Yay, NH! I'm in Rochester.
"Official" guildhall? Pfha. [oldmanvoice] Back in my day, we had to pull a bunch of milk crates together and have that be our guild hall! And whenever a Paizo staff member came nosin' around, we had to pull all the furniture apart, turn the crates back upside down and pretend we were all selling dairy products to make ends meet in between entry rounds. That's the way it was and we LIKED it! [/oldmanvoice]
Congratulations to all this years contestants, newcomers and repeaters alike!
Guess I've got a moment...
I'm Jesse. I think I'm the first finalist from New Jersey. No jersey shore jokes, please? Not the swampy "joisey" part near New York. I'm down here outside Philly in farm country.
Swedesboro, where Swedes came to escape something(given today's weather, probably not snow and cold) during the 17th century...
I've gamed for many a long year. With far too many breaks... I started as a lad with AD&D, played 2nd ed through high school, switched to M:tG and Warhammer(40k & fantasy)after high school, then returned to my roots about 5 years ago. Came into a 3.5 holdover group who finally converted to Pathfinder about a year ago. I take some credit for its taking hold. I grabbed it with both hands. Oh, and I started GMing regularly... Currently running Shattered Star, and playing Reign of Winter.
Now if you could convince somebody local to throw a convention, I'd be ecstatic.
Congrats, y'all! Enjoy your run, and turn it into whatever you wish it to be. :D
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I'll hoist a glass and offer a toast to this year's Top 32 and all the Guildhall alumni. And while you're off designing your monsters, I'll just be over here playing darts in the corner.
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How about if I make them equal opportunity barbs by wearing a blindfold? ;-P
Well, I can hang out in the alternate lounge and wait for a table at least.
Hey everyone!
Now that my initial shock and giddiness has abated, I thought I'd properly introduce myself. I'm Tyler Beck, a recently graduated Genetics PhD student currently residing in Houston, TX. My wife and I are getting ready to move up to the Washington, DC area in just a few short months, and we're especially excited about this given my roots in Western Maryland (Cumberland, to be precise) and her own upbringing north of Pittsburgh.
I've been playing Pathfinder since mid-undergrad and I've been both playing and GMing Pathfinder Society for probably three years now. I love the system and hope to break into design work for Paizo ASAP! Until that happens, I've been working for Fat Goblin Games on the CLASSifieds series of rules supplements, and along with that I help on the Multiclass Archetypes community project. I've also contributed several submissions to d20pfsrd Presents: Open Gaming Monthly.
Tyler
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 32
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Marathon Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 9
aka Netopalis
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Haldo!
Pleasure to meet you all. I'm Netopalis, AKA Andrew Shumate. I'm a criminal defense and famiily law attorney from Charleston, West Virginia. I recently opened up my own office, and I have to say, it's never dull. So many great stories...but for another time.
As far as my gaming life goes, I'm a lifelong board gamer, getting hooked on Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne while I was in high school. Unfortunately, I never managed to get a group together for RPG gaming, so I was never able to experience anything along those lines. That changed at CharCon 2012, when I got involved in the Pathfinder Society. I have to say, it's a tremendous organized play campaign. Even though I've only been at this a year, I have to say that I owe a lot to the hobby - I've made a lot of great friends and have had some truly amazing experiences.
I wasn't expecting much when I entered this year. The wondrous item that I entered, the Charlatan's Symbol, was the first wondrous item that I had ever written. The monster that I'm writing is my first monster ever. As you might imagine, I'm finding the task a bit daunting, but fasincating. I'm excited, though, because I think I've got a great idea, and I look forward to hearing what the judges say about it.
If anybody is going to be at CharCon, Mysticon, Origins or GenCon, look for my PFS table!
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8
aka Jrcmarine
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Guess it's my turn. Appropriately enough I am posting this as I play my weekly "Monday" night game via skype.... Yes I know it's Tuesday. My name is James and I live in MA about an hour west of Boston, not too far from RPGSS 2013 Top 4 Matthew Duval, although I have never had the pleasure of meeting him.
I am a game-aholic and enjoy ALL games, with paper&pencil rpgs tied with old-fashioned card games as my favorites. I am so very grateful, flattered and a little incredulous that so many people enjoyed my creation.
I am also happy to be included with so many others whose creations were incredible. And I look forward to the sharing and the banter that accompanies any good guildhall! Huzzah!
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Congratulations fellow 32—I'm honored to be among your ranks.
A bit about myself, you say? I live in Edgerton, Wisconsin, about an hour from Lake Geneva, where our little hobby began. I'm married to a lovely wife who recently let me make some renovations to my Nerdery in the basement. I have two children: a daughter who is named after a certain elven princess (but can behave like a balrog) and a son named after a series of English kings.
I've been gaming since 7th grade, right at the tail end of AD&D. Most of high school and college were spent playing, and eventually running, 2nd Edition. I played 3E briefly, dabbled in Torg (anyone else?), West End Games' Star Wars RPG, played MtG for a bit, and dropped d20 gaming entirely for several years once I was introduced to the versatile (and highly crunchy) HERO System in graduate school.
I didn't get back into d20 again until Gen Con 2012 when I was wrangled into joining a group of my friends to play The Race for the Runecarved Key together. They all had their own PFS characters, but I was stuck with a Kyra pregen. The excitement of the big room and the competition, however, was pretty intense, and I had a better time than I expected I would. Our group advanced to the second round where the outstanding Chris Mortika was our GM, and we managed to escape the dungeon just before time ran out. A few minutes later, we found out we had won our subtier and boons to create goblin characters. I was hooked on Pathfinder.
Since then I've been buying books, listening to Pathfinder podcasts, and running adventures. I currently have two groups playing through The Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition, one of them with mythic rules. I'm astounded not just by the sheer amount, but also the high quality of the material this fan community has produced, and don't know how I'd find the time to run a good game without it.
Oh, if you saw a guy at Gen Con 2013 with a plush goblin dressed as an alchemist, that was me...
Anyway, last night I was playing the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game to pass the time, but tonight I have work to do!
Wow, I'm in! How did that happen?
Well, I'm a grad student studying biology. I'm also from MA, living in Boston. Hi James! Hi Tyler! What it's like to be free of grad school?
I've been playing RPGs since the days of the black box D&D set. My current projects are mostly indie games right now, but I have spent many a year in Pathfinder, back when it was just a world setting for 3.5. I do most of my gaming electronically nowadays, courtesy of my iPad.
Being free of grad school is liberating. Also relaxing. And as proven by my existence here, it has given me time to focus on my hobbies, and it seems to have paid off. :)
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16
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Star Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
aka burrahobbit
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Haldo!
Pleasure to meet you all. I'm Netopalis, AKA Andrew Shumate. I'm a criminal defense and famiily law attorney from Charleston, West Virginia.
Let's hear it for WV! I'm from Morgantown, currently making my home in Chicago whilst I chase down an archaeology Ph.D.
I'm currently living in Berlin NJ which is about halfway between Philadelphia and Atlantic City.
I started playing AD&D around 1988 with my brothers, and consistently played in various home campaigns since then. In 1999 I finally joined the RPGA and started playing in Living City. My friends and I enthusiastically switched over to 3.0 and Living Greyhawk. Tried out 4e, but after a lackluster experience at Gen Con 2008 we switched to Pathfinder. Started playing Pathfinder Society in 2010, and became a Venture-Lieutenant in 2012.
Other tabletop games I have picked up over the years are West End Star Wars, the various World of Darkness lines from White Wolf, Shadowrun, and various miniature games such as Warhammer 40k and Warmachine.
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Being free of grad school is liberating. Also relaxing. And as proven by my existence here, it has given me time to focus on my hobbies, and it seems to have paid off. :)Wow, I'm in! How did that happen?
Well, I'm a grad student studying biology. I'm also from MA, living in Boston. Hi James! Hi Tyler! What it's like to be free of grad school?
I've been playing RPGs since the days of the black box D&D set. My current projects are mostly indie games right now, but I have spent many a year in Pathfinder, back when it was just a world setting for 3.5. I do most of my gaming electronically nowadays, courtesy of my iPad.
After grad school comes post doc. After post doc comes tenure. Can someone tell me what comes next?
<>
Hi everyone! I'm the only Bryan who spells their name correctly (that's only a little joke). I'm originally from Michigan, but live near the lake in Ohio today. I've got two girls, one named after a morbid kid's book.
My first game was Hero Quest, which led to D&D and AD&D 2.0. From there it was a gap until I picked up 3.5. Pathfinder led naturally from there. I haven't had much luck at keeping a regular game night (too far from local shops, and one local group fell apart), so I switched to painting minis and pbp here on the forums.
I'm very very humbled to be included among the others here. I know my entry was rather plain; but I'm hopping my idea for round 2 pans out.
When I was at my parents over Thanksgiving I found something I had worked on in middle school: a role playing game that I had my dad laminate for me. I barely remember working on it, but it reminds me I've always wanted to create things.
Also, I have the worst forum name ever: gmpathfinder was actually my email address (hotmail circa 1994). So I didn't come up with the least original moniker on the boards.
I'm currently living in Berlin NJ which is about halfway between Philadelphia and Atlantic City.
I started playing AD&D around 1988 with my brothers, and consistently played in various home campaigns since then. In 1999 I finally joined the RPGA and started playing in Living City. My friends and I enthusiastically switched over to 3.0 and Living Greyhawk. Tried out 4e, but after a lackluster experience at Gen Con 2008 we switched to Pathfinder. Started playing Pathfinder Society in 2010, and became a Venture-Lieutenant in 2012.
Other tabletop games I have picked up over the years are West End Star Wars, the various World of Darkness lines from White Wolf, Shadowrun, and various miniature games such as Warhammer 40k and Warmachine.
No kidding? 2 South Jersey guys?
And you play 40k? I wonder if we've crossed paths.
Hi again everyone!
I'm a grad student from Irvine, CA working on my degree in history and archival studies with an emphasis in early modern Europe. I was studying to be an opera singer before that, but I realized I didn't love doing it enough to make a career of it just after finishing my master's degree in early music.
...so, I'm basically a Chelish diva who retrained as an Archivist.
I've been playing tabletop RPGs for almost eight years now (since April 2006, don't ask me how I know that), playing wizards for at least six of those years, and I started with Pathfinder with the Alpha playtest. My other interests include Magic: The Gathering (though I'm very casual about it) and my rabbit familiar Acorn.
Again, I'm very honored to be included in the Top 32 this year.
...currently making my home in Chicago whilst I chase down an archaeology Ph.D.
Social sciences/humanities grad students represent!
Something about me?
I live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and have been gaming for about 15 years now, long enough to remember having my mom drive my friends and I to Gen Con. I have a degree in English, specifically creative writing, because that's what I love to do.
I'm a copywriter for a locally run website currently, but have been slowly branching out. Paizo's Fiction Editor, James Sutter, honored me with a 4th place runner-up mention in the Pathfinder Chronicler Fiction Contest for 2012, and I took a Round 2 spot in their 2013 contest too with a flash fiction story entitled Last Words. You can read it here.
As a creative writer, I'm mostly looking for ways to create good stories, or at the very least, ideas from which other storytellers can find inspiration. I'm happy my chances for accomplishing that are greater today than they were yesterday. It's been a fun journey so far that began with a resolution to myself to get something done. Last year I entered RPG Superstar for the first time since its inaugural year, and didn't make it into the Top 32. I didn't know how else to get involved with design work, so I just went ahead and wrote my own adventure anyway. The Fall of Fairhaven is the result, and I tied it into the Reaper Bones Kickstarter just to maximize the use others might get out of it. It's free, so if you want an idea of what kind of designer I am, that's a good place to look.
I'm looking forward to seeing the fruits of so many talented designers in the later rounds of this contest. Congratulations again to the Top 32.
Wow, what an honor to be in the top-32
I'm Andrew from Minneapolis. I really have loved playing Pathfinder the past couple years, it has inspired me to try my hand at creating content. I am excited for the challenges to come in this contest.
Good Luck Everyone!
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Hey all, I'm Jacob 2, of clone fame. I'm a newspaper copy editor originally from New Hampshire but who's called Pennsylvania home for more than 15 years now. (Wow.) For those who remember, I had started dating a woman a few weeks before Superstar two years ago and the contest gave me a chance to tell her about the hobby for the first time. A few weeks ago, on our two-year anniversary, I asked her to marry me and she said yes! Now I just need to put some of our visits to potential venues on hold over the next two weeks, since I need that time to write!
I've got my full gaming story in my profile, but been involved in the hobby since 3rd grade, minus a few years in and after college where I briefly stopped for lack of opportunity. I loved Pathfinder almost instantly when I discovered it, since I thought it was brilliant in solving some of the problems with 3.x (we originally referred to it as 3.75). Sadly, I don't get to play much in real life anymore, but I've got several long-running PBPs that are great fun.
I'm honored to be back in Superstar. I didn't do much game design after my last outing, but after not making the Top 32 last year, I managed to throw myself into it. I submitted what would have been my adventure had I made the Top 4 in 2012 to the first Pathmaster contest by Adventureaweek.com, eventually publishing the five-star module, Ironwall Gap Must Hold, and going on to earn a silver medal.
I've also got an encounter coming in an upcoming release from Raging Swan Press; plus some items that will appear in the upcoming Wayfinder 10; and one other project that I can't discuss yet. :) And obviously I'm hoping to add a module for Paizo to that list...
Looking forward to getting to know all of you. I definitely still feel a bond with the 2012 crew and hopefully we'll all have the same great camaraderie this year.
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
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Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
aka Locke1520
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I'm 40 years old, living in Cincinnati. My wife and I have two children who are beginning to show an interest in RPGs which is pretty cool.
I've been gaming for 30 years give or take. I cut my teeth on Bargle, carrion crawlers and harpies in the Red box and was hooked. I've played tons of games but I always came back to D&D until Pathfinder.
I competed in RPGSS in 2012...Learned a lot of what not to do first hand. Also as a result of that competition I've begun freelancing and my first PDF release from Rogue Genius Games should available be fairly soon.
**Edit** I'd like to second quite a bit of Jacob's post about being honored to be here and hoping to get to know you all and build a sense of camaraderie again this year.
Congrats to ALL who made it to the TOP 32...Good Luck, Stay Focused, Write Well, and most of all Have Fun and ENJOY IT!
I asked her to marry me and she said yes!
Congratulations! I am assuming a goblin themed event?
Thanks. And while she's very supportive of the hobby, I think that would probably not go over well. Though some of our friends may act like goblins. :)
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Dedicated Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
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Good morning! Congratulations to the top32 and alts!
Having slept only one hour last night, I'm still not 100% sure I'm awake and not just imagining this whole thing! It's so very good to be back. To those who are new to the contest, I'm from Helsinki, Finland, and it's my second time in the top 32, third if you count 2011 when I was an alt.
It's awesome that my friend Kalervo is also one of the finalists. :)
Alright, I've been reading the boards all day, but now I can actually write posts as the three-year-old terror is in bed.
I'm Victoria from Tucson, AZ, though we're working on moving back to Seattle. However, I'm originally from Texas/Oklahoma (spent equal parts of my life in each). I'm a mom to the aforementioned three-year-old daughter and to a two-month-old son. I've written horror and fantasy stories for a very long time, though I've remained underpublished as the publishing market upheaval began several years ago. My focus this year has been to engage in self-publishing my work, after studying the benefits and drawbacks for the past couple of years. It has also been to research avenues into entering game design... which I suppose is off to a decent start. :) I am also fortunate to have a husband willing to take on the kids when I'm busy making stuff up for fun and profit.
I grew up watching my dad play video games on his NES (Destiny of an Emperor, Dragon Warrior III, the Legend of Zelda...) and, when I was 8, he got Final Fantasy VI for his birthday and I stole it and didn't give it back until I beat it. At 10, I found some AD&D books in my sister's room, took them, read them, and refused to tell her where I'd hidden them until I was allowed to play in her D&D group. My first character was a thief that should have died 17 times, but I was granted the Immortality of the DM's Girlfriend's Little Sister.
In the past, I've been semi-recognizable in the old Baldur's Gate modding community and in L5R's Race for the Throne campaign. I've also been an avid player of the Warlord CCG (until its unfortunate demise). RPG-wise, the majority of my experience has been in D&D up until 4th edition, where I switched over to Pathfinder. Around that same time, there was a shift in my gaming group's preferences toward indie games and the World of Darkness genres, so I admit -- despite owning several books, some fiction, and contributing to the Pathfinder MMO -- I actually haven't played that much of it. I'm glad Paizo opened up the competition to anyone regardless of experience (or lack of it) in the setting and rule set; a chance to work in the field you love is all anybody can ask for.
Last year, I found out about the contest last minute and submitted the dullest item that ever dulled, but the voting process and these boards taught me much more about design than all my gaming experience has. So thank you all for that. I'm happy, excited and grateful to be here!
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These are some awesome stories, folks. Keep'em coming. And, if you haven't yet updated your Paizo profile with this kind of information, you should consider doing so. A lot of people (i.e., voters) will be reading the stuff you create throughout the contest now, and some of them may click on your name just to learn more about you. Having this type of information in your profile helps them get to know you better, as well as the various things you may have written or which you aspire to write. Of course, your main focus right now should be on your monster design. But, when you find a spare moment, update your profiles to start creating a more defined online persona for yourselves.
Some one needs to alert Paizo the servers may have been hacked, someone is impersonating Neil Spicer! His recent posts are way to short! :)
It's great seeing all the old and new faces in the contest this year and I am looking forward to seeing what monsters you all present for us in round 2.
No kidding? 2 South Jersey guys?
--Make it three.
I'm Michael J Patrick. I was born in Camden, New Jersey-frequently voted in the top three most dangerous cities in America! I grew up mostly in neighboring Pennsauken (named after the Lenape for "Industrial Park").
My first RPG was Star Frontiers in '82. From there I moved onto D&D, AD&D, Champions, 2nd Ed, and nearly every game that followed.
I currently live in Haddonfield, NJ and work for an start-up animation studio in Langhorne, PA (www.dunnamic.com if plugs are ok).
I'm also a single dad to the world's most awesome girl.
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7
aka Tamago
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Hello, everyone! I'm thrilled to be a part of RPG Superstar, and incredibly grateful that you all liked my magic item (Crest of the Fallen) so much. Thank you!
I grew up all over the Midwest (my father was a pastor) and am currently living in Fishers, Indiana (just north of Indianapolis), having just bought a house there last year. I'm 27 years old (3³), and work as a computer programmer, writing point-of-sale software (read: cash registers) for retail stores.
My RPG history starts way back when I was about 12 years old and played the old West End Games d6 Star Wars. From there, I learned to play Dungeons and Dragons (starting about three months before 3rd Edition came out), and from there I stuck with d20 right on into Pathfinder.
I'm currently in two regular gaming groups. For my Sunday night group, I'm GMing Reign of Winter, which is a blast so far. My Wednesday night group finished Rise of the Runelords just over a year ago after an epic 2 1/2 year run, and is now dabbling in other games. Currently I'm a really big fan of the Fate system. But if I win RPG Superstar, I promise I'll stick with Pathfinder! :-)
Some one needs to alert Paizo the servers may have been hacked, someone is impersonating Neil Spicer! His recent posts are way to short! :)
Nah. Life's just a bit too busy right now to throw myself full-bore into RPG Superstar again. My day-job at the office has been grueling of late, I've had a lot of family demands on my time, and perhaps most importantly right now, I still have one last freelance assignment to complete which I owe Sean. Even so, I at least wanted to offer some encouragement, advice, and feedback where I could. I just kept it short and sweet so I could get back to my other commitments.
I jest Neil...one of the staples of this contest are your awesome posts and insights on the items and the design process. Good Luck getting that assignment without losing track of the important things like family and income.
First of all why are you all posting here and not obsessively pouring over your next round submissions? *glower!*
;)
Really looking forward to what you all continue to show this year!
Do we have anyone from NC this year? Or did the past several years spoil us? Because if there aren't any Tarheels this year, I suppose I'll have to mentally wish the best of luck to either the clique of biology grads and/or the folks from NJ (originally from north Jersey myself).
Do we have anyone from NC this year? Or did the past several years spoil us? Because if there aren't any Tarheels this year, I suppose I'll have to mentally wish the best of luck to either the clique of biology grads and/or the folks from NJ (originally from north Jersey myself).
I'm about an hour from the border, and my regular PFS game is in Asheville. Does that count?
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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Dedicated Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8
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My Pathfinder/RPG Superstar story:
I've been playing D&D since the final days of 2nd edition after stumbling upon a play-by-post group on MSN messageboards, of all things. I started playing 3rd edition with my brother, and we had a pretty solid group throughout high school. I met a lot of good friends, and my future wife, playing D&D. Throughout college my buddies and I were always fiddling with rules, designing classes and subsystems, and playing in strange settings (like a dark and twisted version of Candy Land). I didn't consider actually getting anything published until later...
The next few years of work, travel, and grad school were busy, to say the least, but I still managed to get in some freelance Pathfinder work with LPJ Design. I entered RPG Superstar for the first time in 2010, with a sad little item that violated several of Sean's guidelines, called the cloth of the blind crusader. In 2011 I tried a more "fun" item that was less plot-orientated and more, erm, explosion-oriented, landing me an "alternate" slot. Sadly (for me), nobody dropped out that year, so my smoldering sack and clairvoyant crusader archetype never saw the light of day. In 2012 my phantom glove failed to impress, but in 2013 the gloves of flame command landed me my first real Top 32 spot. I'm thrilled to be back this year thanks to the earthbind boots and I look forward to future rounds!
I currently live and teach high school near Seattle, where I spent my formative years. I hope to move back into the city at some point, but my commute and paycheck have conspired against me!
I'm about an hour from the border, and my regular PFS game is in Asheville. Does that count?
We might be willing to adopt you...
First of all why are you all posting here and not obsessively pouring over your next round submissions? *glower!*
Paizo's making it easy on us now that we know the twist ahead of time. :) I had two monsters mostly done and another halfway done before the reveal. I'm mostly trying to decide WHICH one to use before I get into doing the final edits on it.
don't take it easy on me just because I'm old!
Well I got ya beat at age 44. Ack, I wonder if I'm the oldest of the top-32?