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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32. RPG Superstar 6 Season Marathon Voter, 7 Season Marathon Voter, 8 Season Champion Voter, 9 Season Marathon Voter. 3,493 posts (3,975 including aliases). 20 reviews. 1 list. No wishlists. 17 aliases.



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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

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Commandant Lassard stand up before your class, every inch the doddering swashbuckler guard way past his prime.

"Today you begin your first assignment as Cadets. You've been trained in our laws, our combat methodology, and how to keep a vigilant watch. You are our second class in the Citizens On Patrol initiative and much rides on your success.

We start with a simple assignment. We have heard rumors that the rough and tumble gang intends to crash the social debut of Tracey Belladame of the Belladame family. Your assignment is to secure the party and if possible apprehend the miscreants known as the Rough and Tumble gang!

There's another 6 cadets in the class and an overall commanding officer Valasca Callahan.

The Cadets are:
Ace Sweetchuck a halfling who has been good at all written and social tests and bad at every physical challenge. (Best guess is he’s an aristocrat)
Ellana Mahooney high charisma human that’s rather average at everything else, she’s a prankster and it’s often wondered if she’s ever going to apply herself. (she’s a swashbuckler)
Barry Tackleberry half orc weapon fanatic (alchemist/gunslinger)
Ruth Hightower Half Ogre with a sweet disposition, seems to hate violence despite being amazing at it (Brawler/Urban Barbarian)
Gavin Murtaugh Elf by the book fencer academy graduate, tends to ramble about being too old for this shit. (Fighter)
Adrian Mulancy Cleric of Erastil has adopted 3 orphans and lives with his husband. HE tries to talk everyone into settling down to a more traditional family life.

Dossiers on the Gang:
Spindleshank Male Drow leader tends to use levitate and darkness to help his crew make escapes. Also seems to be a magus/rogue.
Wheeler Male vanara, most violent member of the gang, climbs allot, seems to be a brawler and has a bad temper
Jade Female Grippli mixed with something aquatic, swims amazingly well, also a ninja.
Pyre Female Monkey Goblin Alchemist, has a giant bat she uses like a hang glider.

About Mivon:
The city looks like a mix of Roman and Gothic architecture with lots of decorative stone work but they also apparently have concrete. Mix in canal ways not unlike venice and you have a urban playground where a chase can be in the water, on the streets, or from rooftop to rooftop.

Tracy Belladame is a 16 yr old wizard heiress making her social debut which is to say she’s now open to be courted in high society. Her party is happening in the penthouse of the city’s nicest hotel the Grande. There are 4 balconey’s 4 stairwells and a roof.

You guys can start on assignment there’s private security as well some of which seem to be off duty watchmen. Valid actions include casting spells, information gathering, positioning, socializing ect.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

This is our Gameplay thread dot

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

This is out discussion thread please check in here

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

Background
The year is 4760 and Mivon’s citizenry has had enough. For decades the nobility has become increasingly corrupt and prone to infighting while the citizenry has largely become lawless and rebellious. Something had to change.

The Revolt of 4758 saw the last Mayor pulled into the streets and hung by an angry mob. Mivon’s High General Armando Faustus used the country’s military to restore order to it’s capital city. Eventually order was restored and martial law was first turned over to the city’s Warden Camille Dantes and a new mayor was elected by the people Julias Thorne.

Mayor Thorne ran a campaign or reform and above all law and order. The city watch guard has been given a massive budget and an edict to quell the rebellious elements of the city and crackdown on crime. Camille Dantes in an effort to save her position has raised pay, bettered equipment, and most importantly opened the recruitment for new watch guards outside the fencing academies controlled by the nobility. For the first time watch guards can be recruited to the academy from any walk of life and background and graduate to take the guard watch oath.

You’re in that first wave, and a goodly number of your peers are ridiculous. The success or failure of this experiment is largely on you.

This is the official recruitment thread, strap on it’s gonna be a fun ride.

There’s more interesting tidbits and about the game I intend to run in the Interest check thread that you might want to check out.

Character Creation:

3rd level

Races Core, Standard (except Triaxian), Featured (except Drow), Duergar, Grippli, Vanara, Vishkanya

Stat Generation
You can take a 20pt or a 15 pt buy if you take the 15pts you get an automatic 18 and an automatic 8 the 15pts are for the other 4 stats (yes this is a good deal mechanically.)

No stat lower than 6 after racial adjustments or higher than 20.

You can have another 5pts on your point buy by taking an Oracle Curse. You do not need to be an Oracle and this curse will not advance (I'll allow a homebrew feat to advance to 5th, 10th ect at appropriate levels.) This option is subject to approval, basically I'm going to be more involved in character creation to make sure that these are taken for RP purposes not just mechanics. I like merit/flaw mechanics but if this just becomes a min/max power grab I'll likely say no.

Traits 2 traits and you can take 2 flaws to add 2 more, take whatever category you like.

Classes Any paizo classes and archetypes. I'm willing to look at 3PP archetypes or alternative classes but they are subject to approval, Flying Pincushion Games Archetypes are of course pre-approved since I'm already familiar with it.
Since someone is going to ask: no to Spheres of might/magic or Paths of War or Psionics. I have nothing against this content I just don't feel like dealing with it as a GM.

Skills I decided to go with background skills after some consideration.

I also expect some background to explain some of your choices and in particular your flaws. 4-5 paragraphs should do the trick I’d rather not read more than 3 pages.

Ovar all I’m taking 5 players, I might add a 6th if I like the characters enough.

About me as a GM:

I like to experiment with mechanics. It’s one of the things that makes me a solid game designer so you will see curve balls thrown at you. I do not believe in fair as in not everything is scaled to your level and sometimes you might want to run away and get reinforcements. I’m not Montyhall but I’m not kid gloves either.

Sense of humor is a little important to me because real life is stressful enough. As an example one of the experienced officers leading your group at one point is a Lizardwoman in a heat cycle. She will act a lot like Sgt. Callahan in police academy, there’s a comedic element to the character and it’s tied to her sexuality a bit. I’m going to be upfront the game is a mix of humor and serious play if this doesn’t work for you don’t apply.

I’ve decided to make recruitment run from now to Friday 2/16. Between now and then I’ll comment on builds and backgrounds answer questions ect. As I demonstrated in the Interest check I’m willing to work with people if they have an idea outside the rules laid out but this is only a guarantee of consideration not approval.

Details will be added to the thread as I go. Bits like notable NPCs ect.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

The high council of Mivon, after watching their city be overrun by a crime wave, has both loosened the restrictions on entering the watch and raised pay by 50% including an attractive seizure spoils system. In order to get more watchmen on the street for what has become a very dangerous job.

This has enticed all manner of oddball adventurers to enlist to join the force.'

You are those oddball characters, and yes that description is a rip off of Police Academy.

Basically if there's enough interest I'm considering running a buddy cop urban campaign. Taking inspiration from Police Academy, Lethal Weapon, Turner and Hooch, Bad Boyz, Rush Hour ect.

Make a badass but leave room for levity. In other words I want an appreciable flaw or flaws. I might very well make a character creation rules set up that includes a list of flaws (not the trait ones that barely come up) which everyone would have to take 1. I might very well base them off of oracle curses TBH because I liekt he idea that the flaws eventually turn into assets.

As a GM I've flamed out before (partly because I suck at mapping and got crazy busy.) This time around something lighter with a group of fast and loose RPers that don't mind a bit of humor in their game would eb excellent.

I'll open a recruitment thread if there's enough interest.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

So my original Kingmaker game is picking back up after a 3 year hiatus. We're going into book 5 which is where we left things off, expect it's 20 years later and our heroes have aged a bit.

I felt the need to share that one of my players has kept Gregori's head in a jar since book 2 and used to Speak with Dead to ask him taunting questions. That player like the others many of which were coupled off well before the game went on hiatus had a child since they are elves the child is still a toddler and the magical couple enchanted the sh*t out of Gregory's head and jar into a Babysitter.

Uncle Greggy is still under construction and is taking quite a bit of character wealth but they are rich as hell and this is for everyone's amusement.

Thus far:
-Sanctuary spell on anyone holding Uncle Greggy's Jar
-Permanent Speak with dead for anyone holding the Jar
-Skull Sentinel when you put him on his stand, he shouts a warning when unauthorized humanoids enter an ara and he makes a perception.
-He can be commanded to use pretigitation or mend at will, Unseen Servant 3/day
-I'm handwaiving that he is animated and under repose and still sort fo has Gregory's personality including being well aware his existence can be made worse.

We are open to suggestions as to what else to make the former now quite indignant undeadish bard do

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka GM_Solspiral

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I'm bloggy lately but no one talks about this so here you go This is about being a better pit crew ally

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka GM_Solspiral

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It applies to those still in and those that have been eliminated Don't be that contestant

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka GM_Solspiral

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So I'm an alternate. If I get called up into the big show I'm goign to stop with the thread until I win or I'm eliminated from the big show but that's at least 4 days from now so... Bring it!

No good bad and ugly from me this year Jeff has that covered and he's doing a great job, so I'm going to do my Phloid impersonation.

Use the spoiler tags repost your item here if you want my take. I'll either Pit Crew it (give you points to rework the item yourself to make it better) or in some cases I'll rework the item entirely holding to the spirit of your idea with my execution.

Fair Warning: This is potentially rougher then my traditional critiques as I'm not going to rework an item that doesn't inspire me. If that happens you'll get the pit crew treatment which ranges from cheery positive to "you're item sounds like you're describing a male genitalia." This is critique roulette, want to play?

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka GM_Solspiral

Logjam is navigable but is difficult terrain and takes Acrobatics checks. Eastern side is a group of Lumber consortium toughs. Western side is a Nixie and Satyr using charm spells to entice loggers across treacherous ground. 2 have crossed, one in water, dryad is dying next to Satyr.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka GM_Solspiral

Wanted to double check the R2 rules...

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka GM_Solspiral

Just a heads up....

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka GM_Solspiral

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Okay so the point of this thread is purely fun... If you're paranoid enough to have an actual conspiracy theory about this contest seek help.

I'll start with some my more fun and plausible ones:

-Past top 8's write the good joke items knowing they won't win but will give some people pause and there's a secret board somewhere where they laugh at our snark and praise threads. They bet on who will get the most thinly veiled comments/references to their item. Season 8's winner was the popcorn staff.

-The reason we finish by Halloween is so they can run Season 10 after Thanksgiving and season 10 will have completely different rules!

-The random pairings are actually by an increasingly intelligent AI that is testing us.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka GM_Solspiral

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The snark thread is traditional but lets be careful not to easily ID things or for that matter be too mean.

I'll start with Disco defeats sharper image..

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka GM_Solspiral

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Iounic Pipes
Aura moderate transmutation and enchantment; CL 11th
Slot none; Price 84,000 gp Weight 6 lbs.
Description

These pan pipes are sculpted from banded agate with painted musical notes that shift and move on the gradations with the tune being played. When desired, the pipes can float in orbit around the piper.

Playing the pipes causes all ioun stones within 30 ft to bounce, spin, and glow as though the stones were dancing. This grants the stones’ owners a deflection bonus of +1 per stone, up to a maximum of +5.

As a standard action, the piper may target an individual’s ioun stones for one of the following effects as long as they are in the 30 foot range:

Defect the piper may use the perform (wind instruments) skill to attempt a Steal maneuver on an ioun stone against the target’s CMD. If successful, one of the ioun stones will fly up to 30 feet to orbit the piper. This ability can be used once per day.

Defend for one individual of the piper’s choosing, the deflection bonus provided by the music is increased to +2 per ioun stone with a maximum bonus of +10, and a miss chance of 20% against ranged attacks.

Harass for one individual of the piper’s choosing, the ioun stones violently, erratically disrupt vision and motion causing concentration checks against violent motion for spellcasters and giving everyone partial cover from the target.

Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, animate objects, blur, nixie’s lure; Cost 42,000 gp

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

to use as needed

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

as requested

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

This is team rock and Roll

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

This is is team Love's thread, dot it now it will come up soon.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

Per request this is the first Game play thread we'll fully start next Saturday keep an eye out on the discussion thread this week

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

Use bold for in character speech, spoilers for OOC questions

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

I've previously did a lot of prep work to remix Kingmaker with Tales from the Old Margreve and Reign of Winter and a few disparate elements that included community mods and all sorts of other goodies including my extensive rewrite/expansion of kingdom rules.

What I ended up with was a Kingmaker game with a stronger fairytale vibe, more cohesive plot, more politics, and a seasonal vibe because Winter definitely became a season to fear.

As a 3PP owner I've developed a ton of archetypes and villains that haven't seen print yet and could use some play testing. Things like my 2nd try re-balanced Warlock as an alternate class to the Oracle or my partner's off the wall alchemist archetype Botanist. I allow some 3PP content but I'm picky and of course vastly prefer my own stuff (Flying Pincushion Games mainly, d20pfsrd, Kobold Press stuff ect.) Ask and I'll consider most reasonable material.

Some warnings:
I hit Hard- I hit much harder as a GM then the APs do. If you're familiar with Kingmaker you'll perhaps see it's outline in what I'm doing but there's a lot more to it and I'll be honest and say I f-ing love adding class levels to monsters.

Rule of Cool- Clever play trumps rules lawyering. I've allowed shenanigans like a halfling using floating disk as cover or setting fire to a grease spell's aoe in the past and will likely allow for it again. If that disturbs you, I'm not the right GM for you.

Being a Murderhobo will Screw you- If you're looking for constant combat over roleplay and like to attack everything that looks like a monster this game will completely screw you. You have been warned.

If there's enough interest here's what I'll be looking for:

I'd ideally like 8 characters. Basically you'd be a mix-n-match party when trouble rolls down with 4 going one way and 4 another. Come together off adventuring time in council to rule a kingdom. Ideally the two "leaders" would be married. I'd have 3 threads, a unified thread and 2 sub-threads for party splits. It allows for flexibility if someone gets captured and it also allows for the safety net in case of a TPK, the other group essentially recruits the new group or perhaps resurrects the old one.

Creation rules/restrictions You get an NPC class level I'm not accounting for in your CR, 2 background traits, a free 18, a mandatory 8, and a 15 point buy to spread among the other 4 attributes before applying racial modifiers. No templates. We've actually re-balanced a number of races and made new ones you can pick or anything with up to 14 race points from the traditional races or giver my re-balanced/new races a whack. No Gestalt. No Mythic or Psionics. I'm also using a mod from a friend that narrates a previous adventure together and tracks a "Party Alignment" system that rewards you for staying within 1 step of the agreed upon party alignment.

So is anyone down for/interested in this?

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

Hi everyone,

We're opening a new product line for out feat books. But I'm willing to toss out 3-5 free copies to anyone willing to post a review.

https://casualhardcore.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/charlie-brown-argh.jpg

for the cover and pitch.

Any Takers?

Sincerely,
Frank Gori
Co-Owner
Flying Pincushion Games

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka GM_Solspiral

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Hey gang,

Congrats on making top 8 and good luck with round 4. I find myself in a paradox of envy as I'm jealous you've made it this far and not jealous of the deadline/task before you.

In an effort to help I'll likely state the obvious here but ti is intended as advice.

1) Referencing monsters/ncps can save word count if need be...

2) 1 monster without some serious upgrades and a good battle plan is a chump.

3) Too many monsters clutter the field if you go with numbers make sure there's at least one standout.

4) Superstar Monster should be the one you're highlighting from R3 if that means that monster is the boss great if not it should deliver the most devastating in the encounter.

5) It helps to consider the encounter a scene so there should be a set up, a climax of some sort, and if it were me an escape attempt by a villain might be the route I take. Tell a story.

6) Implying a bigger adventure is a valid tactic but it is super risky as it can overshadow the encounter.

7) Tell as much of the story with the map that you can. The map is your biggest chance to save word count and can strongly influence how your submission is read. Picture is first impression.

8) Traps are a trap. They can either look like you tossed it in or it can make the entry. Remember that traps can be triggered intentionally by your villain or your villain can be aware of the trap and attempt to maneuver a foe into one.

9) The worst thing you can do going underground is a boring predictable cave. The map needs something dynamic to make it work be it man made structures or natural features that make the environment interesting.

10) Pick the monster you want to use not the one you think no one else will. If that means we get 7 encounters using the same monster so be it. If one of your top 4 favorite monsters didn't make top 8 that might be the one.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka GM_Solspiral

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Past the past 2 years I've reviewed every item posted in the top 32 threads and every item in the critique thread. I do it in my own thread because it's easier to keep track and since I add page number's reference your review.

I'm rolling the top 32 and alternates in the thread so I can keep better track of who has and hasn't gotten a review.

Who am I to review you? First and foremost I'm a veteran gamer that has been at one table or another for the past 25 years. I'm also a freelancer who has had the good fortune to see his name sandwiched between Ed Greenwod and Jim Groves for Deep Magic, acknowledged for comments turned into contributions from Raging Swan, and making the cover page for a few RPG mags. I helped launch 2 3PPs one of which I'm still a managing partner on. I've also done a bunch of blogs as a regular contributor.

I'm not a full time game designer but I have a strong idea of what it takes to be one. Be aware, I pull no punches the critiques are done in a spirit of trying to help you get better.

If you have questions I'll answer them, but do not thread jack and please limit your responses to your own item. I will get to everyone but if I missed you let me know I'll cycle back and get your item.

The polite thing to do is say nothing, the helpful thing is to tell you the truth good, bad, and ugly.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka GM_Solspiral

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Hello again Paizo,

This worked the first time, so I'm back hat in hand. Please commit to giving us the rules to round 2 before 1/20... In an ideal world sometime on or before Friday would be great.

The short turn around time is a tall order for anyone who works weekdays. I could handle a 3 day turn around time if there was a weekend day in there. You'll get a better effort from anyone in similar circumstances by giving us a little more notice.

Maybe the thought was to see who can as a freelancer handle a rapid turn around; but remember, by the rules of the contest I'm not making my living doing this. I'm sure if you polled us you'd find single parents and folks with 2 jobs in this contest, we're hard working people and we'll give you our best, just help us out a little?

If you're worried we'll resent putting in effort and in some cases buying materials before we know we're in, we get it there are no guarantees. Give us the item and we'll give you a better effort then we would if you rush us.

I'd argue that knowing your limits and pushing back when something doesn't seem reasonable is just as much a good freelancer quality as being able to turn around on a short deadline.

That's my 2 copper.

Sincerely,
Frank Gori
A.k.a GM_Solspiral

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka GM_Solspiral

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We get it, you're all about being inclusive. We're going with different stuff this year and the contest is changing.

For the love of all that is holy don't cull the cull. We need the cull!

Reasons to do the cull:
1) Reinvigorates voting.
2) Reinvigorates the boards.
3) Those who are culled learn to format and/or edit better next year.
4) Those that don't make top 100 list or favorites list can say "at least I survived the cull."
5) Lets those who are not fanatical voters see better quality of items.

Reasons not to do a cull:
1) Some people will be butthurt and not come back.
Counterpoint Those people will be butthurt anyway, such is the circle of life for a writer.
2) Some folks will be anxious about it.
Counterpoint the anxiety ridden are goign to be anxiety ridden no matter what.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka GM_Solspiral

Does formatting a link for easy reference count towards your wordcount if so does just the web address or the url= ect...

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka GM_Solspiral

Wow... This may be the best opportunity for Round 1 since voting began...

Some observations/topics I'm looking forward to seeing...

1) Rings that do something different. I've seen passive bonuses and SIACs what else do you have? I suspect it is one of the easier spaces for certain wondrous items to move to.

2) Guns. What a risky space as some hate mixing tech and fantasy but it if gets by the voters I could see a gun making top 32 as Paizo likes mixing tech with fantasy so if it gets by the voters it could be a standout to the judges.

3) Shields. Sword and board is a maligned combat style but an influx of awesome shields can change that! I know I'm looking forward to keeping a shield file.

4) Ammunition. This years best bet at a consumable, but tough to get right.

5) Staves. Mark my words a staff will make top 32 and it will change how we look at staves.

6) Mythic is likely too risky a space right now (just look at the Wrath of the Righteous boards for why) because of the voters. It is also tough to not turn a mythic item into an artifact.

7) Rods are in my opinion the hardest item to get right. Staves are the biggest trap, rods are the hardest challenge.

I'm betting the field will be flooded with weapons first, armor second, and rings third. I'm also thinking we will see a rash of duplicate or near identical items this year (orc torcs) simply because the category is more narrow and there's only so many themes that feel fantasy.

Exciting, but I'm also going to bet that the map round goes to round 3 and the monster round goes to round 2, and we go back to Wondrous Items next year (or any magic item!) My reasoning is that the design space for the categories we have is interesting but we will see near themed items and it will be a problem. I also think that Maps is a great primer round for round 4 but the map isn't as big a deal as the monster and I'd rather have awesome monsters from a designer than awesome maps.

I'm no expert but it's fun to discuss.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

Enjoy It's a fun one

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

I'm done with it except the build section where I am keeping to form from my rogue guide and using a mix of multi classing. Here's the basics, if anyone has suggestions to improve please let me know.

1) Deadliest mount- Takes total of 3 levels of primal companion hunter for 3 points of spontaneous evolutions as needed and nat fang spells
-17 levels of beast rider for more progressing options and beast rider power ups
-aasamar for celestial servant feat
Eventually you get a larger, stronger celestial tiger mount that can spontaneously get wings and wing buffet, or pounce/trample.

2) Shadow knight- basically takes total of 15 levels of daring champion with order of seal
-Human for extra feat
-1 level of cleric for darkness and travel domains
-4 levels of shadow dancer
Essentially shadow dancer is all about evasion, 1 rogue talent, shadow companion, and shadow jump. Cleric level enhances mobility, access to wands, and blindfighting feat for free (count ranalc) and because patron good seems secretive for order fo seal stuff. Daring champion rounds out the dex cha thing you have going. Alternately could go duegar and droskar for darkness/trickery combo.

3) Gray Templar- basically is a cavalier into gray warden and low templar mixed up into a self righteous turn coat. IT is a weirdly effective mix, make it a tiefling if you want more fluff fun.

4) Green Knight- Mix cavalier with a level of oracle and go into nature warden for a weirdly interesting nature themed knight.

5) Dragon knight- basically use a dip to gain draconic bloodline and get into dragon disiple... might do bloodrager build might go order of dragon because reasons.

6) General Marshal- mix bard and cavalier into battle herald to make a team friendly sort.

7) Lancing destruction- small cavalier with optimized spirited charging.

Any other suggestions for an 8th build anything you want in the builds presented?

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

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Honestly with relatively few restrictions I've managed to make it work at my table.

Here's a link

Anyone else out there letting their players have leadership? Chime in why or why not.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

It's my first attempt at a guide, please be gentle but I am open to suggestions.

GM_Solspiral's PAP Guide to the Rogue

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

Ok so the typical complaint about rogues is that they cannot hit as well as a front liner, they do not have a consistent way to deal sneak attack, and they have 2 poor saves. Then there's the bit about other classes doing what they do only with magic. I also think there's something about having no unique abilities.

Dip at least 2 levels but in my opinion 5 of Cavalier- specifically Order of the Land for Adaptive strike and go with the Strategist Archetype.

Go with a small race, in my opinion halflings and goblins are best. For mount grab a wolf. For rogue levels go with the scout archetype.

What you get:
-3 reliable ways to gain sneak attack by 5th level, 2 by 3rd.
1) Wolf mount = a flanking partner
2) Adaptive strike- your opponents get flat footed anytime you use an improvised weapon.
3) Charge! You gain sneak when charging, typically astride your mount.
-An extra attack on the BAB chain.
-With a challenge +1 to attack, with a mounted cavalier's charge +4 to hit, small +1 to hit, and banner +2 (if you take 5 levels.)
-Tactician and Drill Instructor with the stupid good Stealth Synergy now you can scout without splitting the party!

I'm working this all out but it looks good for solving just about every issue with the rogue. UMD and wands will likely be a part of it. Feel free to jump in with suggestions

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

In Oracle we did an alternate base class Warlock and a couple reviewers have asked for further support of the class (and in all honesty I always craved more from 3.5.)

The reviews pretty much sum up what you get (in case you somehow haven't bought this yet!)

So far...

I have several feat ideas and want to expand on what you can do with the blast evolutions.

I'm also considering doing either a Hellfire archetype or prestige class. I'd make the blasts specific and have a mechanic that bi-passes fire resistence partly, I feel like that archetype deserves an imp familiar as well.

Another Archetype I'm kicking around in my head trades some revelation versatility for the ability to cast spells form specific mysteries as a sla.

I've already noted a request for more fluff explaining how Warlocks enter the class, but what do the rest of you want?

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

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I love it when a deal comes together!

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka GM_Solspiral

To me it seems others are solely considering this past round and what adventure they see as best. I implore folk to consider what Designer they feel did best over the whole of the competition. To that end I'll expose how I came to my vote. I went with a 10 point must system for each round and doubled the totals on the latter 2 rounds as I feel they deserved more consideration.

Mike Kimmel —
Round 4 City of Blood & Chains 8
Round 3 The Floating Bazaar 9
Round 2 Chimney Troll 10
Round 1 Earthbind Boots 10
54 points

Mikko Kallio —
Round 4 Knight's Gambit 7
Round 3 The House of the Serpent's Hand 10
Round 2 Immured 9
Round 1 Deck of Falling Houses 8
51 points

Robert Brookes —
Round 4 On Fertile Ground 10
Round 3 Impact Site 8
Round 2 Disir 7
Round 1 Spirit Window 9
52 points

Victoria Jaczko —
Round 4 Daughters of Fury 9
Round 3 The Wedding Day Chapel 7
Round 2 Chwal 8
Round 1 Bitter Widow's Veil 7
47 points

A clean sweep would be 60 points, the difference between a win and a tie for Robert and Mike came down to a change of 1 rank for either R1 or R2.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka GM_Solspiral

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Last year I reviewed every item in the thread. I separate it out to keep track you’ll see the reviews in the format below. If I really, really like it I might PM you my email address and try and recruit you into freelancing for my 3PP brand The Flying Pincushion which currently publishes under the d20srd banner.
Please do not take offense I will occasionally get curt in my reviews but they will be honest. Sometimes I’ll couch that in polite terms sometimes I’ll be tired and grumpy which is a good replica of what happens when you are voting.
#) Item name
The Good positive feedback
The Bad minor quibbles
The Ugly borderline rants
Overall Opinion in summary will grade from 1-5 stars
1= DQ or cull worthy
- Poor formatting with bad concept
- joke items
- serious rules issues
-serious writing problems
or a compound of criteria from 2
2= Makes the cull but lower middling for me.
-Worthy concept but poor formatting
-Less then fond of underlying concept
-Obvious rip off of another item or clearly stolen from a fantasy novel
-Combination of lesser issues or really light version of greater issue.
3= Middling, I up vote as often as down.
-Too class specific
-Rivers of blood, gore or other theme issues with excellent execution.
-Naming issue
-Usable but just not Superstar in concept
4= Upvoted a great deal I liked it just not top 32 liked it
-Flawless formatting
-Good writing
-Good concept
-Tight design
-Just not all of that together
5- Top 32 worthy, I’d consider this for top 32, I might even message you about trying out for some work with my 3PP

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka GM_Solspiral

I suspect this is my last year of Superstar because I believe that I'm already on the border of ineligibility but I'm trying to suss out exactly where the line is...

Here's the quote: Employees of Paizo Publishing, their immediate family members, and persons with whom such employees are domiciled are ineligible. Anyone who has been employed full-time as a designer for a game company is ineligible. Anyone with a cover credit on a hardcover RPG book is ineligible. Anyone who has a design credit in 3 or more of Paizo's Pathfinder products is ineligible. The top eight finalists of all previous RPG Superstar contests are ineligible. Contestants must provide their real names on their paizo.com accounts. Legal identification must be produced on request.

For example:

Anyone with a cover credit on a hardcover RPG book is ineligible.

-I was paid for contributions on a kickstarter from Kobold Press that will be a hardcover for certain, does that make me ineligible next year? Do you mean the front cover, or the inside where the credits always are? I'm certain with names like Wolfgang Baur and Ed Greenwood I won't be on the outside cover but I did hesitate to enter.

Anyone who has been employed full-time as a designer for a game company is ineligible.

-I'm currently partnered with d20pfsrd and will likely split my brand off into its own entity this year, will that effect my eligibility? Does it matter if I transition to print? I'm starting my own company but its not likely to pay the bills or be full time for awhile which is why I ask... If I do get to full time I assure you most of that time is spent managing writers, editing, trying to find a decent artist that understands you're poor too and profit margins are narrow, running kickstarters, and pulling my hair out are what I anticipate will take roughly most of my design time away :)

-While I'm at it I have a friend who is a customer service agent for Activision, I know it's trollish to say this but I guess he's out. What about someone who does layout and graphics design for a company that wants to transition to writing? people who have written for Indie companies that went belly up are out too.

Anyone who has a design credit in 3 or more of Paizo's Pathfinder products is ineligible.

-Does wayfinder count, I ask because I have 2 credit there and won't collect a 3rd if that's the case? I'm assuming my 3PP work doesn't count as Paizo despite it being Pathfinder compatible...

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka GM_Solspiral

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Waiting for the top 32 announcement is like God I Hope I get it! no matter how confident you are (unless you are delusional) you know the competition is fierce and more people will fail then make it.

Some quick advice...

If you make it: Take the judges comment and the voter comments as constructive criticism, but do not obsess. You made it, the opportunity is rare do not squander it. Study hard on mechanics but do not over work your monster. It needs to retain that spark from cool idea to execution.

You didn’t make it: Be gracious in defeat and stick around. Get your item critiqued and listen to the feedback. Write something for Wayfinder #11 or propose and write something for Kobold Press or The Flying Pincushion. Any of those sources will give feedback on your submissions and if you get work you can learn a great deal by working with an editor.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

The Paladin in my group really tries the capture and redeem tactic often and it started with Millnorn.

They managed to KO Millnorn without killing him and tied him up pretty good. He read as evil but the Paladin didn't care mostly because he was clearly insane and "we don't kill the mental invalids." This was the cause of some argument among the group.

They let him talk and since there's no back story. At first I had him blabbering on about how they were trying to steal his bedroll and how he knew they were actually deranged fairies.

After one session of this the Paladin decided to try and fix crazy. I started by having the Paladin roll a sense motive, of course the player rolls a 20. I'm good at crafting story on the fly so I say the dwarf was isolated for a long time and his cloths were tattered remains over 100 years old.

Deciding to push it the Paladin tries diplomacy and another Nat 20 is rolled. He gets the Dwarf to talk and learns the dwarf was captured and tormented by "sexy fairies" (Knowledge Planes check let the Paladin figure out it was actually Succubi.) After long torture they delivered him "back to Torag" where he encountered and fled from the heccuva. The earthquake actually opened this chamber and the dwarf was otherwise sealed in.

With all the good fortune and diplomacy work Millnorn is now CN on his way to CG. He'll always be crazy and perhaps a little on the comic relief side of things. Here's some highlights:

-He used a bluff roll to get some crazy cultists into a good position for a color spray, "Come'ere boyz I got somethin' in me sack for ye."
-Baddie goes invisible, Millnorn yells "Ow we think we're so kewl goin' invisible and stuff. I can do that too whatcha got next," and he cast invisibility.
-Really evil prisoner tied to a chair, Paladin gets distracted by another minion, looks back and Millnorn has coup-de-grased the guy pretty much everyone else in the party wanted dead. As way of explanation, "the other guys startled me an I fell forward with me dagger." Millnorn beat the paladins sense motive with a bluff.
-Millnorn likes to open combat by flinging animal poop at his foes...

I guess the point of this thread other then sharing how fun this NPC can be, is that I'm fairly sure Millnorn is going to survive to the end of the Grey garrison and I'm strongly considering making him mythic. Depending on what they pick and what they do I'm considering giving Millnorn either exposed to awfulness or chance encounter. He is ultimately going to become a rogue as well as wizard into arcane trickster. He has also adopted a skunk (switched his arcane bond) that was running around.

The player enjoy the character a great deal but I'm slightly worried about stepping. They do not have a rogue so I figure moving him off of caster helps with a problem. As players would you be annoyed if you had an npc ally with mythic tiers or would you appreciate your npc sidekick/comic relief had the power to keep up in the adventure?

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka GM_Solspiral

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Last year I:

-Fired out my item in the first week I could.
-Went with an item I've had in homebrew games many times before.
-Was cocky about my chances of getting in the top 32 with no experience what so ever.
-Though I had a handle on the judges with prior years to look at.
-I already wrote an archetype by now.
-Made a simple item complicated, and chose a utility item that was overpriced and underpowered.

This year:

-I was busy enough that the deadline crept up on my but mums the word on if I've submitted yet.
-I invented something completely new (at least I've never seen it.)
-I have dozen blogs, wayfinder, a few 3PPs (but no hardcovers), and I feel like I spent some serious time on a lotto ticket when it comes to my entry.
-Gulp, what a curveball! There's some big names in the mix there, but the front three judges don't exactly have a Superstar judging history to read over. I suspect this will shake things up dramatically.
-I wouldn't dare work a monster yet, no idea on word count CR, terrain type... It would be a little nuts to take that on now!
-I'm hoping I learned what it is to make a superstar item.

Without giving enough detail to DQ yourself what's changed for you this year?

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

Check out The Winding Road and let me know what you think

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

When I wrote the background I have count ranier and naryssa in mind.

White Rabbit

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

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We are now a blog focused on taking literary sources to gaming table. Check ou Moby Dick week and This week we kick off Alice in Wonderland week!

Typically updated M-F with Friday focusing on our Recession reviews...

Monster Mondays White Rabbit

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

I'm thinking Paladin for obvious reasons, Ranger for a favored enemy demons and going with companions bond over animal companion and an archery focus, inquisitor in place of a cleric, and master summoner for some arcane and melee support.

What do you guys think?

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