Orloff's page

Oh man. Totally didn't know that about Lamashtu. Very cool.

As to the topic: I may be in the minority, but I don't really care about item usability or word count or price accuracy. The main thing I'm looking for is creativity and writing ability. Did the author design something that grabbed me, and did they write it up in a way that was clear, concise, and evocative (without falling back on too many cliches).

Magic items are perhaps my least favorite part of Pathfinder (and D&D-esque games in general) since I've always been in the camp that holds that such items should be rare, powerful, and more-or-less unique. I'm the GM who forgets to hand out treasure to players and the player who neglects to spend his gold-- I'm more interested in defining who my character is than in going through hundreds of pages of rulebooks to define what he's wearing. So when I'm voting, I'm not really looking at the item as something I'd want to put into the game-- I'm trying to read between the lines to determine if the author is someone who I think would write a good adventure module, something I'd want to run if I was in the position to GM a pick-up session.

To that end, the formatting is very important to me. The phrase "you can teach technique, you can't teach creativity" has been bandied around a lot on these forums, but: do you really want to be teaching technique? I suspect someone who cannot or chooses not to pay attention to the (relatively straightforward) formatting guidelines is someone who would have a very hard time putting together a polished adventure module, which is the end goal. Though I'll admit, as an English tutor and professional copy editor, the bad grammar thing might just be a pet peeve.

But, that's the wonder of democracy, isn't it? We can all vote however we want, as much as we want.

What about something a little bigger than an encounter, but smaller than a city or region? Something like "design a dungeon or wilderness area map, one that implies multiple exciting encounters."

Me, right now.

Top 32, here I come...

Every time I read "...believed to have been forged from a unicorn horn in the eye of a hurricane on the night of the full moon" (or whatever) I think: I don't believe that. I believe my 10th level wizard can make it in the comfort of his own home whenever he has some downtime.

*Sees item similar in function to his own*
*Reads it*
*Decides his own is probably better*
*Prays fervently that he hasn't stumbled upon a new cliche*

We'll see. My item is something that I'd enjoying having in a campaign, and something that I'd enjoy my players having. I'm no good at measuring mojo, but I think the item could form the basis of interesting stories, which is more than I could say about my past contributions.

I think I've been here, submitting items and lurking quietly waiting for the results, for at least six or seven.

Naturally, we're being asked to submit a Microwave Anisotropy Probe.

Anyone into the Star Trek miniatures game? Anyone?

*sees self to the door*

There's a reason staves are hard mode.

I'm starting to wonder if staves aren't so much hard mode as a trap to be avoided at all costs.

It's a bit of a grey zone, though, since there aren't any intelligent items presented in the book (in the Core Rulebook, at least, as far as I can find with a control-f of the word "intelligent" around the equipment section). At the beginning of the ring, rod, and wondrous item headings, it says there is a 1% chance that any ring, rod, or wondrous item is intelligent, but lists no examples. Later on, there is an intelligent item heading, but it just lists design rules, not specific examples.

In Ultimate Equipment, specific intelligent items get their own heading, but the Round 1 submission rules explicitly caution against using UE's formatting.

I wouldn't go for it myself, since I don't want to risk being DQ'd, but an argument could be made.

Orloff wrote:

The PFSRD has at least one intelligent weapon mixed in with the more mundane magic weapons. An oversight, perhaps?

The PRD or d20pfsrd? And which item?

Blood's Edge, on the pfsrd.

The PFSRD has at least one intelligent weapon mixed in with the more mundane magic weapons. An oversight, perhaps?

I, on the other hand, agree with Coridan. I would have been much more interested in Create an Organization or even Create a Nation. The contest this year seems very crunch-heavy, though maybe that's the point.

It's true that the PCs may have used up their allotment of fly for the day by the time they reach any given encounter, but the designers still have to design as if the PCs are at full strength, just in case. If 1 in 4 groups can bypass Cody Coffelt's chase scene in The Broken Crucible Foundry by flying above it (or sending their flying familiar/ animal companion after Tarvin), that's still a lot of groups missing a large section of the adventure if this was published.

My main problem with a lot of the entries in this round is how easy it would be for a group of level-appropriate PCs to avoid the encounters completely. Maybe it's just the people I play with, but one of my biggest challenges as a GM is crafting challenges that the players cannot (or will chose not to) avoid. For example:

Broken Crucible Factory- What if the players don't decide to follow Tarvin? Will he continue running if he doesn't see pursuit (if a character follows stealthily/ invisibly)? What if the party mage follows him while flying? This encounter could very easily end on the streets, with the characters never getting to the (admittedly awesome) factory sequence.

Red Snow Ravine- Same flying problem (this is why dungeons, with ceilings, are convenient). Also, it seems like a lot of the challenge is centered around the frozen pond, and I'm not sure why intelligent players would ever position their characters on it.

Apep's Head- I don't even understand how this encounter happens. If the characters don't want to kill Voracek, why don't they just take the macguffin and leave? If they /do/ want to kill him, why didn't they do so in their 'previous encounter' with him? Add, of course, the flying (or spider climbing or levitating) problem, and the characters might never need the bridge or disc.

The Black Mirror- Less of a problem, but if they can see the chanting slaves when they arrive, why would the PCs do anything but beeline towards that encounter? In which case, why even have the rest of the map?

Rotting Kremlin- Flying over the maze, but even more easily, leaving again and climbing over the wall somewhere like due west of 1b (yes, they'll trigger one trap, but you've still avoided most of the map).

Sorry, this was a bit more than polling data. I voted for the Dollhouse (awesomeness factor, especially the creepy flesh golem), the Black Mirror (on the strength of its writing), and Razorbreath Chasm (for good writing, strong use of the damsel in distress type, and a solid ambush; despite the horrendous 'development').

In terms of reinforcing roleplaying, some version of 'action points' or 'hero points' might help. Give out an 'action point' every time a player does something particularly clever or true to their character, and let them use the action point for a +4 on any d20 roll. Hopefully, they'll see the connection between roleplaying and the potential for badassery.

I find that one of the hardest but most important things to do early on as a GM is to establish tone. If the players don't know at the end of the first session that you want to be running a 'serious' game (as opposed to a silly or light-hearted game), it will be very hard to rein them in subsequently. If everyone's on the same page, however, they'll create characters they'll be more willing to invest in.

Usually, I prepare a bit of intro text for every game I run, giving the players an idea of the world and the sort of stories I'd like to cooperatively tell. If the game is supposed to be 'serious' the intro reflects that, while a funny game's intro can be filled with bad puns and double-entendres.

How do you track initiative? Bit of a strange question, but I track initiative by writing the character's names and their initiative count on the battlemat. As a result, I'm saying the character names constantly, and the players always have them right there to refer to.

Just a couple of thoughts.