Enter Golarion with the Heroes of Magnimar Contest

This may be a bit of an od question but how much leeway is allowed inthese characters allighment wise?

Also anything off limits as far as race is concernd?

We'll be selecting the entries we feel fit Golarion the best while also being inventive or creative additions to the campaign setting. We'll be looking for entries that can "color within the lines" of established canon, so keep that in mind if you plan to submit something that we wouldn't otherwise publish in one of our other books. All that said, there are no restrictions on what you can submit; there are, however, limits on what 5 entries we'll select to see publication. Even then, if someone describes a really cool paladin as CG in their entry and we decide to stat that character up and publish it because of its sheer awesomeness, we'd either change the character's alignment or class to fit within the rules of the Pathfinder RPG and the setting.

What a cool contest idea :D Definitely going to enter.

Oooo... shinny!
Now I'm going to have to work on writing down some of my characters rather then just keeping them in my head. >.<

Well, I sent mine in.

I am working on it. He is not quite ready yet, for his awesomeness will blind (that might just be his dusts).

I've submitted my attempt to join the Golarion cannon. Its awesome that Paizo does these sort of contests (like this and RPG Superstar) to give us normal people a shot at being among the rock stars of our hobby. =)

Cool contest...now I have to decide which of my characters to send...

Also I am guess that the Name, Race, and class/level are not considered part of the three hundred words?

Awesome! Gonna start working on one immediately n_n

just put in an android sorcerer......let's see what happens.

Dot.

Should these be completely new creations, ie would PCs being run in PF Society games or home games be ineligible for submission?

Not saying that's what I'd do, but I imagine there's a lot of people would get a buzz out of seeing their own PC immortalised in print.

If it is a disqualifier, better to put it in the main rules, to prevent the inevitable gnashing of teeth, tearing of raiment, feasting on ashes, and general disappointment.

I will be submitting my favorite PFS character but I am wondering what they mean by game statistics, cause we give them the levels the guy has in classes and such. Are they going to flesh it out beyond that?

Should these be completely new creations, ie would PCs being run in PF Society games or home games be ineligible for submission?

Not saying that's what I'd do, but I imagine there's a lot of people would get a buzz out of seeing their own PC immortalised in print.

If it is a disqualifier, better to put it in the main rules, to prevent the inevitable gnashing of teeth, tearing of raiment, feasting on ashes, and general disappointment.

I hope not. My submission was one of my favourite characters from a home game.

I just have one question: what is meant by our paizo.com 'account name'? Is that our forum name, or our email address?

Quick question about submission, should the entry be in the body of the email or sent as an attachment?

I just have one question: what is meant by our paizo.com 'account name'? Is that our forum name, or our email address?

I gave my forum name (and emailed my submission from the associated email address).

Ooooh, this looks cool!

Should this be submitted in the body of an email, or as an attached document? Or does it matter?

Also, anything wrong with submitting an active PFS character?

Not to count my chickens before they hatch, but will we be contacted if we win? There's no note in the submission page about that. Do we just have to buy each comic in hopes of our character being in a little bio page towards the end of the issue?

Magnimar's Got Talent?

Dire Shark Tank?

I'm out of game show ideas. Sounds like a good contest, though. Submission to follow.

Lots of responses!

Should these be completely new creations, ie would PCs being run in PF Society games or home games be ineligible for submission?

That's up to the submitter. It just can't be someone else's intellectual property (you can't submit Conan or Elric, for example).

I will be submitting my favorite PFS character but I am wondering what they mean by game statistics, cause we give them the levels the guy has in classes and such. Are they going to flesh it out beyond that?

We reserve the right to create the stats essentially from scratch based on the flavorful description you provide. We're unlikely to accept a submission that read like, "This is a 6th-level fighter who has Weapon Focus (longsword), a Strength score of 20, and uses his favored class bonus on skill points to max out Perception." Rather, if a character is described as being unnaturally strong, being well-trained in the use of longswords, and has trained himself to be very perceptive, we'll interpret that into statistics as best we can.

I just have one question: what is meant by our paizo.com 'account name'? Is that our forum name, or our email address?

Either. We just need a way of linking the submission to a registered user on paizo.com.

Quick question about submission, should the entry be in the body of the email or sent as an attachment?

Either, but it will be fastest for us to review 300 words in the body of the email rather than needing to download and open an attachment. How you submit the character to us won't impact our decision, however.

Not to count my chickens before they hatch, but will we be contacted if we win? There's no note in the submission page about that. Do we just have to buy each comic in hopes of our character being in a little bio page towards the end of the issue?

We will not be announcing each month's winner prior to the release of that month's comic issue. If you want to be among the first to know if your character has been selected for publication, you should set up a subscription for the comic at your local comic book store, digitally on Comixology.com, or right here on paizo.com.

I may have overlooked this but we can only submit one entry or five entries?

One entry per person, please. We want to give as many people as possible a chance to have their character selected, and it will make that process easier if we don't have to manually weed out duplicate entries.

Heh, oops I already submitted as an attached .docx

Glad it won't disqualify me.

Either, but it will be fastest for us to review 500 words in the body of the email rather than needing to download and open an attachment. How you submit the character to us won't impact our decision, however.

500 words?

Er, 300 words. Original post edited to avoid confusion.

Cool! Thanks Mark!

And thank you Paizo for running a fun contest like this!

Thanks Mark. Okay then, submitted. Not that I think I have a snowballs chance..but you never know.

Yes, thanks for running this contest!

Indeed. A hearty thanks to the Paizo Staff for giving us this chance. Anywho, submitted mine. Good luck to everyone though. May the best five Pathfinders win. ^_^

After looking through some of the submissions, I just wanted to drop an additional note here regarding the new classes from the ACG. Since the first three of the five winners will be published prior to the release of those classes in their final form, we won't be selecting any skalds, bloodragers, investigators, swashbucklers, etc. for the time being. We won't be using the comics' back matter as a means of previewing the new classes.

That said, we've got a number of really good entries thus far, so keep them coming! I can't wait to see what the community comes up with given more time. I want you to make the process of picking a winner each month as hard as possible.

Quick question: the blog says you want a 300-word entry. The rules page lists some stuff to submit, which includes a 100-word physical description and a 200-word background. Together with other stuff asked for, that'll pass the 300 word mark. So just to confirm, do we or do we not need to keep the absolute total down to 300 words?

Your name, city, Paizo.com username, and other ancillary information can be as long as needed to answer the associated questions. The physical description of the character and his/her background are the only sections that have a strict word count.

Okay, that seemed likely, but RPG Superstar has trained me to be sure on stuff like word count. :D

I submitted mine, but hindsight pointed out a flaw in it when I was rereading it. ><

Wish there was a way to make a minor edit to it.

I wanted to make an Anthropomorphic Impersonification of Manliness/Virility/Testosterone Poisoning, then I realized it would break too many guidelines/rules.

Would we be accredited with our account names in the comic itself?

Should the character be native to Magnimar? If not, should we provide a reason for why they might be in the city or is that best left to the writers' discretion?

Snorter wrote:

Should these be completely new creations, ie would PCs being run in PF Society games or home games be ineligible for submission?

That's up to the submitter. It just can't be someone else's intellectual property (you can't submit Conan or Elric, for example.

Expanding upon this, since the character doesn't necessarily have to be one made exclusively for this contest, am I correct in assuming that having the character taken as an alias would not make the character ineligible for submission?

What if the alias in question has the information that will be submitted, that is to say does sharing our submissions disqualify us?

Out of interest, would you be willing to tell us how many valid submissions you received once the competition closes?

I love this kind of contest that Paizo runs, but I have to point out that Pathfinder has a lot of followers in no English-speaking countries, like me (I am from Spain).

I suppose that thousands of people would be very happy if they could participate in this kind of contest in his mother tongue. I know that this could be a titanic task, but you can open some of these contests for those other languages of interest for your sales or those that some of your staff speaks.

Well, just is only my opinion.
Thank you for this awesome work. Keep going!

P.D. I am going to participate of course.

Would we be accredited with our account names in the comic itself?

Winners will be credited with their real names.

Should the character be native to Magnimar? If not, should we provide a reason for why they might be in the city or is that best left to the writers' discretion?

It's up to the contestant's discretion what the character's background is, but given that the name of the contest is "Heroes of Magnimar," it's advisable the character have some reason for being there (whether a native or a transplant).

Expanding upon this, since the character doesn't necessarily have to be one made exclusively for this contest, am I correct in assuming that having the character taken as an alias would not make the character ineligible for submission?

What if the alias in question has the information that will be submitted, that is to say does sharing our submissions disqualify us?

The less existing details there are on a given character, the easier it is for us to write up their official background and statistics without worrying about invalidating specifics of someone's existing character. So you wouldn't be disqualified, but if we do a search for the character name on paizo.com (or elsewhere) and find an existing statblock and pre-written character background, that does add to the work involved for us should that character be selected.

I suppose that thousands of people would be very happy if they could participate in this kind of contest in his mother tongue. I know that this could be a titanic task, but you can open some of these contests for those other languages of interest for your sales or those that some of your staff speaks.

Since we won't be publishing the submissions word-for-word (we'll be rewriting the character based on the submitted details), non-native English speakers will not be at a disadvantage, assuming the judges can understand their submission sufficiently enough to select it. Since the Dynamite-produced Pathfinder comics are currently available worldwide only in English, we have no plans to release this content in other languages. Paizo does have a number of partners who publish translations of our books, and it's certainly possible for those publishers to run similar contests. I'm not directly involved with those partners, however, so I can't speak to the logistical needs of such events, but you may contact one of these translators directly to see what they're interested in doing to promote Pathfinder in the language of their books.

I'm really looking forward to submitting my hero, but I've been playing him for so long I don't think I'd have a chance given he is extremely powerful(20th Level Purifier, 10 Tiers of Mythic Hierophant) Should I submit him when he was less experienced? I have great notes of his progress(kept a journal of his adventures) I doubt it would be accepted if Valeros looks like a child to my Winged, metal skinned, Immortal, Large(in-combat Huge) sized, artifact wielding, savior!

Please answer back soon, Thank you! :D

How goes this?

Submitted! I'd love to see some of the heroes that were submitted (the ones that don't make it, too), after the contest is over.

Well mine if finally done. It's funny how writing with a word limit changes writing style. It forces you to stay on target.

It would be nice if we could see the submissions though. Based on the recent Know Direction podcast with John Compton I have a feeling that the PFS dev team might be mining this for ideas as well.

It should be noted the first Hero has already been revealed in the back of Issue 2. She is called Falita Ahman and is a Chaotic Good, Female human bard (dervish dancer) 5.

Oh the agony! Too bad there's no pdf included in the comic subscription; the way shipping happens in my country,I'll be getting my copies in late August!

To give you an idea,I just got my mummy AP#2 last week :( Good thing the subs for AP include pdfs.

Hero No. 2 was released today: Aeldren the sword, a half-elf fighter-rogue, by Michael Brothers.

Congrats!