I wish I had seen this earlier, but I might try anyway.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
You've still got 10 days. Plenty of time to get an entry in. That's a week more than you'd get for RPG Superstar and the entry fee* is very affordable.
* The entry fee is $0 so it's literally a nothing-to-lose proposition (other than whatever time you spend making a monster).
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'm hammering out my entry this week. :-) Expect it... Soon*
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Some useful monster creation links!
If you know more useful monster design resources, post links here and I'll add them to the list!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Well no surprise, my first draft came in over word count.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Finished!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
And mine has been sent as well. I had planned on working up a few more (as I have a few in mind already), but real life calls on my time, so I couldn't be sure that they'd get as much attention as they deserved.
Grr... running out of time/being too distracted to finish. Here's hoping I can...
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Please don't save them all for the last minute! I'm leaving for St. Maarten three days later and need time to give a close look at everything! Remember, the devil's in the details...
Please don't save them all for the last minute! I'm leaving for St. Maarten three days later and need time to give a close look at everything! Remember, the devil's in the details...
I'm certainly not trying! It's a headspace/focus thing. We've been really busy lately and it's been a frustrating thing to stare at a page. Ah, well. Still fun, over-all! And I'm going to try!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Please don't save them all for the last minute! I'm leaving for St. Maarten three days later and need time to give a close look at everything! Remember, the devil's in the details...
What were you saying? Save them for the last minute because you are leaving for three days and need time for everything?
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Give us more monsters! Give 'em to me! Do it!
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Please don't save them all for the last minute! I'm leaving for St. Maarten three days later and need time to give a close look at everything! Remember, the devil's in the details...
What were you saying? Save them for the last minute because you are leaving for three days and need time for everything?
I know someone who's maxing out at a weak keep (if they're lucky!) when I review their monster ... :D
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2012
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
I know someone who's maxing out at a weak keep (if they're lucky!) when I review their monster ... :DPlease don't save them all for the last minute! I'm leaving for St. Maarten three days later and need time to give a close look at everything! Remember, the devil's in the details...
What were you saying? Save them for the last minute because you are leaving for three days and need time for everything?
You told me in our secret email discussions that you were going to print out Drejk's entry, so you could burn it in effigy and post the video to this thread.
Oh...I shouldn't have mentioned that.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So on a scale of 1-10, where 10 is "Definitely a cabal", where does the judging panel stand?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Working on it. No promises it will come before the deadline, though.
|
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So the judging is not blind in this contest?
Not sure if I like that or not. Definitely makes me glad I am pretty sure I have never been a jerk to any of the judges.
Only Jacob sees who sent the emails. He forwards the entries to me and Mike after removing any information that might identify the author.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
And I feel very strongly that I'm able to judge without biases.
In general, I forward emails on as soon as I get them and then try to not look at the author's name when I do my review of the monster later on. I also try to do a few submissions at a time so I may not necessarily remember who did which monster as an additional guarantee of my own fairness. (Even if I were to be biased, if Mikko and Mike both really liked a monster, that'd be enough to get it into a discussion of the finalists.)
Truthfully, though, I think never being a jerk is in general good policy in life. Probably even more so in the small circle of RPG design.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So on a scale of 1-10, where 10 is "Definitely a cabal", where does the judging panel stand?
I'd say we were like the Illuminati, but we all know they don't really exist. So definitely not that.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So you're saying the judges don't exist? Who's piloting the ship!?
To not veer too far off topic, I hope to have a submission by weekend's end.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
burining effigy – there is a monster idea right there!
Devils are lawful evil outsiders that hail from the plane of Hell. Devils possess a particular suite of traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature's entry).
Immunity to fire and poison.
Could be a long and presumably noisy fight!
|
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
burining effigy – there is a monster idea right there!Could be a long and presumably noisy fight!Devils are lawful evil outsiders that hail from the plane of Hell. Devils possess a particular suite of traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature's entry).
Immunity to fire and poison.
Good to remember: Not all denizens of Hell are devils. (Though of course, many of the non-devil ones also have fire resistance or immunity.)
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
re: judging. I didn't mean to imply that I though you guys would not be impartial, the statements just made me wonder if the judging was indeed blind.
re: burning effigy monster. I was thinking a devil that was running around perpetually on fire but immune to the damage and doing fire damage to things with its attacks!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Just out of curiosity: Will you be posting how many submissions you received, once the submissions close, or will that be kept secret? (or perhaps only revealed after the final 6 is announced).
|
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Just out of curiosity: Will you be posting how many submissions you received, once the submissions close, or will that be kept secret? (or perhaps only revealed after the final 6 is announced).
We'll certainly post some statistics on A Sword for Hire after the deadline, but we haven't decided what exactly it'll be.
DAGGUM THAT SIX-HUNDRED WORD LIMIT.
I'm literally bare-bonesing this puppy, and it's not a complex creature. What can I change?
>:/
|
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
DAGGUM THAT SIX-HUNDRED WORD LIMIT.
I'm literally bare-bonesing this puppy, and it's not a complex creature. What can I change?
>:/
I find that using less words helps you stay under the word count. The best part is that this tactic actually works no matter what the limit is. Amazing right? You're welcome! :P
|
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
DAGGUM THAT SIX-HUNDRED WORD LIMIT.
I'm literally bare-bonesing this puppy, and it's not a complex creature. What can I change?
>:/
It's admittedly a pretty tight limit, but in my experience, 600 words is pretty much the standard for 1-page monsters with some art. I guess the best piece of advice I can give is to try to simplify the mechanics and avoid repeating information, and looking at published bestiary entries for ideas on how you can squeeze all that information in the 600 words.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
How hard can it be to trim the last 50 words when my original draft was over 800 ?
Appropriately, the answer is devilishly ;-)
To TL : streamline your creature. Anything not absolutely needed must go. Rewriting with fewer words is great. No saying the same thing twice if possible. Using pre-existing rules whenever possible (aka no reinventing the wheel). Even sacrifice some part of your original design if it is not really needed for your concept to work.
Examples :
1) I scoured almost all of the background info about how my monster integrates in Hell and interacts with preexisting devils to focus on its specific role.
2) I got rid of nice to have but unneeded abilities, including one I created that made sense for it but was not really required.
3) I chose some feats based on how many words they use.
4) I put an SLA as 1/day with some others when it was previously the only one at 3/day.
5) I got rid of racial modifiers I had originally included.
Anything that cuts even a single word while staying true to your creature concept is a GO.
|
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Some useful monster creation links!
If you know more useful monster design resources, post links here and I'll add them to the list!
Not exactly design resources, nor playing to the gallery, but many judges in this contest have already assessed monsters in the past and given public comments about them, for example in the RPGSS boards or on Mikko's blog. From those, a candidate can gather what a given judge likes and dislikes and see how his monster stands ;-)
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
I find myself wishing to include art. It would make trimming text down easier.
Naw, you would be way over! Each picture would be worth a 1,000 words. HA!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Aiming for the lowest possible word-count from the start sometimes helps. If you are below the minimum number of words you can usually expand the description part (to a degree, though, I remember going some 100-150 words below the target number of 2000 and feeling that adding anything else to the description would be really forced, the editor agreed with my opinion).
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hahah! You guys are great. I'm actually doing okay, though the advice is really appreciated.
EDIT: To be clear, mostly I was just blowing off steam. I like this contest, a lot, and am having fun. This is just... sweatsville. :)
It's admittedly a pretty tight limit, but in my experience, 600 words is pretty much the standard for 1-page monsters with some art. I guess the best piece of advice I can give is to try to simplify the mechanics and avoid repeating information, and looking at published bestiary entries for ideas on how you can squeeze all that information in the 600 words.
You don't understand. This is me, we're talking about.
I mean, this is how I say "Being excessively selfish is evil." (and a bit on the previous page and a lot below that, too).
;P
I find that using less words helps you stay under the word count. The best part is that this tactic actually works no matter what the limit is. Amazing right? You're welcome! :PDAGGUM THAT SIX-HUNDRED WORD LIMIT.
I'm literally bare-bonesing this puppy, and it's not a complex creature. What can I change?
>:/
NO WAAAAAAAAIIIIIII~!
Aiming for the lowest possible word-count from the start sometimes helps. If you are below the minimum number of words you can usually expand the description part (to a degree, though, I remember going some 100-150 words below the target number of 2000 and feeling that adding anything else to the description would be really forced, the editor agreed with my opinion).
Yeah. I'm actually at the point where editing down abilities any more and I'm literally just leaving abilities out entirely.
I'm thinking I can trim the origin a bit - making something one sentence instead of two - and I think I'm going to alter the description to remove a single aspect, but, yeah, I'm just staring at it with little concept of how to trim it more.
What's funny is that this is the third creature I'd planned out, and, by far, the smallest of them that also nets in a full creature stat block.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Not exactly design resources, nor playing to the gallery, but many judges in this contest have already assessed monsters in the past and given public comments about them, for example in the RPGSS boards or on Mikko's blog. From those, a candidate can gather what a given judge likes and dislikes and see how his monster stands ;-)
I think that's very smart advice. I know it's certainly something I consider when I've competed in Superstar as well as when I pitch to publishers!
Arg! Eighteen! Eighteen words! Ah! Ah! Ah! :I
EDIT: ... Sixteen!
EDIT: ... Twelve!
EDIT: ... Four!
EDIT: DONE! And with weird flavor bits intact! Now to see if I can trim it more... to add a dash of other flavor...
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Kill them with fire!
Oh, wait... If it is a new devil it won't work...
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Duh. Infernal healing is not on PRD... Cut!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Duh. Infernal healing is not on PRD... Cut!
Good catch, that eliminates one of my concepts.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So close to do... so very close to done. >.<.
Might have to ask some vets some advice here soon.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Monsters are starting to pile up! Get 'em in before they close the gates to Hell.