The Rules:
1) Design a skill (or spell, or supplication) that would fit into an existing class (or classes) between levels 1-20. No inherents this time. Entries must be in during the month of May.

2) You should name it, give a rough idea of its function, and provide two brief fake logs of the skill in action: one from the perspective of the user, and another from someone else's perspective. You should give some idea of external factors that help or hinder the ability where appropriate.

3) Judging will be done on originality, thematic appropriateness, practicality of implementation, and game balance. Valguarnera bears ultimate responsibility for judging, but will consult other members of the staff. (Even Arvam.)

4) All submissions become the exclusive property of Carrion Fields, and the author forfeits control of the final implementation. Carrion Fields may rename, tweak, limit, or otherwise alter some or all of the entry to make it fit within the game. The author will be credited on this website.

4B) Because of this: Don't get hung up on the numbers! Focus your effort on the concept and we'll pick any needed numbers based off of analogous abilities. Describe things in broader terms ("reliable accuracy", "also deals slight damage", etc.).

5) Be respectful of the work of others. Any submissions found to be someone else's intellectual property will be rejected immediately, and the submitter possibly disqualified from future contests. Create, don't copy!

6) Winners will be announced on this forum. I'll kick in a donation of one PBF for each ability that makes it into play.

Some general advice:
1) Avoid the temptation of submitting an ability that is so good that it makes many other abilities obsolete. Conversely, make sure you'd honestly want to practice this ability if you could. We're looking for abilities that supplement a class, not reinvent it.

2A) Be concise OOC. If the ability takes more than a paragraph to describe in general, it's likely too complicated. Avoid abilities of the form "This does one of twelve things..."-- these abilities are often much more time-consuming to balance and implement.

2B) Be concise IC. If an echo can usually be kept under 80 characters (one line for many users), it's preferable to one that cannot. This is particularly important with respect to echoes that will pop up frequently (i.e. a combat ability, as opposed to a supplication with a 12-hour duration).

3) Be flashy. Especially because at the low levels, we'd really like to "Wow!" new players.

4) Fit the class's style. Berserkers won't get finesse defense. Healers won't blast away for damage. Invokers won't deal holy damage. Shapeshifters primarily change their own form, not that of others. Etc.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com