Vanguard: Vanguard Fantasy Fiction Contest !!

The huge Vanguard Fantasy Fiction Contest starts today. All registered members of the official Vanguard forum are eligible. For Sigil's contest rules, go here (or see below). For the news from Sigil, go here and join in on the discussion here. The rules are also posted in our forum here.

Contest submissions at the Vanguard Warcry Fan Site come to raya@warcry.com

1. Contestants must be registered members of the Official Vanguard Forums ("Forums"). All entries must be submitted and displayed under the contestant's Forum name. It is the contestant's responsibility to ensure that his Forum registration information is accurate and current.

2. Submissions must be emailed to any one of the Affiliated Fan Sites listed below. All submissions must be received by the Affiliated Fan Sites by midnight PST on Wednesday, December 8, 2004.

3. Only one entry per contestant. Contestants submitting entries to more than one Affiliated Fan Site will be disqualified.

4. The Affiliated Fan Site may determine, in its sole discretion, whether a particular submission is appropriate to be displayed to the public. All accepted submissions will be publicly posted on each respective Affiliated Fan Site on Friday, December 10, 2004.

5. Members of the community are invited to visit the Affiliated Fan Sites and vote for which submission they like the best. The public voting for the finalists ends on midnight PST on Friday, December 17, 2004.

6. The finalist with the most votes at each Affiliated Fan Site will be submitted to Sigil Games Online. The winner of the contest will be chosen from among the finalists by a panel of judges comprised of Sigil Games Online Team members. Judging will be based on originality, creativity, technique and style. Decisions of the judges are final.

7. The winner will be displayed on the Official Vanguard Site on December 22, 2004.

8. Contestant may not submit an entry to a Fan Site for which he or she works or volunteers.

9. Submission must be no longer than 1500 words.

10. All material must be original. The story should read as a work of fiction that would be told to players as a story within the game. There should be no reference to any other work of fiction nor any reference to Vanguard's timeline, history or its known characters.

11. Any reference to any copyrighted name, character or place, or a real name or place, or any variation thereof is grounds for disqualification.

12. Vanguard is a game for a wide public audience. Please keep this in mind and refrain from using unacceptable language or questionable material. The decision to reject an entry based on content deemed unacceptable will be at the sole discretion of each Fan Site Administrator and Sigil Games Online.

13. Prize: The winning story will be put into the game for players to read at their leisure, most likely in libraries throughout the world. The winner will also receive a spot in Vanguard's first public Beta.

14. Upon submission, finalists are consenting to their work being displayed on the Vanguard Site. Additionally, the finalist will be asked to relinquish certain rights in the submission to ensure that the story can be included in the lore of Vanguard.

The above General Rules explain the terms and conditions upon which Sigil Games Online offers the Fantasy Fiction Contest. Your submission of any fiction to an Affiliated Fan Site constitutes your acceptance to these General Rules. No purchase is necessary to enter or to win. It is expressly understood that the Fantasy Fiction Contest is a contest of skill and not a game of chance. The Fantasy Fiction Contest is void where prohibited by law, rule or regulation.

1. All Affiliated Fan Sites must post the General Rules to the contest in a readily visible location.

2. Contestant may not submit an entry to a Fan Site for which he or she works or volunteers.

3. Only one entry per person. Entries may not be submitted to multiple sites.

4. Contestant must be a registered member of the Vanguard Forums. The entry must be submitted and displayed under his or her Forum name.

5. It is the responsibility of the Fan Site to make sure that the contestant is a registered member of the Vanguard Forum before posting his/her entry on their site.

6. An email where submissions must be sent to your site must be displayed clearly on the front page of your site.

7. The contest will be announced to the public on November 29. No submission can be accepted by the Affiliated Fan Sites after midnight PST of Friday, Sunday, December 8, 2004.

8. Each accepted entry must be displayed on your site on Friday, December 10, 2004. It must be listed under the Forum name of the contestant.

9. All entries will be posted publicly on the same day. There must be a means in place for people to log into each site and vote on the winners.

10. The public voting for the finalists must close at midnight PST on Friday, December 17, 2004. The winner of the contest will be announced on the Vanguard site on December 22.

11. Finalists will be determined strictly by the votes submitted by the public. It is the responsibility of the Affiliated Fan Site to guard the integrity of the voting process and make judgment calls on the proceedings as it progresses and potential problems that may arise.

12. Vanguard is a game for a wide public audience. Please keep this in mind and refrain from accepting submissions that use unacceptable language or questionable material. The decision to accept or reject an entry based on content that might not be deemed acceptable will be at the discretion of each Fan Site Administrator and Sigil Games Online. The Affiliated Fan Sites agree to promptly remove unacceptable submissions from the public upon the request of Sigil Games Online.

13. It is the responsibility of each fan site to verify that their finalist has met all of the requirements to be eligible to win.