RPG Superstar Top 4

Christine Schneider, Neu-Isenburg, Hessen (Germany)     Chase on Charred Ground     Mind the Machine     Arthelia "Lady of Legends Undone"     Theocracy of Carnamach     Arcane Anvil Clinton Boomer, Macomb, IL (USA)     Impartial Tribunal     Kakuen-Taka, The Hunger that Moves     Abzirael Ul-Shadai, the Cackling Whirling     Cyrehllan, The Isle of Cold Tears     Crown of the Breaching Legion

Jason Nelson, Seattle, WA (USA)     Vale of Rohthang's Rest     In the bleak midwinter     Avinash, Master of the Catspaw Marauders     Bereket     Phial of Ebon Flame Rob McCreary, Prague (Czech Republic)     Monkey Goblins Attack!     The Ooze Imperium     Onuyaka, the All-Seeing Eye     Iskandria     Coin Belt of Beguiling

The easy stuff is over.

In the beginning more than 850 would-be superstars submitted their best wondrous items. We narrowed that down to our favorite 32.

From there things got more difficult. The art of game design involves both rules and flavor text, of course, but if you can't handle pure flavor text, no one is going to want to read your stuff. Round 2 was a pure flavor test, leaving you armed only with the quality of your ideas and the power of your writing.

Only 16 contestants survived the scrutiny of the general public to move on to Round 3. Because every good adventure needs a great villain, we asked you to show us your worst, and you came back with your very best.

With 8 designers remaining, we asked for three thematically linked monsters to test your ability to follow directions, the power of your ideas, and your ability to handle complex rules.

The 6 most popular contestants got to design an encounter, completing a series of tasks meant to test just about every individual element included in an adventure module.

Fitting, really, since the four remaining contestants will compete for the chance to write an original adventure for Paizo's GameMastery Modules line. So far every victory in this contest has granted you bragging rights around game tables and on the internet. No more.

The winner of this contest—the RPG Superstar—gets their foot in the door with an honest-to-goodness printed product with their name right there on the cover, and all of their beautiful ideas given form, maps, and illustrations right there on the printed page.

Accordingly, the final RPG Superstar challenge is to design a complete proposal for that winning module. As in previous rounds, the judges will comment on each entry and the general public will vote on their favorites.

The author of the submission that receives the greatest number of votes will be named the RPG Superstar.

The RPG Superstar will get a production deal for a Paizo GameMastery Module.

Erik Mona
Publisher