Behold the King of the Monsters Contest, the greatest and most glorious contest Kobold Quarterly has ever offered. It’s easy to become King of the Monsters: you design a monster and submit it for fame and prizes.

Here’s how it works: To enter the contest, your monster submission must…

• Be sent to the King of the Monsters Contest no later than Tuesday, December 1st, by noon PST. (That’s only 2 weeks from now!)
• Be submitted as a doc, docx, or rtf attachment.
• Read KotM Submission [insert monster name] in the email subject line, and the email should contain your full name and contact information.
• Be designed for 3rd Edition D&D, 4th Edition D&D, or Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
• Be 800 words or less and contain 1 full statblock (no more, no less) and the appropriate flavor text and lore to flesh out your creation. (You should look to previously published Monday Monsters for insight about format and structure. The quick drake and terror bird are good examples—but with only one statblock.)

We are looking for monsters of all kinds and all levels. Even a CR 1/4 reptilian humanoid can rise to be king.

Judging
All submissions that meet the criteria will be entered in the contest and be judged by us, the Kobolds, on originality, effective writing and design, and “fun.” The 10 best monsters will be published as Monday Monsters and be voted on by the public. Of those 10 monsters, the one with the winning votes will be crowned King of the Monsters in February 2010.

You already know the first two judges, Kobold Quarterly’s very own Wolfgang Baur and Scott Gable. But who’s the third judge, you ask? The celebrity judge? None other than Jeff Grubb:

Forged from the molten core of a living mountain of pure awesome, Jeff Grubb now strides through the galaxy, rendering his judgment of the good, the bad, and the weirdly intriguing. More than a man, less than a god, he is… Jeff Grubb.

(Jeff is one of the founders of Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms, and the author of novels, comic books, short stories, and innumerable game products. He also had a hand in the modrons, which we make sure to remind him of so he doesn’t get too cocky.)

Prizes for the King
As the king, the winning monster will have its portrait commissioned, and this beautiful art will be displayed to the public in the winner’s announcement. In addition, its designer will receive a free print and PDF copy of their choice of the Zobeck Gazetteers, and the King of the Monsters will be published in a future issue of Kobold Quarterly. It’s good to be the king.

Contest Rules
1. The contest is open to all.
2. One entry per person.
3. By entering this contest, you authorize the use of your name and/or likeness without additional compensation for promotion and/or advertising purposes in all media.
4. All entries become property of Open Design and may be published on KQ.com without prior notice or additional compensation.
5. This contest is subject to federal, state, and local laws where applicable.
6. Open Design reserves the right to withdraw or terminate this contest at any time without prior notice.
7. All decisions of Open Design and the contest judges are final.