Copyright

We electronically publish The Wyrd Con Companion Book as a PDF under a Creative Commons license. This license allows everyone, for free, to copy, distribute, and transmit the work under the following conditions:

• Proper attribution as stated in our table of contents.
• No one may alter, transform, or build upon this work.
• No one may use the work for commercial purposes.*
• This is a non-exclusive right; you can re-publish your article elsewhere, as long as the original publication (WCCB) is listed.
• If you are submitting a previously published work, you must notify the Editors of this fact in your first query.
• Everyone must have all rights to their submission.

Document Format

• For text, we prefer Microsoft Word documents.
• When using MS-Word, use the “Insert Footnote” function for your footnotes, numbered continuously, at the bottom of the page.
• Include a Bibliography and Ludography of works cited at the end of the document.
• Use Chicago style for citations following these general guidelines.
• Articles should feature a maximum of 5000 words in length, though the editors may grant more words at their discretion.

Hyperlinks

This PDF will be a hyperlinked document. For journalistic articles, please include both hyperlinks and footnotes. Academic articles should contain mainly footnotes. Make sure the URL is publicly accessible and not part of a registration-required service.

Language

• English language only, with American spellings, e.g., “parlor” not “parlour” unless the word is part of a group name or official title.
• The word “larp” is always lower case unless the first word of a sentence.
• “Role-playing” is hyphenated.
• Periods are always inside quotes.
• Special terms should be italicized and defined.
• The following abbreviations are acceptable without definition: GM, PC, NPC, D&D, IC, OOC, OOG, IG. However, please spell out when possible, i.e. “game master” is preferred over GM.
• Err on the side of defining abbreviations and other specific terms the first time they are used in your essay. Assume the reader is relatively new to the medium, but not completely unfamiliar with it.
• For the journalistic section, first person references and accounts are acceptable, as is profanity (to a limited degree). This is not, however, a forum to disparage harangue, slander, or harass others. Endeavor to write in as formal a tone as possible.

Images

• We encourage you to submit images to accompany your contribution. We cannot guarantee all images will appear in the final publication.
• Send your images separately from your text as full resolution .jpeg or .tiff. Color images will be in the .PDF, but they will be converted to B&W for the print version if we decide to print one.
• Make sure your images have a signifying title, not something like “IMG346_1.jpg”
• With the images must also be a separate document that lists each image by file name, includes your caption describing the photo, and lists photographer credits. In parentheses, you can also suggest where you would like the image to appear, i.e. what it references in your document text. We will endeavor to follow your suggestion, but cannot guarantee exact placement.
• All authors must have full clearance to use pictures, with the name of the photographer clearly credited in a separate document. Do not send us images you do not have the right to use or are not in the public domain.

Additional Media

We have some ability to include small audio or video clips in the PDF, if less than 20MB in file size. If you are interested in embedding audio or video to your contribution, talk to your editor. In general, it is easier to upload video or audio to an independent server — e.g., YouTube or Vimeo — and link to it in the text.

Bios

Each article should include a 100 word bio for each author. Links in the bio to personal pages are acceptable as well.

Editing

Editors reserve the rights to:

• reject a submission at any time
• adjust or request additions or extractions to the text
• correct spelling, punctuation, or grammar, or to request such corrections
• remove, crop, or otherwise alter the color/contrast of submitted images
• draw pull quotes from text

—

* We request that accepted contributors DO allow Wyrd Con the right to commercial exploitation of their work in a very narrow sense: Wyrd Con, at their own expense, has the right to print a maximum of 200 copies of the WCCB and sell or donate at their discretion in a manner of their choosing.

Call for Papers: The Wyrd Con Companion Book 2015

The Wyrd Con Interactive Storytelling Convention invites papers for December 2015 publication. The Wyrd Con Companion Book features two sections of articles: journalistic and academic. Articles on any form of interactive storytelling are welcome, including, but not limited to, the following: larp, transmedia, tabletop, alternate reality/pervasive games, virtual role-playing, subcultural analysis, etc.

The Wyrd Con Companion Book represents a new trend in scholarship that works to interweave the practical with the theoretical, the experiential with the analytical. Our publication includes articles from scholars, practitioners, designers, and participants of interactive storytelling experiences. The goal of the Companion Book is to provide a site of discourse to streamline multiple threads of conversation into a centralized location. Our publication connects strongly with other discursive sites with similar goals, such as the annual Knutpunkt books, the International Journal of Role-playing, and the Analog Game Studies journal.

We invite articles on all topics pertaining to interactive storytelling. The editors are especially interested in the following:

* Documentation of games or projects, past and present
* Historical perspectives on various subcultural groups, including campaigns, conventions, forums, and local “scenes” of all sorts
* Historical perspectives on various theories and discourses
* Educational, business, and other “real world” applications
* Contextualizing various forms of storytelling and subcultures with relation to one another
* Theoretical ruminations
* Discussion of mainstream representations of interactive storytelling, including news media, films, reality television, and documentaries
* Current subculture discourses, debates, and tensions
* Practical advice columns
* Editorial pontifications on current topics

Both tracks involve an lengthy editorial process. All academic papers should feature thorough, extensive citations by reputable sources in Role-playing Studies or other appropriate fields. The editors will choose experts in the field for double-blind peer review of academic articles. Journalistic submissions will also require some degree of citation in order to connect new ideas with other key texts in the field. The final document is a free, interactive PDF that features hyperlinked sources and links.

The timeline for The WyrdCon Companion Book is as follows:

Abstract Submission deadline: March 15
Acceptance notification: April 1
Full paper deadline (5000 words, not including Bibliography): May 15
Review comments returned to authors: June 15
Final drafts due: August 1
Projected publication date: December 1

Please send 500-word abstracts by March 15 to the coordinating editor, Sarah Lynne Bowman: wyrdcon-book (at) hotmail.com

Follow Chicago Style for the citations and formatting of academic submissions. Abstracts for the Academic Section should feature a Bibliography with a minimum of 3 scholarly sources.

See the Companion Book Style Guide for submission instructions. The editors may provide more extensive submission guidelines after acceptance notification. Feel free to email with additional inquiries throughout the process.

Call for Papers: The Wyrd Con Companion Book 2014

The Wyrd Con Interactive Storytelling Convention invites papers for December 2014 publication. Like last year, the Wyrd Con Companion Book will feature two sections of articles: journalistic and academic. Articles on any form of Interactive Storytelling are welcome, including, but not limited to, the following: larp, transmedia, tabletop, alternate reality/pervasive games, virtual role-playing, etc.

We invite articles on all topics pertaining to Interactive Storytelling. The editors are especially interested in the following:

* Documentation of games or projects, past and present
* Historical perspectives on various subcultural groups, including campaigns, conventions, forums, and local “scenes” of all sorts
* Historical perspectives on various theories and discourses
* Educational, business, and other “real world” applications
* Contextualizing various forms of storytelling and subcultures with relation to one another
* Theoretical ruminations
* Discussion of mainstream representations, including news media, films, reality television, and documentaries
* Current subculture discourses, debates, and tensions
* Practical advice columns
* Editorial pontifications on current topics

Please follow Chicago Style for the citations and formatting of academic submissions. Abstracts for the Academic Section should feature a Bibliography with a minimum of 3 scholarly sources. All academic papers should feature thorough, extensive citations by reputable sources in Role-playing Studies or other appropriate fields. The editors will invite experts in the field for double-blind peer review of academic articles.

The timeline for the WyrdCon Companion Book is as follows:

Abstract Submission deadline: April 30
Acceptance notification: May 14
Full paper deadline (5000 words, not including Bibliography): June 30
Review comments returned to authors: July 31
Final drafts due: October 1
Projected publication date: December 1

Please send 500-word abstracts by April 30 to the editor, Sarah Lynne Bowman: wyrdcon-book (at) hotmail.com

See the Companion Book Style Guide. The editor may provide more extensive submission guidelines after acceptance notification. Feel free to email with additional inquiries throughout the process.

Copyright

We are electronically publishing the 2013 Wyrd Con Companion Book as a PDF under a Creative Commons license. This license allows everyone, for free, to copy, distribute, and transmit the work under the following conditions:

• Proper attribution as stated in our table of contents
• No one may alter, transform, or build upon this work
• No one may use the work for commercial purposes. *
• This is a non-exclusive right; you can re-publish your article elsewhere, as long as the original publication (WCCB 2013) is listed.
• If you are submitting a previously published work, you must notify the Editors of this fact in your first query.
• Everyone must have all rights to their submission.

Document Format

• For text, we prefer Microsoft Word documents, but RTF or plain text is acceptable.
• If using MS-Word, use the “Insert Footnote” function for your footnotes, numbered continuously, at the bottom of the page.
• If you are not using MS-Word: number your footnotes and put them at the bottom of the page as best you can with the number attached. For academic papers, include a bibliography (ludography) of works cited at the end of the document.
• Use Chicago/Turabian style for citations.
• Articles should feature a maximum of 5000 words in length.

Hyperlinks

This PDF will be a hyperlinked document. The format for linking is:

next to the word or phrase that you want linked, put tildes, which is the ~ symbol (shift + key next to 1 on standard keyboards) on each side of the word or phrase. Immediately next to the second ~, put the full URL in fancy brackets; the { and } symbols.

Example:

Her essay in the 2012 ~Wyrd Con Companion Book~{http://wyrdcon.com/2012/12/21/2012-companion-book/} influenced the formation of the nation’s first traveling larp troupe.

In general, hyperlinks to the actual sources are preferable than footnotes. Avoid, if possible, both hyperlinking and footnoting. Make sure the URL is publicly accessible and not part of a registration-required service.

Language

• English language only, with American spellings, e.g., “parlor” not “parlour” unless the word is part of a group name or official title.
• The word “larp” is always lower case unless the first word of a sentence.
• “Role-playing” is hyphenated unless it is part of the phrase “live action role playing.”
• Periods are always inside quotes.
• Special terms should be italicized and defined.
• The following abbreviations are acceptable without definition: GM, PC, NPC, D&D, IC, OOC, OOG, IG.
• Authors should endeavor to spell out all other abbreviations the first time it appears in their essay only, e.g., AGP (after game party) or KP (Knutepunkt).
• Err on the side of defining abbreviations and other specific terms the first time it is used in your essay. Assume the reader is relatively new to the medium, but not completely unfamiliar with it.
• For the journal section, first person references and accounts are acceptable, as is profanity (to a limited degree). This is not, however, a forum to disparage harangue, slander, or harass others. Save it for the comments section and forums.

Images

• We encourage you to submit images to accompany your contribution. We cannot guarantee all images will appear in the final publication.
• Send your images separately from your text as full resolution jpeg or tiff. Color images will be in the PDF, but they will be converted to B&W for the print version. DO NOT EMBED OR PLACE IMAGES INTO YOUR TEXT!
• Make sure your images have a signifying title, not something like “IMG346_1.jpg”
• With the images must also be a separate document that lists each image by file name and includes your caption and who is to be credited for the photo. In parentheses, you can also suggest where you would like the image to appear, that is, what it is referencing in your document text. We will endeavor to follow your suggestion, but cannot guarantee exact placement.
• All authors must have full clearance to use pictures, with the name of the photographer clearly credited in a separate document. DO NOT SEND US IMAGES YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO USE OR WHICH ARE NOT IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.

Additional Media

We have some ability to include very small audio or video clips in the PDF, if less than 20MB in file size. If you are interested in embedding audio or video to your contribution, talk to your Editor. In general, it is easier to upload video or audio to an independent server, e.g., YouTube or Vimeo, and link to it in the text.

Bios

Each article should include a 100 word (or less) bio of the author(s). Links in the bio to personal pages are acceptable as well, following the hyperlink format listed above.

Editing

Editors reserve the rights to:

• reject a submission at any time
• adjust or request additions or extractions to the text
• correct spelling, punctuation, or grammar, or to request such corrections
• remove, crop, or otherwise alter the color/contrast of submitted images
• draw pull quotes from text

—

* We request that accepted contributors DO allow Wyrd Con the right to commercial exploitation of their work in a very narrow sense: Wyrd Con, at their own expense, has the right to print a maximum of 200 copies of the WCCB 2013 and sell or donate at their discretion in a manner of their choosing. All accepted contributors will receive one printed copy as compensation. However, shipping costs, if any, are to be paid by the contributor—but we’ll do out best to get it to you via hand offs and travelers if you don’t want to pay for shipping. This primarily applies to our international contributors.