A Prisoner's Tale - PE Bonus Essay Contest

Like all great ideas... this one is NOT mine, but Dysturbed. After he was reading dr!zzt's background story for his Prisoner, Dysturbed suggested...

Dysturbed wrote:

It would be a idea Mord or whoever reads that is on staff that 1 character created for these Prisoner Exchanges each year would be added as a special character each year. The Staff would do the stats but the back-story would be by the creator and the recipient. It could be a appendix to the books or something to be used only by those who own the models.

I believe that this is a GREAT idea. I promotes the 'forgotten' side of the hobby... writing. What we find best about 40k is the setting and background. Sure, the models are great and the game itself is fine (barring some mechanics)... but is the fluff what drives our imagination.

While we are creating our Prisoner, we are thinking about conversions and painting techniques... but is a small story about the Prisoner what really drives us too. Some of us have shared this story, while others haven't. I agree that we (as a Community) could 'reward' such creative writers by immortalizing the said backgrounds. As a matter of fact, this is how we (the Staff) have created Special Characters... we took Hired Guns, made a cool story and modified stats accordingly. DaBank inspired the birth of LEON "THE GROOM" MCCLANE (CDMDS), while Dozer created MATTHIAS “SILENT DEATH” RIEL and I wrote about CRISTINA RODRIGUEZ, FIELD NURSE. We never thought about 'sharing' this very rewarding experience with others... shame on us.

But it is never too late to fix those mistakes. NOW the Prisoner Exchange Event will give you the opportunity to 'make it' to TLRB. The rules are as follow:

• The Creator and the Recipient of the Prisoner have until May 30th to submit a NEW post entitled A Prisoner's Tale: The {Prisoner's Name} Story.
  
• The post should include the background/story (The Story) about the Prisoner as well as pictures of the COMPLETED model created (preferably multiple angles on a white background) and a link to the WiP thread.
  
• The Story must have at least 500 words. There is no upper limit... write as much as you want, this is YOUR moment to shine!
  
• The Story must be in English; use of proper words, grammar and spelling is a must. Posts with few grammatical errors will be tolerated (we know you are human... and English may not be your 1st language), but anything that seemed to be written by a 3 year old or in L33T will be deleted without prejudice. There is no excuse for spell-checking... we know you have a computer.
  
• The use of coarse or foul language is permitted (it is your creation)... but consider that your work may need to be edited in order to be published. Imagine you kids, mother AND favorite religious figure will read The Story!
  
• Voting for the BEST story (more engaging, more inspiring, etc.) will be determined by a Poll accessible to everyone in the Forums in June 1st. This Poll will be open for 2 weeks.
  
• In case of a tie, the Staff will decide which submission is the winner.
  
• The winner will have their Prisoner immortalized as a Special Character. All Attributes, Special Rules, Skills, Weapons, Armor, Wargear, Costs, etc. that apply to the game mechanics will be created EXCLUSIVELY by the Staff. The winner MAY BE consulted on the process, but this is done as a courtesy and not a requirement.
  
• This Contest is open to everyone that participated on The Prisoner Exchange, except its organizer (Mordheimer).

OK... there you have it. Go crazy!

Ohhh... this biatch is mine. Kroozio Auditore Da Firenze is COMING YOUR WAY!

Great!! more writing for me! haha, joking I will take pride in writing up a background and story for my kommando! XD can't wait to get in about this!

This is a wonderful idea. Like Mordheimer said "the writing part is another great aspect of the hobby." This stuff brings back great memories when Mord, Dozer, JD3 and I used to write some great stories on our battles.

We created some Hired Guns and etc and as noted by Mord and Dysturbed this is a great idea on fan involvement.

I have a question, does it have to be all Harvard referenced and 12000 words long? if so im out! haha

Ace idea - The Caretaker has a number of stories that might describe his background (that gives me a cool idea!).

Better get writing!

Laney:D

This is an awesome idea but I am a little confused on who is supposed to be writing the story the models maker or the recipient? Or are you thinking a collaborative effort since two crazed minds are better than one?

Stryke wrote:

I have a question, does it have to be all Harvard referenced and 12000 words long? if so im out! haha

Chicago style only and I expect a works cited and cover page on that bitch or you get a big ole F.

j/k

sultansean wrote:

This is an awesome idea but I am a little confused on who is supposed to be writing the story the models maker or the recipient? Or are you thinking a collaborative effort since two crazed minds are better than one?

My vision was more of a collaborative effort since the person recieving will be able to play the character I think they should have some feedback on the story/evntual abilities of the character. But if the recipiant trusts the sender I see no problem in having the sender write it all it's their creation afterall.

Dysturbed wrote:

Stryke wrote:

I have a question, does it have to be all Harvard referenced and 12000 words long? if so im out! haha

Chicago style only and I expect a works cited and cover page on that bitch or you get a big ole F.

j/k

haha i think im gonna slit my wrists!

sultansean wrote:

This is an awesome idea but I am a little confused on who is supposed to be writing the story the models maker or the recipient? Or are you thinking a collaborative effort since two crazed minds are better than one?

It is up to you guys; the Creator and Recipient could work together if you too want. I understand that sometimes is hard... but a collaboration ALSO strengthen the bonds of FRIENDSHIP. After all, the Creator is the Artist and the Recipient becomes the Caretaker of the art.

If one of the two is not receptive to write... well, you are free to submit your writing without a partner. Note that if we receive TWO stories for the same model, they would BOTH be unable to win the coveted prize. Work together if you can.

Yea, talk it out as not everyone is a writter.

Are thees entries rolling in also mord? I have read a few on the pblogs but haven't seen them collected yet?

Nope... the only one who has written anything is me (LINK).

I just created a subsection and moved the submission there. Hopefully we will get more stories in!

I'm working on mine - but I needed to get the prisoner finished first. It'll be in, in the next few days. Watch out for the arrival of 'The Caretaker'.

Laney

So how did this turn out?

Nothing yet. We are waiting for everyone to receive their Prisoners (some are still on transit) and then we will work on votes.

Did YOU submitted your story?

Me? Yeah, I submitted mine.

Yes... hehehe

any update?