RPG Superstar 2023 Entries Due Soon and Battlezoo Bestiary: Strange and Unusual Out Now!

Monday, May 15th, 2023

Just a few more weeks remain to submit your monsters for this year’s RPG Superstar contest! The contest ends on May 28th, the Sunday of PaizoCon, so there’s still enough time to write up to three monsters and enter at https://rpgsuperstar.com/, but only if you get started soon! And if you need help and feedback on your monster before submission, check out the Roll For Combat Discord for helpful advice and feedback at http://discord.rollforcombat.com/.

RPG Superstar! 2023 Elemental Storm Presented by Roll For Combat

RPG Superstar! 2023: Elemental Storm. Presented by Roll For Combat

For those unfamiliar with the contest, you can submit up to three monsters written for Pathfinder Second Edition while following this year’s theme by connecting your monster to twenty “elements” ranging from the traditional to weirder elements like music and space.

After you’ve submitted your monsters, you can actively see how your creations perform during the contest as next comes the voting and judging. There are two rounds of judging. First, anyone in the community can judge any monster on various categories to filter out the best of the bunch. Initial voting lasts approximately six weeks, during which anyone can vote on each submitted monster, and public campaigning is allowed, so get the word out!

After the first round of public voting, the private judging begins, where a skilled group of professional judges with broad skills in the industry will rank the top entries. Finally, the winners are announced, prizes awarded, and the winning monsters will be published in the next Battlezoo Bestiary!

Battlezoo Bestiary: Strange and Unusual cover art

Battlezoo Bestiary: Strange and Unusual, by Stephen Glicker, Mark Seifter, and the RPG Superstar! Winners
Cover art by Ameur Makhloufi

If you're looking for inspiration, or are curious about the last contest’s winners, look no further than the newly released Battlezoo Bestiary Strange & Unusual at https://battlezoo.com/products/preorder-battlezoo-bestiary-strange-unusual-pdf. This new bestiary includes over 150 new monsters from the last RPG Superstar contest, along with multiple ways to expand your Pathfinder game, including:

  • 150+ RPG Superstar monstersseparated by copper, silver, gold, platinum, and the grand prize winners.
  • Aberrant Soul archetype/subclassfor characters who are slowly transforming into an aberration!
  • New options for the Monster Parts crafting system.
  • New rules on how to refine monster parts into custom weapons, armor, shields, skill items, magic items, and more.
  • New imbuing categories, including properties for all eldamon elements that don’t currently have them (air, earth, water, and many stretch goal elements) and weird ones like the tentacular “extension” imbued property.
  • New character backgrounds.
  • 150+ illustrations.
  • And more!
Blink Drake from Battlezoo Bestiary: Strange and Unusual, by Joshua White

RPG Superstar! 2021 Bronze Winner — Blink Drake by Joshua White

We also have a special bundle package this week where you can both the first Battlezoo Bestiary, as well as Strange and Unusual, at a discounted price at https://battlezoo.com/products/battlezoo-bestiary-strange-unsual. So if you want to be featured in our next Battlezoo Bestiary, enter RPG Superstar 2023 today!

Mark Seifter
Director of Game Design, Roll for Combat

Author Bio:
I'm Mark Seifter, Roll for Combat director of game design and Paizo’s former design manager, as well as 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 8 PM Eastern and Saturdays at 1 PM Eastern 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!

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Tags: Pathfinder Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Pathfinder Second Edition

8 people marked this as a favorite.

Even if you're not sure, I suggest you take the plunge and enter RPG Superstar! The due date is the Sunday of PaizoCon (the 28th), so there's still enough time to enter a monster or three, especially since the website has tools to help you with the process.

Wayfinders Contributor

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Since I cannot enter, I wish everyone else good luck!

Hmm


I tried making something. I'm really proud of the concept and the expression of it, but boy I feel out of my depth assigning stats even with the GMG guidance.


I would love to do this but, it seems like all of my dragon ideas (carnelian, onyx, orichalcum, etc.) have been used by a variety of other games and media...not to split hairs but what are the IP issues with reusing a name, e.g., Carnelian Dragon, which is used in other media (i.e., by Disney/Lucasfilm -- "Carnelian" has been used for dragons in Star Wars media)? The guidelines say don't but that seems extremely limiting since pretty much anyone can link [generic term] + "dragon" together to inspire a new dragon. E.g., further example, "Opal" + "Dragon" has been used in Magic: the Gathering...


The rpgsuperstar.com site says submissions end on June 7. Has the deadline been extended, or is the information on that site incorrect? (Or am I misinterpreting something, which is also entirely possible.)


1 person marked this as a favorite.

It's been extended!


Kobold Catgirl wrote:
It's been extended!

Ah, okay; that's good news. I only found out about it recently and considered entering but I'm currently traveling and it would have been very difficult for me to get entries done by the 28th. Thanks for the reply!


Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Yeah, my brain went full 'fog' trying to get something.

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