 Editor in Chief Bill   | 05 Jun 2015 6:48 p.m. PST |
I am pleased to announce that monthly contests will soon be returning to TMP! The winners each month will be determined by community vote, with prizes of $100 USD for first place, $50 USD for second place, and $25 USD for third place. In the event of a tie, a second poll will be held. If there is still a tie, the editors will use a dieroll to determine the winner(s). Prizes can be claimed as: * products from War Zone Gaming Terrain Systems
* credit with Blue Table Painting (maximum $50 USD) (one time only)
* TMP membership credit
* TMP advertising credit In true wargaming fashion, it is intended to determine the contest each month by a throw of the dice. Well, several throws, actually: 1-5 – fantasy
6-14 – historical
15-20 – science fiction If historical: 1 – Ancient
2 – Medieval
3 – Renaissance
4 – 18th Century (excluding Napoleonic)
5 – 19th Century (excluding ACW and Napoleonic)
6 – Napoleonic
7 – American Civil War
8 – Early 20th Century (1900-1929)
9 – Mid 20th Century (1930-1945)
10 – Modern (1946-present) Contest type: 1,2 – scenario design contest
3,4,5 – battle report
6 – gaming fiction
7 – best painted individual miniature
8 – best painted miniature "unit"
9 – best painted army
10 – best terrain item More details to come shortly. Suggestions are welcome, here or by PM.  |
| Mako11 | 05 Jun 2015 6:56 p.m. PST |
Sounds like fun, though you might want to consider drawing cards, or chits, instead of using dice, to avoid back to back monthly duplicates, if you roll poorly. Perhaps for contest type, adding a couple of additional categories, e.g.: 11. best, home-brew rules for the selected game period; and, 12. best, scratch-built model. |
| Winston Smith | 05 Jun 2015 7:16 p.m. PST |
Will the individual members submit their own stuff, or will these be pulled from previously submitted threads? |
| Editor in Chief Bill | 05 Jun 2015 7:36 p.m. PST |
Members will submit their own entries. |
| Editor in Chief Bill | 05 Jun 2015 10:08 p.m. PST |
Have received a proposal for best photography, too. |
| Mako11 | 05 Jun 2015 11:43 p.m. PST |
Best house rules for a commercial rules set, by genre. |
| RobH | 06 Jun 2015 4:31 a.m. PST |
Can you include a provision about no photoshop after effects on painting comp entries (apart from the photgraphy one). Too many online competitions feature images with heavy use of clone tools to remove bases, lighting manipulation to add heavy shading to figures or reflections to weapon edges and smudge/blur tools to produced blended effects the painter could not. |
 Dentatus  | 06 Jun 2015 5:33 a.m. PST |
Sounds cool. Looking forward to this. And what RobH said, please. This is supposed to be fun, a hobby. Not some cut-throat corporate competition. |
| Winston Smith | 06 Jun 2015 6:09 a.m. PST |
I am incapable of shopping my photos! I just have to figure out how to take good ones first. But when the dice bring up "Best skirmish unit for von Barner's Light Infantry in 28mm" or "Best Hillbilly Highlander unit in 28mm" I'll be ready. |
| Winston Smith | 06 Jun 2015 6:09 a.m. PST |
How about Best Repair of a Broken Bayonet? |
| britishlinescarlet2 | 06 Jun 2015 8:16 a.m. PST |
11. best, home-brew rules for the selected game period; and, Home-brew…… now we're talking. |
 Nashville  | 06 Jun 2015 9:42 a.m. PST |
community vote. How will this be categorized ? |
| Editor in Chief Bill | 06 Jun 2015 11:56 a.m. PST |
community vote. How will this be categorized ? Not sure I understand the question. If the contest is, say, for best sci-fi battle report, then at the end of the contest period, the poll will be on that subject. |
| Weasel | 06 Jun 2015 12:58 p.m. PST |
Sounds fun. I assume things have to be created specifically for the contest? |
| Editor in Chief Bill | 06 Jun 2015 6:32 p.m. PST |
I assume things have to be created specifically for the contest? They need to be completed within the month of the contest. |
| Forager | 06 Jun 2015 6:53 p.m. PST |
There are a lot of talented, creative, people that haunt these halls. Looking forward to seeing everyone's contributions! |
| Slappy | 06 Jun 2015 8:27 p.m. PST |
Seems like some good fun and entertainment ….. also a little inspiration! |
| Bangorstu | 07 Jun 2015 5:50 a.m. PST |
The only possible improvement I could make to this development is to ask for a European company to be approached for provision of prizes also? Importing stuff into the EU can be expensive… |
| Martin From Canada | 07 Jun 2015 6:28 a.m. PST |
If historical:1 – Ancient
2 – Medieval
3 – Renaissance
4 – 18th Century (excluding Napoleonic)
5 – 19th Century (excluding ACW and Napoleonic)
6 – Napoleonic
7 – American Civil War
8 – Early 20th Century (1900-1929)
9 – Mid 20th Century (1090-1945)
10 – Modern (1946-present) Since when does Mid 20th Century cover the First Crusade??? ;-) |
| Yesthatphil | 08 Jun 2015 4:06 a.m. PST |
So historical is only 1/3 of the field? Really?  … and if historical comes up … the whole of say 'ancients' is just 1/10? … and any particular feature 1/10(most) to 3/10(battle reports)? Sounds like a recipe for lots of Sci-Fi and fantasy … with a splendid ancients painted unit about once every few years at best … (a 1/300 chance, as far as I can see – now judging by what I see posted on TMP, that isn't very representative) … Sounds like a good idea but it sounds like most of it will be of little interest to historical wargamers Phil |
| Grunt1861 | 08 Jun 2015 9:25 a.m. PST |
1,2,3 = Fantasy and Science Fiction 4,5,6 = Historical 1 = Ancients/Dark Age
2 = Medieval/Renaissance
3 = Gunpowder
4 = 20th Century Personnel
5 = Modern Personnel
6 = All Vehicles/Aircraft There Fixed! :) |
| Dan 055 | 08 Jun 2015 11:46 a.m. PST |
I'm another who thinks the historicals deserve a slightly better representation. If you use Grunt1861's idea, you can divide scifi/fantasy the same way as historicals ie:
1 – sci fi ground
2 – sci fi starships
3 – sci fi micro
4 – fantasy pre-gunpowder
5 – fantasy gunpowder
6 – fantasy horror |
| Editor in Chief Bill | 08 Jun 2015 6:06 p.m. PST |
I'll do a poll, to get an idea of what the reader interest break-down is. From the site stats, it seems to be pretty equal between fantasy, historical, and sci-fi: TMP link |
| Yesthatphil | 09 Jun 2015 2:51 a.m. PST |
I think you want to look at the number of posts etc. (rather than just areas of interest, where many members will just check everything) … However I can't do that as I have Fantasy and Sci-Fi switched off (so the impression I get of TMP is distorted by the selections I have made  ) … Phil |
| Yesthatphil | 10 Jun 2015 10:27 a.m. PST |
Also interesting … if historical 1/10 would be ancients (#1), and 1/10 would be Early 20th Century (1900-1929) … Hmmm … now far be it for me to big up *ancients* but does anyone really think that as far as interest splits go, the whole of ancient history (and the whole of ancients as an enthusiast interest) is no more than the same level as 1900-1929? Phil
FWIW I think Grunt 1861 is much closer to where the balance is |
 etotheipi | 10 Jun 2015 11:28 a.m. PST |
Sounds like a recipe for lots of Sci-Fi and fantasy … with a splendid ancients painted unit about once every few years at best So spring for one inhumanly overdeveloped and underclothed barbarian with a sword it would take a forklift to raise and your Scythian army becomes a Hyborian horde. I think a lot of fantasy and scifi take their insipration from historical events, so integrating historicals into such a contest is easy. Putting a Son of Sobek gator man into a historical Egyptian setting is much more challenging. VSF (which seems to be missing from the scifi categories) is pretty much filled with 19th century figures. Cthulu horror only needs a few beasties (or maybe a monster that is never actually seen) in an early 20th century setting. D&D was derived from Medieval wargaming, so other than fantastical beasts, you can get a lot of mileage there. Asian horror often lacks monsters … they are in the margins of reality just beyond perception. |
