mamaursula's page

Daniel, I'm not actually allowed to read the entries because Andrew tells me we may be play testing them, but I am allowed to browse the comments. I noticed that no one has given any feedback beyond the judges and it's nice to get fan mail. So I wanted to tell you congratulations on making it to the Top 8. That is quite an accomplishment. As I have said in other rounds before, I know you and the other Top 8 contestants are in the middle of a whirlwind of brainstorming, writing, designing, panicking, revising and then passing out as you hit that final "Submit" button.
Good luck to you and keep creating!

We'll never know standing here. Has everyone seen what they want to see? Brinda eyes the large centipedes suspiciously and stands a bit further away from them than necessary.

You're still a Super Star to me. Now...about my dinner? :-)

What would your party of paladin, barbarian, fighter and gunslinger do against this swarm? :)

If your party isn't carrying acid flasks, then shame on you, get to a town and buy some.

I was going to, but I figured I'd end it with a friendly wink and a laugh. ;-D

I don't get to check the message boards at work, I guess I'll need to start reading before I start posting from now on. I miss you guys when I'm not here :-)

But that's just it: They get way more than 3 days now. The Round 4 rules will be revealed on Friday when voting closes rather than on Tuesday when the Round 3 results are revealed. That means everyone will have a full 7-day week to design their encounter. That's more than twice what we got during our run!

And, on top of that, they get to know the "twist" right now, a good 10 days before the next round begins? And they got 300 words for their wondrous item submissions, when the first two years we only got 200?! They've got it easy, I tell ya! That's why I say make'em sweat!!! ;-D

Neil, don't forget to remind them how you had to walk uphill both ways to your computer barefooted in the snow while you were competing! I love that part of the story!

EDIT: I see Jacob Trier and I are on the same wavelength...

Good Luck Andrew. I hope others will see the frightening possibilities of a Hive Queen and her minions.

We have moved to point buy because all dice hate me and I made the request, which none of our regular players have ever complained. Even when we rolled, we did the 4d6 and drop the lowest/reroll 1's, which typically left me with a net total of +3 in total modifiers (see, the dice really do hate me). Point buy is much more elegant, it allows everyone the same opportunities and keeps the record keeping end of character creation on the easy side.

I dont want to be too much of a tease...but I don't think you will be disappointed with the monsters from round 3 :)

I can't say much, but there are some really, really good ones. And even the ones I dont give a recommendation to are good. There are no really bad grades this round.

Oh dear God Clark, you're making my heart go pitter patter already. This is killing me! I am going to have to hide this thread from Andrew.

Wait, you mean we have to do this again with monsters?

Congratulations sweetheart and thank you Paizo fans. Good luck to the Top 16 and best wishes to the remaining Top 32. You are all amazing. (And yes, I'm very late with this :-) )

Erik, you have such a great spirit and your desire to succeed is incredible. I wish you all the luck in RPG Superstar 2013, I'm sure we'll be seeing your name again.

Now that my votes won't be construed as attempting to sway others:

Andrew Marlowe - Andoran Mercantile League

Wow, way to be open minded and look at the entries for their strengths as well as perceived weaknesses. I thought we were past the sour grapes phase of the contest.

I think I was less stressed about giving birth to our two children than waiting for the responses to this submission. I guess that's because I didn't know if it would be a boy or a girl...I'm still not sure. Good luck Andrew!

I do like the option to use it as an alternate holy symbol. That's nifty. I could see this as part of a big set of alternate, cheap, magical holy symbols. In that context, I might like it more.

Muwahahaha, I'll make him start working on an item for my Cleric of Desna for next year ;-)

A set of special Holy Symbols is really cool and something that I would also like to see. As the player who portrays the party Cleric in all three of our active campaigns (and probably 90% of all of my PCs, yeah, being a nurse means you get type cast a lot :-) ) I can tell you that there is very little in the way of cool things aimed at Clerics in any given treasure pile. It's a great idea, Isaac.

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Generally speaking though, a Cup/Mug/Tankard of imbibing in honor of Cayden Cailean is genre, folks. CC is a drinking, brawling, rambunctious fellow, this is an item he could have carried and it would be something that would appeal to a follower. Having read the other items, they are very limited in their similarities and very divergent in their scope. This isn't an item your PC "outgrows", it can always be useful, in some situations more so than others.

If there were only one Tankard of something special for CC, that would be pretty disappointing, personally speaking. Different items out there do similar things although at different costs, power structure, item/body slots, alignment requirements, etc. Yet, one is going to resonate more than another for different players, PCs and campaign settings. This is a different option, I like options.

Congratulations Andrew, thank you for making me this awesome cup. Your attention to detail is frustrating, because I could really use help mopping the kitchen floor. Next year, can you write up a mop and broom wondrous item? That would be great! Cheers!

"Put yourself in whatever role" meaning me as me in this other role in this other setting?...

I could go through more, but I think it comes back to ST:TNG, and that's odd since that's not a place I'd ever want to roleplay, or a setting I'd ever want to game in--but it seems like a decent place to live.

So, Star Trek, The Next Generation it is, and I'll be a member of the Q, thanks.

Are you certain? Because I hear once you've been the dog, the Continuum can get boring.

I’m thinking about a Varisian rogue. Raised with her “aunt” Koya Mvashti. Travelling among the Varisian caravans she became a (non cleric) priestess of Desna. She has passed through Sandpoint numerous times in her life but only recently come to live here. This change in lifestyle is for a couple of reasons including helping to care for the ancient Niska Mvashti and to study with Abstalar Zantos.

Within days of moving into Niska’s large home she found a welcome spot at Ameiko’s bar, picked up some of the local gossip and ran afoul of Scarnzi low lifes.

Please dont lynch me. I just dont think that spot and listen should be the same skill. I.e.: im almost blind, but i have fine hearing. Im a great swimmer, but i cant climb (ive tried). I beeeeg the designers to stay with the current 3.5 skill break down.

Alternative solutions could give a flat skill bonus for certain classes to certain abilities.

I like some of the condensing - spot & search; move silently & hide - they are nearly the same methods in my mind and just split my pitiful skill points up, if you can't do one, you really can't do the other.

Now that we've moved beyond the odd skill point alotment from alpha 1, I think this could be undone to some degree if a better skill point system is decided upon.

I mulled this one over and over in my mind before I voted. Ultimately I did give it my vote because it grabbed my attention and made me want to see what was deeper and behind that craftily placed spoiler button. As my experiences in gaming grow, I find that I may not always want to see a villian in play, but I do like to be able to look through the fourth wall and see them in a crystal moment of their lives. You took a HUGE chance by writing your poem (and really, everyone had some form of introduction, your's was just snappier). Take care in the next round to be true to your concept and chose wisely. I think you have what it takes to go all the way and I'd like to see you make good decisions with your words, you only get so many, use them well.

I would vote for you just because you are a woman, since we are not represented in strong numbers in this competition, but in this round you get my vote for creating an interesting, workable villain, woman or no. Boots of speed? Mind blade for psychic strikes? Excellent. Congrats!

I admit, that played into my voting as well to a very small degree. I love this concept so much. I know there are challenges above and beyond just having good ideas, writing is hard enough for the native speakers, good luck in the polls.

Joe, this was a tough call and as stated elsewhere, we only get four votes. You were in my top 5 and I spent a long time contemplating my choice. Ultimately it came down to the lack of driving evil force in your villian that made me chose other candidates. I hope others feel differently and I'm looking forward to what you have to offer in the next round. Best of luck to you.

Congrats Andrew! Will you autograph my strand?

(c) As someone else mentioned above, I found the 4E life analogies to be insulting. Just like some of the other crap the WotC has put out, this article reeks of the whole "4E will be great, and anyone who thinks otherwise is an ignorant lout" attitude.

It wasn't an analogy for 4th Ed. Should actually pick up the book that this article is promoting, you will quickly realize that Shelly started playing D&D and the Eberron pathway adventures. The book (and this article) are targeting the softer, YM side of D&D. I for one would love to have more female gamers to talk to at Cons and events. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

The more I think about it, the more I think that you (and I) are perhaps not the target audience for this piece. As I said, I could see my wife enjoying it as a read.

You're right, you aren't the target audience - this is for the would be gamer chicks who will hopefully receive Ms. Mazzanoble's book for Christmas and want to join your D&D game. And maybe even date your single gamer guy friends ;-) Okay, that might be too much to hope for, but still, the book is actually targeting new and would be female gamers. I rather liked it.

When I heard all those months ago that Dungeon and Dragon were no longer going to be published, I was mildly concerned about the future of Paizo and what that decision by WotC would mean to a company I had come to trust with a dedication to excellence for my hobby.

Now that we are on the other side that and we'll all sit huddled around our screens waiting for the other shoe to drop, I can't help but think to myself what a comfort it is to have former nearly insiders to give me a look through the window of WotC. I'm not one to follow the industry with a magnifying glass and I find the information shared with us by Erik and the others very illuminating.

As someone who has dealt with customer satisfaction for over 10 years I have never heard of a company willingly producing a product that would "fire" it's entire target audience. That concept is so foreign to me that it makes me question those at the helm of that company. That may not be their attitude now, but any company who has that in their past is going to have to live with that knowledge being available.

I have every faith that Paizo will continue their excellence and their recognition of who it is that they are in business for. Thank you guys for reaffirming (even in just little ways) that you are as passionate about my hobby as I am.

This accessory will definitely go with any shoes you'll be wearing to the Cons.

Since Locke1520 is my GM, it looks like I'll be switching eventually.

www.enworld.org

But it looks like its down...

and, on an unrelated note to enworld being down

dance dance dance

What other sites do we want to shut down? We can destroy the internet tonight!

Having met the Paizo team at Origins earlier this month and chatting with several of the creative minds, I have no doubt that Paizo will produce some fantastic stuff. I am a little afraid of the Deliverance Trolls though...

But I'm curious, what would all of you do to the NPC's in a gestalted SCAP. Ill post my ideas later, but for now, I wanna see how evil these boards can get!

We are also a gestalted group of 3 PC's, Locke1520 is our GM and I can tell you how he handles it - he doesn't hand out XP every session, he's got us trained like Pavlov's dogs. When our PC's start to lag behind in power, he allows us to level. We have been keeping pretty close to the suggested power level for the AP, but we are a bit tweaked up with some house rules.

From a players stand point I can tell you this - 3 PC's with 6 pc levels does not, nor ever will, equal 6 PC's. There have been a few times that after the session he has told me that he scaled back encounters a bit - pulled a few aggressors out of the mix (which was good since 2 of the 3 party members went down due to being so heavily out numbered). I will strongly recommend that you urge a Cleric or two in your party, myself and one of the other PC's are both Clerics with different off classes.

I'll point Locke this way though so he can give you some GM ideas.

The Dark Angels.

I noticed that the female specific tees don't precisely cover the same spectrum of sizes. If we can't get the cutesy shape, can we at least get it in our size and tenty rectangular? Because even if I have kissed a girl, I'm not sure I wish to broadcast it.

I have lived in Jacksonville, FL, Muncie, IN, and Mesa, AZ. Never once have I lacked heating or air conditioning. I'm not sure what life would be like without them. I'm too afraid to find out.

That's the truth, we're in Cincinnati and between the constant 97% humidity and decent chance of at least 3 100 degree weather days every summer, I think we'll keep our (spare) window unit no matter where we live.