Everything you need to know about the Scribe's Contests

Guidelines

The entries should be written true to the spirit of Chaos Dwarfs, as their background image have evolved over the years.

Apart from “in-universe”/describing/story writing, we do not encourage you to write your entries in a particular way to conform to e.g. how someone else has written a Chaos Dwarf song before. In fact, we encourage variety, originality and your own take on it!

If you are starved for ideas, then these core concepts of what Chaos Dwarfs are all about might be of use:

You might find these sources of inspiration useful:

Official Sources of Inspiration

Realms of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned/Slaves to Darkness (3rd edition)

White Dwarf Presents: Chaos Dwarfs (4th edition)

Tamurkhan: Throne of Chaos (8th edition)

Hellcannon entry in Warhammer Armies: Warriors of Chaos (8th edition)

Lammasu and Great Taurus entries in Storm of Magic (8th edition)

Black Library novel Grudgebearer (2005) by Gav Thorpe

Any other Games Workshop publication concerning Chaos Dwarfs

Reference list

Unofficial Sources of Inspiration

Thommy H’s Chaos Dwarf army book

Nicodemus’ Warhammer Quest Chaos Dwarf Expansion

Grimstonefire’s WIP Liber Chaotica: Hashut

Other Unofficial Sources of Inspiration

The Khaozalid Dictionary

Chaos Dwarf Stories & Background (WHFB), currently in the Archive section

CDO Discourse Stories & Background forum

Posting your entry after the contest is over

You are encouraged to post your entry not only in your blog, but in the stories and background forum section as well.

Since the aim of Scribe’s Contest is to build up a collective community pool of background pieces you are likely to get contacted by a a staff member suggesting you to post your entry in the background forum section some days or weeks after the contest.

If we are unable to contact you about it, we have full rights to copy-paste your entry and post it ourselves with the author’s account name clearly written out.

These individual post-contest entry posts will then sooner or later be collected into compilation threads, and likely reused in PDF or other format later on. By entering the contest you give us full permission for this.

FAQ

Does Scribe’s Contest mean Artisan’s Contest will never have a writing competition again?
No. Scribe’s Contest is of an as of yet unspecified limited life span, created for the purpose of bringing the world and culture of the Chaos Dwarfs to life. Though it is unlikely Artisan’s Contest will have writing competitions whilst Scribe’s Contest is still “active”, it will certainly have them again once Scribe’s Contest have run its course.

Where did I come in the ranking? How many votes did I get?
Both of these are done by private message for whoever asks. We don’t list where people come publically, unless they are in the top three. Occasionally we say who came 4th/5th.

Why doesn’t CDO have a judging panel?
This is something that has been asked a few times. CDO is a community for the many, not for the few. Because of this, we think it is vital that the community decide what entries are best by a majority vote and it’s not done subjectively by a small panel of people (who cannot obviously have entered themselves).

Why doesn’t CDO have multiple categories depending on skill?
This is more work than it’s worth really to be honest and the current system of voting doesn’t always favour the same people over and over. Having a category that only one person wanted to enter would be stupid and people would resent being moved into that category if they knew they would lose. At the end of the day even an professional author could only enter one model, leaving the other medals up for grabs.

What happens if we get a draw?
For a competition where we are voting by pm (as there are more than 10 entries, note the following is somewhat different from other CDO contests):

Draw for Gold = 2+ x Gold, Silver and Bronze awarded
Draw for Silver = Gold, 2+ x Silver and Bronze awarded
Draw for Bronze = Gold, Silver and 2+ x Bronze awarded

Multiple draws = vote off on all of them by public poll.

For competitions decided by a public poll (less than 10):

Draw for Gold = 2 x Gold

I never seem to win :frowning:
Not a question as such… We may not all be great writers or singers, but the taking part is what counts and not only do you get to improve your skills but you also get a background piece at the end of it. Remember that we will try and build a collective pool of these background pieces for future “release” in a bundle, where your name will be presented with your entry. So all the effort is not wasted !

Are there any free audio recording program?
Yes, Audacity.

How do I take good audio recordings of my voice?
There is a basic guide here people may find helpful.