[Swords for Hire] Contest: Villain Codex


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Sovereign Court

Looks like quite a few people are interested in this. Hopefully all turns out well for as many of us as possible :3


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Thanks, all. We're enjoying seeing what people are coming up with. Still time for more of you to get your pitches in, though!

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Tothric and Rusty, pitches received. Thanks, guys!

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Keep 'em coming, folks! Still a few days left before the deadline! :-)


Three more days. Get those pitches in, everyone!


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Some people were worried about the 50-100 words. I know I was.

But in addition to Mikko & Jacob telling us that a bit longer was fine, I also took the liberty of word-counting Mikko's sample villain pitch. The result?

126 words.

Curiously, that's about what I was getting for my first 2. (My last one is longer, but hasn't been through editing. What? I have a couple days!)

None of this is to take away from what Mikko said before, however:

Quote:

There's no hard limit, and I don't think 100-200 words is too much by any means. ...

It is, however, advisable to make every word count. The pitch isn't just a summary of the concept, it's also a writing sample.

Ideas are one thing, but you have to write like you care about this one job more than anything else on your plate right now.

Good luck, all.


Working on a pitch for you.


Thanks, CripDyke. Well said.

Brother Fen, looking forward to seeing it.


CripDyke wrote:

Some people were worried about the 50-100 words. I know I was.

But in addition to Mikko & Jacob telling us that a bit longer was fine, I also took the liberty of word-counting Mikko's sample villain pitch. The result?

126 words.

Curiously, that's about what I was getting for my first 2. (My last one is longer, but hasn't been through editing. What? I have a couple days!)

None of this is to take away from what Mikko said before, however:

Quote:

There's no hard limit, and I don't think 100-200 words is too much by any means. ...

It is, however, advisable to make every word count. The pitch isn't just a summary of the concept, it's also a writing sample.

Ideas are one thing, but you have to write like you care about this one job more than anything else on your plate right now.

Good luck, all.

Hah!

Pitch 1: 233 words.
Pitch 2: 449 words.
Pitch 3: 30 words ('cause I keep adding and cutting to the first two :P)

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

12 people have submitted so far! And some of these villains are pretty damn cool if you ask me. :-)

If you haven't submitted anything yet, there's still time to submit a villain or three, though!


I have no idea if you were swamped with entries at the last minute, but assuming you ended up with 12-15 people, many of them (but presumably not all) pitching 3 villains, is 30-45 villains too many for us to ask that you provide a touch of feedback?

That is, after all, one of the things you often do for free on Blazing 9 and elsewhere, including the way that you (generously!) participate in RPGSS.

Maybe a few general notes here (e.g. "Some of the entries weren't sufficiently tactically detailed for us to understand the nature of the challenge that would be provided" or something) and maybe a sentence or two per villain?

Obviously you have your own work to do, but it would be appreciated if you have time.

Thanks,

CD.


My last-minute entries will be coming up tonight or tomorrow.

There. Now I can't back out.


So did you get many halfling masterminds with unemployed giants from upnorthland?

Pitches sent.

Funny how they get delayed while you have a heart attack that you misread the deadline and are already too late. Fortunately that delay is only about 10 minutes of panic.


ooops!

Kobold Cleaver reminds me that the contest might not be closed!

Whoops!, yep:

Quote:

Pitches are due by the end of the day (Eastern time) May 1...

I tend to always assume that the date mentioned as the deadline is the day on which it is too late to submit. But even as that may be a good practice for safety's sake in the face of any potential ambiguities, I really am not demonstrating any superstar qualities by failing to read what's actually written when it is clear!

D'oh!


Submitted.

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Hi everyone, as the deadline is getting closer, Jacob and I will soon start discussing which villains will appear in the Villain Codex. That'll probably take a day or two. We'll let you know whether your pitches were accepted by Monday the 4th of May at the latest.

Please note: If you submitted a pitch/pitches but didn't receive a "Pitch received!" notification in email, in this thread, on the Freelance Forge, or in Gmail or Facebook chat, please check that you used this email address: swordsforhire.dev@gmail.com

The email in the OP wasn't the correct one, but we were unable to edit it later. If you sent your pitch to the email in the OP, please re-send it as soon as possible to swordsforhire.dev@gmail.com. Sorry about any inconvenience!


KoboldCleaver, the deadline's at the end of the day today (Friday), so please make sure you get your pitches in on time. Tomorrow will be too late!

CripDyke, I'm hopeful I'm going to get some feedback out to everyone, though I can't say how detailed it will be (honestly, it will probably depend on each pitch). I'll likely do that privately and it may not be immediately (Mikko and I need to decide which pitches we're accepting, for instance), but I will try to get to everyone.


This is probably a really stupid question, but are you guys open to "double" villains if they're built with the same statblock? I was kind of considering a teamwork feat-focused "twin/triplet" antagonist, but I realize that that seems to be breaking the #1 rule of the submissions. ;P


Sorry, Jacob, I was saying "tomorrow" by my time. :P

RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16

KC, I thought that might be what you were intending.

I haven't talked to Mikko about it, but I'm open to "double" villains with the same stat block. I know we've received at least one such entry already (and I used a "double" "villain" in my first publication for Raging Swan).


And one last question—what if the villain has the same stats except for, say different spells, or different gear?


just submit, KC -

You only have 45 min til midnight east coast time...and there really isn't time to come up with a new pitch anyway.

The worst they can do is reject it, and they're going to do that to most of ours anyway...


Yeaaah, this one's my fault. My brother was getting on my case to watch the 2006 The Host movie and finishing up the profiles just completely slipped my mind.

I'll send in a few anyways, just in case, but yeah, sometimes y'just screw up. Best of luck to everyone else!


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I can't wait to see the winning entries! The suspense is killing me.

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

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We received a total of 35 pitches from 18 people. We rated the pitches using four categories: Reject, Weak Reject, Weak Accept, and Accept.

We haven't quite finished selecting the winners yet, but we've already narrowed the pitches down to a top 16. There were 3 pitches Jacob and I both rated as Accepted, and we're now discussing which ones of the pitches that only got one Accept will be included in the Villain Codex. We're also assigning CRs and discussing if race, gender, or class swapping will be necessary.

In other words, we're making progress, and I hope we're ready to announce the results tomorrow.

Thanks for your patience! :)

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16

Ah, I wish I noticed this sooner!

Sovereign Court

I am calm. I am totally calm. Why would you say I'm not?


Mine, most likely, will not get chosen, still it was fun to do it.


Quote:

So did you get many halfling masterminds with unemployed giants from upnorthland?

Just reread this and suddenly got it. Why didn't I get it before? That's totes one of my favorites.

Sovereign Court

Nicos wrote:
Mine, most likely, will not get chosen, still it was fun to do it.

Don't put yourself down. You have a shot, just like the rest of us.


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Petty Alchemy, we'll have another call in a few months. Keep your eyes peeled.

Once we've finalized our decisions, I'll also start trying to give people some feedback, though that could take me a week or so to get out.


@Michael Riter and by extension Nicos:

Well, technically, every single one of us is unlikely to be chosen. 6 slots and 18 people means 2 in 3 of getting rejected even if no one gets chosen twice.

I'm with you that we all have to have some hope if we're going to participate in a system where we will, by the nature of the system, hear "no" far too many times. But the hope comes in when we do our design and writing. It's not bad to have some realism about our chances if it doesn't actually prevent submissions.


Just calculated odds for random selection if one submits 3 entries:

~p = (32/35)*(31/34)*(30/33)*(29/32)*(28/31)*(27/30) = 0.55828877005

p of selection, then = 0.44171122995

Not knowing how many entries Nicos made, there's still at least a ~56% chance that **all** of Nicos' entries will be rejected.

This is all to say that no one should feel bad if they don't get in. Even if you took the time to craft 3 villains, the odds are that you won't be in the book. The odds are pretty good that you will, but they're better that you won't.

So, y'know, Nicos' statement does have some use - again, provided it doesn't actually prevent anyone from entering. If none of mine get selected, I'll be in good company.

Sovereign Court

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Well, there is only one appropriate response here. I'm an optimist by heart.


Beautiful, MR!


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That would've been more appropriate yesterday. :)

Of course, it's possible we're picking more than six when all is said and done...


@Jacob W Michaels:

Meh.

From our point of view the odds haven't changed at all yet. There's no info that we have that would adjust the probability.

Of course, I didn't realize that there was a possibility you might pick more than 6 - that is new info. But having no idea how likely that is or how many more might be picked, if I tried to run numbers on it, I would just be making things up.


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They did mention some flexibility at the start, in fairness. :P

It's all quite exciting.

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Jacob W. Michaels wrote:

That would've been more appropriate yesterday. :)

Of course, it's possible we're picking more than six when all is said and done...

I'm leaning toward giving more than six people a chance to show what they can do. We got a plenty of good pitches, after all.

We're almost done. Just sent Jacob an email...

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16

Serpent wrote:
Jacob W. Michaels wrote:

That would've been more appropriate yesterday. :)

Of course, it's possible we're picking more than six when all is said and done...

I'm leaning toward giving more than six people a chance to show what they can do. We got a plenty of good pitches, after all.

We're almost done. Just sent Jacob an email...

Aw, man! Still a tease!

I guess it is not just limited to RPG Superstar judging...


Rusty Ironpants wrote:

Aw, man! Still a tease!

I guess it is not just limited to RPG Superstar judging...

Where do you think we learned it?

That said, all teasing aside, I've just finished sending emails to 10 people we'd like to develop villains for this project. If you haven't heard from me, I'm afraid we didn't select your villain for this project, but I still intend to get at least a little feedback out in the next week for everyone.

Thank you all for your interest. It was great reading all the pitches and you didn't make it easy on us. As we've said, we plan to follow this up with higher-level villains over the next year, so please keep thinking maliciously and save up any ideas for our next contest.

Finally, keep your eye out for the Villain Codex coming this summer!


Well, I was selected...That is surprising and exciting at the same time. I will strive to make a memorable villain.


Not selected. Oh well.


No e-mail. I guess that m... Oh, err....

My phone just beeped. It could be good news.

Or did my sister respond to my text about Mother's Day? :)


Crazy psyched that I got something in. Now I better not screw it up!

I can't wait for the next contest, nor can I wait to see the other successful submissions!


@Curaigh...

So, gosh, I'm still on pins & needles about whether your phone was beeping because of your sister or because of being selected.

Do tell, won't you?


The hallmark of a good villain is to keep the heroes on their toes. Keep them guessing & you keep the reader involved. :)

but yes, it was my sister.


Harrumph.

Sorry, you old rhino-horned, goat-bearded child-of-the-best-mother-on-the-planet,-because-who-isn't-in-May.

I submitted 3 pitches - none of them were accepted either (though I did receive a consolation prize from Jacob in the form of an invitation to do ... more pitches!). Let me pour you some USB grog, eh?


I haven't even gotten a response yet.


@master_marshmallow:

We're not supposed to get a response if we didn't get one of our pitches accepted.

Of course, it wouldn't hurt to check your spam folder just in case they **did** send something that you just haven't seen.

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