Happy New Year to you, Challengers! The submission deadline for the 1st Transatlantic Setting Design Challenge has wooshed past. Graham has been so kind to collect the submissions:

Anna Kreider: Thou Art But A Warrior, based on Polaris by Ben Lehman
Graham Walmsley: Darker, based on The Shab Al-Hiri Roach by Jason Morningstar
Malcolm Craig: Revolutionaries, based on Contenders by Joe J Prince
Eero Tuovinen: Atlas, based on Polaris by Ben Lehman
Mikael Honkala: The Engine, based on Polaris by Ben Lehman
Rich Stokes: Umlaut, based on Contenders by Joe J Prince
Sami Koponen: Lords and Ladies, based on Dust Devils by Matt Snyder
Ben Lehman:Western Journeyers based on Under The Bed by Joshua A C Newman
John Laviolette:The Legion Of SuperScience (with character sheet and org sheet), based on InSpectres by Jared A Sorenson

Thanks Graham!

It may seem a little odd that I issued this Challenge and now my only contribution remains starting a few threads an picking a few names out of a hat. That’s not what I intended, but it ended up like that and I’m still glad I started this, and looking very forward to reading all the submissions. The voting, however, will be up to you, the participants. Here’s the voting rules again:

Everybody who submits a setting will also be involved in the judging. After the entry period is over, I will randomly and publicly distribute four settings to each participant. If you have co-authors, you can either submit a mutual judgement, or name one of yours to judge them all. You may participate in discussion about the entries before passing the judgement. In fact, this is encouraged.

Each judge has to award to each setting a score between 1 and 10. To award these points, the judges shall especially pay respect to the following aspects:
- How well is the game system integrated? How well does it seem to fit?
- How will the game presumably work in play, especially with regard to how the setting facilitates a certain kind of play?
- How complete, accessible and well presented is the material?
- How interesting, original, stylish and “juicy” is the setting?

The judgement has to be passed by January 15th. The scores are collected and made public when they are complete. As all votes will be public in the end, I see no problem with me collecting them even if I participate myself.

The four entries with the highest added scores then will forego the same procedure once again, this time with all participants judging them until December 31st. Thus, the winner will be determined. Please do not submit a setting if you cannot fulfill your judging duty.

The judging of the final round will presumably end by January 31, not December.

Also, there was a late "submittal" on Storygames, New Box Set, based on The Roach. How lenient are you feeling?

Hrm ...

Since Frank is offline for a few days, I think we're going to need to make a call as a community of participants about New Boxed Set.  Unless someone knows Frank's phone number?

Here's my thought: I think we should let the game be judged and rated and such.  But that means we will need to redistribute the judging.  This shouldn't be that bad -- it's just names and hats, right?  If by tomorrow I've seen some positive response to New Boxed Set I'll post again with new assignments.

I understand some folks have already rated, though.  So, if you have, let me know and those won't change.

If people say "no, Ben, that's stupid, the deadline is the deadline and let's not judge the game," then we'll not.

yrs--
--Ben

Eh, sure it's possible to take it in. I don't mind, at least.

If you're going to redistribute, be aware that I already did mine and sent them to Frank. I won't mind doing others as well, though.

My personal vote would be not to let New Box Set into the judging. It's a shame, because I love the idea, and I'd like another Roach setting in there. But it makes me uncomfortable when rules get bent.

It's just a personal preference, though, and I won't mind if other people think otherwise.

Graham

No, Graham, you're right.  Here's a much better plan:

How about we'll get four volunteers to review New Box Set?  I'll be the first.  Thor will agree to review their games, as well.  Thus, he can get into the reviewing / peer feedback in an unofficial way, and can shake his fist and say "I cudda been a Contender!" if he does really well.

And we'll kindly not point out that, technically, he could have been a Roach.

yrs--
--Ben

Ben,

I was going to suggest almost exactly the same thing.  Also, I was going to volunteer to judge New Box Set because it's another rock based entry, it's rather short and I've already read it.  Plus, it forces Thor to read Umlaut ;^) and the more the merrier.

Graham told me he would, so that's three.

Who wants an extra review of their game?

yrs--
--Ben

I'll do it. I had actually started to read the game before this discussion, anyways, so I have a head start. And since I'm doing Umlaut, I can contrast the two approaches.

Any word yet on the second round of voting?

talysman wrote:
Any word yet on the second round of voting?

I don't mean to alarm anyone, but it looks like Frank T's status has changed from Member to Guest...

But then again, the newest member is currently showing up as Frank Tarcikowski, which seems like too much of a coincidence to me!

Attaboy, Frank!

Ups, copy & paste is not meant for just anyone. Ron, feel free to delete that post, that text was meant for a different site. Anyway, what I wanted to say:

Mysteriously, my account has got crushed betweenst the vile machinations of the World Wide Web. I believe it is right now being investigated whether this can be undone. In the meantime, please send me your votes again so we can proceed.

- Frank

Uh, so, how's it going, Frank? I was just wondering if all the participants actually watch this thread and know about your new identity and so on... Are you getting the votes? Do we need to PM people to get their attention?

It would be nice to get to the next round. There are some questions I have about judging that one, but I will wait until we get there.

Hi Mikael,

I'm still missing three votes. I know that I had received eight before my account evaporated.

So, um, I guess I'm going to PM people myself. Let's get this thing moving again!

- Frank

Yeah! (Lots of excitement here.)

Since you might not get all the votes, and since in the second round there are people who have to skip judging their own setting (I presume), I suggest that the scores from different judges be averaged instead of summed.