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Having survived monsters from online wishes; Hell breaking loose; and from beyond the stars, Swords for Hire are getting ready to deal with creatures from the mysterious realm of the fey!
Here Be Monsters 4: Out of the Primal World, the fourth season of the annual Pathfinder RPG monster design contest from Swords for Hire Development, begins NOW!
We're calling on game designers to create a single monster with the theme "Out of the Primal World" -— creatures whose origins tie to the strange realm of the fey. But there's a twist: Monsters may be any creature type EXCEPT fey. Five finalists will be picked by the Swords for Hire team, consisting of Paizo contributor Mikko Kallio, accomplished freelancer Jacob W. Michaels, and RPG Superstar Mike Welham.
The Top 5 entries will go on to be judged Jacob and Mike, as well as Joe Kondrak, who has made the list of finalists in the first three Here Be Monsters contests (and thus isn't eligible to compete anymore). Special guest judge Adam Daigle, a Paizo developer who has designed and developed hundreds of Pathfinder monsters, will return for his third year to add his comments before the finalists going on to a public vote to determine the grand winner.
In addition to invaluable feedback from Adam and the other judges, the Top 5 contestants will each receive copies of any one PDF of a Legendary Games monsters product (Mythic Monsters or Beasts of Legend).
The grand prize winner will receive even more stuff! Our generous Third Party Publisher sponsors have agreed to provide the following:
* Legendary Games: A signed Mythic Monster Manual.
* Rusted Iron Games: Several PDFs from the Deadly Gardens series.
* Rogue Genius Games: PDFs of Monster Menagerie: The Swarminomicon and Monster Menagerie: Troops.
* And automatic inclusion in the upcoming issue of Wayfinder, which is one of the best ways to get your work noticed by Paizo staff (the winning monster may be further developed by Mike and Mikko before submission).
* Also, special thanks to sponsor Tommi Salama, who has again provided Here Be Monsters' contest logo.
Timeline
* Sept. 15: The contest begins NOW!
* Oct. 2: Submissions are closed at 2 p.m. Pacific standard time. Judges Mikko Kallio, Jacob W Michaels, and Mike Welham convene to determine the top 5.
* Oct. 9: The top 5 entries are revealed along with comments from Adam, Jacob, Mike, and Joe. Public voting begins.
* Oct. 16: The voting ends and the winner is revealed shortly after!
Contest Rules
Contest Rules
Contest entries must adhere to the following rules.
* Your monster must be 700-750 words.
* Each entrant may submit one monster.
* Your monster may not be fey.
* Your monster must be designed for the Pathfinder RPG, and you must use the monster template (you can find it here for Microsoft Word or Open Office).
* PLEASE send your monster in the BODY of an email, not as an attachment; .docx files especially are problematic as my word processor strips random spaces out of them, which makes it look like errors in your monster.
* Your monster entry must be appropriate for the contest theme "Out of the Primal World." (See the FAQ below for more details.)
* Your monster may not have class levels or templates.
* Your monster must be setting-neutral.
* Your monster's CR must be at least 1 and may not be higher than 20.
* Your monster may use feats, spells, and other resources available in Paizo's Pathfinder PRD. Your monster may not, however, have mythic ranks.
* You must submit your monster via email to monster.design.contest@gmail.com before the deadline 2 p.m. PST Oct. 2. Include the monster's name in the subject line of the email.
Following the guidelines presented below maximizes your chances of winning.
* Your monster's concept is something new and creative or puts an interesting spin on a classic theme.
* Your monster's name and read-aloud text are evocative.
* Your monster's stat block is correctly formatted. Use any recent Pathfinder RPG bestiary product published by Paizo as your style guide.
* Your monster's statistics are balanced against other creatures of the same CR. Refer to the Monster Creation chapter in the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary for instructions.
* Your monster has interesting new special abilities with reasonably simple and elegant mechanics.
* Your monster entry includes compelling lore about the monster that helps GMs use the monster in adventures and campaigns.
Q: Who's allowed to submit a monster?
A: Anyone who hasn't been in the finals of three Here Be Monsters contests. Other than that, it doesn't matter if you've never made a monster before or if you're a well-known builder of beasts—you're eligible to enter. Also, the contest is international, so you're eligible to enter regardless of your location (PLEASE NOTE: International competitors may need to pay shipping costs for any print products they win in the contest).
Q: What kind of monsters are you looking for?
A: How you interpret the "Out of the Primal World" theme is up to you; but the strange realm of the fey is typically considered to be the original home of the gnomes, linnorms, and plant creatures, among others. Creatures may seem similar to those found back "home," but may be bigger, stronger, smarter, or in some other way stranger in the Primal World. Let your imagination go wild.
You may also get some insight from the judges' comments on previous monsters, which you can find right here on A Sword for Hire. Mikko, Jacob, Mike W. and Adam all judged the top contenders of Here Be Monsters 2 and 3, while the original contest (you can find it in September 2014 in the older posts sidebar on the right side of the blog) featured Mikko and Jacob along with Mike Kimmel and Sean K. Reynolds as the judges.
Q: Can I set the monster in Golarion or another campaign setting?
A: No. We do not have the rights to use anyone's intellectual property. Monsters should be developed to be setting neutral.
Q: But wait, isn't Wayfinder set in Golarion?
A: Yes. Part of the development process will involve setting your monster into the campaign setting.
Q: Speaking of Wayfinder, I already sent in a monster there. Can I submit it to the contest too?
A: Unfortunately, no, as this could make things confusing for our friends at Paizo Fans United. You can still submit other monsters or another type of article to Wayfinder, of course.
Q: Where will my monster be published/shown?
A: The top 5 monsters will be revealed on Mikko Kallio's A Sword for Hire blog.
Q: Do I get to see the judges' comments if I don't make the Top 5?
A: Only comments on the Top 5 monsters will be revealed; Jacob typically offers to share his comments with any contestant who asks (this will happen AFTER the winner is revealed so as to not detract attention from the Top 5). Other judges may make the same offer.
Q: What happens with my monster after the contest?
A: We'll be using hold monster spells to keep your monsters contained for judging, but afterward we'll be releasing them back in to the wild (i.e. you keep all rights to your creations).
Contributor
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Yes! Looking forward to reading the monster entries and selecting the finalists. :)
I'll also keep an eye out for new talent--whenever I have the chance (e.g. when I'm writing an AP adventure and back matter monsters are needed), I like to recommend talented new freelancers to Paizo developers.
May the best monster designer win! :)
Dotting
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I've looked forward to this contest every year since its inception, and this year's no exception.
If you've designed monsters before, crafting and polishing an entry is a fun way to hone (and test) your skills. If you haven't, now is the time!
Win or lose, advance or not, I guarantee you'll get satisfaction out of working on and completing a formal design. If you advance or win, well, that's just icing on the cake.
quick question, does the stat block count against the word limit?
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Contributor
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quick question, does the stat block count against the word limit?
Yes, it does. Because the winner's monster will be published in Wayfinder, it's important to stay within the 700-750 word limit so we don't have to add or remove words to make copyfitting possible. We also want to help aspiring freelancers to be discovered, and in the world of freelancing, nearly all projects have quite strict word limits, so it's useful practice.
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I got an idea that felt like I should charge ahead with it. Sent.
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Looking forward to seeing what people submit for this!
As Mike said, some very neat submissions so far. However, with less than one week left, there's still room to break into our Top 5. Get those entries in before it's too late!
Dotted.
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I'm glad you guys are running this contest again. It has been awesome every year!
I plan to have my entry completed within the next few days, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with.
Thanks, Mark. Looking forward to seeing your entry!
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I found just filling out the template (and making sure the math balanced) did 90% of the work for me. I had an idea, and just following the rules of the template and monster type and sub-type did most of the rest. Writing the fluff was a bit rougher, but doable. I barely used "the monster is very very very big, with many many many teeth that are very very very sharp." ;-)
I found just filling out the template (and making sure the math balanced) did 90% of the work for me. I had an idea, and just following the rules of the template and monster type and sub-type did most of the rest. Writing the fluff was a bit rougher, but doable.
Definitely. I think if you can get an idea that excites you, you can put together a monster pretty quickly.
You know, by a technical reading of the rules for this contest, I could enter a monster. Just seems wrong being a judge and all. :D
So don't get any wise ideas Mike, Mikko, and Jacob!
Heh. The way we work is I forward the monsters to the other judges so they have no idea who the designers are -- I have to admit I've occasionally entertained the idea of submitting my own just to get some unbiased opinion from Mike and Mikko. But then I get scared they wouldn't like it and figure I'm better off not knowing! :)
If you want to submit, Adam, I won't tell the other guys.
Less than 24 hours to go, but it's still not too late to get your submission in. Remember, you can't win if you don't enter!
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It only took me a couple hours to do mine while watching TV, so go do yours! :-D
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Sent, and my GF dropped one in too! Good thing I double checked those contest rules; almost added an SLA from Ultimate Intrigue, whiiich is not yet on the PRD. Thanks for hosting this contest and in advance for judging our submissions!
Thanks for participating. And yes, they're coming in fast and furious now -- four submissions in a two-hour span. I'm looking forward to reading them, except I'm falling asleep, so it'll have to wait until tomorrow.
Oh wait, make that five submission now. :)
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Sent my submission this morning. I'm looking forward to this, it's my first time submitting anything to any RPG company or contest.
The hardest part for me, by far, was the descriptive/lore bit of it. I hope it's good.
Yeah, that was hard for me, too. I'm pretty good at the crunch, but coming up with hundreds of words of fluff was a challenge. Hopefully I didn't ramble too much! LOL
I'm pretty good at writing my own homebrew fluff (if I do say so myself), but making it general and filling up a specific word count was the challenge. I was able to be pretty brief in my monster rules description (I tried to keep it simple and easy to run, even if it might require complex strateegery to fight it), so I had a lot more fluff to write than I expected to meet the word count. I don't think I babbled too much. Just the right amount of babbling.
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Sent my submission this morning. I'm looking forward to this, it's my first time submitting anything to any RPG company or contest.
Awesome! That's a big part of why we do contests -- we all made our names starting with RPG Superstar, and think contests are a great way to get your foot into the writing game (or should that be into the game writing?).
Lots of last-day submissions still to look at and then we can start picking our Top 5. Should be fun!
Yeah, we're still going through the submissions (they tend to come in in the last couple days) and then we'll need time for judges to write up comments.
I can say with two of the judges' having weighed in, it looks like nine entries are vying for the Top 5 spots, with of course the chance still remaining that the third judge might find another one to champion and persuade us it should make the cut. As always, I don't think the choices will be easy.
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I'm part-way through my commentary, and boy-oh-boy, I like what I see.
And I think we now have all the comments logged and blog posts ready to go. They should be posted starting around 1 p.m. (Eastern) Monday.
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And let's let the reveals begin! I encourage everyone to comment on the monsters, let the designers who worked hard know what you think.
Congratulations to our first monster in the Top 5: the gravestone dryad by Kim Frandsen.
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And now let's hear it for the second monster: the grynthak by Mark Nordheim.
And let's let the reveals begin! I encourage everyone to comment on the monsters, let the designers who worked hard know what you think.
Congratulations to our first monster in the Top 5: the gravestone dryad by Kim Frandsen.
Gah /doh.
The +2 was a reminder to myself when I originally created the dryad to add 2 feats. I added the feats... And then promptly forgot to remove the +2.
/facedesk
Thank you all though for your feedback and to everyone else, I hope you like my "pet" ;-)
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Here's the champion of Here Be Monsters 3, back to try to defend his crown in HBM4 with the gorviel by Jeremy Corff.