Agreed... the DM secret gave the whole thing a definite 'cube' vibe that I found really nifty, and that's why it gets my vote.
I don't think it's one of the five best, but I do think it should be in the top sixteen. I feel that the best entries are rather obvious, so while everyone else panders to the standard answers I'll be using my votes on some of the more interesting underdogs.
I think this one will get the sophomore windbag contrarian votes. It may have legs in a joke campaign.
Ok, others have given tough competition but you win the "names I hate most" contest.
As far as country go, an interesting idea though I too got more sci-fi feel out of this.
This place would make a great adventure, but feels like one-trick pony to me.
Place your votes.
Would you by chance have anything else to offer, to any discussion? Reminding people to vote is by no means "sophomoric" but it does feel like it is in poor taste, given that there are two more days in which people may vote.
Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8
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Place your votes.Would you by chance have anything else to offer, to any discussion? Reminding people to vote is by no means "sophomoric" but it does feel like it is in poor taste, given that there are two more days in which people may vote.
A poster on another thread asked where to vote.
This is the only one so far I really don't like. A city in a globe, Treehugger the druid, seems like a high concept setting for a short campaign but not as part of a real game world.
Hate to be too brief, but I have to admit, the snowglobe was interesting, but there was way too much cliche in this one, between the names, and even some of the descriptions . . . "mad" and "gnome" should never go next to each other outside of Dragonlance, for example.
The king of the goblin nation in my very first home-brewed D&D setting was named Skrag and he "ruled the Darklands from his unassailable citadel in the stenchpit known as Blight."
Heh. Skrag was awesome. I obviously like the name!
Place your votes.Would you by chance have anything else to offer, to any discussion? Reminding people to vote is by no means "sophomoric" but it does feel like it is in poor taste, given that there are two more days in which people may vote.
I notice you have two posts to your profile. Welcome to Paizo. We are glad to have you here.
Even while I mentioned hating the names, I must rise up to defend the best name in the entry: Treehugger. It is delightfully insulting nickname one could give to a druid, especially in more hard-edge prison colony...so that name has certain Oz appeal in it, and I'm not talking about "Wonderful Wizard of".
I notice you have two posts to your profile. Welcome to Paizo. We are glad to have you here.
The hurt cannot be much.
No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door; but 'tis enough, 'twill serve: ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I am peppered, I warrant, for this world. A plague o' both your houses! 'Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat, to scratch a man to death! A braggart, a rogue, a villain, that fights by the book of arithmetic!
I think I pulled a muscle from all the eye rolling. Bleah.
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Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8
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Wow, I never quite realized how critical geeks can be. I guess that we've (by we I mean all of you)been picked on so much over the years that we can't accept a good idea for what it is, and I feel that this idea is one of the few truly original ideas posted.
Or perhaps there are at least 5 others that are equally geeky, but better.
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Wow, I never quite realized how critical geeks can be. I guess that we've (by we I mean all of you)been picked on so much over the years that we can't accept a good idea for what it is, and I feel that this idea is one of the few truly original ideas posted.
Welcome to Paizo asmoly. This entry certainly has a creative idea – although I wouldn’t say it’s truly original. Penal colonies as countries, pocket dimensions and even pocket dimensions as prisons have all been done before. There are actually a lot of creative ideas from various people in this round, but unfortunately there is more to being an RPG Superstar than just a creative idea – although that helps.
Oh, and for what it’s worth I’ve never been picked on for being a geek. I’m sorry if your experience has not been the same.
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Place your votes.Would you by chance have anything else to offer, to any discussion? Reminding people to vote is by no means "sophomoric" but it does feel like it is in poor taste, given that there are two more days in which people may vote.
Well it would be a pity if people forgot to vote, or weren’t sure where to do so. You might say it would kind of defeat the purpose of the competition.
At previous times when Paizo has run polls and such, you would be surprised at how many people ask where and how they can vote.
It reminds me of Kandor, the bottled city from the Superman comics, etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kandor
It didn't make my top 5, but it is an interesting concept. It seems like a great bad guy plot-hook to snare a bunch of do-gooder adventurers, but not really somewhere to be "from."
I notice you have two posts to your profile. Welcome to Paizo. We are glad to have you here.
The hurt cannot be much.
No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door; but 'tis enough, 'twill serve: ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I am peppered, I warrant, for this world. A plague o' both your houses! 'Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat, to scratch a man to death! A braggart, a rogue, a villain, that fights by the book of arithmetic!
I do protest, I never injured thee,
But love thee better than thou canst devise,
Re: Voting.
Now, I have to admit, there are a lot of entries that are better-written than this one. Or entries that have better names, are more cohesive as a unit, etc.
That being said, when I started thinking about which five domains I'd vote for, I used a simple rule:
Imagine these are all in a book. Pick the five you'd most likely use in a game, for more than one session (but maybe only two or three sessions; I wasn't expecting any of these to be the basis for an entire campaign!)
This one gets my vote for the simple reason that it is **COOL**. I can see myself running the PCs against Hobgoblin Slavers and Bandits, discovering all the dark secrets in Hope, and, of course, trying to stage a "Prison Break" that could be the basis of an entire campaign.
About four years ago, I ran a mini-campaign set in Carceri that was similar to this campaign - a prison plane where redemption or further moral decay were the only options. PCs were fallen paladins, murderers, conmen, and the like.
While that campaign was a LOT of fun, I think this setting would work a lot better than a Carceri campaign, for the following reasons:
1) Carceri is a planar game, meaning you have to expect fiends and the like; Saran tends towards more humanoid influences.
2) Carceri is set in the planes, meaning PCs could thereotically hail from Sigil, Krynn, the City of Brass, Athas, and a million Prime Materials. Saran, on the other hand, is tied to an empire, meaning you can give the PCs some common backgrounds, and there's a bit more room to explore theme.
3) Redemption (and possible "Parole") are not options in Carceri. There are no real cities in Carceri. Which makes Saran pretty cool, in my book.
In other words, I guess Saran just stood out for me a lot more than some of the other entries. It screamed "original, cool world", and the image of post-apocalyptic style elves and orcs is pretty nifty. While I would make a few changes were I to use it (I'd make Saran a bit more bleak in terrain, add in a bunch of ruined buildings from a now-gone empire, throw in a bunch of political exiles from the Empire, and make Hope only one of a number of large townships - first among equals, as it were), I still think Saran has got to be one of thre top three in terms of pure Coolness, Originality, and Play Value.
Just wanted to spread this comment about - a great job on all these entries to all the competitors. Many have be inspiring and interesting to read.
I have been reading these out of order, and this entry was the 10th one I read. I apologize if I repeat what has been mentioned.
I think you have created a fairly unique take here - certainly it falls into the unconvential and cool to me. A nation that is a prison evokes historical contexts quite nicely - and while it may seem bit much, the history you placed in here helps explains the situation.
Placing an adventure here allows for the "destination is our goal" story, and I think it could make for a unique approach. Finally, the DM secrets gives it more impact to what happens.
The naming definetly needs work - too obvious and cliche'. The logic of the plane's size doesn't gel to me; and I don't see how some of the creatures you've inserted get there. So there's some structural design that needs work.
The other question is what do you do with this place? It can be a "painted into a corner" scenario for your players - that can be interesting, but also tiresome. The interaction with the empire also speaks that you'll need to establish a lot more groundwork before they set foot here.
There are some places that evoke a certain quality for a campaign or game world. Generally, it falls as:
a) Some place your players/PCs GO TO - for adventure, quests, missions, etc
b) Some place your players/PCs are FROM - this is their home and can be used as the basis for their background
c) Some place your players/PCs want TO STAY IN - they can adventure there; live in that society; and generally the game can be based there long term.
I think it's (a) only - but it could feel like a forced (c) scenario.
I think its creative, but compared to some others so far, not one of my 5 votes.
I find it innovative not because of the prison in a box, but because it was created for one thing and then turned into another. The druid study place is interesting and it gives plenty or reason for critters (how big is a roc's territory though?) Later, some other goof finds it and decides do dump their problems there. This set it apart from other places were you see these settings where it simply exists for a dramatic complication of this weeks episode (ST I am looking at you). I also want to play there, prison break? check. corrupt officials to thwart? check. wilderness critters/evil races? check.
Got one of my five JY-congrats.
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 8
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Ah, I have held my tongue so long and now I may speak.
First, thank you all for your votes, non-votes, and participation in this contest. Thank you also for honest critiques and criticisms, the criticism is something I rarely receive from my own players, sadly; perhaps this has led me to believe more in myself than is deserved, well that is truly for them to decide.
In regards to it being a country or not, I'd say I have nothing to add to the discussion as it has been agreed upon to be such.
In regards again to the comic book vibe or parallels, honestly they are innocent. I am a mild comic book geek, but only as a Marvel fan; Iron Man and the Fan Four are my traditional favorites. The Green Arrow and Kandor are outside my experience into the realm of DC; my true comic geek friend sadly did not even find my notice about this contest until after my 2nd Round submission was sent otherwise he would have remarked on those similarities.
Prison Break is not a movie I have seen, but in regards to Sci-Fi and movies, Logan's Run stands to my mind in this case, rather hindsight as well; the renewal sought in LR is very much like parole in Saran, a lie.
Also, as per the prior rulings, Sci-Fi/Steampunk etc were opportunities for this contest so long as the standard SRD material and classes could be used. Very much so, Sci-Fi and Fantasy have been lumped together into a single genre of writing with many authors crossing between the two.
I was actually surprised that one person thought this prison was too magic heavy, I aimed for a low magic presence; as only native sorcerers and Solarian Clerics really had any magic. If I'd had more space there would have been mention of a wizards cabal in which all exiled wizards cooperated and shared those spells remaining in their minds, copying them down into new spell books for trade and use (provided the spell components were available in this world).
Personally, I expected this to be an easier round for me as world building is what I send most of my DM time doing. As I've previously stated, I've had few complaints from my players; I've also run things very collaboratively for everyone's enjoyment.
In my design, I aimed to make the country one which would have a high potential for use by a DM. I purposefully mentioned only a few SRD monsters and races, (Rocs, Hobgoblins, Formians, Gnolls) to leave the opening for any potential DM to step in with monsters from any Monster Reference of their choosing, all per
who populated it with many different animals and monsters to study their interaction within a closed system
. This was to allow DM flexibility and unlimited options versus (as is in my opinion RE: Forgotten Realms) describing and deciding to the final detail everything in the world which leave no room for PCs. I endeavored to create a country where PCs could be from and in, native prisoner descendants, new prisoners, innocent prisoners, Solarians sent to retrieve an item (Roc feathers?) freedom fighters who break in to free the rightful king, etc.
Ah, the Great Empire of Solaria; what is there to say? I've not seen it unfold yet. I chose to not use any of my current work from my own setting for this contest because I wanted something fresh and new for myself as well as the challenge to create new things, I also did not start work on my country until the Top 32 were announced.
On to the great debate, my names. Agreed, bland, without a direct fantastical feel/sound/background to most any of them. The country name of Saran, actually came to me while stocking Saran Wrap at work, it just fit. Rasputin actually came because I decided to use one of my player's character name, fortunately he wasn't a bad guy. Honestly, names have always been one of my weakest points; I've even had Judas the Priest as an NPC, but as per my design to allow ease for a DM to use and make the setting his own, names are easy to change. In my own naming, I have always followed the ancient and classical naming convention of the name describing what it is. So Saran is sealed, so as to lock in freshness. Abigail, I'll admit was borrowed from Mrs. Adams as a forthright person trying for what is right and best; inversely Rasputin also was used to conjurer the image of such a dictator without resorting to using as many words. Did not those single names bring a fuller description of the character than if I'd orated on their virtues and vices? Kaynis Treehugger: alright, Kanis came from Arcanist and Treehugger was a goofy gnome name as are most all gnome names in any source (Treehugger was not taken from the PHB, but there in its examples of names most are as descriptively absurd, and so was used under that inspiration); I'm sorry, I've always considered Gnomes to be a bit wacked out in the first place ever since I saw David the Gnome riding his fox on Nick Jr as a sick youth. I've never been a fan of Dragonlance either, I've only liked Kender and Lord Soth when he was in Ravenloft (which I must admit Ravenloft held some inspiration for me as well).
Thank you all again, this truly has been a learning experience and I hope to be in the next round.
F'ing Brilliant, what else can I say. The Idea is incredible, Kid Rock would like to play this campaign! Never mind that the names are from incredible works of literature and history. You people are fools if u dont recognize them! Even my wang knows where the names are from! much respect Nyucka.
I hope this is your first and last post.
Glad to see you made it by. I really liked this one, and I'm interested in seeing your villain. Congrats.
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 8
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I did NOT like The Elemental Quiver, but I LOVED The Prison Colony of Saran. I did not have enough time to go through all 32 entries, but, of the ones I did read, I didn't find anything spectacular, so I didn't vote for any. Let me say that, if I had seen this, it would've had my vote.
Great job, Joseph!
Thanks, here's hoping I don't disappoint you with my villain. Its a shame you hadn't read it sooner.
Joseph, congratulations on making the cut! Sorry I did not recommend Saran and I am glad the voters disagreed with me! Your quiver sure got alot of discussion from the judges, too. I wish you the best of luck with your villain. If I were you, I would focus on naming. I'm sure you know that. It does seem to be a weakness. But I know you can overcome it. Making the cut twice shows you have the goods to do a great villain. I am looking forward to what you come up with. Good luck!
Great Job, Joe! I know you will create another inventive and intriguing idea! You have submitted creative ideas and the public has agreed! I look forward to your villian!