RPGC #5 -- FEAR

[mdk]

Changes!

This run of RPGC is taken directly from the Theme Suggestion Thread. Joining our staff is the suggester, @KeyGuyPerson. We’ve made significant changes to the Bonus system this time, so make sure you pay close attention to those guidelines. We’re also returning to vote-how-you-like – you may choose to pick the scariest entry, or your favorite, or whatever other criteria you choose. You’ll also notice a lot less artwork – that was my mistake! If you feel inspired to make some FEAR-based artwork, we’ll conduct an informal survey among the staff and feature the best stuff in the voting/discussion thread later.

Prompt:

Fear is a constant companion. One day it lurks behind you, hiding in your shadow, silent and waiting. Sometimes it crystalizes around a certain figure. It is with you wherever you are – in the darkness and in the light, while you wake and while you sleep. This month, you will confront FEAR, and put it on display for everyone to see. What happens next is up to you.

Awards:

• People's Choice - The main prize goes to the winner of the popular vote. Depending on participation, runners-up may get prizes as well.
• Puzzle Solvers – This time, each ‘Bonus Category’ is a puzzle or riddle. Solve one, and your entry could win a prize.

Bonus Puzzles:

To win a bonus category this contest, you’ll have to solve one of the following riddles. Include your solution to the riddle in your submission PM. The solution will be specific -- like, "Fear of dying in a watermelon eating contest," or "Fear of electric guitars," or "Fear of MDK," etc. All solutions are specific fears, based on actual clinical diagnoses or well-known folklore. If you incorporate that solution into your story -- and you got the solution right -- you'll be awarded a trophy. Solutions will be posted at the start of the voting period. The creator of each riddle or puzzle will have the final say in whether or not you got the solution right.

Note: it probably goes without saying, but refrain from solving/hinting/discussing solutions to the riddles. That would defeat the purpose! We’ll keep an eye on the thread. If you spill the beans, your post may get moderated out just to be safe. Better to just refrain from talking about the solutions until later -- that's what Fonz would do.

What Are Bonus Puzzles?

A new twist on ‘Bonus Categories.’ Bonus Categories are optional endeavors that add another level of challenge to the contest. You may tackle as many (or as few) as you like in your entry. At the end of the contest, the judges will declare winners in each category, separately from the popular vote. Bonus Challenges are not required to be eligible for the main prize.

Why Bonus Categories? Because they're fun, challenging, and who doesn't like more prizes?

Why bonus PUZZLES? We think they’re an exciting new twist on a proven feature. If you love them, or hate them, feel free to let us know so we can serve the community better in the future.

THE RIDDLES

All Alone

from @KeyGuyPerson
Two people in the harsh snow.
Two legs for both to share.
Two hands intertwined,
Afraid to get go.

Four days, four nights.
Four legs for both to share.
Four hands,
Two intertwined.

Glory

from @RomanAria
A symbol of freedom am I,
A symbol for which people die.
I am defiance, a rallying cry,
And I mark where fallen men lie.

Seek

from @RomanAria
18 Sep 2015 01:54

Nyx

from @RomanAria
A kiss of death
On frozen breath
I shine.
Dreams of white…
Eternal night…
You’re mine.

A Children's Fear

from @mdk

Entry Rules:

• Follow all general contest rules.
• Send your entry to @RPGC Entry with the title of your entry in the subject line by Midnight, October 4th
• If you solved a puzzle, make sure to type out your solution in the submission PM. In order to be awarded a prize, you must incorporate that fear into your entry.
• You MAY win more than one puzzle prize! To be eligible, you must include the solution to the riddle, AND incorporate it into your story. If you can do that for multiple puzzles, you can win multiple awards. These are VOLUNTARY as always – no riddling is required to enter or win the public vote.
• All entries will be posted after the submission period ends on October 4th, after which everyone can read, discuss, and of course vote for a winner!
• To streamline our process, we will assume you want your name on your entry, UNLESS you specify ‘anonymous!’ Anonymous entries are absolutely welcome – make sure you mention it in your PM if you prefer to enter that way. If you don’t specify, we will credit you in the voting thread.

brought to you by

Forum mods, @Mahz, and support from @Terminal, who runs The Twelve Labors (check them out, it’s an amazing contest). The RPGC staff for this contest is made up of @RomanAria, @KeyGuyPerson, @Darcs, @Keyblade87, [@KuraiAssassin], and @mdk. Special thanks to everyone who left ideas and feedback in the theme ideas thread. If you’d like to help, you can pitch in there, or volunteer to join the staff in the ‘get involved’ thread here.

Remember:

send entries to @RPGC Entry by Midnight, October 4th

[Keyguyperson]

Well, this should be interesting. Hopefully this time I manage to finish.

[Terminal]

Hey, not actually going to participate in this one. Just felt that I should comment on the Riddles.

Back during TTL: One, as some of you may recall, rather than dispensing Challenge Accolades I had 'Secret Bonus Challenges.' I didn't tell anybody what they were ahead of time. They were loosely associated with the theme of the Challenge, but ultimately they were somewhat arbitrary.

Bonus Challenges

In case your forgot, the Challenge for the First Labour was to write an unpleasant death scene for your favorite character.

The Darwin Award: Your character commited involuntary suicide. Whoops.

Double Whammy: Without reviving your character, you somehow managed to kill them twice. Impressive.

Criticality Accident: Submitted a winning entry that was 12,144 characters or more in length, not counting spaces.

You Have Entered the Twilight Zone: Your character hung around after they died to see how events unfolded.

Art After Death: Your character's body (or parts of it) was put on display in public.

TPK: Every character mentioned in your story was dead by the end of it.

Death and Happenstance: Submitted a winning entry that was three paragraphs or shorter in length.

The Spirit of the Challenge: Death was just a slap on the wrist for your character.

Vacuum Metastability Event: You killed your character using metacontextual means. How did you even DO that?

Schrodinger's Horizon: Your character is dead. Now if only anyone knew that...

Accessory to Murder: A part of your character's body or one of their personal effects was taken by their slayer.

An's Vengeance: Your character was killed via suffocation (death by hanging counts as their neck being broken, sorry).

The problem with the Bonus Challenges, and the reason I discontinued them, was because ultimately they had absolutely nothing to do with how good a written entry was. Your chances of winning any of those was down to pure happenstance. It did not encourage anybody to write in a specific way and it did not reward anybody who tried to experiment or think outside the box except for those who happened to think of the same arbitrary stuff I did (and only three of those categories happened to be stumbled across).

In essence, the Secret Bonus Categories were no better than lottery tickets (in this awful analogy, each submission counted as buying one).

The Riddles are a bit better (except for @mdk's, which is laughable (Hi @mdk!)) since at least it's somewhat cerebral and presents a challenge for people to work out. But I would argue that they are altogether less engaging than the regular bonus categories were for basically the same reason the Secret Bonus Challenges were not engaging. Case in point: Calling it now that at least one person is going to solve a riddle without even trying to.

[PlatinumSkink]

... Hey, didn't I make an entry about someone who was hopelessly afraid of something already? ... Oh, wait, that was "Despair", alright.

Lesse. I think I know one of these, and have an idea what another might be but I'm unconvinced. I have no idea why Terminal considers mdk's laughable, it has left me staring at those numbers looking really stupid for a while. In any case. I'll see what I can do.

[Loksfjoer]

I...have no idea about the answer to any of the riddles XD But, maybe with a well rested brain in the morning.

Anyways, fear is a great subject to write about. All of my characters have at least 1 fear. I think I'll have fate decide who I will write about and use a randomizer or something.
Looking at the deadline made me realize how close my birthday is getting, haha. I'm definitely going to submit something for this one. (Unless of course the world really will end in the end of September as rumours on the internet predict :P )

[Dedonus]

The problem with the Bonus Challenges, and the reason I discontinued them, was because ultimately they had absolutely nothing to do with how good a written entry was. Your chances of winning any of those was down to pure happenstance. It did not encourage anybody to write in a specific way and it did not reward anybody who tried to experiment or think outside the box except for those who happened to think of the same arbitrary stuff I did (and only three of those categories happened to be stumbled across).

In essence, the Secret Bonus Categories were no better than lottery tickets (in this awful analogy, each submission counted as buying one).

The Riddles are a bit better (except for @mdk's, which is laughable (Hi @mdk!)) since at least it's somewhat cerebral and presents a challenge for people to work out. But I would argue that they are altogether less engaging than the regular bonus categories were for basically the same reason the Secret Bonus Challenges were not engaging. Case in point: Calling it now that at least one person is going to solve a riddle without even trying to.

@Terminal

I agree with Terminal here. I don't know if I'm warping his opinion, but the challenge bonuses this time around reward people for solving a riddle instead of the actual entry. Yes, of course you need to incorporate that "fear" into the entry, but if you break it down to the fundamental nature of this "bonus category", it really has nothing to do with how well your entry was written. Honestly, I feel that it is a deterrent to trying a bonus category this time around. While I do have guesses for "Glory", "Nyx", and "A Children's Fear" (I think it would sound better as A Fear of Children. Having an indefinite article before a plural noun sounds very dissonant to me), I honestly will not go for them because I don't want to cram them into a story so that that it feels artificial and awkward. I probably will only enter for "A Children's Fear" not because I know the answer, but only because what I think the answer is happens to match what I wanted to write in the first place.

Let me put it in a different way. For the old bonus categories, I felt that they were like a compensatory reward that you could aim for if your entry did not happen to win. I could choose one (or more) category and know that going in I had a chance to win one of these bonus categories, even if I don't win the "popular" vote. Also, I felt that the old bonus categories gave another challenge that you had to incorporate different ideas into your story. While the same does apply to the bonus category for this round, people who win the bonus challenge are actually being rewarded for surmounting an additional obstacle, namely solving a riddle. You cannot even try to compete for the bonus challenge useless you solve the riddle correctly. It is basically rewarding people for a skill that has nothing or little to do with a writing contest.

[Gwynbleidd]

Considering whipping up another horror plot line for y'all. Unfortunately haven't been able to do reviews or any of these contests with my current workload :/

[mdk]

<snipped>

@Terminal

<Snipped>

@Dedonus

Good feedback, thanks. We'll keep watching for more and tailor future contests accordingly.

[Keyguyperson]

(Unless of course the world really will end in the end of September as rumours on the internet predict :P )

@WiseDragonGirl

Speaking of the world ending...

[Ellri]

The riddles, while we could probably solve them if we put time into the effort, don't attract us. Even if their solutions should potentially fit with whatever our muse thinks we should write, we don't think they would be something we would aim for. They give us the feel of restrictions rather than bonus options.

We do like the idea of renewing, but we think they're misaligned for at least a fraction of the writer base.

[Jozarin]

So, I don't want this to be my final submission, as it is stream of consciousness, but I like it.

There is evil in my bed and I cannot move:

I cannot move and there is an ant on my chest with the voice of Ned Flanders why is it so heavy, that I cannot breath or move it must be a nuclear ant now I am in a crater and have been. blown to the edge; I do not feel very good paralyzed paralyzed paralyzed oh God, I am back in my bed, and the ant is gone, the Devil has replaced it and he is behind me I cannot move I still cannot move, why oh why. The Devil is here I know he is.

He is a panther, sitting in wait in my bedroom corner a panther made of snakes, where my curtain used to be I cannot scream, I cannot scream and I fall to sleep, where I find a man, his back to the sun he has no face he has no face he is burnt plastic and he stabbed the Virgin Mary why did he do that.

This is why I put holy water on my bed but it doesn't work I wake up and there is evil in my bed and I cannot move.

[mdk]

<snip>

@Jozarin

Just FYI -- to enter the contest, you need to PM the final version to the appropriate user (in this case, @RPGC Entry). We'll post all of the final entries together after the due date so people can read and vote.

Keep working on that though -- it's unsettling in a surprising number of ways.

[Loksfjoer]

I just send my entry in, I'm early this time \o/

I didn't bother with the riddles. To be honest I kinda forgot about that when I wrote my entry... Let's just say I was inspired and already knew exactly what I wanted to write.

[mdk]

I just send my entry in, I'm early this time \o/

I didn't bother with the riddles. To be honest I kinda forgot about that when I wrote my entry... Let's just say I was inspired and already knew exactly what I wanted to write.

@WiseDragonGirl

Hey, inspiration trumps everything. Nice! We've got two entries in so far.

For everyone's awareness -- we're gonna be mulling over some different options, based on feedback and participation on the riddle bonuses. We tried something new, and -- no sweat here -- kind of a miss. The important thing is, you told us WHY it's not as cool in practice as it was in concept -- absolutely invaluable, thanks. We're gonna think on our feet for this contest, and in the future, focus more on some of those points you all brought up. FOR THIS ONE THOUGH -- if the participation just isn't there, to get the habitual bounty of prizes, we'll come up with another way to reward good writing. If the riddles just aren't doing it for you, don't worry about them -- enter your best effort on the FEAR theme, and we'll do our best to dole out a fair number of prizes.

[Dedonus]

Unfortunately, I just have been too busy with other things to write an entry. Maybe better luck next time (or Christmas Break ).

Edit: Wait, the deadline is October 4th, not October 1st?

[mdk]

Unfortunately, I just have been too busy with other things to write an entry. Maybe better luck next time (or Christmas Break ).

Edit: Wait, the deadline is October 4th, not October 1st?

@Dedonus

THERE IS STILL TIME

[Keyguyperson]

<Snipped quote by Dedonus>

THERE IS STILL TIME

@mdk

I ONLY NEED TO STAY UP FOR THREE NIGHTS IN A ROW!

JUST LIKE ALL OF MY CHARACTERS!

[mdk]

I just put mine in with a trigger warning. I need a shower.

[Keyguyperson]

trigger warning

@mdk

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii should probably have one of those.

[Dedonus]

Sorry that I can never remember which one it is, but this is due tonight midnight or tomorrow midnight. That answer will determine whether I try to write a portion of it tonight. From my understanding of midnight, it is the first hour of the "day" (as in the 24 hour period, not when it is light out).