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Legend Locket
Aura strong enchantment; CL 16th
Slot Neck; Price 94,200 gp; Weight -
Description
A legend locket is a mithral amulet etched with flowing lines and ancient script dangling from a fine chain. The locket confers a +4 insight bonus to Will saves vs. mind-affecting effects. Additionally, the locket can link itself to the wearer to record the wearer’s experiences, allowing him to store 10 five-minute “event” memories sequentially. Finally, as a free action the linked wearer may make one “request” that is stored as a geas within the locket.
Recording a memory uses an immediate action. Should the locket be full, any new memory recorded will automatically purge the oldest memory stored. When a wearer dies wearing a legend locket, the wearer’s memory of their death is automatically recorded, purging the oldest memory stored if necessary.
A legend locket is rarely empty. When opened (not necessarily worn), the locket infuses the opener with stored memories, dazing him for 1 minute as he relives each memory in sequence and is targeted by the geas stored within (if defined). The wearer that defined the geas command need not be dead for the geas to take effect. Using the spell legend lore while opening a legend locket grants a saving throw against the geas (DC 19 Will negates), while using the spell vision negates the geas entirely.
Once opened, the locket is completely empty and the wearer’s link to the locket is broken. Only an empty locket will link itself to the next individual to wear it.
A link is required to record memories and define the geas. Each locket will link itself only once to anyone and the wearer may never retrieve his own memories by opening the locket.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, modify memory, geas; Cost 47,100 gp

This was reposted and I requested the first post deleted. I first posted a draft version of the item and not the actual submission. I didn't want everyone critiquing a draft! O_O

Legend Locket
Aura strong enchantment; CL 16th
Slot Neck; Price 94,200 gp; Weight -
Description
A [i]legend locket[i] is a mithral amulet etched with flowing lines and ancient script dangling from a fine chain. The locket confers a +4 insight bonus to Will saves vs. mind-affecting effects. Additionally, the locket serves to record the wearer’s experiences from his perspective. The locket stores 10 five-minute “event” memories sequentially. Recording a memory uses an immediate action. Should the locket be full, any new memory recorded will automatically purge the oldest memory. When a wearer dies wearing a legend locket, the wearer’s memory of their death is automatically recorded, purging the oldest memory stored if necessary. Finally, as a free action the wearer may make one “request” that is stored as a geas within the locket.
Memories are retrieved by opening the locket. The wearer may never retrieve his own memories. Anyone opening a [i]legend locket[i] will relive all stored memories in sequence, becoming dazed for 1 minute for each memory stored. Once the memory surge concludes, the individual opening the locket is subject to any geas stored within the locket. The wearer defining the geas command need not be dead for the geas to take effect.
Using the spell legend lore while opening a legend locket grants a saving throw against the geas (DC 19 Will negates) while using the spell vision negates the geas entirely. Once stored memories are retrieved, the locket is empty and it will link itself to the next individual to wear the locket. A link is required to record memories.
Wearing an emptied legend locket links it to the wearer, while opening one ends the link. The locket links itself only once to any owner.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, modify memory, geas; Cost 47,100 gp

Thank you for the critiques ahead of time!

OK I just had a daja vu moment.

I was checking my email and it refreshed. In the Inbox appeared an email from Paizo. My heart lept, only to finish reading the subject line to discover it was the weekly newsletter!!!

GAAAHHH!

@Feros: All great points. Overall I agree with everything you've said, and thanks for the clarifications.

I think its good to have a place to vent for all the voters. I also think its good to call out the goodness in the entries. Doing it in two places is ideal.

Personally, being a Project Manager by day, I have a tendency to look for high value low noise statements in general. Cross that penchant with a 20 year background in market research and well, you can see why I gloss over noise. I cannot help it.

Little time + lots of noise = abandon thread!

I did find a ton of value in last year's commentary and I even went back further looking for trends, don'ts, etc. SKRs "27" was very helpful and made me very aware of things to avoid as I constructed my entry. Even when I may have approached the edge of a cliff with one or more of the items I drafted, it gave me pause to ask the question, "Is there a sound design reason, stylistic reason or theme for doing things this way? Is there a better way to do it so I don't cross the line too often?" Etc.

I also compared my current entry to my last in 2010. Night and day difference. I can even see how I have changed as a gamer in that time. My earlier attempt was a good concept poorly executed. This time honestly, I am very happy with my item. I scoured the threads looking for hints of anything in the commentary. Nada negative and a few possible in the positives. Which means I am either in the middle of the pack and not worth mentioning either way or at the top. I guess I'll know for sure in a week.

Either way, this was a good experience for me this year and if I fail to make the cut, I will be sure to post my item for public critique. I'll be most interested in something other than hand-picked private feedback among local friends which is all we can manage today.

Yeah but the challenge was how to be negative and maintain the item's and creator's anonymity. Now that was the real test of our success on the other thread.

I must say though, that I'm kinda down on your negativity toward our negativity.

And we have you beat big time in number of posts (6000+>>500+) anyway.

So there...

I can see the challenge, but I'd go for quality over quantity every day and its no less challenging to keep things positive, or at least constructive. :P

I must admit I got bored quickly among the 6000+ posts, while I found good value in most of the fewer 500+ posts found in the positivity zone. Too much chaff in the negative zone for this guy, and then when I'd find something that may be interesting, it's all negative in that it's nonconstructive - that's all.

Don't be down, it's better to be up! Upbeat that is! And kudos on the dual-participation in both polarized forums.

Holy cow. I just noticed I made Star Voter! Cool! Wow, I really voted 100+ times? Huh!

Since others have contributed, I'll chime in too - I saw my own item twice, I made the culling and I was lucky enough to see my item once last night, about 16 hours before the end. So now I just have to make it into the upper tier and maybe.....anything's possible!

Sleep tight people! It's all up to the three judges now! Just think of the angst they will feel by all of us putting all the tough choices in front of them! I don't envy their job this year!

It's been a few years since I last participated, and I have to say, compared to 2010, I've noticed the differences. I wish I could have voted more and there were certainly some very good entries. Making the top 32 will be a challenge for anyone especially given the quality I saw while voting.

To the crew here, thanks for all the banter. It kept me interested and participating. Having this thread as opposed to the negativity of the other was very refreshing and did wonders for my appreciation of the competition. So thanks!

Good luck to all!

Anyone besides Clark who would care to give me some feedback on the RIBBON OF DISJUNCTION (p4 about post 35), I'd welcome the feedback!

Thanks!

Hi Sean - I'd love your feedback. Any others who want to chime in, feel free!

RIBBON OF DISJUNCTION
Aura none; CL Least 5th, Lesser or Curse-render 10th, Greater 20th
Slot objects only; Price 21,000 gp (least), 42,000 gp (lesser), 56,000 gp (curse-render), 70,000 gp (greater); Weight –
DESCRIPTION
This woven ribbon appears inert to normal magical detection. However, when fastened to a magical object, the ribbon will render the object inert (non-magical) so long as it remains. Furthermore, any object a ribbon is fastened to is also granted a measure of protection from magical effects. Any magic that would affect the protected object is treated as if targeted by a dispel magic spell of a caster level equal to the CL of the ribbon. Variants of these ribbons, called curse-renders, include an additional enchantment that allows the ribbon to disrupt cursed items and are highly prized by good clerics. Greater ribbons can also disrupt curses as the spell greater dispel magic. Ribbons of Disjunction have many uses, including using them as magical peace-knots, theft protection, to disguise or conceal items of magical nature, or to suppress harmful magical items.
CREATION
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, dispel magic, break enchantment or greater dispel magic; Cost 10,500 gp (least), 21,000 gp (lesser), 28,000 gp (curse-render), 35,000 gp (greater)

My mistake in bold: I accidentally submitted the wrong version (this was an early draft). Unfortunately, once you hit submit, you can't take it back and I think it cost me, as it is "broken" as written above. The spoiler below is the corrected text I had intended to submit.....be glad you didn't hear my foul utterings after this error - I think it was laced with "dark speech!"

Total word count = 199

RIBBON OF DISJUNCTION
Aura none; CL Least 5th, Lesser or Curse-render 10th, Greater 20th
Slot objects only; Price 21,000 gp (least), 42,000 gp (lesser), 56,000 gp (curse-render), 70,000 gp (greater); Weight –
DESCRIPTION
This woven ribbon appears inert to normal magical detection. However, when fastened to a magical object, the ribbon will render the object inert (non-magical) so long as it remains. Furthermore, any object a ribbon is fastened to is also granted a measure of protection from magical effects. Any magic that would affect the protected object is treated as if targeted by a dispel magic spell of a caster level equal to the CL of the ribbon. Variants of these ribbons, called curse-renders, include an additional enchantment that allows the ribbon to disrupt cursed items and are highly prized by good clerics. Greater ribbons can also disrupt curses as the spell greater dispel magic. Ribbons of Disjunction have many uses, including using them as magical peace-knots, theft protection, to disguise or conceal items of magical nature, or to suppress harmful magical items.
CREATION
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, dispel magic, break enchantment or greater dispel magic; Cost 10,500 gp (least), 21,000 gp (lesser), 28,000 gp (curse-render), 35,000 gp (greater)

My mistake in bold: I accidentally submitted the wrong version (this was an early draft). Unfortunately, once you hit submit, you can't take it back and I think it cost me, as it is "broken" as written above. The spoiler below is the corrected text I had intended to submit.....be glad you didn't hear my foul utterings after this error - I think it was laced with "dark speech!"

Total word count = 199

Here is another. It cropped up last year, but this year I think I can better explain what I mean:

13. Poorly-thought-through Item (aka Excessively Abusable Item). We had alot of items that the designer didnt really think through to their normal result and, had they done so, they would have seen some serious abusability in their item's future, such as a way to use it that wasnt intended but that clearly it would be put to. That is why it is good to think not just does the item do what you are designing it to, but what would a normal group of PCs do with this item whether or not it is what you intended. One of my favorite items submitted had a great name and a great power, but it had an unintended abuse. All the judges agreed that PCs would just do X with the item and abuse the power. And it was too bad, too (see!) because I...

Oh man. If Clark's favorite reject is referring to my item, I'll be sorely disappointed.

Well, I guess there's only 16- hours left to wait and find out if my one-word-gaff cost me a spot in the top 32.

Sadly, once you hit submit, you can't take it back.

Even if it did, I'd love to know that I am on the right track, since there is always next year.

Pax Veritas wrote:

I'll give the devil his due. I appreciate the 3.5 archive.

It is a godsend. Particularly the indices of monsters, classes, feats, etc. I downloaded them all and used macros to convert them into Microsoft Word tables.

With the monster index, I had to convert the CRs, which were expressed as fractions (e.g., "1/3") into decimal equivalents ("0.33"), but once I did, it made a sortable index I found invaluable to adventur design.

I use the core and prestige class indices as handy references for my campaign bibles, simply cropping out the classes I was disallowing or making notes about how they were modified in my homebrew.

Hi Vexer,

As a fellow 3.5 enthusiast without much free time on my hands.....

Is there any way you might be able to share your macro tweaked Word-converted WotC Indicies with those like me who are interested?

Here's my experience based on a party of eight running through SCAP. When we finished, everyone was 18th level.

1. It's been said, but I increased every creature's HP to 80% of maximum. BBEG's got 100%.
2. Increase numbers of mooks, but vary the classes to give them some teamwork advantages. I'll never forget the look on a players face when a fire giant ranger spotted a monk shadowdancer moving while hiding at night from 60 ft away, when his hide score was 40! Yeah I rolled a nat 20, but I still scored a 44!
3. Make sure all the BBEGs are already buffed up. Many times, if you wait until the PCs arrive to start buffing, the NPcs are dead before they finish. Make it believable - let the PCs spot some scrying lenses, trip audible alarms, etc. so they expect the NPCs to be ready and it works just fine.
4. Add extra encounters to wear down their resources. I particularly like using magical traps linked to summon monster spells. There's nothing like a vrock appearing in the hallway to mess up a party's casual stroll through the enemy fortress.
5. Get extra-creative with the environment where your encounters take place. Make things more fantastic, like a pitched aerial battle in the middle of a storm while at sea. It really pushes the envelope on your rules knowledge, but PCs are rarely ready for this twist of fate.
6. Limit standard mobility or increase the difficulty of the prevailing terrain. Again this is similar to the environment angle, but you can use magic, particularly hallucinatory terrain, mirage arcana etc to manipulate the environment and control the battle field to the NPCs advantage, regardless of where they are. Oh and use deception liberally! Great spells like "mislead" are often overlooked by PCs.
7. Don't give them a chance to rest! If they leave a dungeon because they ran our of 6th level spells for the day, make'em pay. Restock the dungeon with more baddies. Do you really think the BBEG is just gonna sit there and wait to die by his enemy's sword?
8. Finally - play NPCs like they have a pair! They should know all the PCs strengths and weaknesses and use them against them! If a ranger always likes to attack the mages, make enemy fighters move to engage the ranger before it can happen. Use the PCs habit against them and boy does it ever ruffle their feathers!
9. One more thing.....go for the kill. At this level, the stakes are getting higher. Cities, regions and even countries are feeling the impact of the heroes actions and their enemies plots for dominance or destruction. When they run into a BBEG - don't pull any punches. You may want to warn your players if you've never pulled off the kid gloves before, but don't shy away from a finger of death, destruction or disintegration spell. Use energy drain liberally to make encounters harder when you can, dispell party buffs, use anti-magic shells, globe's of invulerability etc to gain every conceivable advantage. I guarantee you you'll have epic fights no matter how many PCs you have around.

It should also be known that my personal gaming style is all about failure. Tragedy is a powerful storytelling tool.....

.....The most moving heroics (to me at least) are not in overcoming adversity, but rather dealing with the horrific aftermath of a tragedy you were unable to avert, gritting your teeth through the tears and striving to continue the good fight in the face of abject failure and desperation. My favorite real life heroes are people who can admit when they didn't measure up and keep fighting the good fight, long after the battlefield is littered with pieces of their soul. This is my favorite kind of character to play.

This sums up my own personally preferred style of play - where no matter how bad things get, the hero never loses sight of his path or goal and continues on, even if it means sacrificing his own soul for those things and people he loves most.

The tragedy is the most time tested and powerful story theme and everyone can relate to hard times, because we've all experienced them.

It's no wonder I enjoy reading Nick's work all the time!

Gore isn't required to tell a tragedy. It just happens to be a very effective way to SHOW one happening.

Keep on keepin' on Nick. I look forward to your next piece of work.

First, let me say I had a blast with this event. My hats off to Steve and Shane and all the rest that helped out. Writing Power cards on Wednesday night with Steve and his wife into the wee hours certainly gave me insight into just how much effort these three people put into making this event happen. I shudder to think how much more there might have been with an additional 30 days of time to prepare.

Second: the chaos made the event what it was. Yeah it was a logistical mess, and yeah I spent most of my time encouraging, listening and running around for my players to make things happen, but it was still a blast. I even got to throw a mat down when the final showdown took place.

Third: when scheming, especially in corporate politics for example, your opponent moves as you do. The trick is to manage your goal seeking behavior in tandem with your defensive behavior. It's about achieving a certain balance. We need to find that balance for real time events vs. game time combat resolution else it creates unintentional conflict at a metagame level. The answer: a faster, nonstandard conflict resolution system is necessary, particularly during the early and middle stages of the event. Maybe the mats get thrown down for the final showdown or for major events like assassination attempts, but not much else, and definitely not PvP, where players should be narrated through the scene rather than having dice hit the table.

Lastly, if events are to culminate into a single final scene, we need a way to determine whom the final participants are. I know Steve and I discussed this briefly Saturday night while gaming, and we definitely need to consider a better way to funnel and eliminate the players who try to make it to the final scene, or plan accordingly for multiple resolution events to occur simultaneously. Honestly, I think this situation was unique, because literally it was one big game of "king of the mountain." Our problem was we had 50 people trying to climb that mountain at the same time, and no one can manage an RPG table of 50, at least no one I know of.

All in all, this was a very cool event. It exposed people to a radically different style of play, allowed them to get involved and still had the feel of D&D fantasy, even if all of us didn't roll a ton of dice.

Paizo can count on me to herd the cats any time they run an event like this. I had a blast doing it. And I had a great time running the PFS events too!

Well, there's my two cents. Kudos again everyone!

Ron Janik, aka that barrel-tossing dwarf drowned by the serial killer half-orc paladin (played by Steve!)

Hey Everyone!

Thanks for posting your feedback and please continue to do so! This event was a first time for us and was about four times the size we originally planned it to be, so the more I know the better this gets for the future.

One great point has already been made: LARP-like. I needed to make the nature of this even far more clear in the con book description of it. My apologies to Joel and those others whose expectations were totally misconstrued thanks to make lake of clarity! Please forgive!

Yeah...I tried to avoid the Tarrasque. I tried so hard.

Player: "We want to summon a Tarrasque!"

Me: "No."

Player: "What if we willingly sacrifice one our House nobles [another player in their group]"

Me: "No."

Player: "What if we sacrifice two of our House nobles [two players in their own group!]"

Me: "No."

Player: "What if we sacrifice three members of our House [HALF THEIR FRIGGIN GROUP!!!]"

Me: "Sure."

Then the tarrasque showed up and started off things by eating the rest of their House...hey, nobody said they'd be able to control the thing...I never promised that. Then their Demon Lord got pissed, manifested and took on the Tarrasque along with them, eventually driving it off into the rest of the city to eat other Houses...

good times!

I can proudly say that this foolish, yet quite literally self-sacrificing group of drow were part of House Razivrein, and I had the dubious honor of guiding them, along with the demon lord and another table GM. When they came back to the table and said "We just got approval to summon a Tarrasque, and we sacrificed three of our own to do it," I wet myself, and then quietly laughed to myself as I saw the house's impending doom.

Aside from this minor misstep, (yeah I said minor), I was proud of them all for playing the devious nature of the drow so well. They never overextended themselves, made alliances and abandoned them shamelessly when their allies were not going to win, then just as quickly offered them refuge when they fled their enemies who sought to destroy them utterly. I think they absorbed 3 houses before the game was over and had a good chance at the throne as well..... It's a shame they had to summon the Tarrasque on their own grounds. I was really hoping they'd have done it at the battle between Azinrae and Tracinoa, sacrificing their own to let loose destruction on thier enemies, and then just promptly left the scene. Now THAT would have been AWESOME!

P.S. Nick - take note, for Grugenor Stonespurr, the Master artillerist of all barrels and eternal friend of Cooper the "reforming" barbarian craftsman has posted this message. You asked for my handle at GenCon, and now you have it!

Ron Janik aka Ramicus

Cookie was great ;)

Man and to think I actually said "No" to such a famous cookie?! If I had only known beforehand.....

The only saving grace is I gave my cookie to ancientsensai.....he deserved it after his rockin' Ascension event.

Woot!

Alright Josh, it isn't much because my schedule is pretty full already, but I am in for Tier 3. I'll run one PFS on Thursday afternoon and also run the Friday night Ascension of the Drow special with Nick. I've sent you an email with the details.

I am excited! Thanks for the opportunity!

and I'm looking forward to working with you on AoD Nick! Cheers!

Ron Janik