Treyson's page

Last year was my first entry. I was very happy with what I submitted, but during the voting process I had to admit that I had really made a mess of things. It was pretty much a SIAC, albeit with some extra (new) abilities. It was very expensive, and not exciting enough to merit the cost. I was pretty upset about this, realizing that what I thought was my best was, in fact, pretty poor for a "superstar" magic item.

In April, however, I replied to a post on the Paizo forums seeking freelancers. I was accepted, and wrote my first book. I learned a lot on that project, and went on to write a total of three books--from beginning to finish--last year.

That painful experience that was my first RPG Superstar submission was exactly what I needed to kick me in gear. I feel my submission this year is a thousand times better, even with some (regrettably painful) errors I made in my writing. I know I'll be extremely lucky to make it into the top 32, but at this point, I'm okay if I don't. It's been yet another amazing learning experience, and I've come a long way in a year.

If you feel discouraged at all in this process, take it from me: don't sweat it. No even the biggest mistakes will cut you off from something you want to do. As Adam said, be gracious about this experience, and you'll have a grand number of opportunities in your future.

88. Revise the prestige class in your freelance sourcebook. Thankfully not a D&D fanfic. Whew!

Eh, I find failure amusing. Or at least satisfying to crush...maybe I'm a bad person.

"I am bad and that is good. I will never be good and that's not bad."

No, you can see the same items a *lot*. And then all of a sudden new stuff shows up.

Curse you, Feros! Curse you and your impeccable timeliness!

Two items in a row that make you look like the thing you just attacked.

I *love* changing my appearance to match the enemy's while in the midst of pitched battle! My murderhobo friends like it even more...

401 unique items seen!

171 Weapons 42.6%
67 Armor 16.7%
66 Rings 16.5%
37 Staves 9.2%
30 Rods 7.5%
30 Shields 7.5%

Goodnight!

Oh, and two bonus items!
1 Artifact
1 Wondrous Item

Thunderfrog wrote:

Hrothdane wrote:

Treyson wrote:

Thunderfrog wrote:

Crafted ages ago in the nameless mountains by a magical murderhobo, this rod functions as a +1 light mace, but in the hands of [insert class], this glowing filigree, upon closer inspection, appears to be covered in runes that activate upon the death of the wielders spouse.

100 = Star, 500 = Dedicated, 1,000 = Marathon, 5,000 = Champion.

Good luck.

This glowing filigree, upon closer inspection, appears to be covered in runes that activate upon the wielders death.

FTFY

Still up, still going. Traveled 400 miles for a funeral, got there, threw my back out. No sleep for me, I suppose, so it's all Superstar for now.

342 unique items seen, my own among them (at least twice). A lot of junk, but a lot of good ideas as well. Looking forward to new items popping up all the time.

Very cool! I enjoyed following your work through last year's competition, and this short series is just the sort of reminder I needed this week, that even the worst of SiaC ideas can be the basis for something amazing.

Looking forward to tomorrow's installment!

Case in point: Ninja wanted to do some horribly complex acrobatics to get through enemy squares without an AoO. Sure it was above his movement limit, but the way he described it was really cool. He got to the key point, rolled his Acrobatics and got a big fat 1. The baddie then critted him on the AoO and dropped him like a bad habit. So to this day people poke fun at him to not impale himself on the sword of the bad guy when he's flipping through enemy squares.

When he rolled that 1, I snorted Gin through my nose (oh god it burnt), and the rest of the gang cheered like they just slaughtered Karzoug. Sometimes laughing at your own party members misfortune is the best part of the game.

Exactly! It's not that someone failed at doing a thing (which happens often), but that someone failed doing something risky and/or cinematic. I had a player provoke from 4 enemies in order to save his ward, only to be critically hit by each of them. Easiest way to drop a fighter form full to null in 1 round. It'll always be one of my favorite moments. More importantly, it's one of that *player's* favorite moments as well. Sure, that character didn't end well, but cinematically, it's beautiful.

Thank you both so much. It's just going to be a long night. But that's part of the deal. And I maybe get to see my item again. :)

I keep over-analyzing my item, more and more with each passing day. I don't know if it's Top 32 worthy, but it's still good to see it.

Treyson wrote:

Saw my item, post-purge. All is right with the world. For now, at least.

I hate you. =P

It's quite all right. Now I'm filled with excitement and panic over whether or not I'll make it to the Top. Just like everyone else. It's a community!

Saw my item, post-purge. All is right with the world. For now, at least.

I was more thinking Charlie Brown at Halloween, but that works too.

At Christmas, too. =/

Before anything else, I read (over the span of a week) each and every one of the top 32 items since the beginning of RPG Superstar. A little much, I know, but it's great research, especially all of the comments (from judges and spectators alike).

After doing my research, I embarked on the oft-perilous journey of crafting my own wondrous item! Below is my exciting (i.e. not really) guide.

1. Well before the contest officially started, I made a series of lists to help me design my item, broken down as follows.

• Visually cool ideas (things I had either read (in books or manga) or seen (in movies, television programs, anime, video games). These were either actions (teleporting via a murder of crows, causing a partial physical transformation of the wearer in order to cause effect 'X', etc.).
  
• Mechanically interesting ideas (spell combinations, manipulating rules of the game, weird alternatives to uses/charges each day, etc.).
  
• Solidly useful purposes. Tasks, items and interactions that could be at least semi-frequently used and that would give the user a feeling of accomplishment.

2. I tried to make sure each list was composed of 10 items. Some were certainly more well-formed concepts, but other had pizzazz. Thankfully, a couple had both! I then rolled a d10 for each list and wrote down the resulting combinations. I did this around a dozen times. This removed a lot of the stress, and instead I was able to focus on exploring the random pairings.

3. I wrote a detailed paragraph about each combination. This was pure prose, not worrying about mechanics, available level, cost or other such details. The entire purpose of this step was to get myself thinking more and more about what *could* be.

4. I read over those paragraphs several times each, determining the very basic details of what would be necessary for each, including (but certainly not limited to) the following:

• Is this too similar to anything that already exists?
  
• In which power level bracket does this item belong?
  
• Would this item give the player options during gameplay? Combat, non-combat, or both?
  
• Would a player be excited to find this item?
  
• Would a player be excited (if a little afraid) to encounter an NPC with this item?
  
• Simply put, is it cool?
  

5. I narrowed down my paragraphs to 3 items: a primary and two back-ups.

6. I then proceeded to invest the bulk of my time in said primary item, fleshing it out to the best of my ability. I spent days on this step, simply working out the rules mechanics, pricing, etc. This was actually the most difficult part for me, as my base idea for an item was generally either too much, too complicated or simply too out-there for a 300-word wondrous item.

7. I then set my primary item to the side and began working on my back-ups. This not only got me thinking about these new (and exciting!) items, but more importantly, I *stopped* worrying over my initial idea.

8. Once I had three "workable" wondrous items, I laid them out, side-by-side, and compared them. Before I made any decisions at this point, I had friends and family look them over and give me feedback. There were a lot of great incoming ideas, and I reworked items accordingly.

In the case of the item I ending up submitting, it's a far cry from where it started. The slot used changed a good 3 or 4 times, the item cost was slashed in half, then quadrupled, then ending up somewhere in-between. This step was all done in the span of 36 hours--I had all my notes, which made this incredibly easy.

9. I worried over my item once it was done. Like, every second. I wanted to change it, to make it better, cooler, more...something-er. But then I thought of Bob Ross, who was fond of telling viewers that whenever they wanted to keep going, keep making changes, they were "piddling the painting to death". So I submitted four days before the deadline, simply to keep myself from butchering my work. I view this as the most important step: knowing when to just stop.

Anyway, that's how I did it. I'll see how things turn out. I'm hoping for the best, but even the worst-case scenario is nothing of which to be ashamed.

Jeff, no worries. I'm trying to have fun with the contest. I mean, I would love to make the cut, just like everyone here, but alas, there's just room for 32. I'm looking forward to posting my item after the 32 are announced. I already imagine what some of the feedback will be, but as you said, it will just help me out next year.

I'm looking forward to getting feedback as well. I also have a revised version of my item I thought of maybe four days into the voting period. That, to me, is one of the most incredible parts of this contest. It's my first year entering, and while I'm very happy with how my item turned out as of submission, I've already seen enough to teach me new and exciting things.

Gee, I hope this Feros guy likes my item.

I think that's all any of us want, really.

Huzzah to every single damn person who got up the guts to submit this year. Thank you, and I wish you luck.

Huzzah!

I'm a first time contributor. I waited, waited and waited some more for Paizo to announce this year's competition. Glad to see such a tremendous turnout.

How exciting! I'm actually a member of the Facebook group. I love this surprisingly small world of ours.

My item was the 232nd unique item I saw. I think I'm done for the night.

...Well, for a few hours, at least.