Hello Readers! Last year, we had a lot of fun seeing all the variations on a classic Mythos horror that you came up with for September is for Shoggoths! as well as your original monstrosities during Octobernomicon. We liked it so much, in fact, that we want to do it again, only better. So we reached out to Golden Goblin Press, Sentinel Hill Press, and Stygian Fox Publishing for help.
For the month of February, 2021, we’re looking for your original/variant takes on vampires! Now I know we all know what the Oxford English Dictionary* says about them, but vampires have been around for far longer than the term itself (even if you count a precursor to the term popping up in the Liber Prophetarum (1074). Potsherds from ancient Persia, the Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 1800 BCE), and even the Great Isaiah Scroll (356-100 BCE) and the Tanakh (800-701 BCE) have instances of blood-drinking or flesh-eating demons!
The point I’m trying to make with the above is, don’t feel limited by common beliefs of vampires or Bram Stoker’s modern version…we’re talking the Cthulhu Mythos here, which has fire vampires and star vampires, for example, as well as Lurkers if one want’s a Mythos-variant from folklore.
The Rules
- Entries must be 2000 words or less, not including the title or the stat block.
- Word Count starts after the title and ends before the stat block.
- Submissions may be for any game system in which the author has permission to write/publish for (Chaosium’s Fan Use Policy, D&D’s SRD, Apocthulhu’s SRD, etc). Voters are encouraged to take the work into consideration, not the system.
- You may submit as many monsters as you want.
- Your work will be anonymous until after the contest has ended.
- To submit an entry:
- Email submissions to submissions@shoggoth.net.
- Submissions may be sent as an attachment (doc, txt, etc.) or in the body of the email.
- Submissions must include:
- Title of your Work
- How you’d like to be credited
- Elevator Pitch (this will be shared on Social Media links back to your work and will also help readers remember what monster is what when it comes time to vote)
- The RPG Editor for Shoggoth.net will respond within 1 business day to each sender, acknowledging receipt of their submission and providing the date in February on which the submission will be live on the site.
- Submissions will be accepted until February 24, 2021, at noon.
- Submit early. Submit often. 🙂
- Voting:
- March 1 until March 15, 2021, at 11:59 pm EST.
- We’ll use a Google Poll.
- Authors may vote for their own submission(s).
Prizes
Each Publisher is offering $20 in “store credit,” either at their DTRPG Publisher Page or at their business’ web store (not including base printing and shipping costs, if a physical copy is desired). The first place prize recipient selects which publisher’s store credit they like, followed by the second place prize winner selecting from the remaining two publishers, and the third place prize winner receiving $20 credit from the remaining publisher.
Good luck everyone! We can’t wait to see you take on “vampires” this month!
*vampire, n.
1. A preternatural being of a malignant nature (in the original and usual form of the belief, a reanimated corpse), supposed to seek nourishment, or do harm, by sucking the blood of sleeping persons; a man or woman abnormally endowed with similar habits.
Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989)
