Never fear, a hero is whups! The world is full of well timed applications of Murphy's Law, and there are no shortage of people on the receiving end of it. Maybe your character bumped his head and was filled with the majesty of Erathis. Or perhaps you've never been good with a sword, but your bumbling mishaps throw hardened veterans off their game. Then again, stuff might just go wrong around you all the time. This is the contest for accidents and mishaps of every size, style, nature, and temperment. So go ahead, bungle your way to through the competition, we won't judge you*. Welcome to Hero Artisan #5, the 4e contest where you make a character and get it voted on according to all its facets by our judges, to see who can make the best character! This time our chosen theme is Oops!, Accidents and Mishaps. The required level for this competition is 8th level. You're permitted to spend 13,500gp on your equipment; you may purchase any combination of items you wish, though you may not purchase any items above level 9. This competition will allow entry material from the PHB I & II, DMG, MM I & II, MP, and AP. As per page 143 of the DMG, you're permitted whatever standard adventuring gear you'd like without having to purchase it from your net worth. So, for example, if you want a backpack or bedroll, just write it on your character sheet and don't worry about the cost. The following section contains the specific rules of the competition, as well as the standards for how the characters will be scored, and general tips to consider when creating a submission.
Contest Rules: The following are rules for the Hero Artisan competition, and are subject to change at any time between competition periods. Do note that the Code of Conduct is in effect for all aspects of this contest, and those who break it will be disqualified, and their post will be reported. Character Creation Parameters
Character Level: 8th
Ability Score Generation: Customized Scores Method (found on pages 17-18 of the PHB)
Character Wealth: 13,500 gp
Max. Value of any single item: 9th level
1) All entries must be submitted with a complete stat block of any format or length, (so long as the stat block is complete, including content like equipment, skills, powers, etc.) accompanied by a character background also of any format or length.
2) All entries must be submitted by the date and time given by the Coordinating Judge; any entries submitted late will not be judged but they are still allowed to be commented on by other users/judges, and may provide a valuable resource to other players out there. The time given for any competition is likely to be within 2-3 weeks; the exact times and dates will be stated by the Coordinating Judge during the contest's start.
3) After submitting an entry, a 30-minute grace period is allowed to edit your work, in the case of mechanical or formatting errors, typos, and the like. Editing your work after 30 minutes is considered breaking the rules and is grounds for your entry being disqualified. Hence, we urge you to revise your entry thoroughly prior to submitting it, to save hassle. Making use of the preview button in the post window will help you catch most errors before posting.
4) One entry per contestant, and that creator must be the submitter (meaning that all work has to be original, and not stolen from someone else.) Also, do not post an entry if you do not want it to be officially judged.
5) At the start of each competition, the coordinating judge will state a single theme around which to base your entry. There are no restrictions based on the character theme itself; it is merely a suggested guideline, but following it in a creative and interesting way will give merit to your entry.
6) Any material from the following sources is permitted for this contest:
- Player's Handbook
- Monster Manual
- Monster Manual 2
- Dungeon Master's Guide
- Player's Handbook 2
- Martial Power
- Arcane Power
You are allowed to build characters with non-standard races, including monster races from the MM. Any other sources -- including other DDI, free web enhancements, and third party material -- are not permitted this time around. In addition, you are welcome to use any homebrew material - anything from inventing a city or country name to reflavoring an existing power and even, should you choose, writing your own class or race. A few things to keep in mind on this point, though. First and foremost, you must be the creator of this matieral. Please do not use homebrewed material invented by others (for example, using a race that somebody else posted to the forums). Doing so will result in your entry being disqualified from the content. Second, your entire entry will be judged. So, for example, if you create a new paragon path for your rogue to follow, that path will be judged along with your character -- both the flavor and mechanics. If the judges find your paragon path to be poorly balanced, you'll receive a lower Rules Use score.
7) Judges reserve the right to disqualify entries that do not follow the above rules, as they see fit.
Scoring: Scoring Points will be awarded for how well the judges think the character is made and expanded on. Entries from each of the judges will be added up to give a final score. The highest-scoring entry will win gold, second-highest silver, third-highest bronze. The judges may also give a single entry each one bonus point for whatever reason; this bonus point is merely to make out an 'honorable mention' of the competition, and is not likely to make an impact on the results themselves. The judges are expected to be very stingy about their bonus point, meaning that it is possible for no entries to get one in a competition. Special awards will be given to the entry that performs the best in each of the four categories (detailed below), determined by a majority nomination among the judges and/or the highest average score in that category. These awards will have no effect on the total score of each entry. Additionally, the judges reserve the right to post comments on entries, and any contestant may ask to have their scoring (and/or comments) sent to them via PM. Each entry will be scored according to four categories: Thematic Creativity (10 points), Background Content (10 marks), Rules Use (10 points), and Clarity (5 points), for a total of 35 points.
-Thematic Creativity is a measure of how well the entry fits with the theme of the contest, decided by the coordinating judge at the start of the competition. It is also a measure of how creative the entry is when fitting in with the theme, meaning that taking the most obvious class for the theme may or may not be the best idea.
-Background Content measures how well-written the background of the entry is, and how creative it is. Including plot points, events that shaped your character, and so on, will earn you high points here.
-Rules Use is based on how well your character is made mechanically, as well as for how well your entry follows the rules. Is his attack bonus correct? Has she spent all her skill points? Is all the gold in the sheet accounted for? And the like. Powerful characters will earn at least some points in this category.
-Clarity is a measure of how well we can read everything. This includes correct grammar (No leet über txt), and legibility of the entry's stat block. We want to be able to find what we need to judge the entry. Small typos and minor grammar errors aren't a problem; we understand that typos happen, and that not everybody speaks English as a first language. However, please do your best to make your entry readable. For those who choose to make use of the DDI, just posting the printable statblock might not get you the full Clarity score.
Hints: This is not a competition to see who can make the most optimized character. It is a competition to find who can create the most creative and interesting character; one that you would love to see played in a gaming group. Of course, optimized characters can still be creative and interesting, but optimization is not the sole focus of the competition. Please consider your format before submitting an entry. As judges, we want to know exactly where you got that +3 in Acrobatics, or how you've laid out your ability scores. If we are helped in this endeavor, it reduces the chances of us (as well as you) making mistakes, and points may be earned for Clarity. Backgrounds are very important in this competition, worth at least 10 points. While your entry's background doesn't have to be literary genius, you are advised to cover at least the basic stuff, like parents, friends, homeland, motivation, behavior, and at least one plot point that a DM can latch onto, such as a probable antagonist for your character. In this case, covering most or all of the aspects of a character is more advisable than simply focusing on one or two aspects in great detail. Don't worry about length; it's usually not an issue for us judges. However, it's always best to cite your sources. This makes it easier for judges to locate material, which should help your clarity score. Citing sources outside the "core" three books goes a long way to helping the judges verify your information, and is likely to help your clarity score, at least a little bit.[/sblock] Our list of
Eligible Judges for Hero Artisan are Batshido, Eldritch_Lord, lordduskblade, Obsidianjaerc, Johnathan_Vagabond, Nani?, SaintKeeleon, tylara67, and Dragoncat.
The gold-medal winner of each Hero Artisan competition will be added to this list as a prize. Additionally, contestants who win multiple silver and bronze medals can also earn judge status. A contestant who earns 6 points worth of medals will also be added to the eligible judges list as a prize. (Medal point values: Gold: 6, Silver: 3, Bronze: 1.5) After each competition, we will seek volunteers for the next contest from the list until we have at least three judges. It is a voluntary thing, so if you (as a recent gold-medal winner) feel uncomfortable with judging, or just don't have the time, that's fine with us.
Our judges for this contest will be Johnathan_Vagabond, tylara67, and Dragoncat. Johnathan_Vagabond will be serving as coordinator.
In recognition that many of our contestants will be returning to the formal education center of their choice (or zoning), we're giving this contest 4 weeks up front to make sure they have time to adjust to their new schedule. Because of this, there will be no further extensions. Our next contest will return to it's regular 3 week entry period.
This contest starts when this post is posted, and is due to end at 11:59pm GMT on Thursday, September 10th, giving you a just over 4 weeks to enter your characters. If you have any concerns or suggestions to consider for the next Hero Artisan competition, don't hesitate to post your comments in This Thread. Finally, best of luck to all entries.
*We actually will judge you, because that's our job.
Some of you may be saying to yourselves, "A contest, cool! I should enter! I wonder how it's judged..." It is judged harshly. And by harshly I mean following the vague guidelines below, of course. Or at least, it's how I judge (Johnathan_Vagabond keeps muttering about random number generators, and Dragoncat said something about trained mice).
Thematic Creativity
I tend to break this down into two parts. First, worth about 6 points, is how creative you are inside the theme. Note that this is compared against both my initial ideas about the theme and the other entries. The second part, worth about 4 points, is how well your character fits the theme. The theme should either be at the center of the defining moment of your character, or speckled all over your character's past.
Background
This section is also split up into a number of sub-areas, though without a specific point breakdown. First off, is your character interesting? Did I enjoy reading their backstory? I'm willing to forgive other issues in this category for a character I really like. The other half is, if I was a DM would I want this character in my party? There are a number of things that impact this. Would your character be able to work with a group of other adventurers? Does your character have interesting plot hooks (old allies/enemies) that I can use? How adaptable are those plot hooks? "I don't know what ate my village while I was wandering through the forest, but I'm going to find it and kill it," is a lot easier to work with than an evil duke with his own elaborate backstory, though the duke is likely more interesting, so try to strike a balance. How much does your character's backstory force the DM to adjust the gameworld? If your character comes from a continent-spanning desert, then the DM has to add a desert continent to his world somewhere and explain how you got from there to wherever the campaign takes place.
Rules Use
In this category everybody starts with 7 points. I then dock a point for each couple errors I find (math mistakes, stuff from disallowed sources, taking feats/power you don't qualify for, overspending, taking Linguist but not listing what languages you speak, etc). I'll also take off up to 2 points for aspects of your character that are very un-optimized (for example, taking feats that don't benefit you at all, pumping a dump stat, wielding weapons you aren't proficient in, etc). The last 3 points are earned by impressing me with how you mechanically represent your character concept; ultimately, I want to feel like you came up with a cool concept for a character that was intended for a fantasy story, and then you decided later to make them a D&D character and had to sit down and figure out how to stat them out. In other words, your crunch should fit your fluff, but it shouldn't look like the crunch came first; Dragoncat's HA4 entry is a fantastic example of this. Note that I will also occasionally take points off for this if you make crunch decisions that don't make any sense based on your fluff (your paladin of Pelor wears abyssal armor? really?).
Clarity
This is usually based entirely on the crunch portion of your entry. If I could understand your character's story and it wasn't a giant wall of text then I've got no complaints (well, I might have complaints, but I'll keep them to myself and out of your score). While I recommend making your character in the Character Builder if that's an option (remember you can use the Campaign tab to limit sources) as it's a good way to make sure your math is right (it's how I'll check your math, in fact), I really don't want to see the Character Builder's text dump for your crunch. I want to see where you found each feat, power, ritual, and item (source book, that is; page numbers are nice but not required). I want to see how much each item/ritual costs. I'd like to see your bonuses actually listed out so I know how you calculated your AC. The more time your stat block saves me in calculating your Rules Use score, the better you'll do here.
Footnote: Again, this is how I judge entries. Other judges presumably have their own criteria and systems involving haruspicy, peyote, or whatever else works for them.
To (hopefully) save the others from looking: Core books + Marital Power + Arcane Power + Core books II (Excepting DMG II, since it isn't out yet)
We are taking the forums down on Tuesday, August 18th for approximately one week. We are pleased to announce that we’re upgrading to a new community platform. On the 18th, we will begin the process of migrating our forums to a system that includes new features such as friends lists, groups, a calendar and invitation system, blogs, and wikis. We’re sorry for the inconvenience, but excited about the new features!
Just a head's up, people. The week down will not impact judging, but if you're planning on entering, make sure you note down the level, gold, books allowed, and all that beforehand.
For future reference, could we get list of legal sources in with the level / gold requirements?
To (hopefully) save the others from looking: Core books + Marital Power + Arcane Power + Core books II (Excepting DMG II, since it isn't out yet)
You mean the sources up next to the text block? I suppose since no one has entered yet, it can be done.
Oh, bugger. Just a head's up, people. The week down will not impact judging, but if you're planning on entering, make sure you note down the level, gold, books allowed, and all that beforehand.
I guess it's a good thing we gave that extension, then.
I guess it's a good thing we gave that extension, then.
Maybe we shouldn't have made the theme about mishaps. Karma, she loves a challenge. :P
Anyone know the new forum commands? (Like the old /deck and /sblock)
'Cause formatting is going to be long and ugly otherwise.
Edit: I've since discovered that they are currently not implemented. Multiple walls of text incoming!
I've edited the main post so that it's legible again. Despite my chagrin at the staggering changes I'm looking forward to a good fun contest.
Do we have a confirmation on a new / reduced character count limit on the forums? This contest struck a chord with me. I've already got some 10,000 characters, and I don't want to run into issues with part of that being truncated.
I suppose we could go do some testing with a Lorem Ipsum generator...
I don't know the new character limit, but I believe everything that fit on the old forums fits here, so the limit is at least the same.
(side note: some long posts did appear to be truncated, but that was a bug caused by the HTML converter, and should be fixed now.)
I'm kind of worried that we haven't gotten any entries yet.
Hey, Ty! You need to check your PMs and accept your friend requests. ;) (In case you don't know how, click on the "Home" link and you'll see both on the right hand side.)
As for your concern, I so wanted to enter the contest, since this is my first chance. But the conversion has me running around with all sorts of stuff to do as a GM and a VCL. And that's compounded by my employer blocking the new site, so I have to do all of it after I get home from work, leaving little time for character creation. Heck, I still need to level up one of my play-by-post characters...
I also wanted to enter, but the only concept I devised needs to have a githyanki silver weapon, which is only in Manual of the Planes, and thus not on the allowed list, and I just don't have time to come up with a new concept.
Hey, Ty! You need to check your PMs and accept your friend requests. ;) (In case you don't know how, click on the "Home" link and you'll see both on the right hand side.)
As for your concern, I so wanted to enter the contest, since this is my first chance. But the conversion has me running around with all sorts of stuff to do as a GM and a VCL. And that's compounded by my employer blocking the new site, so I have to do all of it after I get home from work, leaving little time for character creation. Heck, I still need to level up one of my play-by-post characters...
Sorry about that. The old forum made it a bit more obvious when I had unread PMs. >_<
Yep, it did.
I still have one. But I've had stuff in real life to deal with. Starting the new semester's classes and the like.
The forum makeover certainly didn't help.
-THE COMPETITION IS CLOSED TO ENTRIES-
Alright, so... There weren't any entries this time around, but I think we can fairly well attribute that to the absolutely frigging massive board change. We're going to shelve the accidental hero idea for another day and get cracking on Hero Artisan 5a.
We do need judges, and of course anyone that judged this last one is welcome to judge the next one. Send me some PMs people! And we will get this par-tay star-ted! See you in the Hero Artisan main thread.