Congratulations to all of the first round winners! Good luck with the next round.

Wow. Just ran into an item that uses a very similar concept to my own, but done in a different way. I didn't think someone else would have such a similar item.

Wow, this guy REALLY hates bards.

Is there really that big a demand for nets? So far I've only seen one that is really amazing.

It's more that people are looking for a unique niche that their item could fill: it's actually proven to be a valid tactic in the past, as it helped me get past the first round. Unfortunately, with a thousand or so people, there's a chance of another person having the same idea.

Neat rod, but that's not how you're supposed to do skill requirements for crafting.

pH unbalanced wrote:

nkerklaan wrote:

I think scythes are the most underrepresented weapon. I thought I'd see at least one Scythe of Death or whatever.

Do sickles count?

I want to ride my Bi-sickles?

Fat bottomed Urgathoans, they'll be riding today

Seriously, who has that many hands?

Mariliths. And I'm pretty sure there's ways to get more than two hands.

... But yeah, that was my exact same thought when I saw that item.

Huh. I learned something new about spell resistance today. Good to know!

Sean Huguenard wrote:

... There's... this armor. It's so damn stupid, but yet so fantastic. I can't stop laughing.

I found a rod like that. "Wait, it works better when you do what? OH MY GOD I GET IT NOW THAT'S HILARIOUS", and it was so well-tuned that the fact that it was a joke item totally got a pass from me just because of how well the author got it to work.

You know what? If joke items are well written and work as they should, then they get a pass. No one says we need to be serious all the time, and why not reward creativity and effort?

... There's... this armor. It's so damn stupid, but yet so fantastic. I can't stop laughing.

You poor poor first timers. Seeing your item now is not so important.

Seeing your item after the bottom 25% or so get dropped from the running - now that's when you want to see your item :)

Wowza, 119 new posts - all I did was pop to the supermarket and stock up on beer, pear cider, mixers and various cocktail making goodies.

Back to voting for me then...

I have to admit that I'm a newcomer to this system of voting (was REALLY busy the last two years). How does this dropping work exactly?

It's funny how items with similar themes keep getting paired together.

Hm... if the effect of a ring requires you to not be wearing it, does that make it a wondrous item instead?

Nickolas Floyd wrote:

I just got two spiked gauntlets paired together.

And my very next pairing were two bastard swords that are both partially [redacted]. I think I'll go with the one that is not mostly backstory.

I think we got the same two bastard swords.

Still haven't found my item, although I have either seen people talking about my item, or my item was less original than I hoped.

Just be like me, and assume that whenever someone is talking about how awesome an item is that they're talking about your item.

EDIT: Now starting to notice a trend in weapons that break off and annoy/murder your foes.

Jeez. I just got the same item three times in a row.

EDIT: Also, a lot of "activate on death" items here.

I've seen three disarming shields so far.

Wow, there really ARE a lot of marriage based items.

I'm still awake, mucklucks. Though I should be doing finishing touches on papers, not voting...

That feel where the joke item is actually better than the other item. If only it had proper formatting, I wouldn't feel guilty about voting for it.

I like rods that aren't +1 maces.

So many weapons, shields, and armors that are priced to craft at exactly half the purchase price...

I'm finding out a lot about I can tolerate and what things are pet peeves.

It took me a while to figure out what you meant, and now I'm uncomfortably aware that I'm going to trigger that pet peeve in you. Whoops.

It took me three items to find one that made me crack up laughing.

Third timer, the first time I actually made it to the second round before choking.

So, I was looking at the eligibility rules and noticed this:

The contest is open to the general public, with the following exceptions: Employees of Paizo,... Anyone with a cover credit on a hardcover RPG book is ineligible.

So, uh. My item from the 2011 RPG Superstar was published in Ultimate Equipment, and on the front cover it says under Authors "... and numerous RPG Superstar contributors (see page 387)".

Does that count as a cover credit, which would disqualify me?

My understanding is that Qadira faction PCs are automatically converted to the Exchange, but that they get a free faction change if desired.

Scenario difficulty has generally gone up, and the assumption changed from 4 players to 6. Scenarios now have a four-player adjustment. Tables have very little choice to play up/down; it is usually a strict factor of APL and party size. There is now something called out-of-subtier gold, which is the average of the two nearest subtiers.

Changing factions won't be a huge deal for me, since The Exchange actually fits those two characters like a glove, one being a Qadiran merchant prince (with ALL of the Qadira prestige awards), and the other being a pirate. Hearing that the difficulty has gone up should be interesting and challenging: the adventures are fun, but they aren't typically what I would call challenging.

One big change: you are now required (going forward) to list all your purchases (those over 25gp) on an "Inventory Tracking Sheet", or ITS for short.

You don't have to include those things you've already bought (old characters are "grandfathered in"), but I'd suggest doing it anyways so that all of your items are together in one, easy to read location.

The ITS can be found (form fillable) in the back of the Season 6 Guide. You are also allowed to customize your own, so long as it retains all the basic information.

Thankfully, I'm familiar with this kind of thing, being a Living Greyhawk veteran, so this shouldn't be a hard change to adjust to at all.

I'm sorry, I'm not quite sure what you two mean by "feat tax". And the fact that there's no faction missions sadden me: that was one of the things I enjoyed about PFS.

So, I've been gone from PFS for two years (last game played was early November 2012 and ran a game a few weeks later) for various reasons, and I decided I wanted to get back in. Glancing at the forums, I was surprised to see a subforum for "Retired Factions", and even more surprised to see that my main faction, Qadira, as well as pretty much all of the factions I knew of, were retired.

So, I've looked through the current guide for the Pathfinder Society, so I'm familiar with the current factions (and that my main character and secondary are now part of the same faction), but can someone give me a brief on what changes have been made that would affect an older character, what I should look out for this year, and other tidbits that would be good for someone that hasn't been around for two years to know?

To those who've finished the book: Did you find the character name notes under each title chapter useful or superfluous?

A little superfluous: the fact that they switched perspective every chapter (save for the epilogue where it switched midchapter) and the fact that Varian and Radovan have very distinct voices makes the names unnecessary.

That said, I think this was my favorite out of the three fantastic books. The first book took me about a week to read through, and the second a matter of days. This book was so riveting that I read it in less than six hours.

("This kind woman was clearly an angle, given to use to guide us through difficult years.

So, was she acute or obtuse? Personally, I think she would be right.

Ah, crap, I cocked up and put some backstory into my submission. It was vague, but it's still there. This is what I get for not doing a double check of the advice forums.

If you want actual abilities that reflect her powers... wizard. Universalist wizard, to be exact: their Hand of the Apprentice ability is a dead match for her Moon Tiara Action, and all the heart stuff and reality breaking powers can be fluffed arcane spells. Even the healing spell: just Wish all that up.

If you want a concept that reflects her... probably cleric or oracle of Shelyn, with some sort of curse that, instead of making her lame, makes her clutsy. Alternatively, cleric of Groteus.

We have come across a complication in the Armor as DR rules, when it comes to whether or not DR still applies to the Critical Defense roll if the DR is bypassed by the attack. One example is a person using a magic longsword criticals against a man wearing regular armor: the armor DR is bypassed by the magic sword, so does the man still add that DR to his roll to prevent the critical hit?

SOrry if this has came up: didn't see any posts talking about the issue.

Stolen Land Correction and Calendar Issue:

1st: Am I correct that the charter should read 24 miles East and 36 miles West or some of the encounters are outside the charter area.

2nd: The charter was issued on 25th day of Talistril, Umm that I think translates to February. The adventures is only a few hundred miles form the polar North, OK so is the charter incorrect? Any idea what month it is supposed to be? Is it summer in February on this planet in this area?

Thoughts?

Not sure right now about your first question, but as for the second one, it's definitely winter when that charter is issued. So, two solutions: one, it's ass cold when the party sets out, with snow on the ground and everything, and two, the party spends several months planning and recruiting for the expedition.

Sam Zeitlin wrote:

I apologize if this has been explained elsewhere, but what exactly are the restrictions on our commenting during voting? Are we just supposed to stay out of the archetype threads, or do we need to keep mum altogether?

You have to keep mum altogether about your submission that's being voted on in any thread, messageboard, or even website. Posting about other stuff is generally okay. Anyone who dances too close to the flame, however, will get burned.

So commenting on other archetypes is okay, so long as we keep shut about our own.

I'm not sure if there's any rules saying we can or can't, but I plan on not commenting at all on my own archetype until voting's over.

Capital city: D'verek (playing around with an online audio Russian translator resulted in this)
Largest Building: The Founder's Hall (the guildhall that was the first building built, in honor of the different laborer guilds)
City built at Oleg's: Levegrad (Half of Oleg's last name)
First national holiday: Currently can't remember, but it boils down to "That Day when we beat the crap out of that werewolf Day"

Indiana's a nice place, so long as you don't mind bizarre winters: there's snow, then there's not, then there's snow, then there's not, then it's warm!, then there's snow.

Hey, it's Dingo! It's been a while!

If there is a twist, it will be revealed on February 28. And congrats on your wedding!

Man, you really hate me. It won't be impossible to do, assuming that I make it that far, but it'll make things really... challenging.

I seem to recall, looking at past submissions, one of the things that judges gigged entries on very frequently were the hooks: one of the things you need at the beginning is a good reason for the party to bother with the adventure anyways. So, I'm planning on coming up with at least three different hooks (generally, one for a more good aligned party, one for a more evil aligned party, and one for a more somethingoranother aligned party).

Also, if you try to fit some Golarion lore in your submission, be extremely careful, else you either don't pull it off or you step on someone's toes in doing so.

I've been done since last night.

Scott Fernandez wrote:

Yep mums the word on any and all ideas you have, had, or submitted until the voting is OVER! A good piece of advice from Neil is to start thinking about your Adventure proposal as you're waiting for the next cut. I feel like I was scrambling this round and though I do like the challenge under pressure I'm gonna get to work on the next round... right after I finish prepping for gaming on Saturday!

Maps, monsters, moolah, Mt. Dew, check.

--Between a Vrock and a hard place

Hmmm. I had planned on posting a rewrite of my wondrous item. You know correct it and clean it up based on the feedback I received. Maybe I shouldn't.

Go ahead and do it: I'm going to be taking a second look at my item as well.

Erik Freund wrote:

I'll admit, I'm paranoid of running into a computer/internet outage or some other calamity. I'm submitting tonight.

That's not too paranoid. I take screenshots of the preview post's word count function. 449 at last count. :)

Your wisdom may very well save me: I submitted just a few moments ago.

450 words.

I took a screenshot of it just in case.

Dreamer (Summoner)
Scholars and mystics claim that the strangest and most fantastical experiences can be found in one’s dreams. No one knows this better than the dreamer, whose guardian eidolon walks the earth while its master slumbers.
Eidolon: The dreamer’s eidolon functions as the summoner’s eidolon, except that it may only be summoned if the dreamer is asleep or unconscious; after the dreamer is asleep or unconscious for one minute, the eidolon may be summoned as a free action. If the dreamer wakes up or is killed, his eidolon is immediately banished.
Wandering Dream (Su): At 4th level, the distance an eidolon may move away from its master extends to 500 feet. It may also move up to 5,000 feet at a cost of 50% of its current and maximum hit points, and 5 miles at a cost of 75% of its current and maximum hit points. As the dreamer gains levels, these distances continue to increase: at 8th level, the distances increase to 10,000 feet, 5 miles, and 20 miles, at 12th level to 5 miles, 20 miles, and 100 miles, and at 16th level to 20 miles, 100 miles, and 500 miles.
This is not without its cost: as a result of the dreamer’s losing himself to the dreaming world, he begins to accrue a penalty to Perception checks to awaken equal to ½ of his summoner level. This ability replaces transposition and merge forms.
Master’s Visage (Su): At 12th level, as a full round action, the dreamer can project his consciousness as a shadow conjuration of himself next to his eidolon for 10 minutes per summoner level. This projection is destroyed if it moves beyond 30 feet from the eidolon, and any creature that interacts with the image can make a Will save of DC 10 + ½ his summoner level + his Charisma modifier to recognize its true nature. The projection wears all items that the dreamer is wearing except for items with an extradimensional storage space, and is capable of using the dreamer’s feats, racial, and class abilities. Any consumable item used by the image is destroyed. The dreamer may use this ability once per day, plus an additional time per day at 18th level. This ability replaces aspect and greater aspect.
Eternal Dream (Su): At 20th level, dream becomes reality for the dreamer. The eidolon has no limit to how far away it can move away from its master, as long as it remains on the same plane as its master, and is unaffected by spells such as banishment. If it is sent back to its home plane due to death, it may be summoned back after twelve hours. This ability replaces twin eidolon.

I'm Sean, and this is my first time entering the Superstar. I've been gaming for about ten years, starting in freshman year of high school, starting with D&D 2e (though, I never actually SAW my character sheet for that game...). I really cut my teeth on D&D 3.5 and Werewolf (Glasswalker!).

I'm a pretty avid video gamer, playing everything from JRPGs to shooters to puzzle games, and I aspire to be a writer sometime in the future.

Contact page.

Okay, I've managed to trim mine down from 580 (!) words to 460 (according to the Paizo counter). Time to lose some fat!

I don't think so: the couple of days are for the judges to look them over, make sure that they fulfill the requirements, and offer criticism.

Elora wrote:

Gloves of Dragonfly Eyes

An interesting name...but seemed a little odd to have "eyes" be associated with gloves rather than maybe magic lenses or something.

'Sup? :D