This one was also not one of my favorites, for several reasons. First, it's a bit of a SAIC. Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion does essentially the same thing. It's also a plot device and a camping item, useful especially when the ship is at sea and running low on supplies. Realistically, that would take months for a fully-stocked ship. That positively screams deus ex machine to me. In addition it reminds me far too much of Kakishon, from the Legacy of Fire adventure path. Finally, it's useful in far too narrow a set of circumstances, being only truly useful in a seafaring campaign, which got a few items dinged by the judges last year. It was tightly put-together and did have a good theme, to which it stuck, but it was definitely not an item I would have thought was Superstar.
The message I'm receiving here is that Paizo's customers are too immature, childlike, unstable or not possessed of the requisite critical faculties to deal with competition. Have I misunderstood? You're proving your own point.
If this were to become reality (which it won't; we have sufficient commentary by the decision-makers to know) it will end badly. Even without this visibility, we have had people going berserk (more or less) over why their item wasn't selected for the Top 32. Some of them have even been given specific critiques, from the judges indicating why the item wasn't selected and some have even been given suggestions on how to improve subsequent entries. I do not believe being able to see the voting statistics, along with ratings for our items, would be constructive or prudent. If you want to know why you didn't make the Top 32, man up and ask in the Critique My Item thread, take what is given, and improve upon your entry. Anything else, any other metric, is a waste of time and a distraction from what really matters.
Wise words and utterly true.
This "Which worst is better" thing is starting to kill little pieces of my soul. I'd say I couldn't fathom how the judges did it in years past, except that'd be a lie, thanks to the new voting scheme. At least they had the luxury of only having to look at design travesties once. What's worse is that I'm continuing to see items I was voting down last week. I've seen several new items, which is good. Have yet to see my own item, which makes me sad. Condorcet, why dost thou vex me so?
Inspired for a new spell: Tasha's uncontrollable weeping. It gets a bonus to its DC and/or duration if you make your save versus Tasha's uncontrollable hideous dancing. Tasha never got invited to prom.
It's getting to the point where I have to express myself exclusively through meme.Indeed. Or wear the skin, skull, or dismembered hands of something disgusting. I never found the eye of Vecna all that enticing. Although, I am a fan of the head of Vecna.
Nope. I'm out this year. Two very large commitments will be taking up my time instead. First and foremost, I'll be a father again with a newborn son in mid-January. Second to that, I'm on a major writing deadline for Paizo. Best not to load RPG Superstar duties on top of that. Well crud. However, congratulations. Just had my first in 2011. Well... Deadlines for Paizo mean we get to buy more of your stuff. Two positives outweigh the single, minor negative. |
