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. 2009 RPG Superstar champion Neil Spicer joined celebrity judges Clark Peterson, Ryan Dancey, and Sean K Reynolds to critique 32 original organizations designed by Round 1 finalists. In this round, fan votes determine who advances to Round 3, in which the Top 16 will design original monsters with full game statistics. All finalist submissions, complete with judge and reader commentary, are posted to the paizo.com messageboards.
“It's always interesting to see how the competitors embrace each round's challenge. Some play it conservatively, some appeal to a specific fanbase, and a few charge ahead to create something wild and innovative,” said judge and Paizo game developer Sean K Reynolds. “This year we had several traditional organizations like mercenary soldiers and seekers of lost knowledge, and unusual ones like a clan of succubus-geishas and a fleet of whale-riding pirates. As a judge, I'm always impressed with the creativity of the competitors—even the weird ones!”
The Top 16 will now be required to design Pathfinder Roleplaying Game statistics for an original monster concept and submit their complete monster write-up by 2:00 PM Pacific time on Friday, February 10. On February 14, Paizo will reveal judge comments on all 16 submissions to the general public, who will then get to discuss the entries and vote for their favorites. Voting ends on February 20, and the Top 8 (by votes) will move on to Round 4.
The ultimate winner of RPG Superstar, announced April 3, 2012, will write a Pathfinder Module to be published in early 2013. The 2011 RPG Superstar champion module, Sam Zeitlin’s The Midnight Mirror, releases in April 2012.
