New Babbage, Second Life: Invitation to the 2026 Oiling Festival

A message from Clockwinder Tenk, Mayor of New Babbage

It’s come to my attention that a lot of the newer (read: post-mesh era) folks never experienced the “just build it” ethic New Babbage was founded on. This is your opportunity to fling some prims. There are no restrictions on build techniques. Old Skool builds are appreciated.

While the residents of the city are known to be Steampunks, the city itself is deeply rooted in the “New Weird” speculative fiction subgenre pioneered by authors such as China Mieville and Jeff Vandermeer. There is a story being told without words by the city itself, through the buildings, the streets, and the things you find along the way. Building is essential to the New Babbage way of life, our storytelling, and roleplay.

The original Oiling Festival was held in 2009 to add needed items to the city inventory and invite the greater Steamlands to experience our unique “building is roleplay” way of life. All good citizens of the Steamlands and beyond are encouraged to roll up their sleeves, show their civic pride, and BUILD!

The Oiling Festival is open now until June 14th.
Builds must be placed by SLT Midnight, June 13th
Judging will take place Sunday, June 14th (World Steampunk Day).

This year’s categories are—

LARGE BUILDS

HONKIN’ BIG MACHINES
sponsor: City Hall (Mr. Tenk)
prizes: L$3000/2000/1000/500
impact: 100
Location: various

There’s a certain sense of awe one gets when watching a monumental engine go through its paces – whether it’s the massive pistons of an ocean liner’s engine room or the elegant, massive power of a beam engine pumping water. So build one – it doesn’t matter what it does, but it should move, be noisy, and be huge. An HBM will fit on a 25×25 meter platform, have a land impact of no more than 100. Entry limited to platforms available. One entry per person. Build only on city provided platform, rez prim on platform to claim.

Group One: Builder’s Square (3)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Academy%20of%20Industry/218/101/111

Group Two: Red’s Gardens in Wheatstone (3)

Group Three: Clockhaven Harbor (3)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Clockhaven/159/102/103

CLOCKTOWERS
sponsor: The Most Worshipful and Ancient Guild of Clockworkers (Mr. Tenk)
prizes: L$3000/2000/1000/500
impact: 50~100
Location: The Fells

Most of the clocks in town have stopped working due to scripts/viewer upgrades/whatever. Make some new ones? They don’t have to be practical.
Place builds on the rolling green Fells. Box vendors are ok.

SMALL BUILDS

UNDERGROUND ENTRANCES
sponsor: The Sneaky Vole (Tepic Harlequin)
prizes: L$2000/1500/1000/500
impact: keep it low & practical
Location: Exhibit Hall back room

Doors, portals, grates, whatever. Provide objects that can be fitted with teleporters or other experiential gateways. HINT: it is often easier to build a sewer or cellar set in a skybox than deal with cramped underground building conditions or causing an eyesore with disturbed ground.
Place objects in the back room of the Exhibit Hall.

DRY GOODS
sponsor: The Gangplank (Junie Ginsburg)
prizes: L$2000/1500/1000/500
impact: 2
Location: Exhibit Hall front room

What’s on our shelves? In our pantries? Our must-haves that are always on our shopping lists?
Place objects on the designated tables in the Exhibit Hall. Items should be self explanatory.
Hint: Can you texture a box or a cylinder? This is ALMOST a 2D category.

BIJOU SHRINES AND TEMPLES
sponsor: The Church of the Builder (Brother Lapis)
prizes: L$2000/1500/1000/500
impact: 25
Location: Exhibit Hall front room, south side

From impromptu sidewalk shrines to half forgotten shrines built into the walls, there’s something about these that makes a place feel very lived in. Show us something we don’t know about the city.
Place objects on the tables or in along the walls of the front room of the Exhibit Hall. You may include a descriptive placard and place objects for sale.
Note Bene: keep it Fictional and in the theme of the City Lore.

WEARABLE – SMALL WEAPONS
sponsor: Traveler’s Station (Tripp Foxtail)
prizes: L$2000/1500/1000/500
impact: 25
Location: exhibit hall tables, front room

The world because more dangerous after the Old Empire fell. What are we packing?
Place objects on the designated tables in the exhibit hall. You may also put a descriptive card & box vendor next to it.

NAUTICAL

BARGES
sponsor: Loner Lane (Anne Aurelia)
prizes: L$1000 to winner
impact: 20
location: Port Babbage

Barges are versatile platforms for whatever you can think of building over water. Make some. They don’t have to be mobile.
Moor objects along designated dock in Port Babbage, and along the seawall towards the old Post Office.. You may set them for sale.

VEHICLES

ICE CRAWLER (CITY INFRASTRUCTURE)
sponsor: New Babbage Transit Authority
prizes: L$3000/2000/1000/500
impact: 30. Needs to allow vehicle script (like the trams)
Location: Iron Bay

Once upon a winter, there was an ice crawler to replace the water taxis. Unfortunately, an early spring caused it to fall through to the bottom of Iron Bay where it may be there still. It was a beast of a build for which we have no record of. No one has ever managed to find it. Build a new one please?
Place crawlers in front of the old Bay Steel factory in Iron Bay.
Selected items may be be added to the NBTA inventory.

2D

THEATER
sponsor: The Phantasmagoria
prizes: L$2000/1500/1000/500
impact: 1
Location: Exhibit Hall front room, south side wall

We have theaters, but what is on the playbills? Make some posters please.
Place your items on the designated wall in the Exhibit Hall. Items should be self explanatory and may be set for sale.

GRAFITTI
sponsor: The Pennyfarthing Boys
prizes: L$1000/700/400
impact: 1
Location: east wall inside rail tunnel under City Hall block

Nothing gages the pulse of the streets quite like what’s on the adjacent walls. Brushstrokes and chalk are nice, but no spray paint, please.

Hint: to get rid of the black bleed line that appears on some transparent texture uploads, set repeat at less than 1.

BEER LABELS
sponsor: The Gangplank (Junie Ginsburg)
prizes: L$2000/1500/1000/500
impact: 1
Location: Exhibit Hall back bar

Since the festival will go into June, which is National Drinking Month, we will need something alcoholic. Place your objects and/or posters in the designated space in the back room of the Exhibit Hall, between the sandwich board signs, near the bar

STORYTELLING

sponsor: The Inkwell (Ceejay Writer)
prizes: L$2500/1000/500
Length: 500 to 1000 words
TOPIC: “If These Streets Could Talk… Cobblestone Adventures in New Babbage”

The streets of New Babbage have stories to tell.

Beneath the hiss of steam pipes and the glow of gaslight, life unfolds in New Babbage’s cobbled lanes, shadowed alleyways, bustling corners, and rain-slick intersections. A chance encounter outside a tea shop. A mysterious mechanical conveyance rattling through the fog. A quarrel overheard near the docks. A celebration spilling from a pub into the street at midnight. Every byway holds the possibility of adventure.

For this contest, choose a specific street, alley, bridge, square, or intersection somewhere within New Babbage and set your story there. Your tale may be whimsical, suspenseful, romantic, mysterious, comedic, eerie, adventurous, or decidedly uncategorizable — but the city’s byways must play a meaningful role in the scene.

You are invited to capture the spirit of New Babbage through its public spaces and the people, animals, “it’s complicateds,” and automatons that pass through them. Or perhaps your story is entirely city—no citizen or visitor involved. Only you know.

GUIDELINES
Stories must be set in New Babbage. The action should center around a street, alleyway, intersection, bridge, or other public thoroughfare.
Any tone or genre is welcome, provided it fits the spirit of New Babbage and community standards.
Ceejay Writer will judge whether each story fulfills the challenge.

…Wait. What’s that sound coming from around the corner?
Maybe you should go find out.

SUBMISSION FORMAT
Send stories via inward notecard to Ceejay Writer, or email your entry to Lori@ceejaywriter.com

NOTES

LAND IMPACT
Impact is a squirrellier thing these days. Restrictions are suggestions with the exception of HBMs, which are traditionally 100 prims.

PERMISSIONS
Making your projects available to others and/or uploading it to the Marketplace is strongly encouraged. Passive income is best income. To this end, MAKE SURE YOUR STUFF IS UPLOADED FULL PERM, ESPECIALLY TEXTURES! There have been unresolvable inheritance bugs in the past that have made objects USELESS to pass on to anyone else, and one never knows when said bug may resurface. You can change the perms once they are inworld. NEVER use a texture that is not full perm.

FURTHER QUESTIONS
Should be referred to Mr. Tenk or the category sponsor. If no sponsor is specifically named, that’s Mr Tenk making things up again.