RPG SUPERSTAR: WE HAVE A WINNER!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

In early November Paizo challenged amateur game designers from around the world to show off their skills in a revolutionary online contest called RPG Superstar. From more than 850 submitted wondrous items, celebrity judges Erik Mona (Paizo's Publisher), Wolfgang Baur (Editor-in-Chief, Kobold Quarterly), and Clark Peterson (President, Necromancer Games) narrowed the field to 32 would-be RPG Superstars, and further rounds have narrowed that field in the intervening weeks.

The final round asked the four competing finalists to propose a 32-page GameMastery Module for ultimate publication by Paizo as the Grand Prize of RPG Superstar. Contestants Clinton Boomer (Macomb, IL), Rob McCreary (Prague, Czech Republic), Jason Nelson (Seattle, WA), and Christine Schneider (Neu-Isenburg, Germany) responded with four excellent proposals, each worthy of publication in its own way.

But there can be only one RPG Superstar, and in the end after the celebrity judges had a chance to offer comments and criticism and the general public had their final vote, one proposal stood out as the clear winner.

Congratulations to Christine Schneider for her victorious proposal, "Clash of the Kingslayers." Here's a brief description of the adventure from Christine's winning RPG Superstar submission:

This module will set the heroes against the gods' blind wrath in defence of a dwarven city-kingdom. During the course of the adventure the PCs will cross swords with dwarvish valkyries, fight giants freed from the underworld, unravel an ancient secret, and explore a remote monastery. What starts as a casual dungeon crawl, will turn into a frantic pandemonium as the monastery is imbued with divine life to wage war on the city the heroes might choose to protect or even aid to destroy. Ultimately, the PCs get the chance to slay not one, but three kings in attempt to end this madness and write the final lines of an ancient tragedy. This adventure is intended for characters of 10th-level and will yield enough experience to advance them to 11th-level or even half-way to 12th-level.

As RPG Superstar's Grand Prize, Paizo will contract Christine Schneider to write "Clash of the Kingslayers," which we will release as GameMastery Module S1 in January, 2009.

But you don't have to wait until January to reserve your copy! Head over to the new "Clash of the Kingslayers" product page here on paizo.com to preorder your copy of Christine's winning adventure! If you already subscribe to GameMastery Modules, "Clash of the Kingslayers" will arrive as part of your ongoing subscription.

On behalf of judges Wolfgang Baur and Clark Peterson as well as the whole Paizo Publishing family, congratulations to Clinton Boomer, Rob McCreary, Jason Nelson, and Christine Schneider.

Remember those names, folks. You'll be hearing from all of them in the months and years to come. Though the contest produced only one true RPG Superstar, it also turned up a huge number of fresh voices we plan to work with for a long time to come.

And I'd like to offer one final thanks to you, the readers of paizo.com and to anyone who submitted an entry to this year's RPG Superstar contest. The event has been enormously popular here on the site, and even the wizened old judges learned a thing or two along the way. Something this successful is certain to return, so in the meantime sharpen your pencils and start working on some wondrous items.

The next RPG Superstar is only a few months away!

Erik Mona
Paizo Publisher

RPG Superstar™ is the first adventure game industry design contest voted on by the fans, aimed at finding the next great RPG designer. More than 850 contestants entered, and one RPG Superstar will be chosen by the fans, earning a paid commission to write a GameMastery Module™ for Paizo Publishing!

Contest rules are available at paizo.com/rpgsuperstar/rules. Answers to frequently asked questions about the competition and voting are at paizo.com/rpgsuperstar/faq.

Round		Round Begins	Submissions Due	Fan Voting Begins	Fan Voting Ends	Winners Announced
1	Open Call: Design a wondrous item	10/31/07	11/14/07			11/28/07
2	Top 32: Design a country	11/28/07	12/3/07	12/5/07	12/11/07	12/12/07
3	Top 16: Design a villain (complete with stat block)	12/12/07	12/17/07	12/19/07	12/25/07	12/26/07
4	Top 8: Design three thematically linked monsters	12/26/07	1/7/08	1/10/08	1/15/08	1/16/08
5	Top 6: Design an encounter	1/16/08	1/21/08	1/24/08	1/29/08	1/30/08
6	Top 4: Submit a full adventure proposal	1/30/08	2/11/08	2/14/08	2/19/08	2/20/08

Note: As of Round 4, the schedule has been adjusted to give the judges an extra day to evaluate and comment on entries. The ultimate winner of the first RPG Superstar contest will be announced on February 20, 2008. All events are at noon Pacific time on the specified date.

Meet the Judges

Erik Mona

Erik Mona is the Publisher of Paizo Publishing, LLC. After a series of freelance writing and editing jobs for TSR, Mona joined Wizards of the Coast in 1999 as Global Publications Coordinator for the RPGA, a duty that saw him co-launch the largest organized play D&D campaign in history (Living Greyhawk), edit the RPGA's Polyhedron Magazine, and launch the Living Greyhawk Journal. Erik joined Paizo Publishing in 2002 when Paizo took over publication of Wizards' magazines. At Paizo Erik became Editor-in-Chief of Dungeon and Dragon magazines, and is currently spearheading design on the world behind the Pathfinder Adventure Paths. His RPG design credits include the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, Forgotten Realms: Faiths & Pantheons, Fiendish Codex 1: Hordes of the Abyss, and Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk. His RPG industry work has garnered him two Origins Awards and more than a half-dozen ENnies.

Wolfgang Baur

Wolfgang Baur has written dozens of adventures for Paizo, Wizards of the Coast, and Open Design. He has been nominated for Origins and ENnie awards for Dark*Matter and Castle Shadowcrag. He loves all flavors of fantasy and reads a ludicrous number of genre novels.

Wolfgang is a former editor of Dragon magazine and is currently the publisher of Kobold Quarterly magazine. You can learn more about Wolfgang and Kobold Quarterly at wolfgangbaur.com

Clark Peterson

An attorney by trade, Clark Peterson doubles as the president of Necromancer Games, perhaps the most prolific adventure publishers in the d20 industry. Necromancer's products boast a "First Edition Feel" that hearkens back to the quality of many of the classic adventures. Clark's professional design credits include Rappan Athuk: The Dungeon of Graves, Crucible of Freya, the Tome of Horrors series, the Wilderlands of High Fantasy, Tomb of Abysthor and the recent City of Brass.