Fall Deco Contest

[+Nyx]

I am hosting a fall deco contest beginning today. All players are welcome to participate, within the stated rules below.

The theme for this deco contest is:
Fall/Halloween

Houses should be decorated to a theme of the player's choice within the overall stated theme of the event.
For example, you might choose to select a theme of "nightmare on elm street" and then build and decorate your plots accordingly. Your theme should be obvious to the judges simply by viewing the space, however it is allowed for a participant to add further information into a book that is locked down in plain sight at the entrance. You may opt to decorate any way you desire, but your deco should have some directed theme beyond just "visually pleasing". Clever and elegant decoration will be rated much more highly than a house that has simply slapped down some addons or put deco willy-nilly around their plots.

You will be able to choose which judging bracket to participate in. The brackets will be judged separately and have different rules & expectations. Choose wisely! You cannot change your bracket selection after you've placed a rune - even if it was an accident. Pay close attention to which box you've chosen before dropping your rune!


Bracket 1
This bracket is meant for players of modest to moderate means, newer players, or those with less time to dedicate to decorating.
Example: You have less than 10 million gold and/or no relayers/bonus houses/etc.
Bracket 1 Rules:
- Participants may decorate a maximum of 2 house plots to be considered for the contest.
- Participants who are of the wealth & time investment for Bracket 2 who submit to Bracket 1 will have 20 points deducted from their score.

Bracket 2
This bracket is meant for players of wealth, older players, and/or those with lots of time to dedicate to the contest.
Example: You have more than 10 million gold, and/or a few relayers/extra house slots/etc.
Bracket 2 Rules:
- Participants may decorate a maximum of 4 house plots to be considered for the contest.
- Participants who opted for this bracket but were not of the proper means will still be judged against the bracket 2 participants.

Overall Rules:
These rules are subject to change at any time.
- If your rune is marked further than 10 tiles from the entrance of the entered plots, you will be disqualified. If your entry plots are combined with more than the allowed entry plots for your bracket, you must put up walls to delineate which plots are not part of the contest entry. Failure to properly define the space entered for the contest (when that space is directly connected to other plots not entered) will result in disqualification.
- If submitting more than one plot, they must be combined plots. You cannot submit 2 castles or a home in one area and another placed elsewhere. You also cannot submit a plot on the west side of a 10-house compound, and the other plot on the east side. They must be connected directly to each other.
- The submitted property must be owned by the person who signed up by dropping the rune.
- One entry per account. Any attempt to circumvent this rule will result in disqualification.
- Deco must be shard-appropriate, and to a clear theme. Be creative!
- Pre-made addons may be used, but may detract from the overall score if used in lieu of actual decorating skill.
- The administrators (+Veritas, +Colibri, and myself) will judge the plots. If available during the judging period, +Mocha, +Requiem and +Jade will also be invited to vote.
- House location will not be taken into account when scoring the properties. This is decoration only, so those with plots in the stars or other 'special' places will not receive any special consideration for environmental perks they did not design, just as houses in less attractive locations will not be marked down due to their placement.
- Any infractions resulting in jail during the course of the contest will disqualify that player. NOTE: This means infractions above 'warning' and/or jail tasks above 10. If you have any such infraction(s) in the last 60 days, you may not participate without my permission.
- Houses must be "open to the public" from November 1st - 5th, as all participating houses will be displayed for everyone to visit during the judging period.
- If you enter the contest you must actually participate - if you submit a rune and then all you have is a couple of misc deco items on an otherwise not-to-theme house, you will be disqualified. The same goes for if you submit a rune but your plot(s) are their usual everyday deco. Further, you should do your own deco. This contest is meant to be a representation of each entrant's own creativity.
- If you are disqualified for any reason you will not receive a participation reward.


To enter the contest:
- Mark a rune close to the house you will be decorating for the contest. You may submit the rune at any time, even before your decoration is completed. The houses will not be judged until the end of the contest.
- Drop the rune into the Sign-up chest in TC for the bracket you have chosen. Be careful, you cannot change the bracket choice after you've dropped your rune!
- Decorate your house, complete it and make it open to the public before November 1st.

At Contest's End:
On November 1st, the rune box will be removed and gates to the houses will be made available for the public to visit the participants' submissions. The staff will visit the submitted houses and score them according to the criteria outlined in the rules. The winners will be announced on or before November 5th.

Special terms for this contest:
- Any player whose decorating skills strike me as outstanding will be considered for building their own structure in Elysium. I am keeping a running list of these players, and when I'm ready to begin this part of the project I will contact these players directly. Structures built by invitees will become part of the permanent landscape in Elysium and the player(s) will be credited on the buildings themselves.

Prizes:
- First, Second, and Third in each bracket will receive a prize.
- Prizes will include (but are not necessarily limited to) ED & a banner for each winner.
- Exact prizes to be announced at a later date (closer to the end of the contest).


Happy decorating!

- +N

[Maze Scarlethart]

Can I get some clarification on the theme? Is it Fall themed or Halloween themed because both in my opinion are totally different, Im really interested in the fall theme idea, not so much on halloween theme.

[+Nyx]

You can do fall, or halloween, or a hybrid of both, whatever theme you like within those guidelines.

[Maze Scarlethart]

Awesome! Thanks

[Alex]

One follow-up question since I dont see it explicitly in the rules:

Last summer deco event I was disqualified for submitting a previously used plot during the contest (however I added some minor deco details to it to fit the theme) although it was not stated in the rules that this was not permitted. It is what it is. Could I get clarification on this specifically since I have a halloween appropriate house with tons of deco but I used part of it for the last halloween deco event and was thinking of reusing most of it and making some changes to improve it, but not having a picture of the previous entry some of the new additions may not be immediately clear to the GMs. Thanks!

[culichi]

can I enter my rented house in vesper? it has some spooky npcs and the building itself looks kind of haunted but i would be adding more myself and not just try to skate by with whats already there.

[+Nyx]

It's covered under this rule, which has been in place for nearly all of the deco contests in the past year or two:

- If you enter the contest you must actually participate - if you submit a rune and then all you have is a couple of misc deco items on an otherwise not-to-theme house, you will be disqualified. The same goes for if you submit a rune but your plot(s) are their usual everyday deco.

Thus, if one has an extra plot somewhere that is a halloween house year-round, that is its everyday deco. Your house design must be unique for this event, it isn't appropriate to enter a design that has been standing for ages, which you've only thrown a couple modifications on. Also, the halloween-ish house plots you have weren't built by you, they were built years ago by a previous owner (similar to your summer deco entry which was disqualified for that reason). It's against the spirit of the event to recycle things, particularly when the creativity wasn't one's own.

culichi, that's probably fine but you might not get as many points if the building's design/style isn't really well incorporated into whatever theme you choose

[Alex]

ok

[Golden Temptress]

I have a question, I have an 18 x 18 I am using in neves fall event, am I able to use that house for that event and the deco contest if it falls under the autumn theme?

[+Nyx]

Yes, if you're building it fresh for October and it's not a design which has been on that plot for a long time before the event started.

[Iago Venport]

Stupid question: I own the entire SE corner of Luna (aka I have relayers and bonus house slots) but I have like zero time to decorate but I'll give it a go. Question I have is can I enter 4 plots in that are in the following array since I must make way for the pathway in Luna? Basically I'm trying to piece together a close packed area that would overall count as my house entry.


-Iago

[Rahr]

Hello Nyx. I'm leaving the country on the 1st and won't be back till the 13th. Will the gates to visit the participating contestants still be up? I'd hate to miss 'em

[+Nyx]

It's unlikely they will remain up that long. How about asking a friend to take screenshots for you?

[Catti-brie]

Just want to say all the deco houses look awesome. I know it is not in the contest, but I would like to start a player favorite deco house thread. I will wait until after the winners are announced to cast my votes. Good luck all!

[Iago Venport]

Derp, nevermind.