JTAS Adventure Seed Contest

[FreeTrav]

(Originally posted to jtas.jtas on the SJGames news server by Alain Ducharme. Material in italics added by Jeff Zeitlin for reposting.)

Why should the gearheads at jtas.design have all the fun? Let's launch a new competition right here and see if anyone's interested.

The contest's goal is to produce a short adventure seed following specific guidelines. The contest is strictly unofficial; the only prize is the admiration of your fellow jtas denizens.

The winning entry, if the contestant permits, will be posted to Freelance Traveller, in the Getting Off the Ground subsection of the Active Measures section.

Contest rules:
1- Each contestant can submit up to three different entries.
3- Each entry should be sent separately. The subject line should read "Adventure Seed Contest #1 Entry".
4- The maximum length of an entry is 200 words. Longer entries will be rejected.
5- All entries should be compatible with the published Traveller universe. Different interpretations of said universe (such as the existence or non-existence of organized pirate groups, to name one example), however, are all fair games. Unless specified otherwise in the contest parameters, the seed can be set in any time period (Classic, Rebellion, No-rebellion Alternate, New Era, Interstellar Wars).
6- Including rule mechanics is not forbidden, but should be kept to a minimum.
7- All entries remain the property of the contestant. If a contestant agrees to let his entry be copied and distributed freely (say, on a web page) after the contest ends, he is encouraged to specify this when submitting his entry.

All entries must be sent to alain.ducharme@gmail.com before April 15 at
midnight. Do *not* use the "reply" or "reply to sender" buttons. All
received entries will then be posted anonymously to the jtas.jtas group so
that voting can take place until April 22. After voting ends, the winner and
first two runner-ups will be announced.

Entries will be reposted as they appear to all forums where this message appears

And now... the theme of this first Adventure Seed Contest...

The adventure seed must be set on Roup (Spinward Marches/Regina 2007), as described in the article "Upon a Slimy Sea" ( http://jtas.sjgames.com/login/article.cgi?280 ) and must feature, as a major NPC, a Zhodani who wishes to defect to the Imperium. The Zhodani can be of the Noble, Intendant or Prole caste.

The referenced article is only available to JTAS subscribers - but Alain is willing to consider submissions where the contestant is 'winging it'.

Good luck to all contestants!

Alain

Jeff

 

[FreeTrav]

Alain posts an update...

There is now five days left (plus or minus a couple of hours, depending on
which timezone you live) before the deadline for the first-ever Adventure
Seed Contest! All entries must be sent before or on April 15th!

Good luck to all,

Alain

 

[FreeTrav]

The Entry...

Unfortunately, only one entry was submitted for the JTAS Adventure Seed
Contest. A round of applause for the winner by default, John G. Wood!

And now, the winning entry:

----------

While visiting Roup the party are caught up in a food riot near
technician territory. As the police start rounding everyone up, a man
grabs an arm and begs for their help, claiming to be a Zhodani illegal
immigrant who has been hiding out here. He wants the party to get him
away from the police and to the Imperial embassy so that he can
defect, since hiding is no longer safe.

1. He is a prole with no useful information, and will be thrown back
to the police (who will be angry with the party for helping him).

2. He is an ex-commando esper with important information - about the
Imperium. He hopes to blackmail the authorities into accepting
his defection.

3. He is a noble with important military information about current
troop strengths.

4. As 3, but he is a war criminal who will attempt to kill the party
as soon as they get him away from the police.

5. As 3 or 4, but Tozjabr intelligence operatives are hot on his
trail and organised the riot to flush him out.

6. He is really a Roupan, a known riot organiser who can't afford to
be caught.

----------

With John's permission, this entry can be distributed freely, provided John
is credited as its author and the words remain unchanged.

<Removes contest organizer hat>

Personally, I quite like this adventure seed. If I were to run it, I would
probably choose the second option. It suggests the Zhodani defector is
playing a *very* dangerous game, and probably has ambiguous motivations.
This seed could easily launch an high-level espionnage adventure.

<Puts back contest organizer hat>

I launched the contest as a test shot, to see what level of interest it
could generate. I had hope for a better respond, of course. Nevertheless, if
people here find the basic idea interesting, and believe it could work
better with a few adjustements, then I'm ready to discuss launching contest
#2.

Cheers,

Alain

 

[stofsk]

I hate how someone starts a competition which nobody pays any attention to. I would have liked to maybe give this a try, but the first I read about it was today.

 

[Jame]

I'd have put one in, but my attempt to get a membership in return for an adventure submission failed.