RPG Superstar™ Top 8 Announced!

The Top 8 for RPG Superstar have been announced and are advancing to Round 4, where our contestants will be creating a Golarion Location, Map and Encounter. The plot thickens, as they will also be playtesting these Encounters and using monsters from the Pathfinder Battles Heroes & Monsters miniatures. In this round, fan votes determine who advances to Round 5, in which the Top 4 will submit a Pathfinder Module adventure proposal. All finalist submissions, complete with judge and reader commentary, are posted to the paizo.com messageboards.

The Top 8 have until Friday, February 24 to complete their write up on their Location, Map and Encounter. On February 28, Paizo will reveal judge comments on all 8 submissions to the general public, who will then get to discuss the entries and vote for their favorites, as well as engage in the playtest. Voting starts on March 6 and ends March 12, and the Top 4 (by votes) will move on to Round 5.

The ultimate winner of RPG Superstar, announced April 3, 2012, will write a Pathfinder Module to be published in early 2013. The 2011 RPG Superstar champion module, Sam Zeitlin’s The Midnight Mirror, releases in April 2012.

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Tags: RPG Superstar
Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Way to represent, North Carolina!

(shout-out from Asheville)

RPG Superstar 2011 Top 8 , Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8 aka John Benbo

Congrats, top 8! Even though I got destroyed in last year's encounter round, it was actually the one I had the most fun doing and is still the the one I look forward to the most in this competition(beside the adventure pitch).

RPG Superstar 2011 Top 4 , Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7 aka Jatori

Congratulations Top 8! I'm looking forward to some good playtesting.

Marathon Voter Season 6

Congrats! I can't wait numeria to see what numeria you guys are able to cook numeria up !

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Well done all!

All seven entries that I voted for got through - Tom was the other one, and I think that was only because I somehow didn't read it...

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Congrats to all 8 of you to advance to the next round. I hope you're all in it to win it now, as there's no going back from this point. I look forward to seeing what you come up with for your encounters, as I'll be judging this round and keeping a close eye on everyone from here on out as a possible freelancer (regardless of final placement).

Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7

Congratulations to you all! Based on the glimpses of brilliance from all of you in the early rounds, I'm looking forward to running some fun playtests soon. Knock us out!

RPG Superstar 2011 Top 8 , Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8 aka John Benbo

Cheapy wrote:
Congrats! I can't wait numeria to see what numeria you guys are able to cook numeria up !

Yes, and if you make a giant robot head that shoots lasers, make sure it is in Numeria and not somewhere else like, say, Rahadoum. At least I can be example of what not to do for others...:).

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16 , Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7

Congratulations everyone. They were great monsters, now wow us with the encounters, please!

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8

Congratulations to he Top 8. Looking forward to following the rest of the ontest from the sideline, an playtesting the entries.

Btw, the blog post text says voting ENDS on March 6th, while the Superstar scheule with all the dates says it BEGINS on March 6th.

RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 aka motteditor

I'm also wondering is the challenge to design an encounter -- as the Superstar "front page" says -- or a location. Obviously they're going to be similar, but I don't think quite the same thing.

Monkey Goblins Attack!, for instance, was a great encounter, but obviously I wouldn't give it many points for a location.

Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber
John Bennett wrote:
Cheapy wrote:
Congrats! I can't wait numeria to see what numeria you guys are able to cook numeria up !
Yes, and if you make a giant robot head that shoots lasers, make sure it is in Numeria and not somewhere else like, say, Rahadoum. At least I can be example of what not to do for others...:).

Can we get some sharks with some frickin' laser beams attached to their heads?

Contributor

Jacob W. Michaels wrote:
I'm also wondering is the challenge to design an encounter -- as the Superstar "front page" says -- or a location. Obviously they're going to be similar, but I don't think quite the same thing.

It's a Location, Map, and Encounter.

Liberty's Edge

Great work!! Looking forward to this round!!!!

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32, 2012 Top 4

We can reference material from the Pathfinder Campaign Setting, but what about material from the Pathfinder Players Companion line?

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 4

Take it from me- don't just emphasize map and location, make sure your creature selection is interesting.

You don't want Clark writing, "Chain golems?!?!?"

Make it exciting on all three levels.

Liberty's Edge RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka Locke1520

Congratulations to the Top 8! The last round was very creative I'm really looking forward to what comes next. I've got my dice ready!


Congratulations! I had a 75% success rate in voting, so congrats to me, too! :-P

Contributor

Tom Phillips wrote:
We can reference material from the Pathfinder Campaign Setting, but what about material from the Pathfinder Players Companion line?

Ah, that should be "campaign setting," lower case, not specifically referring to the Campaign Setting (formerly Chronicles) product line. I'll ask Chris to update it.

Sczarni RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 , Champion Voter Season 6, Champion Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Champion Voter Season 9

Congrats guys! You should buy a couple packs of minis and use whatever you randomly get...

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Thomas LeBlanc wrote:
Congrats guys! You should buy a couple packs of minis and use whatever you randomly get...

Woe to the author who gets a skeleton, human druid, and watch guard x2 :)

Sczarni RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 , Champion Voter Season 6, Champion Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Champion Voter Season 9

Squeatus wrote:
Thomas LeBlanc wrote:
Congrats guys! You should buy a couple packs of minis and use whatever you randomly get...
Woe to the author who gets a skeleton, human druid, and watch guard x2 :)

Can't be as bad as my luck, 6 packs bought and 3 packs of Gnome fighter and dire rat.


Wow, North Carolina represent! Two from Raleigh, one from Apex (about 10 minutes from Raleigh), and one from Kernersville (about an hour away).


Proof that tobacco is good for the imagination? (See also Lewis, Tolkien...)

Contributor

Ok, regardless of where you guys go from here on out in the competition, I totally want to meet the four NC guys in the top 8 this year for drinks at some point (I'm in Raleigh too). :)


Mairkurion {tm} wrote:
Proof that tobacco is good for the imagination? (See also Lewis, Tolkien, Stewart...)

EDITED.

Legendary Games, Necromancer Games

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Congrats, Top 8!

It is one thing to get top 32. That is quite an honor. That means you had the mojo to catch our eye. That is hard enough.

Then Top 16 means you delivered again with a solid organization and showed promise for more to come.

Top 8 means you are starting to develop the kind of consistent and appealing resume that could make you a future RPG Superstar winner.
And don't forget, people from Top 8 on have gone on to some serious freelancing even if they don't win it all. So you have already arrived in some pretty rarified air.

But don't take your foot off the gas. Slam that pedal down! The finish line is still a way off, but it should be coming in sight.

You guys really should be proud of yourselves. Candidly, I dont think I could get this far in the contest.

Great work!

Clark

RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32, 2011 Top 4 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka DankeSean

Good job, guys! Best wishes over the next three days. I recall round 4 being by far the hardest to get done. Got very little sleep this time last year. And we didn't have the extra burden of knowing people would be playtesting our entries.
So. Y'know. No massive, overwhelming, crushing pressure or anything. :-)

Contributor

Mairkurion {tm} wrote:
Mairkurion {tm} wrote:
Proof that tobacco is good for the imagination? (See also Lewis, Tolkien, Stewart...)
EDITED.

*chuckle* I've never smoked anything in my life actually. My better half has a thing for pre-embargo cuban cigars though, and I suppose I get some second hand.

Clearly though, -all- of the top 8 are doing something good for the imagination. I'm looking forward to seeing what they do next :)

Dark Archive

Congrats to the Top 8, looking forward to the what you have in store for us in this next round.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Congratulations to those who got through and commiserations to those that didn't. One of my favourites has been knocked out, so particular commiserations to Andrew Marlowe, but I still have 2 in the running.
I'm looking forward to seeing the maps and encounters.

Scarab Sages

Woot! Congrats to all!


Todd Stewart wrote:
Mairkurion {tm} wrote:
Mairkurion {tm} wrote:
Proof that tobacco is good for the imagination? (See also Lewis, Tolkien, Stewart...)
EDITED.

*chuckle* I've never smoked anything in my life actually. My better half has a thing for pre-embargo cuban cigars though, and I suppose I get some second hand.

Clearly though, -all- of the top 8 are doing something good for the imagination. I'm looking forward to seeing what they do next :)

Don't give me that, "I didn't inhale" crap! You were in the room!

Mmm...Cuban! (Never had anything that wasn't POST-embargo, myself.)
;-)

Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Many congratulations all -

map fu, evil twin of template fu is sharpening his map reviewing talons right now and is eager to start.

I have also arranged a group of stalwart adv... - erm - fodder to feed to your encounters, so expect some more detailed feedback from me this round.

Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 9

Congrats to the top 8! Looking forward to what you come up with next round!


Way to go NC contestants! Congrats on getting this far.

Good luck in the encounter design section from Albemarle, NC.

Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7

Best of luck! We're already planning to run some of the encounters after the reveal. So make it worth our while!


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber
Cheapy wrote:
Congrats! I can't wait numeria to see what numeria you guys are able to cook numeria up !

*laughs* Too awesome.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber

Big time congrats!

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32, 2012 Top 4

Sean K Reynolds wrote:
Tom Phillips wrote:
We can reference material from the Pathfinder Campaign Setting, but what about material from the Pathfinder Players Companion line?
Ah, that should be "campaign setting," lower case, not specifically referring to the Campaign Setting (formerly Chronicles) product line. I'll ask Chris to update it.

Thank you, Sean.

Another question: Does "published content" include material published on the Paizo blog? Like maybe some of the material published in the old Design Tuesday blog?

Dark Archive

Mairkurion {tm} wrote:
Congratulations! I had a 75% success rate in voting, so congrats to me, too! :-P

HA! That's pathetic! I voted for six contestants, and ALL of them made it to Top 8, thus making my success rate 100%! ;P

Liberty's Edge Contributor, RPG Superstar 2012 , Star Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 9

Sean K Reynolds wrote:
Tom Phillips wrote:
We can reference material from the Pathfinder Campaign Setting, but what about material from the Pathfinder Players Companion line?
Ah, that should be "campaign setting," lower case, not specifically referring to the Campaign Setting (formerly Chronicles) product line. I'll ask Chris to update it.

Something published in an Adventure Path is acceptable, then?

(Sorry for the dumb question, but I don't want to get disqualified for something I misunderstood)

Contributor

I believe we've allowed that in the past, so let's say... yes!

Contributor

Mike Welham wrote:
Something published in an Adventure Path is acceptable, then?

Yep! AP, Chronicles, Companion, Player Companion, Campaign Setting, Modules... all allowed. :)

Legendary Games, Necromancer Games

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Kradlum wrote:

Congratulations to those who got through and commiserations to those that didn't. One of my favourites has been knocked out, so particular commiserations to Andrew Marlowe, but I still have 2 in the running.

I'm looking forward to seeing the maps and encounters.

Every single year I have someone who I really am impressed by that doesn't get by the voters. Seriously, every single year. Year one, it was Sam and the migrus. And then every year since then.

The contest has a life of its own and voting is a part of it.

Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8

Congratulations to the contestants, and woot woot for Round 4! Things get very interesting as the competitors get the chance to explore Golarion, catch all of our imaginations by expanding the world, and give us an exciting encounter with fun possibilities. Good luck folks!

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