The Hall of Fame is the place for your most interesting and entertaining stories from your gaming sessions. This is your chance to share these stories with the readership of The Saving Throw. Who knows? You might even inspire some to pick up tabletop gaming as a hobby.
Separate submissions, please
Due to the way I organize incoming submissions, please keep individual submissions separate. If you are placing your submissions in the email itself, then please send only one submission in each message. If you are sending submissions in attachments (text format is preferred), then please place each submission in individual attachments. Separate emails are still preferred when using attachments.
Try to submit stories that fit in one of these categories.
You don't have to specify which category you are submitting for, but it is appreciated. Reviewing the categories may also help inspire ideas. Brief descriptions of the categories follow:
- Funniest Gaming Moments: These are the gaming moments which the mere memory of still induce laughter.
- Proudest Gaming Moments: These are the times when the impossible or near impossible was accomplished.
- Most Dramatic Gaming Moments: These are the moments of true drama, where the players were truly drawn into the game.
- Most Creative Gaming Moments: These are the unique gaming moments where the sheer creativity, by the players or by the gamemaster, was profoundly memorable.
- Most Ridiculous Gaming Moments: These are the gaming moments that defy comprehension or are simply truly stupid or ridiculous
- Luckiest Gaming Moments: These are the gaming moments where pure dumb luck saved the day.
- Unluckiest Gaming Moments: These are the gaming moments where sheer statistical improbability was the greatest enemy.
- Most Embarrassing Gaming Moments: These are the gaming moments that only the good sports will share. These. . .are moments of shame.
- Most Disastrous Gaming Moments: These are the gaming moments that are best described as total disasters.
Avoid mature content and profanity.
Hall of fame stories should have no swearing, and please keep the story to roughly a PG-13 level in terms of violent or sexual content. Stories which contain subject matter appropriate only for mature audiences cannot be accepted.
Include a title, please
All hall of fame stories need a title. Submissions won't be rejected for a lack of title, though. I'll try to come with a suitable title if you don't provide one, but giving me a title makes things a little easier for me.
Let me know how you wish to be credited.
Give me the name, nickname, or alias you want me to use to credit you for your submission, and if you want me to link to one of your e-mail addresses. I hope it is obvious that I will not use any profane or obscene nickname or alias, and thus, this will also delay the publishing of your submission. Generally, if you do not specify how you want to be credit, I'll typically use whatever you sign off with or your email username. I only link to an email when requested to.
Set up the story in your first paragraph(s).
Make sure you give the readers all the needed background information in the first paragraph, or paragraphs, if needed, to understand the story that follows. You needn't explain the entire campaign; just include whatever facts are relevant to the story. It will probably be helpful if you identify which game you were playing, and any necessary details about the setting.
Stories need to stand alone.
Please do not count on readers to read your stories in a specific order or even read any of your previous entries in the hall of fame. Each story should be written with the expectation that it will be read by a first-time reader. Make sure each story has enough information in it to be enjoyed and understood on its own merit. You can reference previous stories, but please make sure a reader doesn't have to read a previous story to follow what's happening in this one.
Try to write the story so that a non-player can understand.
In addition, please do not assume that readers have prior experience playing tabletop RPGs or trading card games. Part of the reason for the existence of the hall of fame is to encourage others to try these games. Excessive amounts of unexplained jargon or insufficient detail will make it difficult for them to comprehend what it going on, and thus may discourage them rather than encourage them. At the same time, don't overload readers with unnecessary detail; it's important that enough is included to give them a basic overall understanding of what is happening. They don't need a full description of the rules or a complete history of a particular setting. Just provide those details relevant to the story.
Feel free to embellish it a bit.
No, I'm not asking you to lie! I'm asking you to have fun writing your story. Try to give the story some style and flair. Be appropriately descriptive of both what is happening in the game and how the players and gamemaster are reacting to it. If it is fun for you to write, it'll probably be fun to read. If you want, write it from the perspective of one of the characters; I'm all for creativity.
Pick something accessible.
The Hall of Fame is not a place for those "you had to be there" kind of stories. Try to pick something that others will find interesting, entertaining, or amusing, not just you and the people you were gaming with. Feel free to look at stories already in the Hall of Fame to get ideas of what is likely to be accessible.
Please proof all submissions first.
I will almost certainly look over your submissions myself, and I have no problem with correcting minor issues. If you have errors which require significant rewording to correct, or if I am not certain what you are getting at, I will generally ask you to correct said errors and resubmit. I'd rather do that than take the chance of misinterpreting something or otherwise improperly editing your submissions.
Submissions generally will not be rejected due to minor grammar or spelling errors, but extremely bad spelling or grammar may result in a request for a rewrite. If the errors can be fixed without resorting to a rewrite, I will usually do so myself, but it is always best to proof yourself, as I do miss errors sometimes.
Hall of Fame templates are now available.
If you're comfortable working with HTML files, you can download the proper template for the category of your submission. The templates contain HTML code, but are in .txt format. When using the templates, please submit as plain text attachments. This is due to server-side includes used by RPGamer; providing the templates as .html files would create certain problems.
Template Links
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iTunes