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Tell Your Story of Crusader Kings - Writing Contest!

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Tomas H

Tomas H

<font color="white"><b>Publisher</b><br>Paradox Bo
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Aug 19, 2013
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To celebrate the announcement of the upcoming Charlemagne expansion for Crusader Kings II, we today launch the Crusader Kings Short Story Contest 2014.

Yes, that’s right, after the success of the Europa Universalis IV Short Story Contest and release of the What If? Anthology of Alternate History, the turn has come to all of you talented writers in the CK2 community.

The Charlemagne expansion will focus on storytelling in various forms, so we found it fitting to invite you to tell your stories inspired by Crusader Kings. Five winning entries will be published in an anthology, released in ebook and print format by Paradox Books.

The contest winners will be joined by several professional authors, including bestselling and award-winning author Steven Savile.

THE RULES
To join the contest, follow these simple steps:

Write a short story of circa 5,000 words, inspired by the Crusader Kings 2 game. It can certainly be a story of alternate history, based on how a major world event turned out differently than in actual history, but it does not need to be. It is perfectly fine to write a story of historical fiction on a smaller scale, without directly contradicting the history books - the choice is yours. Your short story can be historical, humorous, serious, or any combination of those - as long as it fits the period and the tone of the Crusader Kings game.

Add a short text (circa 200 words) about the historical context of your story, and another 200 words about yourself.

Time Frame: Your story should be set in the era of Crusader Kings 2, that is between 769 AD (the new starting date for the Charlemagne expansion) and 1453.

Write a Story, not an AAR: You are most welcome to base your story on in-game experiences, but we are not looking for straight AAR’s. Your story should be enjoyable and understandable also for readers who have never played the CK 2 game (poor souls!).

Deadline: We need your story no later than October 15, 2014. Send your story as an attached text document to books@paradoxplaza.com. Doc, docx, txt and the like will do, but not PDF. You are only allowed to submit one story to the contest.

THE REWARDS
The five contest winners will be announced on December 1, 2014.
  • These short stories will be published in the Crusader Kings Anthology, with a standard writer’s fee from Paradox Books.
  • All winners will receive a hard copy of the anthology. Not only that, the winners will receive the Paradox Interactive Collection, a bundle of over 50 games.
  • The Crusader Kings Anthology will be published by Paradox Books, in print and ebook format. The release date will be announced later.
 
Tomas H said:
Your story should be enjoyable and understandable also for readers who have never played the CK 2 game (poor souls!)
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Could you elaborate? If the non-players are the "target audience", than I guess all the jargon (blob, CB, DOW etc.) and in-jokes can't be used in the story, is this correct? Oh, and story set in January 769 or December 1453 still qualifies, right?

Also please clarify whether the winner gets a free Charlemagne DLC or not :)
 
Yes :D doing it.

I forgot about the EU one, but this I shall definitely write an entry for.

But what specifically to write about? So many choices... :).
 
CzokletMuss said:
Could you elaborate? If the non-players are the "target audience", than I guess all the jargon (blob, CB, DOW etc.) and in-jokes can't be used in the story, is this correct? Oh, and story set in January 769 or December 1453 still qualifies, right?

Also please clarify whether the winner gets a free Charlemagne DLC or not :)
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I would say the "target audience" is CK2 players - but intimate knowledge of the game should not be a prerequisite to enjoy the story (if that makes sense). So - in-jokes and jargon could certainly be in there, but perhaps not be the essential part of the story.

The winner gets the grand Paradox Collection of games. I acutally don't know if the Charlemagne DLC will be included there, but I'll find out. :) In any case, I believe the DLC will be released before the anthology, so you might not want to wait for that... :)
 
Will under 18-year old be able to participate? Would fancy trying my hand if so :eek:o
 
I think i'll pass on that one. The EU4 writing contest was nerve-racking enough and i didn't even had a job back then... ;)
But of course i wish good luck to everyone who participates!
 
Tomas H said:
The winner gets the grand Paradox Collection of games. I acutally don't know if the Charlemagne DLC will be included there, but I'll find out. :) In any case, I believe the DLC will be released before the anthology, so you might not want to wait for that... :)
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I figure that a good portion of participants will already own many of your games so i don't think already owning one dlc will bother them much. Do these 50 games include their expansions and dlc?
 
I'm busy at school but I'll look at it, since my Napoleon story wasn't good enough :)
 
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Huzzah, I may have failed terribly in the Europa Universalis contest, but a second shot is always nice. Hopefully this time I don't stress myself out to the point of getting gastritis.
 
Pen names are accepted, as well as participants under 18 - if you win, however, a parent might have to be involved to collect the price money. We'll work it out. :)

I wish you all the best of luck! :)
 
I would love to enter, I do doubt my writing skills though. :/
 
I think I might enter, with a story from the perspective of an adventurer who tried to seize an Empire, was defeated but instead of expecting a beheading, on account of the Empress learning of his abilities and education, spared him, made him court chaplain and married an equally talented lady that was noticed under similar circumstances and they had three children together before he passed away, in his bed.
 
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