter if I feel assured that there is a likelihood of it being a high grade in my estimation, I will purchase it, read it, seek others opinions, if possible, and then make a decision.

A small overview beyond that is presented below.  My caution is this:  Don't go suggesting your most recent fan-driven experience without first considering whether you have prior insight into what would be considered good or better game design. Though I can appreciate that sort of excitement, please look before you leap to save time for everyone involved in this, yourself, myself and perhaps even the author(s).  I expect for the most part to do this on my own with some product-pointers here or there from friends, associates or colleagues.  The monetary conferment available per annum is $500.00 in private funds earmarked for escrow and generated through the sale of my publications.  One such title, a reprinting of my adventure, "ICE GRAVE" which first appeared in TROLL MAGAZINE #1, 1997, is nearly finished.  It just requires some additional art that I am waiting on.

Original Cover Art for TROLL MAGAZINE #1 Featuring the Attack of the Ice Morph, from my Adventure, Ice Grave. Illustration Copyright Melissa A. Benson

I am happy to note that Black Blade Publishing will be hosting the .pdf of this old adventure set in my WORLD OF KALIBRUHN™, but as always, quite useful as a generic adventure outside of this due to the isolation of the adventure locale. There can be multiple awards (thus reducing the conferment to each designer), for instance, if I find more than one who is deserving.  The more originality presented in a design will earn it a higher cash award to the limit of the per annum amount. True designers will know what is original or not and what is merely a formulaic approach or add-on to past designs, which in essence may make them unique when set side-by-side with their predecessors, but hardly original.  I'm looking for the platinum here, not the electrum.

If there are questions, you can either post them here or reference my profile for my email to write me directly.

Three Castles Award™ UPDATE

There is an update expanding on the Three Castles Award™ at this North Texas RPGCon LINK.

The 3CA Judges Guidelines are finished.  These are not public but are made available to judges and 3CA folks only.  The update (second paragraph) notes in general what categories each entry will be judged for.

Three Castles Award™ Guidelines Finished (UPDATED 1)

I was delayed by a very nasty bug which is going about, but I've recently finished the submission guidelines and forms for the 3C Award!

Doug Rhea and I will now go over same before making them available.

UPDATE 1:  Doug and I had email exchanges and a phone call that ironed out some minor details with the submission guidelines. They will be posted in PDF form tomorrow or the next day at NTRPGCON's site and I will link to that download with the next UPDATE.  

The THREE CASTLES Award

How It Came into Being

I will take full blame for the initial award idea.  Very soon after returning home from NTRPGCon #1 I contacted Doug Rhea and suggested this, then drew three roughs for him to look at. In between I roughed out the award process and we discussed the preliminary rules by phone and email. A furious email exchange soon ensued between us where the idea started to take firmer root.  The initial plan was a very intricately designed plaque, but as it turns out, Doug was bitten by the scope and immensity of the idea, which is to award "The VERY Best" in RPG design. He now suggested that it be a 3D sculpture.   I, of course, stood back, not wanting to suggest expenditures which were not coming out of my own coffers.  No worry there, quoth Douglas!  So, in pictures, this is how it took shape:

Step 1) I commissioned Andrew Taylor (ATOM) to give us standard views of the three castles used in D&D's play-test,1972-1973:  Blackmoor, Greyhawk and El Raja Key.  Andy produced the following concept sketches from my detailed notes, all of which were splendid and accepted.

Step 2) I introduced Lauren Hawkins to Doug after David LaForce (Diesel) who Doug had originally contacted could not go forward with the design or the sculpt due to other concerns. Lauren (Journalizer from this blog) stepped firmly in with her 3D rendering mastery to craft the final composite design based on Andy's full-blown sketches, and from many angles.  There ensued another furious email exchange between Lauren, Doug and myself wherein we nailed down many specifics about the final design.

Step 3)  Doug passed  along Lauren's excellent finished design and many perspective sketches to the sculptor at Awardsideas.com.  The sculpting process was now in full gear.

Step 4)  Finish.  About a month before the convention and after 10 months of work in various forms from my initial ideas and drawings.  Doug and I, Andy and Lauren and the sculptor are all proud of it!  It's possibly one of the most expensive awards ever rendered for our industry and certainly each of these is a piece of art that any deserving RPG designer would be proud to have on their shelf.

The 3C Award:  What it Is and What it Isn't...

This award is for true excellence in RPG design.  The criteria for winning is very demanding. There will be only one award given per year so the competition could be very tough,  However, the judges can rule that no submission equals the rules standards and thus a year could have no winner.  This is not a placebo (or best of what has been submitted) award, as I noted at the convention introduction to the award where Doug and I spoke about it.  There will be several stages which pare down the entrants, and if by the final round none have met the criteria, no award will be issued that year.  As Vice-Chairman of the 3C Award Steering Committee, the process I am drafting for the adjudicators is both stringent but refined.  The competition is not only among the entrants. More importantly, each submission will be eyed for raising the bar when compared to past designs of excellence in our industry. 

NTRPGCon co-founder and Chairman of the 3C Award Steering Committee, Doug Rhea, will receive RPG submissions for 2011 between Oct 01 and Dec 31.  News on submission and closure dates will be posted on the NTRPGCON site very soon along with full submission guidelines.

Year 2011's 3C Award judges have roughly 200 years of game design and other far-ranging industry experience between them.  Many of the judges have been nominated for, or won, awards for work in our industry.  Their work as a whole has been noted for excellence and/or for raising the bar in game design or interrelated areas.  They are:  Dennis Sustare, Paul Jaquays, Steven J. Winter, Tim Kask and Robert J. Kuntz.

Enjoy the news and be looking for more updates here and at NTRPGCON.com !

World of Urutsk at NTRPGCon 2

NTRPGCON was whopping good time, and I actually got to play this year, and not only play, but play in Timeshadow's World of Urutsk.

In fact I forgot how many times we sat down to play (3?) as the setting, her GMing, the whole was so engrossing that one soon lost track of the days and time spent.

Not many settings inspire me to play in them.  In the day, Empire of the Petal Throne did that, so did Dave Sutherland's game when he DMed, which was not often.  Of course there were old standby campaigns in LG, then, but many were dungeon-based.  You never got a chance to let loose and explore the ranges within these latter game settings which operated within a vacuum when compared to the latter two I mentioned. That of course was because one had to envision a world and make the parts fit together in such a way to allow players then to do so.  Kyrinn's Urutsk filled that need and then some and I found myself hooked and wanting to come back every day to continue journeying in the imaginative fields she'd let her players loose upon.

Gary Gygax and I had no limitations to what players could do, where they could go, how many could do it, or what time it took for them to do whatever it was they were doing. There were also no immediate IF and WHEN comparisons to others in the campaign stream.  This created free reign gaming for all participants, didn't lock them down to experiencing only one-sided group adventures and allowed for a no-holds-barred approach to not only playing but through this allowed he and I grand opportunities to constantly develop new game-world matter on the fly.  Kyrinn has the same approach--no restraints.  It was a breath of very fresh air.

When Gary Gygax began DMing participants in Greyhawk they soon grew to be a higher level than the new participants who later entered the fray.  This made adventuring with the two disparate groups near impossible for level-comparison reasons. The campaign game end of our game was already in gear then for our higher level PCs.  All we had to do was to manage the different player-participants through time-tracking, which we always fudged to get them joined up again if that need ever arose.  In other words, it was a given that many different adventures by different groups in different locals were indeed taking place and often at different times.  Kyrinn's world smack's heavily of this nuanced way of playing.  As a result, the challenge is to keep thinking and moving forward for both the player and the GM, and she not only portrayed a willingness to do this, but an imagination that could fill in and expand upon the threads of an already colorful tapestry and in doing so fulfill the imaginative expectations of her players.

The ability to expand upon these micro or macro game-planes at all times and at all levels is the mark of a great GM and a great story-teller, and she is both.  These in combination also act as a personal gauge for measuring the level of expectation that GMs exact from their creative wellsprings, and in this regard she excelled as well.  In all she ranked up there on the "Best GMs List".  Her world, her rules and her style were all mirrors of a consistency fed by a caring, concerned and dedicated designer.  Urutsk is a winner because of this.

Certainly it is true that a good GM can carry the day even with a spare tire and in the dullest of moments expected by others, still make those moments shine and the wheels turn as if they were ready-made for that very moment.  In my opinion this is a testimony to the designer and not an excuse to use for determining the opposite by those looking askance upon such matter.  Where the rubber meets the road, as they say, is where we start our journey, whether in playing or GMing.  Where dedication and imagination meet is where we find our gems of the game industry.  I was lucky to play in such a gem, and to be GMed by such a gem of a person, for three days in Texas. 

Photos courtesy of Allan Grohe and Brian Kawano (and if I missed someone, sorry, but thanks!)

NEXT UP:  The THREE CASTLES AWARD and what it is and how it came to be...

Link to Timeshadow's Play Report from the CON

Dungeon of Death: Rd 2, NTRPGCON2

I lifted this from the KingofPain on the Acaeum as he was a participant in round 2 of the adventure.  Thanks John!  Hope your brain came back to normal!  :)

As the adventure grew in the design process I dropped the idea of using the DS set for maps and drew new ones.

Alan Silcock played as well and said:  "then sat night saw me in Robs game, with the gang. this was also a tremendous adventure. we all kinda get lulled into the same kind of adventures all the time and it was a joy to play something that was quite frankly, totally out there!!! it was REALLY different from the norm and three hours of killing my brain trying to figure things out, totally fried me, but i enjoyed it immensely  despite the fact that the one monster that we encountered, i think had a death-wish on me, cos it hit me with pretty much everything in the arsenal and also the kitchen sink - personally, i would love to see more adventures like this - so a huge pat on the back for Rob, for coming out with something like this and pulling it off very well - thankyou Rob!"

Thanks to all for putting up with my deranged mind and game designs...  :)

"Saturday night in the "Dungeon of Death" with Rob Kuntz.  This was easily the most difficult game I played during the convention.  I think my brain was still bleeding this morning.  Not a hack-and-slash at all....not even a dungeon in the classic sense.  More like an interdimensional nightmare with an alien physics professor.  It was a lot of fun. " (KingofPain)

"Cimmerian, Killjoy32, LucyJoyce, and Smarmy1 in the "Dungeon of Death". "

"Rob and Smarmy1 interacting during the prologue in the asylum."

Next Up... Kyrinn Eis and her world of Urutsk (a hands down winner) that I played in all four days of the con...

North Texas RPGCon: Over and Out

I had more than a blast at NTRPGCon.  More to follow, but highlights were meeting and gaming with Kyrinn Eis (Timeshadows, the Urutskian Queen), running my Dungeon of Death twice, gaming and chatting with myriads of friends and fellow conventioneers, like Allan Grohe, Tim Kask, Chris Finch, Alan Silcock, John Lile, Brian Kawano, Jason Braun (and his counterpart in art Amanda) and a host of others, and announcing with Doug Rhea the annual "Three Castles Award" (photo included).  More as I recover and come up to ordinary speed.

Convention Updates

In March I will  be attending GaryCon 2 at the Cove in Lake Geneva.  During that time I will be DMing select people in my Castle El Raja Key.  For those who will be attending, see you there!

In June I am scheduled to appear at NTRPGCON2, courtesy of that fine group and Doug Rhea.  I will be using Ramsey's DUNGEON SET #1 as a design template for the dungeon delve I am planning then.  The usual mayhem; and I might DM other things as well as I am bringing along quite a lot of original material including my Castle El Raja Key which is now in production (that was our secret project I have not spilled the beans on as yet).

The adventure for NTRPGCON is very special in that it incorporates the NT Gamers' PCs in several ways.  It should be a hoot.

More to follow on all as these events come up on the calendar.

Cimmerian's Blog...

...Here, has a pretty straightforward and extensive account of the 2nd party's adventure into my Castle El Raja Key at NTRPGCon, and some other tidbits on the con as well.

NTRPGCon

Just to let everyone know I will be attending the North Texas RPG CON June 5-7. I will be DMing my Castle EL RAJA KEY there. For more information go to this link.