Sixteen amateur game designers have advanced to Round 3 of Paizo Publishing’s RPG Superstar, the largest open-call tabletop roleplaying design contest in history. Popular RPG adventure author Greg A. Vaughan joined celebrity judges Sean K Reynolds and F. Wesley Schneider from Paizo and Necromancer Games president Clark Peterson to critique 300-word monster concepts submitted by the top 32 Round 1 survivors, and a public vote resulted in 16 advancing submissions. The finalists must now create Pathfinder RPG game statistics for one of the advancing monster concepts, with the surprise twist that they cannot choose their own monster concept to develop. All finalist submissions, complete with judge and reader commentary, are posted to the paizo.com messageboards.
"RPG Superstar Round 2 proved this year's competitors have a knack for creating interesting new monsters—including a glass-eating insect swarm, a grotesque creature that steals the flesh of others to create disguises, an ice-armored feline that tracks its prey by heat, a hairless rat-thing with a gang of servitor fleas, and a stone creature powered by the undead creature encased within it," said judge Sean K Reynolds. "These competitors hooked the voters with vivid descriptions of their monsters—the next test is translating those monsters into game terms."
The Top 16 finalists for RPG Superstar 2010 and their winning entries to date are:
- Dennis Baker (Stockton, California, USA): Brown Urus; Pharasma’s blessing
- Jesse Benner (Glenside, Pennsylvania, USA): Chaitrakhan; Snapleaf
- Benjamin Bruck (Boise, Idaho, USA): Chymick; Steadfast gut-stone
- Lief Clennon (Garberville, California): Rotling; Seven thousand blossoms
- Matt Goodall (Cheltenham, Victoria, Australia); Churjiir; Spellstrike vambraces
- Jim Groves (Ontario, Oregon, USA): Skintaker; Seducer’s bane
- Richard Hunt (Plano, Texas, USA): Splorudra; Needles of the ebon strand
- Joshua Kitchens (Centerville, Georgia, USA): Astrumal; Locket of the umbral kiss
- Alexander MacLeod (Raleigh, North Carolina, USA): Ardorwesp; Scapular of true devotion
- Matthew McGee (Davis, California, USA): Ossuary Golem; Batrachian helm
- James Martin (Durham, North Carolina, USA): Wyrnhiri; Runcible spoon
- Matthew Morris (Columbus, Ohio, USA): Lahamu; Tankard of the cheerful duelist
- Chris Mortika (Coralville, Iowa, USA): Lantern Thrall; Sublime phial
- Tom Phillips (Orange Park, Florida, USA): Slithering Horror; Troll fingers
- David Posener (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia): Haga; Starborn seeds of manifest denial
- Jason Schimmel (Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA): Caltrop Golem; Bracelet of smoke and mirrors
The Top 16 will now be required to design Pathfinder Roleplaying Game statistics for an advancing monster concept other than their own and submit their complete monster write-up by 2:00 PM Pacific time on Friday, February 5. These Round 3 submissions will be commented on by the three regular judges plus a guest judge, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game author and Paizo Lead Designer Jason Bulmahn. On February 9, 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 15, and the Top 8 (by votes) will move on to Round 4.
The ultimate winner of RPG Superstar, to be announced March 23, 2010, will write a Pathfinder Module to be published in early 2011. Realm of the Fellnight Queen, the module written by last year's RPG Superstar champion, Neil Spicer, releases in March of this year.
For a complete schedule for RPG Superstar 2010, plus rules and FAQs, visit paizo.com/rpgsuperstar.
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