I must say this years voting method has given me a ton of insight.
Experiencing what the judges have in the past has given me insight galore. Things that I see over and over again that makes me one to poke my eyes out, bad formating, etc.
Since I have been reading a bunch of these items I realized that the first line is very important. A paragraph of fluff and the reader gets bored. Need to be brief on the description and get to the meat, but yet just enough description to catch the readers attention.
I wanted to say thank you for doing the judging this way this year. It has already improved the way I think about item design!
This!
I'm also seeing item trends, at least one of which disturbs me because I think it suggests both DMs and players don't really understand how to use a fairly large segment of the game.
I agree. It's interesting seeing the trends in the items, and how many things exist to fill niches I have never had the thought or desire to fill.
I'm also seeing item trends, at least one of which disturbs me because I think it suggests both DMs and players don't really understand how to use a fairly large segment of the game.
Don't assume that. Pathfinder is a set of rules to enable you to play a game, it's not a hard-coded set of requirements that must be followed. As I mentioned above, it's one of those things where not everyone plays the game the same way, so sometimes - or even often - you'll not see why a particular item seems wondrous. But the author probably had a very good reason.