WaRP: Worldbuilding and Role Playing Game Master C

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Astaroth

[*screaming into the void intensifies*]
Original poster
STAFF MEMBER
DONATING MEMBER
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Invitation Status
  1. Not accepting invites at this time
Posting Speed
  1. Speed of Light
  2. Slow As Molasses
Online Availability
It varies a lot depending on my schedule, unfortunately.
Writing Levels
  1. Advanced
  2. Adaptable
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Primarily Prefer Male
Genres
Psychological horror
Body horror
Supernatural
Giallo
Splatterpunk
Dark fantasy
Historical
Low fantasy
Magipunk
Weird West
Noir
Thriller
Gothic horror
Southern Gothic
Gaslamp fantasy
Cyberpunk
Space saga
Clockpunk
Space Western
Space opera
Paranormal
Modern fantasy
Dieselpunk
Post-Apocalyptic
Crime drama
Medieval fantasy
warp3.png

THE CHALLENGE?

Construct a compelling, worldbuilding-rich roleplay premise.

THE PRIZE?

Win your own subforum for your roleplay.

warp1.png

The WaRP: Worldbuilding and Role Playing GM Challenge is both a competition and an exciting opportunity for the Iwaku player base, which we hope will encourage GMs to step up and create brilliant content for the site. There will be up to six winners selected by a panel of judges (myself, @Diana, @Kitti, @Jorick, and @Sir Basil) at the end of the judging period. Up to three of these winning entries may be already existing roleplays that are fleshed out enough to warrant a mass RP forum. Up to three may be completely new (or at least, not currently in session) roleplays that excite and entice the judges with their potential.

We are looking for a premise/roleplay that provides:
  • An expansive network of locations for players to interact with and explore.
  • A wide range of possibilities for character creation, whether through race, cultural background, creed, or class system.
  • A plot premise with staying power which cannot be wrapped up within a short time frame, a sandbox-style world where players can drive their own plots, and/or opportunities for multiple long-term plot arcs.
  • Compelling world lore and evidence of real thought and care in creation of the setting.
  • Something that makes us want to join.
Each RP subforum will automatically come with two built-in child forums, one for OOC and one for thread archival. The purpose of these two child forums may be changed at the GM's discretion, but no more may be added.

  • There are two categories for submissions: Existing Roleplays and New Roleplays.

    To submit a New Roleplay, post a mock-up OOC thread in the WaRP Contest forum to pitch your roleplay concept. This thread should include as much information as possible about the roleplay. Treat this like you're creating the official OOC and plot info thread.

    To submit an Existing Roleplay, fill out the following form and post it in the Existing RP Submissions thread stickied at the top of the WaRP Contest forum.

    Name of Roleplay:
    Link to OOC/Plot Info Thread:
    Link to IC Thread:
    Links to other threads (if applicable):
    Co-GMs (List all, if applicable):
    Original or Fandom-Based?:
    Is this a Redstar/Bluestar RP?:
    Current number of players:
    Why do you think your RP deserves to win?:
    All entries must:

    • Have a single, clearly defined setting. This may be on any scale, from a specific school to an entire planet or star system.
    • Be intended for long-term play. Roleplays designed to wrap up within one or two months of play will not be accepted unless they are part of a larger, directly-related setting.
    • Be thread-based. Chat roleplays will not be accepted.

    Fandom, Redstar, Bluestar, and Staff-run roleplays are allowed as submissions. However:

    1. Only one fandom roleplay may be chosen per category.
    2. Only one Redstar/Bluestar roleplay (EITHER, not both) may be chosen per category.
    3. Only one entry submitted by a Staff member can be chosen as a winner out of the entire six.

    These limitations are stacking. This means that if a Staff member submits a Redstar fandom roleplay, it would count for all three limits if chosen as a winner.

    Note: This does not mean for certain that fandom, Staff-run, or redstar/bluestar RPs will number among the winners.

    If not enough entries meet the criteria, less than six winners will be selected.

    All participants in the contest must be a member of at least 4 months and must never have had their account banned or suspended. Warning points do not disqualify you for entry.

    One entry may be submitted per user.

    Entries must be submitted under a "main" GM. If there are two or more equal-footing co-GMs sharing a roleplay, they must pick one person among them to submit. Being a co-GM doesn't count toward your entry limit but we reserve the right to reject anyone we think is trying to abuse loopholes. All co-GMs must be listed in mock-up OOCs for New Roleplays or on the submission form for Existing Roleplays.

    The submission period will last until December 17th, at which point judging will begin and take place over a two-week period. Once winners are announced on January 1st, the contest forum will be closed and all threads moved or archived to the Graveyard.
  • Is this a one-time opportunity?

    If all goes well, this will become a recurring contest and happen again at the end of 2017. In such a case, the number of winning spots open would depend on the number of winning RPs from 2016 still active. For example, if two roleplays have died but the rest are going strong, only two spots would open up for 2017's contest.

    HOWEVER, if all six are still running... a seventh spot would permanently be added. Therefore, the more RPs keep alive, the more opportunities arise for new contestants.

    More details will be released on this when and if a second run of WaRP is greenlighted.

    What happens to my threads if I win (with an Existing Roleplay)?

    Any and all existing threads will be moved to the winners' new private forums. From there it is up to GMs to restructure as they see fit.

    What am I allowed to do with my forum?

    The subforums for winners will be totally up to the GMs. The GM (and any necessary co-GMs) will get full mod powers over their own forum, and they have free reign from there. Staff will not be graveyarding threads from these forums and will only moderate if requested by the GM or if something gets reported. However, all Iwaku rules still apply. GMs may be punished if they knowingly allow or ignore rule violations.

    Will I be able to add my own moderators to my roleplay after the fact?

    Yes, absolutely. Just send in a Contact Us request or PM any of the judges asking them to give the helpers forum permissions.

    Will there be a public vote?

    No, not for this contest. Winners will be entirely up to the judging panel. However, we encourage everyone to go check out the entrants and use the discussion thread stickied at the top of the forum.

    Will submissions get reviews by the judges?

    No. The focus of the contest is promoting roleplays and rewarding GMs rather than on improving writing, so we will only be focusing on choosing winners.

    Can I edit my entry after I submit it?

    Submissions can be edited without restriction up until the 17th of December, when submissions close and judging begins.

    Can I advertise my submission?

    Ads for these RPs shouldn't be posted in the Roleplay Advertisements forum unless they are existing RPs, as this would be confusing. GMs may create Interest Checks if they wish for the New RP submissions.

    Are alternate versions of existing RPs allowed? What about reboots of past RPs?

    Yes. Submit them as "new" roleplays with a mock-up OOC.

    Why aren't Chat RPs allowed?

    GMs of chat roleplays can already create private chat rooms for their roleplays, and a roleplay that isn't thread-based has far less need for a forum.

    Do I need to save my stuff so it won't get lost when the contest ends?

    Nothing will be deleted. Any entries that don't win will simply be moved to the Graveyard.


[btn]PROCEED TO WaRP[/btn]​
 
Congrats guys.
 
Yes, congrats to all the winners! We argued a lot over picking winners, but I'm satisfied with the results.

Thanks everyone who entered, it was fun reading through all of your stuff. Don't take it as an insult if you didn't win, there were only so many slots to go around. =X
 
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Man, I always miss voting time...
 
Erhm... quick question!

Will the threads be opened again before the archiving... so that we can copy/paste our content? I have some of my content in my testing thread, but not all of it.
 
Congrats, everyone! Especially you, @Nue! I'm exited to start!
 
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Congrats to all! However. I have what I feel to be two rather pertinent questions.

First: in the original post, it was original stipulated that there would be six winners. But the announcement of the winners listed five. Who was the sixth?

Second: I have a concern with how the winners were chosen. You articulated that due to a lack of submissions, you broke your own rule and included staff projects. I don't believe this fair: if you were going to break a rule anyway, why not break a rule in favor of a non-staff member to give them the opportunity?
 
Congrats to all! However. I have what I feel to be two rather pertinent questions.

First: in the original post, it was original stipulated that there would be six winners. But the announcement of the winners listed five. Who was the sixth?

Second: I have a concern with how the winners were chosen. You articulated that due to a lack of submissions, you broke your own rule and included staff projects. I don't believe this fair: if you were going to break a rule anyway, why not break a rule in favor of a non-staff member to give them the opportunity?
First: The maximum number of winners was six, not minimum! It was actually stipulated that if there were no entries meeting the requirements for the contest that there could be no winners chosen.

Second: The contestants were judged by the pre-selected panel and despite the fact that selecting Atomyk's entry meant breaking the rule put into place to allow as many people as possible to have a chance at winning, it was decided that we would rather make people think that we are being unfair and allow this roleplay to proceed as well because we felt that the spirit of the contest was to bring an enjoyable experience to the roleplayers and that this was a selection best in keeping with that goal.
 
To add to Kitti's response to that second question, Atomyk's submission straddled the line hard between being a new roleplay and an existing one due to the nature of the Murder Series roleplays. If it had been a very clearly separate roleplay then we wouldn't have flexed the rules a bit. No other entry was in this unique and odd position of blurring the lines, else they would have perhaps received this same treatment.

It was a weird situation, but in the end we decided more fun roleplays promoted for the community to enjoy > strict adherence to the contest rules as stated.
 
This is awesome! Thank you!

Sorry I had to be the special snowflake with my entry, though.
 
@Jorick, @Kitti

Sorry to tag :-P I think my question got buried. Are the submissions gonna be opened to editing again, so we can copy/paste our content before it's graveyarded, or do I have to wait till then and make an admin request? I have some of it saved, but not all of it and I'll cry if I lose all that hard work XD
 
Awww I'm dissapointed my roleplay didn't win. Oh well, congrats to the winners!! :D

Though, could we know on what basis these roleplay won? Like a review of why this roleplay did not pass your criteria a and these ones did? :) just so we could know what to work on :D
 
Awww I'm dissapointed my roleplay didn't win. Oh well, congrats to the winners!! :D

Though, could we know on what basis these roleplay won? Like a review of why this roleplay did not pass your criteria a and these ones did? :) just so we could know what to work on :D

I was curious on this as well, though I know it was said reviews wouldn't be given. But I'm kinda confused now that we've been told those that didn't win didn't meet qualifications (for either contest rules or entertainment/enjoyability purposes?) XD I'd like to know what to fix, in that case. No big deal tho... I'm gonna run it either way - Just curiosity, I suppose.
 
I was curious on this as well, though I know it was said reviews wouldn't be given. But I'm kinda confused now that we've been told those that didn't win didn't meet qualifications (for either contest rules or entertainment/enjoyability purposes?) XD I'd like to know what to fix, in that case. No big deal tho... I'm gonna run it either way - Just curiosity, I suppose.
Yeah I agree with you :) id really like to know like that I can work on it
 
@Jorick, @Kitti

Sorry to tag :-P I think my question got buried. Are the submissions gonna be opened to editing again, so we can copy/paste our content before it's graveyarded, or do I have to wait till then and make an admin request? I have some of it saved, but not all of it and I'll cry if I lose all that hard work XD
Uhh, I don't think there was a plan to unlock the threads, but we definitely don't want to make you lose a bunch of hard work. I'll send you a PM with the raw coding for your posts. :D
Awww I'm dissapointed my roleplay didn't win. Oh well, congrats to the winners!! :D

Though, could we know on what basis these roleplay won? Like a review of why this roleplay did not pass your criteria a and these ones did? :) just so we could know what to work on :D
From the Q&A in the opening post:
WIDBnW9.png


But in broad terms, there were five criteria listed as things we were looking for: a wide variety of well developed locations, a wide range of options for character customization, a plot premise that seems like it could last for a long time, thorough worldbuilding information, and something that catches the interest of the judges as roleplayers. All the judges interpreted these criteria in different ways, because we all have different preferences and expectations, so reviews would be wildly different from each other if we were to give them. The winners were the roleplays that met those criteria the best according to the majority of the judges, and every single one of them had points that one or more of the judges criticized harshly.

So sorry, but nope, no reviews. It wouldn't really help you anyway because we had a lot of disagreement on what the good or bad points of each submitted roleplay were. :P
 
Uhh, I don't think there was a plan to unlock the threads, but we definitely don't want to make you lose a bunch of hard work. I'll send you a PM with the raw coding for your posts. :D

From the Q&A in the opening post:
WIDBnW9.png


But in broad terms, there were five criteria listed as things we were looking for: a wide variety of well developed locations, a wide range of options for character customization, a plot premise that seems like it could last for a long time, thorough worldbuilding information, and something that catches the interest of the judges as roleplayers. All the judges interpreted these criteria in different ways, because we all have different preferences and expectations, so reviews would be wildly different from each other if we were to give them. The winners were the roleplays that met those criteria the best according to the majority of the judges, and every single one of them had points that one or more of the judges criticized harshly.

So sorry, but nope, no reviews. It wouldn't really help you anyway because we had a lot of disagreement on what the good or bad points of each submitted roleplay were. :P
I actually just saw those criterias and I can have a good idea of why my roleplay didn't make it in the finals :D thanks !
 
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Uhh, I don't think there was a plan to unlock the threads, but we definitely don't want to make you lose a bunch of hard work. I'll send you a PM with the raw coding for your posts. :D
Bless you <3
 
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