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Just a suggestion. I used skype for over a year with my regularly palying group of 20+ years now that we are all in different parts of the country. We switched over to roll20.net and are much happier. I strongly suggest you look at using that application as opposed to Skype for gaming.
Ooh teamwork feats would be cool. I chose the dwarven blood trait as well as the treacherous earth. I was leaning toward granite skin as well. Why does the earth domain make that useless? I still like earth and travel personally. I have more to say on this but it's late and I need to get to bed. I will post some tomorrow after work.
I am looking to play fighter 3/Cleric 3/Holy Vindicator 3. Was originally thinking Pally 5/Vindicator 4 but thought it might be good to have more spell power and channel opportunities in the party by adding Cleric. Definitely choosing earth deity of some sort, but may pick something different than Abadar. Maybe our two churches though different were looking to work together.
Chug- Why not consider the Fertile Soil trait and go with plant domain instead of earth? I haven't looked at the spells so I am not sure if the plant domain is better than the earth domain. Also are you worshiping a god or the earth aspect of nature? Are you going strait cleric, splash of something else or an archtype? So you know I posted in the thread but I will post here as well. With Robert dropping Mike added Tyler and myself. I was thinking of playing an Oread Holy Vindicator that maybe was a brother of your character, a protector of from the faith sent along to assist you, etc. Let me know what you think. I also like the Treacherous Earth racial trait of the Oread as opposed to the Magical Stone.
Mark, I don't know how you're doing this with your wedding so soon. I'm just trying to find a venue and that's time-consuming enough on its own. (Of course, it doesn't help that the snow keeps messing up plans.)It's been a busy and stressful past month, for sure. Especially considering how difficult this encounter round is. Fortunately, we had the majority of our wedding plans finished by November. Also we are having a very small wedding to keep things simple for ourselves. But it's still been tough. I think you should invite the top 16 and their guests to attend the wedding!!! I will be bringing a Filth Dragon as my guest. ;-P
The first sentence in description is a fragment. You should have added the creature's name as the subject. I like the first three special powers and the creature overall. I normally do not like items or monsters that mess with dreams; however I like the effects these abilities have. Rather than try to detail what happens in the dreams or how the monster affects dreams, you merely state the outcome of the monster's impact on the dream- fatigued condition, monster boost, etc. I am not a fan of the sandman touch. I don't think it is needed nor does it fit the creature thematically. I think the creature knows everyone has to sleep sometime and it would be patient. Borrowing from your templatefu, I think you missed out on the description of the creature. What do these creatures look like, smell like, sound like, etc. While their creation is interesting, you would have been better to spend your words on description of the creature rather than their creation. The last quick comment is to stay away from the word child in the name of the creature. The fact that it preys on children is fine. It's actually great because most players find that abhorrent and will immediately want to kill thus thing. But using child in the name evokes the image of a child, especially since you didn't provide a physical description of the creature. I understand thechoice of naming it a child, it was "born" from the dreams of people, but I think spawn or progeny or some other word would have been better.
It seems odd to me at least that people who made it happen to also be really huge voters. You would think that they would be exempt from voting or their votes would be removed from the contest prior to a result phase. The number of votes any single person cast in the 1st round did not have a large impact on the overall results. There were several hundred thousand votes cast afterall. For the 2nd round no single person could vote for more than 8 people. So everyone who voted had the same maximum vote count. Additionally I was able to vote for 7 other people other than myself in round 2. I couldn't cast all 8 votes for myself! I totally get your initial reaction to the voting system. As a Marathon Voter myself that means I voted over 1,000 times in the 1st round of this contest. That looks like a LOT of voting. However, I only saw my item 5 times in the course of those 1,000 votes. So the impact I had on my individual item making the top 32 was extremely small, approximately 1% of the total votes cast for my item. I don't know how many votes were cast for the 2nd round but again I could only vote for my own item once.
Thank you all for your votes, compliments and most importantly your critiques! My main goal in entering this contest was to become better at something I love to do- create fantasy. I plan on addressing people's questions and comments once I know if I need to polish my encounter. I would like to address the biggest comment that was a repeated comment. The mechanics of the Filth Dragon were spotty and some of the formatting was off. I agreed with all of these comments and was very angry with myself as soon as I saw the entry and read the comments. But I am not surprised at the poor mechanics fu or the formatting mistakes. My wife and I were moving the entire time I had to work on the encouter. She is also 6 months pregnant, which means yours truly did most of the moving and cleaning up of our old apartment. Soo not only did I not get to proofread or re-work my submission before I hit send, I didn't even have everything complete. I am pretty sure I was the last contestant to submit an entry and would love the team at Paizo to confirm my suspicion. For those interested, I submitted somewhere between 4:58pm and 4:59pm on the final day. Fortunately the move is pretty much done and I have spent much more time on my encounter if I advance. Thanks, again, everyone for your comments, compliments and votes!
Zahir you stole my thunder with your last line!!! I enjoyed your Grymp very much and was thinking what a great little companion for my Paladin in another gaming system. I am still holding hope that my GM let's me have one!
I feel the same way. This is my first attempt, any and all feedback is helpful. More is definitely better. :) This is my first year as well. In fact this is my first time ever submitting my writing/rpg design ideas for a competition as an adult. The last time I submitted my writing to a competition was the Scholastic Writing competition in High School! And of course that is an entirely different kind of writing competition.
Thank you for your time, good sir! I am not sure how you manage to scrape the time together, but it is much appreciated. I wanted a lot more feedback on my item. I believe my making it to the round of 32 has limited the amount of feedback I would have normally received, as well as the rest of my compatriots here in the guildhall. Hopefully people will be open to coming back after the fact and giving their opinions. I would have posted it in the critique my item thread, but I thought that would be crass and possibly break one of the competition rules.
I may have been 15 or 16 by that point. Don't misinterpret me, please! My Dad did not go into specifics, nor did he overtly ask or indicate his intention to *ahem* spend the night with the innkeeper. Everything was inferred or implied, depending on your point of view. I also forgot to mention that my little sister also created a character and was playing at the table. BTW she had no idea what was going on, the innuendo was above her head. I also should add that my mother was involved in the theater as well. They both viewed playing their characters as just another role on a stage. That being said, yes my parents were very open about things like that. Unfortunately, my mom passed away in 2012 and I really miss her and her opinion on my writing. I would have bounced the non-technical ideas of the gourd off her as well as my monster. I know her opinion would have greatly enriched my entries. I still have my Dad and he was very pleased and proud that I made it to the round of 32! The two things during that session that really impacted me were my dad's off the cuff delivery of dialogue and his total disregard for the stereotypical haughty elven attitude. The first is thankfully a talent he passed on to me and to this day I always have respect for those who really get into their character and are able to speak as their character would speak with no hitches or hesitation. The second wasn't something he did deliberately. My Dad had no pre-conceived ideas as to how an elf would act, so he played the character as he saw the character, regardless of race. It was the first time I thought,"Huh! I guess not all elves are the same!" I know this doesn't sound like it should be that much of an epiphany, but for someone who was immersed in all the classics of fantasy and traditional AD&D dogma, it was very impactful.
Totally unrelated to favorite books, I thought top 32 received the Inner Sea Guide in PDF as a way to help contestants in the future rounds. Am I incorrect? It's ok if we don't, I just thought I read that somewhere and was curious.The Top 32 got it in 2012 because of the Organizations round. Ahhhhh that makes sense! Thank you for the response.
Totally unrelated to favorite books, I thought top 32 received the Inner Sea Guide in PDF as a way to help contestants in the future rounds. Am I incorrect? It's ok if we don't, I just thought I read that somewhere and was curious.
I loved the pickeled orc's feet. That and canned beating. I know they were a little jokey, but I really liked them and thought they were very very creative.
On the upside, they may be included in a certain 64-page adventure released in March....Round 3, on the other hand, I was quite sanguine about.As well you should have been. The Caliban was a masterpiece, and my greatest regret from last year's competition was not getting the chance to submit an encounter featuring this creature. You tease you!
Alright, I want to help DQ out a little bit because I know this comment keeps coming around AND I really liked the Vagabond coat. The whole random effect is what is bothering people; however who says the effect has to be random to the GM? As long as the effect is random to the players that is all that matters. I think a prepared DM can deal with the "random" effect of this item. That being said, I would rather the description not give specifics for determining the randomness, let the GM do this so they have more control.
Lol I too am a Butcher fan but the opposite of you which doesn't surprise me, because Vlad Taltos and Harry Dresden have similar personalities. I am a huge Dresden fan. Those of you who like that series because of Harry should give Stephen Brust a try. Start with Jhereg.
Perhaps something ... more combat-oriented for next year will get me there!That's the most depressing thing in RPGSS '14 I've read so far, counting GM_Sol's eviscerating review of my item. Besides, there's a gossip-themed non-combat item in the Top 32, and the judges liked non-combat items. Thank you for the compliment, Bryan. I liked your item. I too am a sucker for items that help role-playing. I also love flavorful items whether combat or non-combat oriented. Keep at it and I am sure you will make it!
I would have liked to see a little more description with this. You certainly had the word count to add some. What color is the powder? Does the powder taste metallic? Because you know some silly player is going to eat this dust at some point. When the dust hits clothing is the change audible or silent? The other question- does it effect undergarments or only exposed clothing? ie. a person wearing a vest and shirt. Would the entire shirt harden or only the parts exposed by an open vest? And of course the question on everyone's mind- would it harden my underwear? Although in certain circumstances a chain shirt jockstrap might not be a bad idea! I liked your item very much Jospeh and upvoted it almost everytime I saw it. I don't have the mechanical problems with that some others are having. I just would have liked to see a little more flavor, especially since you had plenty of room to expound!
I too was reminded of Mr. Dresden's exploits when I saw this item, however it wasn't the first memory that was sparked in my brain. The first thing I immediately thought of were the dancing skeletons in the WoW dungeon Razorfen Downs boss. I always loved that part of the dungeon and so I found a huge grin on my face when I saw this item during voting. And then after reading it again I remembered the bad guys using the drum in the Dresden files. And a whole new smile graced my face. Thank you for this item, I loved it!
Well, you already know I liked your item very much. I too am a sucker for items that enhance role-play and the social aspects of the game. BRAVO BRAVO!!! I will say one of the ideas I considered submitting involved wands so great minds think alike!
All of you wondered about my wonky mechanics(wearer). Your questions on this item are the exact dilemna I was trying to avoid. I originally went with possessor which might have solved both of our problems Ixxix. I ultimately chose wearer which probably would have worked better for your item than it did for mine. I also happily thought of Hank the Ranger when encountering your item and as a result upvoted it many many times. Unlike the other cartoon character signature magic item I saw, yours resonated with me in a positive manner. I am a sucker for Rangers and this just really had the "cool" factor for a ranger. Well done! For those of you interested in the other cartoon character signature item, PM me. I don't want to hurt the feelings of the author unless he has already requested a critique. The other item was NOT from the same cartoon.
Yeah that is where my wife said Crayola was. We are originally from Harrisburg area! Man I miss PA. :-( Heh maybe we'll have to get together next time I am in PA. We go every few weeks. All of our family is still down there.
Crayola's actually headquartered in the next town over from me if you ever want to come visit, Anthony. :) They've got a great little setup for visiting kiddies (though honestly, I took my parents too and we had a nice time despite all being fairly grown up). You in PA?
I can't wait Anthony! Please send me a PM.
ALRIGHT!!! So now that my obsessing over my monster is done, I would like to take some time to respond to all of you awesome people. First of all- thank you again for those of you who really enjoyed my item and shared such wonderful praise. The following is a VERY long post so I have added tags to the different things I addressed. Long paragraph about my love of social interaction in RPGs. Spoiler:
I am so happy that my "social" item was so well received. My favorite parts of role-playing are the conversations with NPCs that we as players have and we as GMs get to play out. I will never forget the adventure I GM'd for my parents, who wanted to know why I liked D&D so much and agreed to create characters and play a session. I believe I was 13 or 14 at the time. Neither of them had played before or since. My father, who was a professional actor, played an elven wizard. As the party stopped at the typical "Inn/tavern" for the evening, my father, who had never played D&D before, decided his character was going to use his good looks to butter the female innkeeper up for information, free room & board and of course a little nookie! The dialogue and interaction he had was inspiring and really changed the way I approach and play role-playing games. I was a self-identified munchkin prior to that experience. Since then I really focus on the flavor of the character, regardless of class, fighting or spell-casting ability, or game system. So my gourd was born of that love of interaction. As an aside- I had an entirely different item already created and ready to submit to the competition. In fact I spent a lot of time on that item (it too was a "social" item). But I woke up in the morning and had the idea of using local water to learn and influence the local populace. From there it took me one day to create the item, revise it, fret over it, and finally submit it. Responses to critiques/mechanics questions:
Spoiler:
The gourd can hold up to four draughts at one time. I thought by saying no more than four draughts could be drunk per day that it was clear; however it definitely isn't clear. I should have stated that the gourd only holds four doses, gulps... I actually really struggled with what word to use there, which was a little silly . I was mostly worried about someone confusing a gulp with a sip. I also am a flavor junkie and thought draught had more flavor to it than gulp or dose. I should have used dose and been done with it. Wearer vs. Imbiber
Spoiler:
Ok so I am not sure if there is a mechanic already created for what I wanted to happen here. When a person fills the gourd with local water and straps it to their belt, slings it around their shoulder, or even attaches it to their pack I wanted one set of powers to enact. Those are the first powers described- Knowledge (local) boost and "limited comprehend languages/tongues". I wanted those powers to only work if a person physically had the gourd on their person. The gourd gives the "wearer" Knowledge (local). The combination of the local water and gourd give the "wearer" the Knowledge (local) boost and speaking ability.
I then wanted a second set of powers to activate if you actually drank the water. This second set of powers are separate from the first meaning drinking the water doesn't give you the first set of powers. I also wanted the second set of powers to give a BIG boost because you are actually "drinking the koolaid" so to speak. Hence my use of imbiber. Of course if the imbiber isn't wearing the gourd and doesn't know the local language, drinking the water won't be as useful, which was done on purpose.
Rumor mongering
Spoiler:
The whole idea of this item was to make it possible for players to not only gather reliable information of the local community but also to spread false information themselves as well as discern the truth of rumors. As a confessed skill-monkey I immediately thought,"ooooo skill bonus to Bluff, Diplomacy, Knowledge (local), Perform, and Sense Motive!!! I ultimately removed Perform, although I still like having it in there. I will be honest, most of the time when it comes to the role-playing of social encounters, the majority of GMs do not make me roll the dice because I act it out. Even doing that I still sometimes have to roll depending onthe situation. However many players are not comfortable acting it out or don't have the gift for that area of RPGs. So the gourd really helps those individuals while also encouraging them to experience that side of the game. I added the spell because it did exactly what I wanted the item to do and sometimes no matter how much you role-play, you need magic to accomplish your goal. I am not sure if there were other mechanical problems with the item. If so please post them. If you have other questions or comments please post them as well. I am using all of this as a learning experience. As players and GMs all of your input is important because ultimately all of you are the ones who will receive/use an item, play a character class, encounter a monster, use my map or hopefully play my scenario.
I don't know if I can wait until Tuesday! I am already giddy as a school girl...What does that saying mean exactly?Something like this. lol! That's awshum!
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