Exit Poll - Round 4

[Sue Flaherty]

* Good Evening to you, too! :)
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The Votes So Far:

21 Kevin Carter—26 Paper Street
12 Neil Spicer—The Legendary Playhouse Theater
10 Randy Dorman—The Palace in the Ashen Wastes
10 Eric Bailey—Hecataeus: Sanctum of the Colossus
6 Matthew Stinson—The Abandoned Carnival at the Bumpy Apple Orchard
5 Trevor Gulliver—The Lonely Colossus
2 James F.D. Graham—Burnt Apple Haven
0 Joshua Blazej—The Putrid Temple of Volner Tain

This is a tight race, folks!

[inue]

I have an observation from reading comments in each lairs threads. Why do people write in to say they think that the OP has the best lair but they are voting for another b/c they don't' think it will get votes? That's not really the spirit of the contest -- the point is you want to vote for people who you think will write the best freelance material, correct? If they win your hearts with their entries you should vote for them.

[Charles Evans 25]

Edit:
Smurf.

However, my Round 4 Votes are:
1) Trevor Gulliver
2) Neil Spicer.

Eric Bailey gets a highly commended from me, but no vote this round.

[William Senn]

inue wrote:

I have an observation from reading comments in each lairs threads. Why do people write in to say they think that the OP has the best lair but they are voting for another b/c they don't' think it will get votes? That's not really the spirit of the contest -- the point is you want to vote for people who you think will write the best freelance material, correct? If they win your hearts with their entries you should vote for them.

Not necessarily. If you believe that enough other people will vote for your top entrant, but you feel strongly that two others should advance (even if they aren't THE best, they're in the top 4), you can help them out by voting for them instead. This round of the contest is to decide the best four contestants, not the single best contestant.

[Sue Flaherty]

* Good Night, All, see ya sometime tomorrow! :)
* ((Anyone feel free to update these tomorrow, I'm busy most of the
* day, away from computers ;p ))
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The Votes So Far:

21 Kevin Carter—26 Paper Street
13 Neil Spicer—The Legendary Playhouse Theater
10 Randy Dorman—The Palace in the Ashen Wastes
10 Eric Bailey—Hecataeus: Sanctum of the Colossus
6 Matthew Stinson—The Abandoned Carnival at the Bumpy Apple Orchard
6 Trevor Gulliver—The Lonely Colossus
2 James F.D. Graham—Burnt Apple Haven
0 Joshua Blazej—The Putrid Temple of Volner Tain

This is a tight race, folks!

[Carl Flaherty]

I went with:

Randy Dorman—The Palace in the Ashen Wastes
Eric Bailey—Hecataeus: Sanctum of the Colossus

[Taliesin Hoyle]

I voted for the ones that showed the most intelligent writing, and clear thinking.

Kevin Carter—26 Paper Street
Neil Spicer—The Legendary Playhouse Theater

[Taliesin Hoyle]

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22 Kevin Carter—26 Paper Street
14 Neil Spicer—The Legendary Playhouse Theater
11 Randy Dorman—The Palace in the Ashen Wastes
11 Eric Bailey—Hecataeus: Sanctum of the Colossus
6 Matthew Stinson—The Abandoned Carnival at the Bumpy Apple Orchard
6 Trevor Gulliver—The Lonely Colossus
2 James F.D. Graham—Burnt Apple Haven
0 Joshua Blazej—The Putrid Temple of Volner Tain

[roguerouge]

Voted for:

Kevin Carter—26 Paper Street
Faith rewarded. Keep on kickin' ass.

Eric Bailey—Hecataeus: Sanctum of the Colossus
The map made me laugh. The dolls made my girlfriend scream. The constructs had variety. The claw chandelier with Cube pit would be awesome. Then there's the special horror of the zen goldfish pond and the rat maze. You even included the torturing of an intelligent magic item, the hook from last round. This rocked. Hopefully, nerd rage won't obscure that.*

Honorable mention:

Trevor Gulliver—The Lonely Colossus
Sorry, dude, but you ran into the Malgana Express and the Vashkar Buzzsaw. I hope you make the round of four, but you've come a very long way anyway.

Neil Spicer—The Legendary Playhouse Theater
I darn near voted for this one on body of work and the location. Still, this needed to be a more dynamic location. While the understudies are a great idea, I think that referencing them as being off on a mission or making them rather generic clay to be molded in Sharina's hands would have given you the word count to make that happen. A paragraph on what happens if the PCs wait should have been included. A musician's pit, an illusionist box, and techies were needed to bring this place a live... and to jack Sharina's performance rolls through the roof.

But, for the record, you didn't present a railroad. You presented the most dramatic scene that the DM could use. That's what you SHOULD do.

James F.D. Graham—Burnt Apple Haven
Truly, you presented the best freak show of all. None of this "twins" nonsense. Again, an indication of how the monsters respond to various battles would have helped. And I would just bet that you had written that they gathered under the big top, as that information would make the trap work.

*(And to the readers: I'm not knockin' nerd rage. It's good for the circulation!)

[Craig Clark]

Randy Dorman—The Palace in the Ashen Wastes
Eric Bailey—Hecataeus: Sanctum of the Colossus

It's all about what have you done for me lately, I think this round is the most important for how well someone will perform in the next round. Body of work -- not so much.

[Trevor Gulliver]

I voted for Joshua Blazej because I think his infected invisible stalkers are actually quite clever. I think there is the kernal of a great Kobold Quarterly article in there just waiting to flourish.

And I voted for Trevor Gulliver because ... well ... just because, okay?!

[roguerouge]

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23 Kevin Carter—26 Paper Street
14 Neil Spicer—The Legendary Playhouse Theater
13 Eric Bailey—Hecataeus: Sanctum of the Colossus
12 Randy Dorman—The Palace in the Ashen Wastes
7 Trevor Gulliver—The Lonely Colossus
6 Matthew Stinson—The Abandoned Carnival at the Bumpy Apple Orchard
2 James F.D. Graham—Burnt Apple Haven
1 Joshua Blazej—The Putrid Temple of Volner Tain

[Mike Speck]

Neil and Trevor.

[Christopher West]

I voted for Neil and Kevin.

[Taliesin Hoyle]

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24 Kevin Carter—26 Paper Street
16 Neil Spicer—The Legendary Playhouse Theater
13 Eric Bailey—Hecataeus: Sanctum of the Colossus
12 Randy Dorman—The Palace in the Ashen Wastes
8 Trevor Gulliver—The Lonely Colossus
6 Matthew Stinson—The Abandoned Carnival at the Bumpy Apple Orchard
2 James F.D. Graham—Burnt Apple Haven
1 Joshua Blazej—The Putrid Temple of Volner Tain

[mc_kastle]

Voted for Neil and Randy

[Daniel Simonson]

Hecitous: sanctum of the colosus, 26 paper street. I was thinking about the theater also, but these are by far the strongest submissions.

[Nerrat Dei]

I smurfed for 26 paper street because it's soooooooo smurf-tastic! My dad's villain + his lair is (wait for it.... wait for it.....) SMURF-TASTIC!

And of course, my dad deserves a smurf because he does smurf-tastic things for me, well why shouldn't I do a smurf-tastic thing by smurfing him a smurf?

[roguerouge]

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Current polling:
26 Kevin Carter—26 Paper Street
17 Neil Spicer—The Legendary Playhouse Theater
14 Eric Bailey—Hecataeus: Sanctum of the Colossus
13 Randy Dorman—The Palace in the Ashen Wastes
9 Trevor Gulliver—The Lonely Colossus
6 Matthew Stinson—The Abandoned Carnival at the Bumpy Apple Orchard
2 James F.D. Graham—Burnt Apple Haven
1 Joshua Blazej—The Putrid Temple of Volner Tain

[Demozarus]

1 - Kevin Carter - 26 Paper Street
1 - Neil Spicer - The Legendary Playhouse Theater

[Eric Morton]

1st vote: 26 Paper Street.
2nd vote: not yet cast.

[Joel Flank]

Votes:
Hecataeus: Sanctum of the Colossus
26 Paper Street

Honorable mention to:
The Palace in the Ashen Wastes
The Lonely Colossus

[james knowles]

1st vote: Matthew
2nd vote: Kevin

[Lanfranc]

It was difficult to choose between the many good submissions this round, but in the end, I went with:

Kevin Carter - 26 Paper Street
Neil Spicer - The Legendary Playhouse Theater

[Taliesin Hoyle]

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Current polling:
31 Kevin Carter—26 Paper Street
19 Neil Spicer—The Legendary Playhouse Theater
15 Eric Bailey—Hecataeus: Sanctum of the Colossus
13 Randy Dorman—The Palace in the Ashen Wastes
9 Trevor Gulliver—The Lonely Colossus
7 Matthew Stinson—The Abandoned Carnival at the Bumpy Apple Orchard
2 James F.D. Graham—Burnt Apple Haven
1 Joshua Blazej—The Putrid Temple of Volner Tain

[Wellard]

roguerouge wrote:

So that's:

1 Neil Spicer--The Legendary Playhouse Theater
1 Kevin Carter--26 Paper Street

Thats the way I went too

[Taliesin Hoyle]

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Current polling:
32 Kevin Carter—26 Paper Street
20 Neil Spicer—The Legendary Playhouse Theater
15 Eric Bailey—Hecataeus: Sanctum of the Colossus
13 Randy Dorman—The Palace in the Ashen Wastes
9 Trevor Gulliver—The Lonely Colossus
7 Matthew Stinson—The Abandoned Carnival at the Bumpy Apple Orchard
2 James F.D. Graham—Burnt Apple Haven
1 Joshua Blazej—The Putrid Temple of Volner Tain

[Vic Wertz]

William Senn wrote:

inue wrote:

I have an observation from reading comments in each lairs threads. Why do people write in to say they think that the OP has the best lair but they are voting for another b/c they don't' think it will get votes? That's not really the spirit of the contest -- the point is you want to vote for people who you think will write the best freelance material, correct? If they win your hearts with their entries you should vote for them.

Not necessarily. If you believe that enough other people will vote for your top entrant, but you feel strongly that two others should advance (even if they aren't THE best, they're in the top 4), you can help them out by voting for them instead. This round of the contest is to decide the best four contestants, not the single best contestant.

This kind of thinking is why Chris Daughtry came in a throughly disappointing 4th place in American Idol Season 5, and then his record proceeded to outsell the albums of everyone who finished ahead of him (and, indeed, of every other American Idol contestant ever except Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, and Clay Aiken).

In short, don't *not* vote for the person you want to see win, or you might not get to see them win.

[stowcreek]

I agree that "not voting for your favorite(s) because [insert reason here]" is actually inappropriate and clearly dangerous.

Add to that the danger (I believe) of these exit polls (although I still like them). For instance, someone sees that 22 Paper Street is clearly getting lots of votes and is heading for an easy first place, so, thinking it should certainly still make Top 4, they decide to take their vote out of Paper Street(and maybe not record doing so here in this thread) in order to give it to another of their favorites that is close to Top 4. This is obviously risky.

Now I do not know how many votes Paizo receives (nor how many folks record their votes here in this thread), but I would hazard a guess that the percentage lead that Paper Street shows in this thread will be greater than the actual lead it finally holds over the others (if it does).

My tarnished 2 cents anyway.

[William Senn]

stowcreek wrote:

I agree that "not voting for your favorite(s) because [insert reason here]" is actually inappropriate and clearly dangerous.

My point is: that's absolutely fine if you only have two favorites. Clearly you just vote there.

But what if you have three or four favorites? You only have two votes. Yes, there's probably two that you think are a bit better, but if you know the four entries that you think definitely deserve to advance, and one or two of those four are CLEARLY in the lead in the exit poll, it's not a badwrongfun decision to vote for the ones that aren't on as solid ground. Regardless, you're still voting for two entries that you think should advance.

[Tio]

I've gone through all the entries and came up with the top 3 to go through based on the exit polls. I went with my two personal favorites this round.

Eric Bailey — Hecataeus: Sanctum of the Colossus
Kevin Carter — 26 Paper Street

[Taliesin Hoyle]

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Current polling:
33 Kevin Carter—26 Paper Street
20 Neil Spicer—The Legendary Playhouse Theater
16 Eric Bailey—Hecataeus: Sanctum of the Colossus
13 Randy Dorman—The Palace in the Ashen Wastes
9 Trevor Gulliver—The Lonely Colossus
7 Matthew Stinson—The Abandoned Carnival at the Bumpy Apple Orchard
2 James F.D. Graham—Burnt Apple Haven
1 Joshua Blazej—The Putrid Temple of Volner Tain

[Eric Morton]

My second vote goes to "Hecataeus: Sanctum of the Colossus."

Honorable mention to "The Lonely Colossus."

[Keith Duperreault]

My votes this round after much debating (choosing 2 instead of 4 this round)

Eric Bailey—Hecataeus: Sanctum of the Colossus

and

Kevin Carter—26 Paper Street

[Steven Helt]

I had to go with Bailey's Hecataeus and Carter's Paper Street.

HM to the ashen wastes, which really is my kind of party.

[Steven Helt]

stowcreek wrote:

Add to that the danger (I believe) of these exit polls (although I still like them). For instance, someone sees that 22 Paper Street is clearly getting lots of votes and is heading for an easy first place, so, thinking it should certainly still make Top 4, they decide to take their vote out of Paper Street(and maybe not record doing so here in this thread) in order to give it to another of their favorites that is close to Top 4. This is obviously risky.

That, and Dan Rather, are why we maintain the electoral college.

Who cares if the evidence was fake, Mr. President. Answer the chaaaarge!

[ericthecleric]

Now that polling has closed, I'll admit who I voted for. Neil got one of them, and then it was a choice between Eric and Trevor for the second vote. In the end, I plumped for Trevor.

[Trevor Gulliver]

ericthecleric wrote:

Now that polling has closed, I'll admit who I voted for. Neil got one of them, and then it was a choice between Eric and Trevor for the second vote. In the end, I plumped for Trevor.

That sounds dirty. What does it mean?

EDIT: I'm hoping it's dirty.

[Neil Spicer]

Tarren Dei wrote:

That sounds dirty. What does it mean?

EDIT: I'm hoping it's dirty.

"It's not dirty."

"Trust me."

"I would know."

[Mike Welham]

Tarren Dei wrote:

ericthecleric wrote:

Now that polling has closed, I'll admit who I voted for. Neil got one of them, and then it was a choice between Eric and Trevor for the second vote. In the end, I plumped for Trevor.

That sounds dirty. What does it mean?

EDIT: I'm hoping it's dirty.

ericthecleric is a living hot dog!

[ericthecleric]

Trevor: Sorry to dash your hopes, but it's not dirty. I just didn't want to write "vote" three times in the short post I made above. You got my second vote, in other words! :-)

[Carl Flaherty]

In a stunning upset, Joao Beraldo will be revealed as on of the RPG Superstar top 4!

[Mark Moreland]

Lord Fyre wrote:

In a stunning upset, Joao Beraldo will be revealed as on of the RPG Superstar top 4!

Paizo's fixing the vote!!!

[Carl Flaherty]

yoda8myhead wrote:

Lord Fyre wrote:

In a stunning upset, Joao Beraldo will be revealed as on of the RPG Superstar top 4!

Paizo's fixing the vote!!!

Well, it would be really stunning too. Since he wasn't nominated. :D

[Sue Flaherty]

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Final Exit Poll Count:
35 Kevin Carter—26 Paper Street
21 Neil Spicer—The Legendary Playhouse Theater
19 Eric Bailey—Hecataeus: Sanctum of the Colossus
13 Randy Dorman—The Palace in the Ashen Wastes
10 Trevor Gulliver—The Lonely Colossus
7 Matthew Stinson—The Abandoned Carnival at the Bumpy Apple Orchard
2 James F.D. Graham—Burnt Apple Haven
1 Joshua Blazej—The Putrid Temple of Volner Tain

[roguerouge]

Well.... the exit polls fail for the first time.

[French Wolf]

As one of the seven that voted for Matthew I feel somehow vindicated but I just wish Randy and Trevor could have had a crack at the final.

Must have been flippin' close results.

Cheers

[Elora]

I knew there was no way all of my favorite 4 would make it, but I thought three of them were definitely going on to round 5. I just didn't know if Randy or Trevor was going to be left out...and they both were!

So. Sad.

But best wishes to everyone who did make it! All of the top 8 were worthy contenders.

[Trevor Gulliver]

French Wolf wrote:

As one of the seven that voted for Matthew I feel somehow vindicated but I just wish Randy and Trevor could have had a crack at the final.

Must have been flippin' close results.

Cheers

I've been a supporter of Matthew's since the first round, so I'm kind of amused at this turn of events.

[magdalena thiriet]

French Wolf wrote:

As one of the seven that voted for Matthew I feel somehow vindicated but I just wish Randy and Trevor could have had a crack at the final.

Must have been flippin' close results.

Cheers

Ha, yes, basically it would have been nice to see everyone progress, such a great round...and just yesterday I was wondering that even if the lead of Kevin was pretty far, the fourth position still was very uncertain...

But as another voter of Matthew, I say yay! And weirdly enough, so far everyone I have voted has progressed, this didn't happen last year...