After five rounds of intensive competition, amateur game designer Neil Spicer has won RPG Superstar 2009, the largest tabletop roleplaying game design contest in history. The popular vote of paizo.com's more than 100,000-strong fan community chose Neil Spicer's Realm of the Fellnight Queen Pathfinder module submission over the final-round submissions of competitors Eric Bailey, Kevin Carter, and Matthew Stinson. Spicer will receive a contract to write the full adventure, which will be released by Paizo in January, 2010.
Paizo challenged amateur game designers from around the world to show off their skills in RPG Superstar 2009, the second season of Paizo's search for great undiscovered game designers. Regular judges Wolfgang Baur of Kobold Quarterly, Clark Peterson of Necromancer Games, and Paizo's own Sean K Reynolds narrowed a field of hundreds of open call submissions to 32 would-be RPG Superstars, and guest judges including Ed Greenwood, Jason Bulmahn, Monte Cook, and James Jacobs, plus last year's Top 4 contestants Clinton J. Boomer, Rob McCreary, Jason Nelson, and original RPG Superstar Leandra Christine Schneider provided their advice as the contestants answered each new challenge.
In the final round, we asked this year's Top 4 to propose a 32-page Pathfinder Module for use with Paizo's upcoming Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Contestants Eric Bailey (Wakefield, Massachusetts), Kevin Carter (Aliso Viejo, California), Matthew Stinson (Jacksonville, Florida), and Neil Spicer (Waxhaw, North Carolina) responded with four excellent submissions. Neil Spicer's Realm of the Fellnight Queen emerged victorious after a week of public comment and voting at paizo.com. Spicer's winning adventure is currently available for preorder at paizo.com.
"On behalf of our judges as well as the whole Paizo Publishing family, congratulations to Eric Bailey, Kevin Carter, Matthew Stinson, and Neil Spicer," said Paizo Publisher Erik Mona. "Though only one earned the title RPG Superstar 2009, you'll likely be hearing from all of them, and from other RPG Superstar 2009 contestants, in the months and years to come."
RPG Superstar will return in 2010.
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Paizo Publishing, LLC is a leading publisher of fantasy roleplaying games, board games, and speculative fiction. Paizo's Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is the most highly anticipated tabletop roleplaying game release of 2009, with more than 50,000 playtesters and a game system over 30 years in the making. Paizo's Pathfinder® game lines support the Pathfinder RPG with a variety of adventure scenarios, campaigns, and exciting settings. Paizo's GameMastery® accessories offer easy-to-use tools that improve the play of any fantasy roleplaying game. Titanic Games™, Paizo's board game imprint, unleashes fun, challenging games like Kill Doctor Lucky™ and Yetisburg™ that appeal to families and casual gamers. Paizo's Planet Stories® presents classic tales of science fiction and fantasy alongside cutting edge works by today's best authors to create an essential library featuring the finest in speculative fiction. 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.
