Paizo Publishing today announced the finalists for RPG Superstar, the largest open-call tabletop roleplaying game design contest in history. Judges Sean K Reynolds, Wolfgang Baur, and Clark Peterson selected the Top 32 from hundreds of submissions in an initial contest to design a wondrous item using the rules from the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beta Playtest Edition, available free from paizo.com. The Top 32 wondrous items are now on display at paizo.com, complete with judge commentary and additional comments from 2008 RPG Superstar finalists Clinton Boomer, Rob McCreary, and Jason Nelson and winner Leandra Christine Schneider. Gamers are invited to contribute their own comments to the entries.

"The quality of submissions was way up this year. It was really hard to choose only 32 from all the excellent entries," said Clark Peterson, one of three RPG Superstar judges. "I cannot wait to see how this year's contest goes. The winner will be a Superstar for sure—there can be only one!"

The Top 32 finalists for RPG Superstar 2009 are:

Andrew Judd (Denton, Texas, USA): Key of Closed Doors

Carl Flaherty (Poway, CA, USA): Lordly Pavilion

Carl Klutzke (Carmel, Indiana, USA): Boundary Chalk

Casey Smith (Davis, California, USA): Maw of Urgathoa

Craig Johnston (Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia): Dazzler

Doyle Tavener (Richmond, Texas, USA): Desna's Triptych of Threefold Wisdom

Elizabeth Leib (Cleveland, Ohio, USA): Haunted Shoes

Eric Bailey (Wakefield, Massachusetts, USA): Lens of the Runethief

Eric Morton (Normandy Park, Washington, USA): Veil of the Midnight Vigil

Gerald Andrews (Gardner, Massachusetts, USA): Spell-Catch Gauntlet

Jacob Manley (New Hampton, New Hampshire, USA): Dust of Weighty Burdens

James Graham (Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada): Mongoose Claw

Jeffrey Scott Nuttall (Los Angeles, California, USA): Twintone Flute

Joao Beraldo (Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil): Heart of Oblivion

Joshua Blazej (Simi Valley, California, USA): Hurricane Gloves

Kevin Carter (Address TBD): Spider Hook

Kurald Galain (United Kingdom): Withering Hourglass

Lucas Jung (Dayton, Ohio, USA): Ethereal Tether

Mark Thomas (Brooklyn, New York, USA): Hammer's Bane Torc

Matt Banach (Champaign, Illinois, USA): Master's Perfect Golden Bell

Matthew Morris (Columbus, Ohio, USA): Bracelet of Shields

Matthew Stinson (Jacksonville, Florida, USA): School of Eyes

Mike Speck (Address TBD): Blightlady's Bread

Neil Spicer (Waxhaw, North Carolina, USA): Last Leaves of the Autumn Dryad

Paul Worthen (Willington, Connecticut, USA): Ancestral Reliquary

Philip Snyder (Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, USA): Temporal Bracers

Randy Dorman (Pittsfield, Maine, USA): Helm of the Golem Master

Stefan Schulz (Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany): Abyssal Spurs

Trevor Gulliver (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada): Horn of the Dark Hunt

Victor Spieles (Eastpointe, Michigan, USA): Cirroc's Marvelous Crossing

Vladislav Rashkovski (Bulgaria): The Scarlet Legionary Banner

Wesley Lee (Address TBD): The Dread Trinket

The Top 32 will now be required to design a concept for a villain to the specifications of the RPG Superstar judges and submit that concept by 2:00 PM Pacific time on Friday, January 23. These round two submissions will be commented on by our three regular judges plus our guest judge, New York Times best selling author Ed Greenwood. On January 27, the entries will be revealed to the general public, who will then get to discuss the entries and vote for their favorites. Voting ends on February 2, and the Top 16 (by votes) will move on to round three.

The ultimate winner of RPG Superstar, to be announced March 24, 2009, will write a Pathfinder Module to be published in early 2010. Clash of the Kingslayers, the module written by last year's RPG Superstar champion, Leandra Christine Schneider, has just been released for sale.

For a complete schedule for RPG Superstar 2009, plus rules and FAQs, visit paizo.com/rpgsuperstar.

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