After a fair bit of work, the new One Ring Awards are at a sufficient level of maturity to get some feedback from members. I can't say that they are in their final form (e.g. the Prizes bit is completely undecided yet) but I wanted to get a feel for one our current members thought of these new rules.
From a timetable perceptive, much depends upon our leader and coder Dagorlad having the time to put things in place before they are a realistic possibility again but getting a robust set of rules is a good first step.
Any comments, good or bad, will be gratefully received, the 'members' are the site after all.
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The One Ring AwardsCompetition Rules - 2013 revisionBackgroundOnce a year the site will be holding The One-Ring Awards, a series of individual competitions for beginners and experts alike, covering various aspects of the hobby: painting, sculpting/converting miniatures, terrain making and diorama creation.
The Awards will follow the rolling timetable set out below.
- Formal Announcement and Master Craftsman theme in March
- Submissions accepted from October 1st
- Closing date for entries is midnight December 31st.
- Voting period from 1st January to midnight 31st January
- Results announced in February for the previous years awards
CategoriesThe Awards are comprised of four specialised categories open to all members. Community status prizes and gold coins will be awarded for the winner in each category with second and third place entrants in each category receiving gold coins. In addition, special 'Dare to Try' awards might be awarded for each category by the site team to encourage members with little or no experience in a particular category.
1) Best Painted MiniatureA single LoTR or Hobbit figure, not necessarily a Games Workshop miniature but must fit the scale and theme of "The Lord of the Rings" or "The Hobbit".
Members are required to understand and comply with item 2 of the General Rules regarding submission of their own work and the provision of photographic proof to validate their entry. This can be achieved by submitting at least two additional 'work in progress' pictures during the painting of your figure.
2) Best Terrain PieceA terrain piece recognisably themed on Middle-earth and for use with 25-28mm scale miniature figures. There is no maximum limit to the size of the piece.
The use of commercially available hobby moulds is restricted to the creative use of simple blocks or the occasional use of a specialist mould. Any member requiring clarification about this restricted use should contact a member of the site team for a ruling on their potential entry.
Members are required to understand and comply with item 2 of the General Rules regarding submission of their own work and the provision of photographic proof to validate their entry. This can be achieved by taking at least two additional 'work in progress' pictures during construction.
3) Best Sculpting / Conversion Piece - "The Bilbo of the White Tower Award" in memory of 'David Terian' Note : subject to family approval A single item of 25-28mm scale figure.
<More stuff required in here >
Members are required to understand and comply with item 2 of the General Rules regarding submission of their own work and the provision of photographic proof to validate their entry. This can be achieved by taking at least two earlier 'work in progress pictures' charting your progress as well as a final entry picture.
There is no requirement to paint the figure in this category.
4) 'One Ring Master Craftsman' - Diorama Themed ChallengeThe diorama must be a Middle-earth themed scene containing a terrain element and at least one miniature figure. There is no maximum limit to the number of miniatures in the diorama but the idea is to to encourage people to really excel, so ideally should contain more than one figure (unless it is dramatically important to the scene) or a complicated terrain element.
At the start of each new season, the theme of the Master Craftsman will be chosen from a selection of chapters from Tolkien's books and/or sections of Peter Jackson's films. We will list several topics from "The Lord of the Rings" or "The Hobbit" that you can use to draw inspiration from. The entry must be themed to the topics selected. Miniatures don't need to be from GW, but must fit the 25-28mm scale and theme of Middle- Earth.
When voting for this award, members should keep in mind how well each entry fits the established seasons theme, in addition to the overall quality of the work itself.
All members can potentially enter a MAXIMUM of FOUR entries for each awards. Please see item 6 of the General Rules for further details of entry restrictions.
General Rules1. Members who enter the One Ring Awards agree to be bound by the rules of the competition. Any decision taken by either the Site Administrators or Competition Committee regarding member's entries is final.
2. Each entry must be your own work. Contestants must provide photographic proof of this as outlined in each category. Any member who is discovered submitting items that are not their own work will be disqualified from the Awards. This includes miniatures painted on your behalf by another and the submission of major, commercially available, terrain items.
3. The modification of miniatures, terrain items, sculpts etc. with smaller, commercially available, accessories is allowed as embellishment to the submitted piece.
4. The digital enhancement of images is not permitted. The Competition Committee or Site Administrators reserve the right to remove any entry they feel has been doctored using a graphics package to significantly enhance it's appearance. NOTE: The removal of coloured backgrounds and minor adjustments of brightness will usually be considered acceptable.
5. Members found to be encouraging other members to vote for their entry (even on other sites) will be disqualified from the current One Ring Awards. Potential further action may be considered on a case-by-case basis. Names and user-names should not be included in pictures of the entry to potentially bias voting in a category.
6. A unique piece of work must be entered for each category you decide to enter e.g. you cannot use a miniature you have entered as a Painted Miniature and then also include it as part of a Diorama. Also an entry placed First, Second or Third in a given category is not eligible to be entered in future One Ring competitions. This is to encourage new work to be created for the One Ring Awards.
Selection and Voting1. Entries will be accepted up until the closing date and from then on all entries may be voted on by members. Each member may vote for up to three entries per category. Their first vote is worth 5 points, their second vote is worth 3 points and their third vote is worth 1 point. All votes must be used within a category to validate the voting process. The exception to this is a category with less than 3 entries.
If you have already cast your vote, clicking on the button will only display a message informing you that you have voted for this category already. You are allowed to cast a vote for your own entries to the One Ring Awards. At the end of the voting period, the votes are tallied up and the entrant with the most votes is declared the winner.
2. To enter the One Ring Awards you must be a registered 'active' member and not have been banned from the One Ring site. A message will be displayed if you have. If so, you should contact the Admin team to find out why. If you have registered and are not banned and you still cannot log in then check and double-check your user-name and password. Usually this is the problem; if not, you should contact the site Admin team.
PrizesCommunity status prizes and gold coins will be awarded for the winner in each category with second and third place entrants in each category receiving gold coins. In addition, special 'Dare to Try' awards might be awarded for each category by the site team to encourage members with little or no experience in a particular category.
To be ironed out ... just what is everybody getting - are winners getting a figure and a rank status for a year = bragging rights with second and third getting coins ?