Hi everyone, Mark Seifter here. I’m excited to announce the hotly anticipated 2023 edition of RPG Superstar, as the premiere Tabletop RPG design contest returns for another great year! For those of you who aren’t familiar, RPG Superstar is a contest for aspiring designers, originally created by Paizo and licensed by Roll for Combat for the last few contests. Like in the last contest (RPG Superstar Strange & Unusual, whose final bestiary is coming out very soon), I’ll be your head judge again this year, and we’re gathering a bigger and broader group of judges than ever before, including some new surprise faces on the panel.
RPG Superstar! 2023: Elemental Storm
As for this year’s RPG Superstar contest, you can submit up to three monsters written for Pathfinder 2nd Edition while following this year’s theme – Elemental Storm! After you’ve submitted your monsters, there will be two rounds of judging, first by the community to whittle down the submissions to the best of the best and then by a group of professional judges with a broad set of skills in the TTRPG industry. The top entries, as determined by the judges, will receive prizes, ranked from lowest to highest: copper, silver, gold, platinum, and grand. If you win a prize, your monster will be published in our next Battlezoo Bestiary, and if you win a platinum or grand prize, you’ll get to expand your monster into a whole family!
This year’s theme, as we announced at PaizoCon 2022, is called Elemental Storm! However, these are not exactly the same elements found in the usual elemental planes. To win, you’ll need to submit a monster associated with one to three of the twenty elements detailed below. For more information, including a list of all the contest’s rules, check out https://rpgsuperstar.com/!
RPG Superstar! 2023 and the Elemental Storm elements!
- Fire is the element of flames, heat, and burning. Creatures associated with fire usually have the fire trait or special abilities with the fire trait.
- Water is the element of water, rain, and bodies of water. Creatures associated with water usually have the water trait (and often the amphibious or aquatic trait too), and they might have special abilities with the water trait.
- Earth is the element of earth, rock, soil, and the like. Creatures associated with earth usually have the earth trait or special abilities with the earth trait.
- Air is the element of air, wind, and the sky. Creatures associated with air usually have the air trait or special abilities with the air trait, and can often fly.
- Wood is the element of wood, plant life, and flora of all kinds. Creatures associated with wood usually are plants, have special abilities associated with plants, or both.
- Ice is the element of cold, ice, snow, and other frozen substances, but not liquid water. Creatures associated with ice usually have the cold trait or special abilities with the cold trait.
- Lightning is the element of electricity and lightning. Creatures associated with lightning usually have the electricity trait or special abilities with the electricity trait.
- Force is the element of mystical telekinetic force. Creatures associated with force usually have some kind of telekinetic abilities or other special abilities with the force trait.
- Life is the element of raw life force, birth, and vital essence. Creatures associated with life usually have the positive trait or special abilities with the positive trait.
- Death is the element of death, quietus, and the natural order of the reaping of life. Creatures associated with death usually have abilities with the death trait. They are very rarely undead (as undead have found a way to escape the fate of the death element), but they might be psychopomps or other natural bringers of death.
- Light is the element of light, illumination, and vision. Creatures associated with light usually have special abilities with the light trait.
- Darkness is the element of darkness, the absence of light, and sometimes the shadows that play upon the liminal spaces where light and darkness meet. Creatures associated with darkness usually have special abilities with the darkness trait or shadow trait.
- Mind is the element of thoughts, emotions, and mental effects. Creatures associated with mind usually have special abilities with the mental trait. They might potentially have the astral or dream trait.
- Spirit is the element of disembodied spirits built out of spiritual building blocks. Creatures associated with spirit are usually incorporeal spirits themselves, though perhaps they might not be if they have notable special abilities involving spirits.
- Body is the element focusing on raw body, muscle, and the physical building blocks that make up a creature’s form. Creatures associated with body usually have strong martial attacks with the brute roadmap, or perhaps the soldier roadmap.
- Music is the element of music, harmony, and sound. Creatures associated with music usually have auditory or sonic abilities, which often (but not always) include a musical motif.
- Metal is the element of ore, smithing, and metal. Creatures associated with metal usually have abilities associated with metal, which might include the ability to create or boost metal items, or the ability to make attacks that mimic certain types of precious metals.
- Time is the element of the past, present, and future. Creatures associated with time usually have some abilities to manipulate time. Be cautioned if you write a creature for this element that time abilities are especially difficult and tempting to write something too complicated or powerful; a true Superstar can write a time ability that is elegant and easy to use without breaking the action economy.
- Space is the element of distance, the concept of three dimensional space, as well as the emptiness of space that contains nothing else. Creatures associated with space usually have abilities with the teleportation trait, abilities based on entering or living in outer space, or perhaps both.
- Poison is the element of poisons, toxins, venoms, and other such substances inimical to living things. Creatures associated with poison usually have special abilities with the poison trait.
Good luck to everyone! We can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Mark Seifter
Director of Game Design, Roll for CombatAuthor Bio:
I'm Mark Seifter, Roll for Combat director of game design and Paizo’s former design manager, and one of the four leads on the creation of Pathfinder Second Edition. I’m @markseifter on Twitter. Check out my Twitch stream with Linda Zayas-Palmer, Arcane Mark, Tuesdays at 7 PM Pacific and Saturdays at 10 AM Pacific at https://www.twitch.tv/arcanemark, as well as my Roll for Combat Live youtube stream with Stephen Glicker at https://www.youtube.com/c/RollForCombat/. Both shows cover a variety of RPG and Pathfinder topics! You can also join my discord at https://tiny.cc.arcanemark!
Welcome to RPG Superstar 2023: Elemental Storm!
Wednesday, March 15th, 2023
