From a field of hundreds, only 4 finalists remain in this year's RPG Superstar™, the largest open-call tabletop roleplaying design contest in history. Industry legend Monte Cook (Malhavoc Press, Dungeon Master's Guide) joined celebrity judges Sean K Reynolds (Paizo), Wolfgang Baur (Kobold Quarterly), and Clark Peterson (Necromancer Games) to critique the villain lair submissions of the 8 Round 3 survivors, and a public vote resulted in 4 submissions advancing. The finalists are currently working on a complete proposal for a 32-page adventure using the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beta Playtest Edition rules, currently available as a free download on paizo.com. Members of the paizo.com messageboard community will vote for their favorite proposal, with the winner being named RPG Superstar 2009. The winning proposal will be published in Paizo's Pathfinder Module line in early 2010.

The Top 4 finalists for RPG Superstar 2009 and their winning entries are:

• Eric Bailey (Wakefield, Massachusetts, USA): Hecaetaeus, Sanctum of the Colossus; Vashkar, the False Maharajah; Varrush, Master of the Palace of Abundance; Lens of the Runethief

• Kevin Carter (Aliso Viejo, California, USA): 26 Paper Street; Malgana the Twistwood Witch; Spider Hook

• Neil Spicer (Waxhaw, North Carolina, USA): The Legendary Playhouse Theater, Sartel Bollen, Mistress of the Headless Caravan; Gulga Cench, Scion of Cyth-V'sug; Last Leaves of the Autumn Dryad

• Matthew Stinson (Jacksonville, Florida, USA): The Abandoned Carnival at the Bumpy Apple Orchard; Sartel Bollen, Mistress of the Headless Caravan; School of Eyes

The Top 4 will now be required to design a proposal for a 32-page Pathfinder Roleplaying Game module by 2:00 PM Pacific time on Friday, March 13. These Final Round submissions will be commented on by our three regular judges plus our guest judge, Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief James Jacobs. On March 17, 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 March 23.

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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Paizo Publishing®, LLC is a leading publisher of fantasy roleplaying games, accessories, board games, and novels. Paizo's Pathfinder® Roleplaying Game, the result of the largest open playtest in the history of tabletop gaming, is the most hotly anticipated RPG release of 2009. Pathfinder Adventure Path is the most popular and best-selling monthly product in the tabletop RPG industry. Paizo.com is the leading online hobby retail store, offering tens of thousands of products from a variety of publishers to customers all over the world. In the six years since its founding, Paizo Publishing has received more than a dozen major awards and has grown to become one of the most influential companies in the hobby games industry.