Core's page

My two cents

• Shall be CL 4
  
• Shall have swallow whole
  
• Shall have a regurgitation attack as an immediate action after swallow whole
  
• Shall be able to shallow whole three times per round as a full-attack action, all of which must be on the same target
  
• Shall lay eggs in fallen party members (which are quite edible, yum!)
  
• Shall have a threat display by dancing provocatively (save vs Seduction DC 28)
  
• Shall bleed a smokey, yet sweet ale of fine quality (Dwarves save vs the above Seduction test at -2)
  
• Shall have trilobite parasites which coo jelously when others are near
  
• Shall enslave and force party members to dance and juggle if victorious in combat
  
• Shall groom and clean parasites from sleeping party members
  
• Shall ride a giant toucan as a mount
  

I believe they are looking more for the latter.

I agree.

I look at it like I would writing a resume. You can write a general resume, change the job title, and mass send them out. Or you can write a resume from scratch specifically for a certain job. The later is almost always preferred.

For the original poster, my two cents would be to re-write it a couple times with the River Kingdoms specifically in mind and see what you come up with. You will likely come up with some better than you already have, and perhaps much better.

I think y'all are over-thinking it.

River-snipe Freedom Scoundrel = good

Lawmaster Slavetrader = bad

In other words, ask yourself if it makes sense to originate from the River Kingdoms.

I saw a lot of items that were only good for one class and occasionally even a small subset of that one class. This places the item on the whim of the judge liking the class, which is not a very good idea since folks tend to like some classes and dislike others.

Also desirability is certainly a factor. Generally speaking, if players are not fighting over who gets the item, then it lacks some desirability.

See, even Erol Otus agrees :)

What have you found the hardest thing to do or not do during voting and has voting had any personal affect or realisation for you?

Waiting. Waiting I've found to be uniquely exhausting.

In the same way that a dwarf-themed item that "suppresses a dwarf's murderous rage at the slightest scent of gold" fails because dwarves in the Pathfinder RPG don't fly into murderous rages when they smell gold (in fact, they can't even smell gold).

*Cough* Until I get into round three that is :)

The dreaded Dwur of Osmagogue have shamed all Dwarf-kind for eons untold! Unfortunately for all of Golarion, they too have finally reached the surface world above. With mirthless smiles, their melancholy nostrils point them towards the gold-rich cities afar! Woe to the Dwarf who stashes his gold in his underwear! Woe to the Dwarf who has gold fillings!

Based on the above comments, Gary Gygax wasn't RPG Superstar material then(!). The 1st edition AD&D DMG was full of obscure words that I had to look up as an 11-year old. Doing so instilled a love of language that I have to this day. There seems to be a "dumbing down" movement in the RPG industry which I think runs counter to the origins of the hobby.

Good point, although I point out that Gygaxian prose is practically its own narrative form of art. Regardless, most of his items are rather straight-forward with much of the rules in the hands of the DM.

A tip of the hat to Mr. Gygax, whose Harlot table taught me that the difference between a Slovenly Trull, Saucy Tart and a Expensive Doxy are by no means trivial.

Your first inclination is likely the correct one. I am fond of short, clear, and concise writing.

It is probably statistically similar to throwing a weeks worth of garbage into a swimming pool and watching the results.

Let us say the pool drain is the coveted top 32 positions. The discarded cabbage, rotten potatoes, and a Twix that you found out that is not a Twix is all floating at the top to be picked off mercilessly by crows. Some of it fell out on the pool deck even. The congealed applesauce and unidentifiable thing on a paper towel is floating up and down with the currents, usually somewhere in the middle. Just below that is the strangely curious diaper filled with the full pallet of colors - interesting but not a keeper. To the far left is the 4th edition PHB, which is caught in the pool filter, being slowly torn to bits. Cans, jars and other things which have a recycle value between 5 and 0.1 cents is near the bottom. Perhaps a pool cleaner will separate those and redeem their value later. At the very bottom at the pool drain is your wife's wedding ring and your iphone which you accidentally tossed when 'helping' to the clean the kitchen. Quite valuable and unwise to loose. All-in-all, some of the items in the current bobbed up and down but not much else changed as time passed.

I jest of course. I'm sure Greg, Vic, Ross etc could write the query to do as you ask, but I'm not sure why they would want that public.

1. When you see an item often/rarely, does that tell you anything about the item's standing?

Some have speculated this judging by the patterns. The better items are far less common, and appear to be paired with other good items (though not always). I imagine only the staff knows for sure.

2. When you vote tie, does it count as a vote for the purpose of the voter tags and so on?

As far as I know, yes.

3. Why when you vote tie does it sometimes show you the same two items again?

They tend to re-appear with a different pair from my own observations.

4. Although it's cool that some people are so enthusiastic and are voting a thousand times or more, is it possible this allows those people to have too much of a disproportionate effect on the rankings?

A single voter will have a rather negligible effect compared to the community effort. I've seen my own item 3 times, which is probably less than 1% of the total votes on my item. Probably a lot less than 1%.

5. Should we consider it a problem if we notice the marathon voters' items are particularly well represented in the top 32? Is that mathematically likely to happen given the way the voting is going, and assuming those people are upvoting their items whenever they see them?

As above, I doubt it. The greater community will have the vast majority of the say. From my look at the items it is rather clear what the top 50 or so are. I would be surprised if something other than those 50 make it in the Top 32.

6. Should we consider a limit on the number of votes allowed to each person in future years?

Personally I would say a vote limit per-day. Namely so I'm not tempted to keep alt-tab vote at work :P

The published Archetypes tend to be quite broad and somewhat generic. The contest would be a good opportunity for something a bit more niche. Personally I would consider an Archetype that would rarely be seen outside of the River Kingdoms.

In that regard the River Kingdoms is as about Chaotic Neutral as you can get. Half of it in anarchy. The other half is a constantly shifting power base. Personal freedom is in the culture. Heredity, social class, and feudalism is a minority. Lots of interesting border realms to work with. Lots of smaller sects, cults, guilds getting a piece of the pie. Also it is a good place for exiles, wanderers, and those wanting to not be found to go. Really there is quite a bit to work with.

For me a cool effect > all.

This is my inclination as well, so long as the mistakes are not overt. The best items have a certain je ne sais quoi.. Sometimes its a great effect, or some great flavor, or the item is just damn useful, perhaps the visual of the item/effect is great, or a 'its so obvious and cool why didn't anyone do this before', or maybe the total package is just very elegant.

If an item has that certain je ne sais quoi, then I look for reasons to overlook the faults. Whereas in other item, I am drawn to the faults and look for a reason to salvage it.

After 1200+/- votes I'd say I've run across 15 or so of these items. I would be surprised if they don't make it in. I doubt I will see anymore at this point since new items are rare and I have a bit of voter fatigue, but I enjoyed the process.

The rules prohibit employees entering as written. Personally I would like to see judges do so, and if they 'win', it would allow them a golden ticket item into their slot.

Perhaps normal looking trees and rocks, but every destination has some horrid name:

1. Bough of limb-severing orchids
2. Pebble mounds of biting scabs
3. The toad that nods and devours
4. Iron walls which fall
5. The no-where hole
6. Crevice of the Beholder swarm
7. Branches of the hanging sinners
8. Field of writhing feet
9. The rains of pitch and fire
10. Unknown, none have returned

GM: "So, where too?"

Great. Now I have to draw a 50-mile radius map of the area every time one of the PCs gets it in their head to cast this spell.

I think I would just use a map of Cocytus if that spell was cast without a very good reason.

I've just seen an item whose crafting price is higher than its buying price. I have now seen everything.

It works for the IPhone. Maybe the item has a subscription plan to recoup the cost of manufacture? :P

Still haven't seen mine, after many days and hours of voting. Now I'm sad.

I'm in the same boat. Most pairing I've seen at least one of the items before. Some items I've seen a many, many times. Maybe mine went poof. Ah well.

I find myself becoming a bit more jaded and brutal the more that I vote. At the moment I feel like I am wielding a giant scythe wrought from the finger-bones of the mediocre and maladroit. I swing in broad swaths too and fro in a vast field of the weak and infirm, cutting them down with a mirthless giggle and glazed-over eyes. Once in a great while, a single pristine flower will rise forth and glimmer in the dark field and I say, "What? What is this?! Is..is this a clever and insightful item that I don't want to gouge my eyes out with a corndog after reading it? An item I actually want to use as a DM and a player?! Thank you, oh Lord, thank you for this grand blessing, this boon of boons!!". And a single tear of joy runs down my soul-crushed face.

At his point I wish we could just see all the items at once, make 32 check marks and call it a day. Ah well, c'est la vie.

As for the timer, I know why it exists but I can't say I enjoy watching the count down much. This has perhaps restricted my own voting.

Instead of a timer, perhaps a limited number of votes per day.

Good luck everybody, though I'm a bit nervous that my item got disqualified for some reason. I've been at this for an hour or so last night, and five hours today but still haven't seen my item. Although I am still seeing items that I have never seen before.

They could likely have excluded the voter's own submission when coding the voting algorithm. You may not want to spend an inordinate amount of time searching for your own item. Anyhow, I think it takes a pretty gross offense to get DQ'd so I would not worry about it overly. I've yet to see one that deserved a DQ myself. Goodluck!

Good luck to my fellow competitors. Thank you to Paizo for hosting this contest which I yearly participate and lurk.

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."
Scott Adams

As far as discussion of the items, a common sense approach would likely be best. That is, discuss items without being a overly negative or a door-to-door salesmen.

I suspect that the bizarre-yet-memorable novelty items may win out on the discussion threads however. After all, a well-balanced and sensible item may not give rise to discussion like an enlarged barnacle that attaches to one's back, hands the user enchanted arrows, and allows the wearer to occasionally lay an egg.

Submit a wondrous item (anonymously) and get in the top 32 of public voting. They could then swap the spot they won with a golden ticket item.

'Create an Archetype' certainly has plenty of room for creativity. I always thought a Monk variant that took their vows to extremes would be interesting. Think a horribly dessicated Monk that looks like a cancer patient and destroys money on sight.

Anyhow, I'm looking forward to it personally.

My personal criteria:

Start a 3 for craft wondrous
Raise to the minimum of the of caster level to cast the spells for creation
Raise to the minimum of the of level of feat/requirement for the caster to have for creation
Raise to the minimum of the of caster level to replicate the item's effect
+1 if the item is a passive effect that is never activated
+1 for cumulative effects beyond the first
+1 if the item takes no item slot
+1 if the item's effects cannot be articulated in one paragraph
+1 if the item requires the DM to roll on a random table
+1 if the creator did not bring beer or chips (and dip) for this session
-1 if the item is temporary or has limited charges
-1 if the creator picks up the pizza tab
-1 if the item's activation requires a gross indignity or sacrifice of a party member
-1 if the item can lead to a hilarious PC death
-1 if the item can lead to a hilarious death for the entire party

Looking forward to it. The Archtypes sound far more interesting to me than the items round. I'm curious how far people will push the envelope.

Grognard ("old soldier")

Clearly a product of a bygone and ancient era, the Grognard is one who is thought to have great knowledge, wisdom and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others. The Grognard however rarely fulfills these lofty expectations and instead these relic-warriors hymn songs long forgotten, tell tales which have no modern context, and whisper wisdom that usually make no sense what-so ever. Despite this, the Grognard's complaining and grumbling is often whimsical and even occasionally poignant.

A More Elegant Time (Ex): The entire campaign is converted to a campaign using a previous edition of the current game system. Pathfinder is converted to 3.5, 3.5 to 3.0, 3.0 to 2nd Edition AD&D, 2nd Edition AD&A to 1st edition AD&D, 1st edition AD&D to Moldvay D&D B/X, Moldvay D&D B/X to Whitebox OD&D, and Whitebox OD&D to Chainmail. If the current campaign is run using Chainmail, then the Players must thereafter engage in actual physical or magical combat.

Um. Be careful.

Huzzah! I found the edit button :)

And an entire month to bang out a simple, elegant wondrous item in 300 words or less? ;-)

In my opinion, giving people a month+ is part of problem. Participants have too much time and they over think, commit to indecision, over-write, and try to 'drow up' their entries. In this over working I image it is easy to loose the simple details, like word count and 'does this make any sense at all'.

I admit I don't have too much sympathy. I'm not sure how people can write 300 words for an item in the first place. The Migrus Locker was under 200 as I recall. This year I think I hit *edit* a low number of words too.

Probably look up what 'archetypes' are at some point.

After loosing last year I took a slightly different approach. I believe in my campaign the PCs came across three odd Kobold tribes - The Mona, Baur, Petrs tribes who where wholly convinced that armor make from apple fritters was indeed superior to their usual leather and hides. The ensuing carnage decimated the Kobold population for generation, but admittedly it did fill the provision stocks of bakers for miles around. To this day the Kobolds speak of the lost Mona, Baur and Petr tribes with great hesitance - a warning to all who mistake pastry for armor mitigation.

Kidding of course. All in all the contest is quite subjective and a delight to participate in win or loose. Really there is no 'loose' - anyone here can write up an adventure and submit it for publication. In that regards I think the contest is a great prep tool for all who participate and observe. It is a great tool to distinguish the realities of publication; the many upsides and downsides. That in of itself is very valuable.

My favorite thus far is the Ferryman's Coins. I think they would have had a decent shot at getting in if submitted.

I didn't do a write up, but my first idea (which I rejected) was a Large Snail Shell that upon command, would liquefy the owners bones and allow them to seep into the shell for shelter and protection. Then reverse the process on command, albeit painfully. Here is a 5 min writeup:

Siphuncle Shell

This large shell is wrought from iridescent osmena-pearl and smells lightly of salt water. Although it weighs only thirty pounds, it is cumbersome to carry due to its four foot length and ovaloid shape.

Upon command the user can withdraw completely into the shell. The user's bones are temporarily liquefied, and a leathery hood counter-locks the shells opening. From inside the user has an Armour Class of 27, Damage Reduction of 30, and no longer needs air, water or food. The user can stay inside indefinitely and may leave the shell and return to their normal form on command. Entering or leaving the shell takes one full turn and is excruciatingly painful.

Requirements - A very large Nautilus, Dimension Door Cost - 22,000

Rejected since I don't think players would actually want to use it, heh. I did put it in a game, but it was for an odd-ball npc. So, very much a npc item, not a PC item.

Spell resistance effects spells and spell like abilities. So my initial inclination is to say is say that items that create spell like effects are effected by spell resistance. Unless otherwise noted of course.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#spellResistance
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#spellLikeAbilities

I'd be very surprised. The purpose of this is to capture new design talent for Paizo, not editing talent. A good editor is essential, but even a great editor can only put so much of a shine on a turd.

I doubt it would be editing. More likely tiered progression of scenario development. Write an encounter using your item. Use the encounter for a setting piece. Use the setting piece in an adventure. Something like that would not surprise me at all.

Actually, I don't understand why the wordcount has been increased by 100 words. 200 words was more than enough for the first two years, why the change?

I agree. I can not think of many published items that use that many. Perhaps with an elaborate history or an artifact. With a bit of extraneous fluff I ended up with ~150.

Do people think it is more important to be simple or serious?

I would go with the one you would actually use in a game. In particular if it instigates some role-playing opportunities as well as being generally useful to the players. A funny item can do that, but I think it would be harder to pull off.

To me a perfect example of "gonzo-ness" would be baba-yaga's hut which runs around on chicken legs. Classic, yet weird for the sake of weirdness.

Not really too strange considering the mythology, and context they were drawing from. Also the Deities and Demi-gods at that time had numerous Finnish and Slavic deities so I suppose it was in flavor of the rules as well.

Now 1st edition initiative mechanics? Now that was gonzo :P

Submitted. I ended up using ~150 words and a spur of the moment idea.

I will be voting for this entry.

Are there hit points? check. Is there an AC, check. Are there a couple abilities to snap an unwary party? check. Personally I could careless about the minutia of the stat-block. I am more concerned the strength of role-playing opportunity and in that regards it is a very strong entry. High descriptive and plenty of ways to use the fellow.

I am voting for this one for a couple reasons.

First the concept and description are probably the best in this round. The execution is also well done. It carries a lot of power behind the words without being overly cluttered.

Secondly, this entry illustrates pretty much everything that is wrong with the 3.x stat-block. I think the entirety of Tomb of Horrors was in less words than this block of highly precise mathematics.

So I suppose there is an interesting dichotomy here. A nice cleaned up description that uses every words carefully - and then mammoth of a stat-block that looked like it got creamed by a malfunctioning atom bomb.

If this was a product I would look at the description and be pretty hyped, and then look inside and whimper at the 4 page stat blocks and wonder how in the hell anyone would be able to actually use them.

what I really did like (i.e. the villain concepts).

I agree actually, the stat-blocks are fairly dry and sort of a joke. I suppose this is an issue with the 3.x ruleset, I really see no need for 500+ word stat-blocks for 3.x when a 1 liners from old D&D is just about as good. So *shrug* my votes go to the flavor rather than the hideous amalgams of multiple classes on templated monsters - its all rather silly.

I am currently working on a setting for a cousin of mine who will be in Iraq soon -Valley of Blue Snails

One of the setting specific critters is called a Sky-Shell, essential behemoth snails that have little villages upon them. Here is my meager attempt at one :Sky-Shell. Anyhow, if anyone wants to give it a shot we would be grateful.

I was incredibly sad that use of RPG Superstar 2008 material was not allowed in the last few rounds of 2009 competition.

The creep factor and uniqueness of this item is amazing.

Glad you liked it. I did submit but did not get in this time - congrats btw Matt.

I am currently creating a setting for a cousin who shall be in Iraq soon. If you wish to take a look, here ya go:

http://valleyofbluesnails.blogspot.com/

I occasionally peak around here for ideas so I figure I would post my current setting/campaign site:

http://valleyofbluesnails.blogspot.com/

Valley of Blue Snails is a Dungeons and Dragons campaign setting, using B/X rules. It is created for a cousin who will soon be in Iraq. We chose to do an online game to prevent boredom and as a escape from the realities of things sucking over in Iraq. Incidentally this opportunity seems a decent time as any to write some homebrew material and chronicle it for self indulgence. Mainly the blog will cover my notes in the creation process.

IT'S A RACCOON!!!!

Glad you liked it.

I liked some of the overall ideas but the implementation looked a bit rushed. A lot of them simply said 'rewrite me' as I read them. Probably a result of giving them 3 days in the middle of work week (which is pure silliness).

Making the following round based off of this round compounds the problem. We are essentially voting on the same round twice, since the initial ideas will sell votes, not a dry stat-block. I can write down the names of four of the entries now and practically guarantee they will be in round 4 because of that. Also if they are forced to use the same villain in round 5, it would give them a huge advantage there as well.

I would love to see what other people would have done.

Not in the tournament format but this is what I had milling around in my head..

Ahrah-koonem, The Raccoon Lord
‘He who rubs, scratches and despoils with its hands’

History

The embodiment of Raccoon traits, both fair and foul, Ahrah-koonem is a primeval creature simply known as The Raccoon Lord. Once a verdant and benevolent trickster, the Raccoon Lord has fallen from his light-hearted ways. A rotten bough of the world tree known as Boletus fell to the deep wilds of the Raccoon Lords domain. There the gargantuan branch lay to rot, bringing with it the taint that the world tree sought to be rid of. Ever curious the Raccoon Lord investigated the wondrous, albeit forbidding bough. To his delight he found a pair or acorn still attached to Boletus. As a being of perpetual hunger, the Raccoon Lord quickly devoured one to sate his appetite.

The acorn rotted within the Raccoon Lord and he languished for years, tormented by pain, hallucinations and wracking. Over time the Raccoon Lord found that devouring rotting material would ease his suffer; and so he sought rotten leaves, piles of compost and forgotten carcasses of anything he could find. He quickly found the need to traverse great distances to sate his hunger, baying his discomfort the best he could. The Raccoon Lord sought a solution to his woes, beseeching greater powers and urgently searching the civilized races for knowledge.

Eventually the Raccoon Lord found what he desired, a plan to end his suffering. The Raccoon Lord still possessed the other acorn from Boletus and he learned that if he were to plant it in the right location, it would grow a new sapling world tree. It was possible the power of this new world tree would cure him if he were to devour a fresh untainted acorn. Secondly, the rise of the new sapling would pulled the power of the natural world to itself, and halt the rotation of seasons for hundreds of miles around. Thus the Raccoon Lord knew if he was to plant the seed in Autumn, the season would never end and a great rot would ensue, sating his hunger until the sapling could grow.

Still possessing the other acorn of Boletus, the Raccoon Lord seeks to find a suitable place to plant it. Only rumors of such places lay in legend; Nalateem the navel of the world, Gilhegrand the wild growth, Everebb heart of all rivers. Much to his chagrin, the Raccoon Lord and his minions have failed to find these locations and now search methodically while trying to keep his hunger sated. With rotting material in short supply the Raccoon Lord creates his own out of necessity, complicating his search for knowledge while among the civilized races of the world.

Description

The Raccoon Lord appears as a twenty five foot raccoon with an overly large maw, a ringed prehensile tail, and bristly fur that shimmers with supernatural radiance. He can easily stand on its hind legs and manipulate his delicate from paws with meticulous detail. The Raccoon Lords cavernous maw contains a barbed tongue and small swarm of stirges that live within feeding upon the roof of his maw. Should the Raccoon Lord be roused in anger he will often brush his tongue on the stirges and exhale them outward, creating an enraged cloud of stirges in front of him.

The Raccoon Lord can take other forms but prefers his own form greatly. When taking another form they are often imperfect and lack common traits of that race. For example, when taking the form of an Elf, in his haste the Raccoon Lord may apply a light coat of fur and forget the ears. The Raccoon Lord and shift between forms as a full round action as often as he wishes.

I have the feeling my propensity of role-play opportunity over utility doomed me. Maybe the clockwork raccoon would have done better.. Anyhow, one more for the pile.

Crystal Orb of the Suffering Thoog

Aura moderate divination; CL 8th

Slot —; Price 42,000 gp; Weight 11lb

Description

This crystal sphere is 8 inches in diameter and appears to have a hairless humanoid creature trapped within. The creature is diminutive, eyeless and has vestigial wings on its back that vaguely look like featherless chicken wings. The creature appears to be alive and will shift and contort inside the orb, occasionally making odd gestures with its infant-like limbs. If the orb is separated from its owner or is discarded, it will attempt to follow its owner by rolling on the floor. The orb is surprisingly tenacious when following its owner, albeit slow-moving at 5 feet per round.

Any creature looking directly at the Crystal Orb of the Suffering Thoog will have its thoughts broadcast to the owner (Will DC 19 negates), as spell detect thoughts. This effect can occur more than once at the same time. If the orb's owner is unusually cruel or mistreats the Crystal Orb of the Suffering Thoog, the owner's thoughts are broadcast to everyone with in 60 feet at inopportune times (Will DC19 negates).

Construction

Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, detect thoughts;

Cost 21,000 gp

Ah too bad, I liked my creepy hamster ball. Good luck to the winner, checking them out right now.

Comparing last year's winners to this year's, I was surprised to see that there were no 2008 Superstar Top 32 folks in the Top 32 list this year. I realize the top 8 were ineligible, but still...

I was hoping to see Mr McKinsey in, too bad. I think the sheer amount of entries had a better chance to find that sweet spot that would appease all three judges. Anyhow looking through the entries they look quite entertaining, grats to the winners.

In Latin, migrus means small or puny.

This is where I got the name, did a translation of 'mini-me'