HUGE Writing Contest - Millions of gold, Hundreds of Platinum, a FORTRESS, and TONS More!

Yes, congratulations, @Alex Caember! I remember when you first arrived and immediately caught my attention with your interest in books. You really have been such a positive presence in UOR. It's great to see so many entries and such imaginative titles for the books. Can't wait to see what people have written! I completely agree with Gideon and Jakob ... What a Huge undertaking with all that reading and grading!

Incredible contest, @Alex Caember . I wish I could have contributed more, but some things around here I just don't know anything about (Factions, BoDs, etc). I can't wait to see the results!

Thank you for running this, and good luck with the scoring. It looks like it's a lot of work.

Amazing

Amazing my friend! What a great turn out, and congrats to everyone who took part. Can not wait to read some of those myself, and bless your soul in the sheer undertaking of this whole project!

I have gone through all of the submissions and gave each one a base score and a large number of modifiers to the score which would result in a number even I did not know off hand and would not know until after all of the entries were finished. This is the best way to prevent me from forming biases and unfairly comparing like entries. I also did not read all entries from a single category one after another, I made sure to read different categories each time to help prevent the formation of comparisons and bias. With that said, at the end of the day it is ultimately my opinion on how the scores come out. An entry that I might have a base score of 80 out of 100 to might get a 95 or a 60 from someone else.

Looking at the results, I am a bit surprised because my system kept the results from me until I was finished so it was interesting to see who ended up where in the rankings of the various categories. There is a pretty good spread of winners. No matter where you ranked with your entries, you should feel proud of yourselves for putting something out there. In most of the cases here, these could potentially be very helpful to other players as well, so even if no material rewards are given to you, you have made this shard an even better place because of your contribution, so THANK YOU!

As one last note before the results, no entry got below the 70s as a base score. This means everything that was submitted was of good to superior quality (which is fantastic!); some of the entries - nay, many of them - were only separated by a single point. This was a very close competition for many of the categories!

Now, without further ado, here are the results:

Character History:
1st Place: Jakob/Franz Pfniffel - The Jhelom PK, a Poem (Franz & Sherelle: A Renaissance Love Story tied)
2nd Place: The Watch - Character Origin
3rd Place: Pirul - Mars Rising
***Honorable Mentions***
Cero - By the Sword
Gideon Jura - Humble Beginnings
Azoth - The Spell Fizzles: An Incoherent Interview with Abramalin
These three were neck and neck with the top three for placement, and each one marvelous in their own unique way. If I had more to give in this competition, these would have certainly been given something!


Guild History:
1st Place: Antos - Yew Endures
2nd Place: Hiji Zuru - To the Brink and Back (this one is like a meme-fueled acid trip!)
3rd Place: Jakob/Franz Pfniffel - A Draft of cA Times
***Honorable Mentions***
Kirby - The History of Kirby & Co; it was interesting to me to learn of the friendship between Kirby and Cordelia Black.


Guide to Early Money:
1st Place: Smash - Of Time Past and of Times Past
2nd Place: Jakob/Franz Pfniffel - The Fisherman's Guide to Renaissance
3rd Place: Gideon Jura - The Road Less Travelled
***Honorable Mentions***
Both El Horno's and Kirby's entries were solid and this was a very close competition in this category, both of these entries tied for fourth place, just one point under the third place ranking.


IRC/Forums:
1st Place: El Horno - IRC/Forum Guide
2nd Place: Trojan Cow - Guide to IRC and Forums
3rd Place: Gideon Jura - World Chat


Factions:
1st Place: Antos - Faction or Fiction?
2nd Place: Gideon Jura - Two, One, Drop


Champion Spawns:
1st Place: El Horno - The Harrower
2nd Place: Gideon Jura - Fail2Prep, Prep2Fail
This is another category that was incredibly close, off by one point.


Platinum Rewards:
1st Place: Trojan Cow - Platinum Rewards Explained
2nd Place: Gideon Jura - Platinum Dreamin'
3rd Place: Arnold Lutz - Platinum Reward System


Treasure/Tales of Adventure:
1st Place: Tessa - The Making of a Treasure Hunter (NOTICE - I just found out that the treasure maps listed as part of the reward have mostly already been decoded. Not all of them, but a large chunk of them. I did not know this until just recently and I am very sorry. There is around 30+ platinum leftover from other rewards unclaimed which I will put in place of the decoded maps. My apologies!!!)
2nd Place: Cero - Lair of the Giants
***Honorable Mentions***
Gideon Jura - Patience and Profit, would have definitely nabbed third if there was enough resources for a third place reward. The overall message from this book is good!


Tailoring:
1st Place: Kirby - A Dish Best Served Pink
2nd Place: Henderson - Elim Garak's Guide to Tailoring (wasn't he the Cardassian tailor on Deep Space 9?)


Blacksmithy/Mining:
1st Place: Trojan Cow - The Diary of a Battle Miner (The Long Hard Slog)
2nd Place: Eskull - First Descent
***Honorable Mentions***
El Horno - The Miner's Bible and Azoth - This Life of Mine tied for third, only one point below 2nd place.


Carpentry:
1st Place: Henderson - Elim Garak's Guide to Carpentry
2nd Place: Kirby - A Day in the Forest
***Honorable Mentions***
Sara - Carpentry Guide written by Apple was a fun read!


Tinkering:
1st Place: Gideon Jura - Boom Goes the Dynamite
2nd Place: Sara - Tinkering Guide
***Honorable Mentions***
Arnold Lutz - Upside to Tinkering


Inscription:
1st Place: Azoth - A Brief Description of Inscription
2nd Place: Henderson - Elim Garak's Guide to Training Inscription for Profit
***Honorable Mentions***
Sara - My Road to Inscription
Hiji Zuru - Advanced Inscription Guide: Combining Tinkering with Inscription
Gideon Jura - Words of Power
Again, these three were in fierce competition for who would have slid into the 3rd spot if there was a 3rd spot. All very well done, just inched by ever so slightly by the other two.


Magery/Arcane Lore:
1st Place: Antos - Lingua Magica (the knowledge of past ultimas and even their words of power is just fantastic!)
2nd Place: Azoth - An Introduction to Alchemy (another truly fantastic piece)
These two, although only 2 points apart in score, were well over 10 points higher than the others. This does not mean the others were bad in any way, just that these two were quite exceptional.


Roguish Behavior:
1st Place: Cero - A Notebook Labled: Lockpicking/Dungeon Chests
2nd Place: Jakob/Franz Pfniffel - The Bank Thief, a Poem
***Honorable Mentions***
Gideon Jura - KGB; This was a very solid entry and I enjoyed reading it a lot!
Anonymous (you know who you are) - Asymmetrical Warfare; Some truly interesting techniques detailed here - glad I am not on your bad side!


Holiday Events:
1st Place: Kirby - Love Can Be Deadly
2nd Place: Gideon Jura - Watchin' the Clock


BoDs:
1st Place: Henderson - Tailor BoDs Can Be Fun!
2nd Place: Sara - BoDs for Newbies
3rd Place: Gideon Jura - Order from Chaos


PvP/Battle:
1st Place: Gideon Jura - OoOo Ooo
2nd Place: El Horno - The New Frontiers of Modern Magic


Winners of the special writing desks, statues, and books:
1st Place: Antos of Yew (Highest Score of 137) - Valorite Set
2nd Place: Jakob / Franz Pfniffel (Highest Score of 136) - Verite Site
3rd Place: Azoth (Highest Score of 135) - Agapite Set


And for the Fortress giveaway...

Everyone with three or more entries had their name entered into a list randomizer a number of times equal to their total submissions. Here are the following number of entries for each person over three entries:

El Horno - 8
Arnold Lutz - 4
Jakob - 6
Pirul - 3
Cero - 3
Kirby - 5
Hiji Zuru - 3
Trojan Cow - 5
Henderson - 6
Sara - 4
Gideon Jura -18(!)
Azoth - 4
Antos -3
A total of 72 entries. The very top result of the randomizer would be the winner (the list was longer than what could appear on my screen):


So, a huge congratulations to Cero!



I was going to write up notes to each person about their entries, but I will do this instead - if you want any feedback from me regarding any of your entries, just let me know and I will happily give it to you!

Once again, thank you *everyone* who entered. Your writing contributions here and elsewhere are what is going to immortalize you here on UO: Renaissance. Your houses will be built and decay, your wealth and platinum will be spent, lost, or abandoned, but your names will live on for as long as the server exists.

Everyone who got a prize - PM in IRC to arrange having your rewards picked up (some of the rewards of tons of resources will require you to come get them!); those who don't contact me soon, I will try and get in touch with as well, but I would love to get these prizes handed out sooner rather than later!

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Wow, Thanks @Alex Caember, I wasn't at all optimistic about getting anything after seeing such a huge turnout. Thank you very much for the prizes and congratulations, everyone else for their successes, especially @Cero with that Fort!

Hey, @Antos, the title of your entry, 'Lingua magica' caught my eye! Congrats on the win and I'm looking forward to reading your piece in particular

Holy hell, I am speechless!

As I said before, congrats to all and huge thanks to @Alex Caember for the event! I'll be looking forward to reading these all.

Now wth am I to do with a fort!!

Thanks for the goodies, @Alex Caember and @Pegbyter! Good to see you both and I'll have fun deciding where to place the desk, bust and, most important of all ... book!

I wasn't sure about A Dish Best Served Pink. It was the first time I've ever written a comedy.

Great contest @Alex Caember I was happy to participate.

I excited I won some! I had fun writing them that was worth it all. Thank you for the contest it was something different really rewarding =) I'll get on IRC soon

Wow. @Alex Caember what an amazing contest. I am thrilled that I won as many times as I did. Thank you for holding the contest and the prompt delivery of the loot!

I love that Cero, one of those with smallest chance to pull the fortress, got it!

Delivered many of the prizes thus far! Hopefully over the next couple days I can get the rest out to everyone.

@Tessa - I accidently forgot to give you two of the bags of items from your prize!

@The Watch
@Pirul
@Antos
@Hiji Zuru
@Smash
@TrojanCow
@Arnold Lutz
@Kirby
@Eskull

Please message me in IRC when you can

@Jakob - I will message you when I get the rest of your prize (the verite desk set)

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Congrats @Cero on the fortress! Nice!

Also, that special mention made me grin Thanks @Alex Caember

@Alex Caember I looked for you in IRC when I got home from work but didn't see you. Hit me up sometime tomorrow. I work between 5pm and 11pm CST every night this week.

Congratulations to the winners!

Thank you @Alex Caember for the fun

Holy moly. Thank you, @Alex Caember! This was my first fictional written piece since middle school and boy was I surprised not only to win something, but something so huge, that is more than I've gathered on my own since I've started playing here. Congratulations to other winners, can't wait to read all the submissions!
P.S. Special thanks to all who contributed their own wealth to this amazing contest's prize fund, you are often left in the shadows, but we heartedly thank you for your donations!

Holy shit i won.. i was dead certain my book was off topic.. thank you!!!