Story Contest Rules {NEW}

[DarkCloud]

Welcome to the Stories Forum
Welcome to the Stories Forum, if you are here, you are probably interested in one of the following:

1. Reading some really good or maybe also some not-so good (but hopefully not ) stories.
2. Engaging in group efforts in the form of Succession Games/NESs/other multiplayer activities.
3. Participating in an international simulation with one of the many Succession Games/NESs/other multiplayer activities.
4. Writing a story to hopefully win the story contest.
5. Bringing something fun and new to the forum.
6. Writing a story for people's (including your own) enjoyment.

A few notes on the story contest.

If you write a story on these boards, you are eligible to be in the story contest. To nominate yourself, go to the nomination thread at the top of the forum, it's the one that is titled Round #: Nominations.

Read the story contest rules below for the full spiel.


Stories Contest Rules

Nominations/Semifinals
Any Finished or unfinished stories can be nominated and seconded by any reader unless the author says otherwise. However, finished stories will receive +2 votes to their number of votes received. Thus giving them an advantage over unfinished stories.

When there are enough (i.e. 8) seconded in the nominations round.

The Preliminaries will be run, with four stories making their way to the finals; but only if declared finished by the author.

If an unfinished story gets more votes than a finished one in the prelims it still cannot go to the final vote and a story lower down the vote count will supercede it taking its place.

I say only three in the final because you get a 1, 2 and 3 place and no real loser.

Winners

The winner of the semifinals will receive a discount at the Apolyton Store of ___% for his endeavors.

Stories Contest Method

1. At the beginning of the Semifinal round of each contest, a new Nominations round will be set up.
2. All nominated but unseconded or seconded but above the 8 story limit from the previous contest will transfer to the next; waiting to be seconded
a. Exceptions to rule 2: Once a story has been in two nominations rounds but never seconded, it drops out of the contest.
3. Once 8 seconded nominations are obtained, a preliminary round with unlimited voting (checkboxes) is created to last for 5 days.
4. After 7 days, the top 4 are transferred to a final poll with radio buttons which lasts 7 days.
b. In the case of ties in the preliminaries, all of the stories that are tied for the 3rd and/or 4th spots go into the finals.
5. In the case of a tie in the finals, there will be a 2-day runoff vote. If there is still a tie, the two stories share the award.
6. Once in one preliminary round, a story can never enter another contest again.
7. You can request that a story be kept out of a story contest (for example two parts of one series you don't want competing).
8. All stories in the contest must be civ-related
9. The top 3 stories from each round are put in the story contest history thread as well as http://apolyton.net/civ3/stories/. or, excepting that, they will be placed in the Apolyton Directory:
10. The winner gets a discount in the apolyton store!
11. Every 4 contests, the top two from each individual finals, including more than that if there were ties, are put in a 7-day radio button "BEst of the Best" poll. The winner is then put in the two places mentioned in rule 10.

Stories Contest History
To be written

The only tie in the Finals round happened in August 2002 between WTE-OZ WOLF's epic tale and DarkCloud's Civ III Poem; with WTE-OZ Wolf winning the competition by 4 votes in the runoff.

In early December 2002 DarkCloud took over the stories contest after it had been determined that both civman2002 and ___ had abandoned their efforts to revive the contests.

(Credits to: civman2002, metaliturtle, Chrisus Maximus, DarkCloud)

[DarkCloud]

Note: This will be revised with creedence to the results of the poll on the compormise option... as needed. Please suggest other ideas below.

Thank you

[Centauri18]

Bump

[Centauri18]

And while I'm thinking about it, I was reading the old threads, and something about a Storytellers' Union? It sounds interesting, and I was thinking maybe we could start that up again. As a new CivGroup or something?

[DarkCloud]

Very well, I PMed MarkG about it

As for the old storyteller's union- just serach for old posts by Metaliturtle...

these rules originally came from his union... then were adapted by civman... then stolen by me

[Centauri18]

Oh. I didn't know that.

[vovan]

Well, let's see if your PM succeeds more than mine, DC. Though it would have been nice if you responded to me in any way at all. Otherwise, I didn't know if you'd listened to my little request or not...

And Centauri, great minds think alike, it seems. I had thought that exact same thing just under two weeks ago, but my PM to Mark did not result in anything.

[DarkCloud]

It may succeed, I stuck it on as a rider on the Civ III stories announcement

[Metaliturtle]

I just read this, I didn't realize that you had given my union the credit for the basic rules, the union's founders were me, cbraund, civman2000 and WTE_OzWolf

[dexters]

Dark Cloud, if I could make a suggestion.

I love reading stories, and I may just write one of my own one of these days.

My particular area of interest are stories based on people's SP games. Some of the stories aren't really based on games played but on other things. Perhaps a classificaiton for winning stories (as based on a game, etc) would be helpful?

[DarkCloud]

It's an interesting idea, but I don't think that I can do it, sadly, as many people don't exactly say that they have played a SP game...

although, if you look at SKILORD's stories, you might find some based upon games- and you might want to chekc out CivFanatics.com, because almost ALL their stories are based on games at apolyon, we're more imagination-literary

[OzzyKP]

Originally posted by dexters
Dark Cloud, if I could make a suggestion.

I love reading stories, and I may just write one of my own one of these days.

My particular area of interest are stories based on people's SP games. Some of the stories aren't really based on games played but on other things. Perhaps a classificaiton for winning stories (as based on a game, etc) would be helpful?

If you are interested in stories built around real games, you should check out the world of Diplogaming.

A diplogame is a multiplayer game, that is a combination of competitive play, storytelling and roleplaying. There are currently two games running at the Civ2-Multiplaying forum, I am in History of the World 4 .

We get together once a week to play the game session for a few hours Saturday nights and then in the week until the next session we post stories about our progress. Create characters and interact with the other players through our stories. In game we try to behave as if we were real countries, and carry that attitude out to the forums between sessions. A good game can last a few months.

For example, in HOTW4 I play the English. For the first session I had my leader be Beowulf, and for the last two sessions my leader was King Arthur. As the game progresses and technology progresses so do our stories and characters. I just sent a ship over to America in the game, so I wrote a post from Leif Ericson's journal describing the feat.

I find these games very interesting, and the stories are great. You, and other story folks from this forum might be interested. You should check the game out and follow along.

[Paddy]

Originally posted by DarkCloud
Very well, I PMed MarkG about it

As for the old storyteller's union- just serach for old posts by Metaliturtle...

these rules originally came from his union... then were adapted by civman... then stolen by me

Wondering how this went for having a CivGroup for those that write the stories...?

[Nylan-Nolan]

I like the SP story idea. I am writing one myself (Though I'm not sure it's good enough for the contest).

If you want to read it, it's called The Empire of Talianna

[SKILORD]

lol

we aren't as elite as you imagine Nylan. Your story is definately good enough for the contest.

[Nylan-Nolan]

You really think so? Thanks man

[Grandpa Troll]

Ok..I love to write and have to tell ya at 45 years old (in two weeks that is) I see where now I missed out on completing my High School!

BUT..I dont want to step on people toes or violate any rules, am I allowed to write a story based upon a game i am playing...say with a few ai's?

If I am reading this correctly, basically you telling a story to a blind man..one whom can only hear.you need to describe the surroundings, events,climate senses of what your people and nation desire and experience?

I would love to do this, not to win at any contest but just to work on a past passion.... wait..a past passion that has felt that unmistakeable twitch..like a bear in a spring cave...stirring with anticipation of what delights may soon lie ahead for his palate?


Ok..let me know..I think this would be enjoyable!!

WAIT!

HOLD DA PRESSES!!

Maybe of course Chuck Ferris will be in the shadows..

He was host of :

THE GONG SHOW!!

I mean i am not an english composition major...merely a simple creative passionate person whom has a never ending imagination!

Ok..Ill wait to see if I am ok or if i missed the train..my elevator perhaps didnt make it to the correct floor..my light bulb didnt brighten all the corners of this room, ect.

Peace

Grandpa Troll

[DarkCloud]

BUT..I dont want to step on people toes or violate any rules, am I allowed to write a story based upon a game i am playing...say with a few ai's?

Yes, you can do that. Good luck

-DC

[vovan]

Hello, there, Mr. Troll.

First of all, glad you found us!

Next, if you write a story, you definitely won't be stepping on anyone's toes. In fact, I encourage you to go do that (write a story that is) - am sure you'd do great. There aren't any particular rules about what a story should be about, or how it should be written, and definitely, absolutely, no rules about who and when can write a story - anyone can write one whenever they want. We welcome all stories all the time.

I encourage you to look at the "Story Contest History" thread, which is also topped here somewhere, for a feel of how the best stories in the history of the contest have been written. You'll see a great variety of writing styles and topics there.

We don't necessarily want people to follow some preset pattern of describing every turn in their game - that can be fun at first, but gets old in a hurry if everyone is doing it. In fact, you'll see that a few of the stories lately weren't even based on any particular game, but instead were just about general Civ concepts for instance. Although, of course, we always welcome "After Action Report" kind of stories as well.

To sum it up, if you feel a surge of creativity, and inspiration, just post! The story doesn't even have to be complete at the time of the posting. You can post a chapter or two now, and then a few later, and maybe finish it up next week, or whenever you feel up to it.