Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Fat Frog Challenge


Look at this thing. Gaze raptly at it and all its bloated glory and awfulness.

This thing weirds Tim Shorts the hell out, and it's HIS decorative statue. I find it both fascinating and inspiring. Look at that smug and arrogant expression. This is not "Froggy who went a-courting" (that frog wore a sword and pistol, as I've sung so often to my infant son)...this is rather some grotesque deity, gazing out upon his domain. The rose and basket? Not a gift for you, but tribute from its followers.

Here's the challenge: design an adventure around the thing. It can be as short or elaborate as you want. If you don't have time to do a whole adventure scenario, write up an encounter suitable for a dungeon or wilderness adventure, in which the statue figures prominently...either as a symbol, statue, artifact, trap, or SOMEthing.

Write it up, save it as a .pdf and email it to me (care of the blog) with the subject line Fat Frog Challenge. I get to judge the entries ('cause I'm feeling all judgmental this week), and the Top Five will be posted here for posterity and downloading (make sure to include your name and blog/web site so I can reference you for credit).

Deadline? Friday at 11:59pm, PST (Pacific Standard Time).

Prizes? Doubtful...though maybe I can coordinate something with Tim (many of my readers have probably already purchased a copy of the B/X Companion...maybe I can send a draft copy of the new book to the over-all winner).

I plan on writing something up myself (told you, the thing is inspiring), though I will be excluding myself from the contest and anything I create will be distributed as a freebie. Judging won't begin until midnight Saturday (I won't even open the .pdfs till then), but feel free to send 'em along at any time between now and then.

Final Notes: No matter how excited you are about the idea, please don't get fired working on this at your place of employment! The job market is just too precarious these days and I do NOT want that on my head!

All right...have at it, folks!
: )
Posted by at
Labels: ,

19 comments:

  1. Gothridge ManorJune 1, 2011 at 7:20 AM

    Wow, you really like that frog. But this challenge is very cool.

    ReplyDelete
  2. DuskJune 1, 2011 at 9:08 AM

    And what timezone would that 11:59 be in? Seems slightly relevant...

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Happy WhiskJune 1, 2011 at 9:14 AM

    Fat Frog Contest. Tim told me about this. That's great.

    ReplyDelete
  4. GatzbyJune 1, 2011 at 10:45 AM

    ALL GLORY TO THE OVERWEIGHT HYPNOTOAD.

    ReplyDelete
  5. JBJune 1, 2011 at 11:16 AM

    @ Dusk: Pacific Standard Time (sorry...edited the post...and thanks!).

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousJune 1, 2011 at 4:27 PM

    friday?! urgh...

    ReplyDelete
  7. JBJune 1, 2011 at 11:34 PM

    @ Shlomo: I may extend the deadline if I don't get that many entries...I AM pretty wishy-washy.
    ; )

    ReplyDelete
  8. UnknownJune 2, 2011 at 12:38 PM

    I'd love to submit something, but I've got to study for finals next week...maybe if you extended the deadline to next friday.

    ReplyDelete
  9. JBJune 2, 2011 at 12:53 PM

    @ Ian:

    Ugh! You, too?

    I am giving serious consideration to extending the deadline.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Simon ForsterJune 2, 2011 at 1:55 PM

    I sent something. Hope it got to you, it was a larger file than I thought it' be.

    ReplyDelete
  11. ze buletteJune 5, 2011 at 10:01 AM

    Man, I love that frog. I started writing it up before I even saw this contest! Looking forward to seeing the entries here.

    ReplyDelete
  12. The Happy WhiskJune 7, 2011 at 2:21 PM

    I am looking forward to reading them, as well.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Dyson LogosJune 8, 2011 at 12:51 PM

    Help me! I'm trapped by the Frog Idol. It has me writing a full module for it. It channels the desires of a long-forgotten god, and obviously this god wants to be revered in the form of a 20-page module.

    ReplyDelete
  14. JBJune 9, 2011 at 12:03 AM

    @ Dyson: Awesome. And I totally know how you feel...except that while I have two dozen encounters planned out for the toad, I have yet to ink a single room on graph paper. Damn you and your fiendish knack for map-making!
    ; )

    ReplyDelete
  15. Dyson LogosJune 9, 2011 at 9:20 AM

    The kicker is I haven't drawn the maps yet. I'm doing all the write up first, then I'll draw the damn maps, scan them, and insert them into the adventure. I'd better get my ass in gear if I'm going to get this done by midnight tomorrow.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Dyson LogosJune 10, 2011 at 8:39 AM

    Here it is!

    http://rpgcharacters.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/dyson-logos-challenge-of-the-frog-idol.pdf

    (23 pages including the OGL and cover, includes 5 maps)

    ReplyDelete
  17. mattJune 11, 2011 at 11:49 AM

    You suck Dyson, you are so damn productive! I swear somehow you managed to clone yourself at least three times and are forcing slave labor from the poor saps! GAH!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Dyson LogosJune 11, 2011 at 12:20 PM

    m.s.: Imagine how much more productive I would be if I could actually do that?

    ReplyDelete
  19. mattJune 12, 2011 at 8:34 AM

    LOL I read through your adventure, really good. Cannot wait to see what you produce from your new publishing house. Very cool.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)