Grover Posted August 2 Posted August 2 The Guilds of Historica Prelude to Book IV Prelude Challenge: All the World's a Stage... With the Queen’s power cemented, the rebuilding of Historica had largely been completed, and peace on the mainland had once again taken hold. With the return of peace came the beginnings of prosperity, and with that the time for self-reflection and improvement. The University of Petrea had never had so many students waiting to enroll, and music and the arts flourished. Traveling bards brought news from all corners of the realms, and with it songs, trinkets, stories, skills, and entertainment. The definitions of a bard have been many through the ages: historian, story teller, verse-maker, music composer, genealogist, troubadour, minstrel, and author. All around Historica, bards spread far away cultures, skills, and music. These bards set the stage for a new era of learning, culture, and invention. Category A: Hometown Advantage Bards wandered far and wide but usually kept a home base they could return to, a secure place where they were famous and comfortable, and could always count on a supportive audience. This could be a theater, a tavern room, a small school, a musician’s guild, a art studio, or any manner of place of performance for an audience. Your task: Build the home venue of a bard from your sig fig's community. Your story should describe the bard, the venue, and their places in your community. Maximum size: Unlimited. Miscellaneous: Unlike most challenge builds, this can count toward the Historican Settlements (HSS). Category B: Those who can... Teach Bards are repositories of oral history, but they also spread many new skills they have collected in their travels through teaching. Some taught students one at a time, others large groups, and the range of subjects is vast: history, music, art, casting a fishing line, sewing, brewing, knife throwing, etc. Your task: Show a bard teaching someone (or multiple people) something. This does not have to be the same bard as Category A if you choose to enter it, and does not have to be your sig fig's community. Your story should include the subject/lesson being taught, the location/community, and any other relevant details (e.g., where did this skill come from? Why is the bard teaching this? Who is interested? etc.) Maximum size: 16 x 16 area or equivalent (256 studs area, must be continuous) with nominal overhang, border included (i.e., if you choose to include a border, it must fit within this 256 stud continuous area). General Rules Scoring: All builds must pass an entry gate: 1. Does your build fit the category?* 2. Does your build meet the challenge requirements? If either of these are Fail, the build is disqualified. Builds will be scored on build creativity, quality, presentation, and story. Only one winner from each category will be selected. * Double dipping with concurrent contests is allowed, but be reasonable: don’t build a blacksmith for one competition then resubmit it here for a ‘mathematician’ build and simply say the blacksmith is a mathematician too. Rules: One entry per category per person. No clone brands (Megablocks, KREO, etc) allowed, but 3rd party (or your own custom waterslide decals, prints etc.) fig parts and accessories (Brickarms, Citizen Brick, etc.) are acceptable. Custom non-Lego elements similar to what Lego provides (cloth capes and sails, string etc.) Are allowed. The same person cannot win both categories, although you can enter both. Guild leaders are ineligible for prizes (since they judge the entries!). This contest is open to all Guilds of Historica members with a Eurobricks account created prior to 1 August 2025. All entries should be posted in their own topic, with the title of: "Book IV Prelude Challenge: Category X: Name of your build". Please also post a link to your topic here. Deadline: Entries due by 31 August 2025 at 11:59pm. Due to prize sourcing requirements, NO EXTENSIONS WILL BE GRANTED and THE PRIZE MUST BE CLAIMED WITHIN 48 HOURS OF WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT. If the winner does not respond in 48 hours, the prize will go to the runner up who will have 48 hours and so forth until someone claims the prize. Prizes: Prizes in both categories are the same this time. The prize with the highest score in Category A will win set 31168, 3 in 1 Medieval Horse Knight's Castle The prize with the highest score in Category B will win set 31168, 3 in 1 Medieval Horse Knight's Castle Thanks to @MKJoshA for the awesome banner picture! Questions: Does the 256 stud area in Category B include a border? Yes. If you choose to include a border, it must fit within the 256 stud area (that is, the border will eat into your 256 stud available building space should you choose to include one). Quote
Grover Posted August 5 Author Posted August 5 On 8/3/2025 at 9:17 AM, Velnerius said: I guess I've got a home to build for a bard! I look forward to seeing your creation! On 8/3/2025 at 11:27 AM, bmohnsen said: Looking forward to building this Welcome back! 7 hours ago, MrLind said: Great, it will be fun to start building again for GoH. It's great to see you back as well! Welcome to our new members, and welcome back to our continuing members. It's great to see some forward momentum and excitement going into Book IV! Quote
LettuceBrick Posted August 11 Posted August 11 If we don't have an established character should we post a sigfig in the appropriate Book III thread before doing this challenge? Quote
Grover Posted August 11 Author Posted August 11 4 minutes ago, LettuceBrick said: If we don't have an established character should we post a sigfig in the appropriate Book III thread before doing this challenge? Yes, please! If you are new and would like to participate in the prelude challenge, you need to officially join the Guilds before you are eligible (so you would need to do this before the end of the challenge period). Fortunately, this is a simple matter. You need to post a pic of your sig fig and a short description (usually this is around a paragraph) in the guild thread that you officially declare for (Avalonia, Mitgardia, etc.). Anyone wishing to join Varlyrio should post a simple sig fig pic and description for the moment, not a full family, as we are working on the 'intrigue' rules at the moment. Descriptions are very much up to you. Feel free to browse the guild threads to see examples. If for some reason you are unhappy with your guild, you may always change at the Book change, so once Book IV starts, we will be asking everyone, old and new, to declare for their Book IV guild, and you can officially change then if you wish. Welcome aboard, and I hope you enjoy building and the challenges! Quote
Seagull King of Vaughan Posted August 11 Posted August 11 One other question, from those of us who are new: for Challenge B, does the 16x16 area include a border around the build? Quote
Grover Posted August 12 Author Posted August 12 5 hours ago, Seagull King of Vaughan said: One other question, from those of us who are new: for Challenge B, does the 16x16 area include a border around the build? Good question, as borders can go either way. Since this is not a hard 16 x 16 square and you can rearrange to your taste as long as it's a continuous 256 stud area, if you wish to include a border, it will eat into your 256 stud area to build on (so yes, the border must fit within the given area). I'll add this to the challenge description. Quote
Grover Posted August 13 Author Posted August 13 1 hour ago, zoth33 said: Is Nocturnus available to join? It wasn't for Book III, which we are technically still in, so if you want to join Nocturnus, make your sig fig post in the Interest thread to officially join the GoH, and then when Book IV opens, we will have the official call for everyone, old and new, to post their sig fig in the new threads. Thanks for asking! Quote
TalusMoonbreaker Posted August 23 Posted August 23 Hello! Here is a link to my submission: Excited to see what everyone else creates! Quote
T-86(swebrickLUG) Posted August 24 Posted August 24 How many corners am I gonna be have to cut to finish in time!? ALL OF THEM 😂 Quote
Velnerius Posted August 24 Posted August 24 Finished my B challenge build today, only need to take the photos now! For my A challenge build, I’m still waiting for a bricklink order with some final pieces, and I’m praying it arrives in time!!! Quote
Simon_S Posted August 26 Posted August 26 Here's my entry for Category B: Thanks a lot for organizing! That challenge was a lot of fun to build for! Quote
bmohnsen Posted August 27 Posted August 27 Book IV Prelude Challenge: Category B: The Archery Lesson Check it out on Flickr - Quote
Grover Posted August 28 Author Posted August 28 This is great to see entries rolling in! I debated commenting on builds, but I decided to wait until the contest was over. It's getting exciting! Quote
Seagull King of Vaughan Posted August 28 Posted August 28 My entry for Category B. Category A is almost done as well! Quote
Seagull King of Vaughan Posted August 29 Posted August 29 My entry for Category A! I really enjoyed building this one and populating it with characters. Quote
SimWies Posted August 29 Posted August 29 (edited) My entry to Category A of the Prelude Challenge. I had great fun building and I am looking forward to all of Book IV! Edited August 29 by SimWies Quote
Velnerius Posted August 29 Posted August 29 Finished both my entries! If I may, I have what may be a bit of a stupid question; if I've understood correctly, there's a maximum quality for photos on Eurobricks. I've stuck with these limitations for my photos, but it's resulted in what I think to be subpar quality photos. Am I missing something? Quote
jtooker Posted August 29 Posted August 29 On 8/2/2025 at 9:54 AM, Grover said: Entries due by 31 August 2025 at 11:59pm. @Grover - what is the timezone? Quote
Grover Posted August 30 Author Posted August 30 13 hours ago, Velnerius said: Finished both my entries! If I may, I have what may be a bit of a stupid question; if I've understood correctly, there's a maximum quality for photos on Eurobricks. I've stuck with these limitations for my photos, but it's resulted in what I think to be subpar quality photos. Am I missing something? Images uploaded directly to EB are very small and meant for avatars and signatures. You will need an external photohosting account like flickr imgur or the like. Fortunately most of these are free. One note: you have to directly link the picture (you can't use BB code anymore). Let me know if you have issues with this. 12 hours ago, jtooker said: @Grover - what is the timezone? Since we did not specify, and we are this close to the deadline, we must say as long as it is still August 31 somewhere in the world, you are good. So I think that may be Howland Island at UTC -12 maybe? Quote
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