Design a multi-room lair for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beta Release.
MAIN VILLAIN:
The main villain of your lair must be one (and only one) of the 17 Round 3 villain entries for RPG Superstar 2009. Entries that include more than one villain from Round 3 will be disqualified.
LIMITATION:
You may not use your own Round 3 villain! You must choose one of the 17 villains that you did NOT design. (It's OK if you and another person choose the same villain.)
LENGTH:
The entire submission, including the title, must not exceed 2000 words.
MAP:
(1) You must include one (and only one) map of your lair.
(2) Relevant locations must be keyed on the map (for example, numbers on the rooms). Include the descriptions of important locations in the text portion of your lair submission.
(3) Your map should be either one half-page (8.5" x 5.5") or one full-page (8.5" x 11").
(4) Your map must be approximately 72-100 dpi.
(5) Your map may be color, grayscale, or black & white.
(6) Your map may be hand-drawn or computer-generated.
(7) Artistic merit of the map is not a factor, but submitted maps must be legible and neat and contain all of the necessary information from which a cartographer could create a professional map illustration for a published adventure. If your handwriting is hard to read, consider using the text tool on an image-manipulating program to create the text on your map.
(8) Your map must have a compass indicating north, and a scale (such as "one square = 5 feet").
(8) If your map has features that aren't immediately recognizable, consider adding a map key (• = pillar, o = barrel, and so on)
ENCOUNTERS:
Your lair may include encounters such as monsters, traps, hazards, and other obstacles.
TREASURE:
Do not include treasure listings.
ALLOWED SOURCES:
Apart from your own original content, you are limited to using or referring to the following sources:
Paizo's Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beta Release, and officially released web enhancements to the Beta
The 3.5 SRD as presented at d20srd.org
Published content from Paizo's Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting
Content from the Wondrous Item round of this year's RPG Superstar contest (whether you created it or not)
Content from the Villain Stat Block round of this year's RPG Superstar contest (but not the villain you created)
Content that is in the public domain (such as mythological references, etc.)
You may NOT use or refer to Open Game Content (or any other material) from other publishers.
PRESENTATION:
Use the blank formatted encounter document here. The subject lines of the submission form and e-mail should contain only the name of the lair. The body of the submission form should include only the complete lair text in the appropriate format (this means the lair name will be included in the body as well). The body of the e-mail should include only an image of your map.
REFERENCES:
(1) If your lair includes standard encounters that already have stat blocks from an allowed source (such as an ettercap, goblin warrior, green slime, or Sandpoint devil), you may use the "shorthand" Paizo style of referencing that encounter (see the blank formatted encounter document). For the purposes of this contest, these are called "Standard Encounters."
(2) If your lair includes variants of these Standard Encounters (such as an ettercap with extra hit points, a mutant goblin warrior with wings that give it fly speed 30, or green slime that deals 1d8 Con damage instead of 1d6), you may use the "shorthand" Paizo style of referencing that encounter. For the purposes of this contest, these are called "Variant Encounters."
(3) If your lair includes customized monsters or hazards that do not already have stat blocks from an allowed source and the effects of the variation cannot be summed up by adding one line to the stat block (such as a half-fiend ettercap, a goblin rogue 5, or Starstone elemental) you must provide a full stat block using the blank formatted stat block from Round 3. For the purposes of this contest, these are called "Customized Encounters."
(4) All of these references count toward your entry's word count, so using a lot of Customized Encounters will mean you have fewer words available to describe the rest of your lair.
(5) Do not include a stat block for the Round 3 villain of your lair. However, if the villain has specific tactics relating to your lair, include these tactics in your submission.
INAPPROPRIATE CONTENT:
We know that villains are vile and evil; they often do bad things to motivate the PCs to act. Nevertheless, we require that your submission not include salacious sexual references; not show a prejudice against or disrespect for existing real-world minorities, nationalities, social castes, religious groups, genders, lifestyle preferences, or people with disabilities; not portray current real-world religions and religious groups and/or practices in any way that promotes disrespect for these religions or their participants; and not include gratuitous and/or excessive gore, sexual violence or violence towards children.
DEADLINE:
The textual portion of your entry must be submitted through the submission tool at paizo.com/rpgsuperstar, and the map must be e-mailed to contest@paizo.com. Entries may be submitted beginning at 2 PM Pacific time on February 17, 2009, and both text and map must be received by 2 PM Pacific time on February 20, 2009. Voting begins February 24, 2009 and ends March 2, 2009. Paizo will announce the top 4 entries on March 3, 2009.
DISQUALIFICATION: Submissions may be disqualified for the following reasons:
Submission is not a lair.
Submission uses more than one Round 3 villain.
Submission uses the author's own villain.
Submission exceeds 2000 words.
Submission does not include a map.
Submission does not use the required format for presentation.
Submission does not conform to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beta Release where applicable
Submission is copied from a previously published source (though individual encounter elements may be from a previously published source as described above).
Submission uses non-SRD rules, monsters, or copyrighted material from publishers other than Paizo.
Submission is not submitted by the deadline.
Submission does not generally use correct English.
If, in the sole discretion of the judges and/or Paizo, a submission is deemed a "joke" or otherwise fails to meet the minimum requirements of the competition or other contest rules.
If the contestant posts in his or her entry thread during the voting period for any reason other to acknowledge feedback or to encourage people to vote for his or her submission.
All prior contest rules apply except as modified above. Full contest rules can be found here. The RPG Superstar FAQ can be found here.
Round 4 Rules FAQ
Why do we have to use someone else's villain? I really like my villain!
A good designer can take someone else's work and create something cool out of it. Part of being an RPG Superstar is versatility, and we want to see what you can do on short notice with unfamiliar materials. Basically, we want to see if you can hit the ground running.
What if someone else chooses the same villain I choose?
Then we'll see who can create the coolest lair for that villain!
Can I do a lair that's just one encounter location?
No, the lair must have multiple locations.
Do we really have to use those encounter formats?
Yes.
Do I need to include tactics for other monsters in the lair?
Yes. Be as descriptive as you feel is necessary; a mindless golem doesn't need detailed tactics, but a wizard with spells that interact with local hazards might warrant a line or two.
Do we need to "show our math" for Variant Encounters or Customized Encounters?
No.
OK, the encounter stat block format provided doesn't provide XXX, and I need it! What do I do?
That form is pretty thorough. But if there is really something that it didn't include, look to other published Paizo products for guidance. As long as your stat block follows the template, we won't punish you for a minor discrepancy that is consistent with the rest of the template.
I am not the best at maps. Can I have a friend or someone else do the map for me?
No. The map and the lair must be your own work. We realize that this rule is essentially unenforceable except by the honor system but we all believe in the honor system so we feel it is sufficient. There are many free computer programs that you can use to draw simple maps. You map doesn't have to be beautiful, it just has to be clear enough that Paizo could hand it to a professional cartographer without having to revise or redraw it.
So we can use software like Photoshop or MS Paint to draw our map?
Sure, so long as you do it yourself.
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