Blizzard Competition

Okay i found this today.

http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=8376339451&sid=1

Unfortunately they didn't sticky it, so i missed it and it ends in 3 days, yet i still wanna have a go.

My biggest issue when writing stories has always been names. So i would love some suggestions there.

At the moment i am thinking of 3 possible story lines.

Soldier/civilian etc....in Lordaeron just after it's fall. He is evading the undead, but would be caught up in some kind of adventure.

A troll, it's just after the sundering and he has survived and trying to rebuild the troll empire, or during the arrival of Hakkar.

A draenei, on another planet, that gets consummed by the Burning Legion.

The last one i'm less inclined to do as something similar has been written and would involve alot of lore.

Since i have only 3 days any help would be appreciated.

Pyschotaz wrote:

Soldier/civilian etc....in Lordaeron just after it's fall. He is evading the undead, but would be caught up in some kind of adventure.

Sounds to me like the nicest story... as it can be quite interesting to read what happens and pretty much the "terror" that person goes through in his adventure.

am afraid I'm not good with names either.

Why don't you just use some of the WAL RPers' names?
Well,at least you can use mine if you want
Also my DK (Kevgrethor) was once a citizen of Lordaeron,though he (obviously) hasn't quite "evaded the undeath"
You can use that one as well.

Thanks guys.

Starting to think that the person will be in the capital city for Arthas' return and the sotry will include some events before hand (strat, hearthglen) and then the main adventure afterwards.

Good luck in the contest, Taz, I hope you won't be late with sending in the story.

About generating fantasy names, there are quite some methods to do so.
Human names: Take some historic-sounding, Roman, German or Viking name, and perhaps change one letter in it. For family names, it's usually the combination of two words (like Proudmoore, Lightbringer etc.), often reflecting the human's personality.
Troll names: Take a short syllable, like Gar, Vol, Sul, Taz, etc., then add an apostrophe, and another short syllable, like din, ja, li, etc.
Draenei names: I'm not so good at them...

Ok this is the current idea and a basic plot.

There are two main characters.

A Merchant's son and a mercenary soldier.

The soldier is hired by the Merchant to protect the son.

The soldier is an arrogant bastard towards the son, but charming to others.

The son is inexperienced and makes mistakes.

They are both from Kul'Tiras.

The father owns some merchant vessels and trades with the northern kingdoms and is very powerful in Kul'tiras.

The story will start around southshore and near andorhol, where they are trying to sell their shipment. They fail to sell their shipment, but while they are there the son over hears about a new cheap source of grain (the plagued grain) and buys some before selling it on to be sent to the northlands. It was a quick profit and he felt it would salvage the journey in the eyes of his father.

The father and son don't get along. It may be some past event, or it could be the selling of this grain. However the when the truth about the plagued grain comes out, the father realises what happened.

Months later, the son and father (with the soldier) travel to the capital city of Lordaeron, leaving their ship of the coast of silverpine forest. While they are there, Prince Arthas returns and kills, King Terenas. They have to escape while the city burns and the father is killed as they are fleeing. (I'm thinking building collapses).

The soldier and the son try to make their way back to the ship.

Eventually they reach it and find it's destroyed.

They then have to find another way home.

They meet some refugees at some point (this can happen before or after they reach their ship)

There will be a girl involved who both the son and the soldier are interested in.

There will be encounters with the scourge, which will allow the son to develop.

There will be towards the end a large encounter with the undead, maybe they have to survive or attack somewhere and they will meet up with some remnants of the army or a group of paladins.

Finally the son will die, in the last big encounter, but the soldier and girl with some of the refugees will survive and reach Kul'Tiras.

Possibly the merchant's son will get together with the girl, but at either then end or start, the girl will be telling the story of the son in a personal way.

Ok...so that's the basic outline.

There will be alot of filling information in between, which i'll write later.

What i really need help with is the big event at the end. I want something interesting, but not typical.

Also any other suggestions would be appreciated.

I like your ideas for the story. It can be a coming-of-age story, about the merchant's son reaching adulthood.

May be a total cliché, but you cannot go wrong by adding a comic dwarf character, too.

I will add other character's later, but yeah definitely will flesh it out. Gonna power write tomorrow.

NEEDS MOAR PANDAREN!!!!

But yeah, nice stuff and good luck to you.

Another edit:

Possibly in the refugees is a member of the cult of the damned. He will appear to be a good leader, but is actually leading them inot a trap. Something like that.

Pyschotaz wrote:

Another edit:

Possibly in the refugees is a member of the cult of the damned. He will appear to be a good leader, but is actually leading them inot a trap. Something like that.

A traitor is a clever idea, it's an interesting plot twist.

Draenei names: Faenu, Rajani, Volkan

Or as said before..Use names of WaL-members?

Not to put you down in any way, Siheld, but I'd consider using the names of other peoples' characters (especially if done without asking), very rude.

Otherwise, thumbs up. Remember to add your story here afterwards!

Aelhaiarn wrote:

Not to put you down in any way, Siheld, but I'd consider using the names of other peoples' characters (especially if done without asking), very rude.

I think it depends upon how they are used. For me, if the character is not used out of character and nothing major happens to them I see no problem. That said, asking if it was ok would is never a bad thing.

I'm referring to a discussion in LFRP some weeks ago. The Blizzard contest has these curious rules, including that they will own all copyrights concerning everything presented in the stories that are sent to them. Now, if you want to throw your stuff into that swamp, that's completely alright. But using other peoples' innovations (be they good or not) is not only rude, but probably also illegal to some extend. People do have some rights over their own works - such as character stories, pictures and so on - even if they aren't registered trademarks. I would strongly advice for asking permissions before using anyone's creations in your own stuff.

1. If I knew the WoW universe better ...

2. If I had more time and knew about it earlier (as opposed to earning a living as a full-time writer) ...

3. If some cocksucker (aka Blizzard Entertainment) didn't try and steal your copyright ...

4. ... I might have entered this

Copyrights? Don't make me laugh.
Try searching for your unique names here and here.

I agree that using other people's character's name without their permission is rude. But with their permission, it's probably all right.

Avior wrote:

Copyrights? Don't make me laugh.
Try searching for your unique names here and here.

Mate, I'm talking about a general principle here, not a game-specific issue. This is my view as a full-time writer who makes his living from the trade. If you don't get paid for what you write and worse you don't even own it, then it's a hobby at best. My point, therefore, perhaps different from Avior talking about *in game* issues (like names and Blizzard's universe) is that it's cool to enter this competition as a hobby. But as a theoretical and practical principle, I'm precluded from doing so partly because I wouldn't own my own creation (the words).

Anyway, we're kind of getting side-tracked here. It's not the main point, it's just specific to me as a writer by profession, no-one else.

Avior wrote:

Copyrights? Don't make me laugh.

Avoiding sentences such as "dont make me laugh" if you really don't know your field will save your face. We're speaking about the name's context to the story. I could easily write a story whose main character is "Bilbo"*, despite any J.R.R Tolkien's (and his descendants') rights, if the character would have nothing to do with a certain hobbit or similar fantasy surroundings. However, should I write and publish a story using Bilbo in even slightly similar surroundings, I'd sail into very murky waters.

*(Today's Funny Fact: "Bilbo" = a Spanish sword originally invented in the village of Bilbao)

Opathu wrote:

But as a theoretical and practical principle, I'm precluded from doing so partly because I wouldn't own my own creation (the words).

This is what I thought, too. But it's kinda understandable, the competition being aimed for young hobby writers and all.

Ps. That sig just direly reminded me that pornography is a very existent piece of literature. <adds porn to the next story>

[quote="Aelhaiarn"]

Opathu wrote:

Ps. That sig just direly reminded me that pornography is a very existent piece of literature. <adds porn to the next story>

You know, you're the first person who's actually spotted it ^^. It comes from England in about 1750, from a famous "erotic" novel of the time. It's my little stab at humour ... ^^

Opathu wrote:

I wouldn't own my own creation (the words).

Too much owning,huh?
Anyway,i pretty much agree with you here.

Aelhaiarn wrote:

I could easily write a story whose main character is "Bilbo"*, despite any J.R.R Tolkien's (and his descendants') rights, if the character would have nothing to do with a certain hobbit or similar fantasy surroundings. However, should I write and publish a story using Bilbo in even slightly similar surroundings, I'd sail into very murky waters.

Now whos face we're actually talking about here?
Point 1: What Pyschotaz is about to do can easily be classified as the underlined.How many Aelhaiarns do you think can be there on Azeroth?
Point 2: Did you actually know that one certain russian fantasy writer (quite famous here) has actually written (and published) a straightforward continuation of the original LotR trilogy? It's about a hobbit named Folko Brandybuck (yep,a descendant of Merry) and his adventures in Middle-earth during the Fourth Age.The book itself sucks completely,but other than that i see no "murky waters" here.

Actually, the genre of "fanfiction" is literally about using characters that already exist in another piece of literature or any other work, and putting them in a new situation. Fanfiction is not copyright breaking, since it's solely for fun purposes, and the author will not earn any money from it.