5 Helpful Hints for Bardic Entries

Iron Realms Entertainment not only offers a variety of RPG games, but it also provides opportunities for players to win game credits that can be used to boost a character’s stats or buy coveted artefacts that do everything from give instant travel abilities to hide a character’s name and location from most of the other players.

 

Use Notepad

Sure, it lacks ways to spellcheck and count how many words your entry has, but it’s free! And it’s one of the only way to successfully transfer anything you write into the editors built into Iron Realms role playing games -- as well as the website version that accepts Bardic entries. Use any other program at your own risk. Don’t say you weren’t warned!

 

Double-check Your Spelling

“But wait!” You’re thinking, “You just told me notepad doesn’t have spellcheck!” While this is true, you can copy and paste your entry into an empty Google Docs or Microsoft Word page to see glaring spelling errors. Don’t worry so much about grammar. Fortunately the judges are real people like you and me playing the part of a Divine character in a role play game setting, and not your high school grammar teacher!*

 

Use Proper Grammar

I know, I know. I just said don’t worry so much about grammar, right? That’s not entirely true. Do you like communicating with people who use shoddy speech? I sure don’t! Whether in real life or in a role playing game, they’re just difficult to understand. The same bears true for literature. While it’s unnecessary to apply every last rule on the Wikipedia article titled English grammar to your entry, try to avoid glaring errors.

 

Add a Clever Literary Twist

If you’ve ever come to the end of a story or poem and thought, “Wow, I never saw that coming!” then you aren’t alone. Use the events preceding the end to build up to a heart-wrenching climax and then BAM! For instance, have a thief slip away unnoticed, pockets filled with spoils. Perhaps the assassin finds himself blending in with a throng of onlookers gaping at the hero’s mutilated form and pretending to be ignorant of what just happened. Maybe the princess, instead of running off with the handsome knight, finds her happily-ever-after in the arms of ... his sister? And if it looks like people might be on to you, surprise them by going with the original ending or better yet, leave the piece open for a sequel.

 

Flatter a Divine (or Several Divine)

Sometimes, being distinctly Achaean isn’t enough on its own for being noticed in the Bardics. Flattering the upper echelon isn’t exactly a new tactic. Writers have been doing this since before Shakespeare flattered King James I in his play, The Tragedy of Macbeth. But who doesn’t like having their ego stroked, even in a role playing game? Now I can’t speak for the officials, but I were judging the contest, I’d vote for something that flattered me!

 

There’s no guarantee that your literary talents for writing RPG game based content will get noticed in the Achaean Bardic competition, even if you follow every one of the above tips to the letter. If your entries aren’t winning and you haven’t been trying any of the above, what have you got to lose? If you try and aren’t noticed, try re-reading and see where you can improve. Have a friend (or a few friends) read over it and consider their suggestions. No matter what tips and tricks you apply to an edited draft of a losing entry remember -- there’s nothing saying you can’t enter a losing entry multiple times until it gets a prize!

 

*Any similarity between the Divine character(s) in your role play game setting of choice and your high school grammar teacher is merely coincidental.

Written by: Becky James as Penelope Swain

Edited by: Tony Celentano

Read the original publication of this article and more like it on the Achaea website.