pallen's page

We just finished "Island of Empty Eyes" and we hit a second scenario (the first being the final one from Tempest Rising) where we don't have enough cards to complete the setup.

Trying to be spoiler-free here, but the scenario requires you to put 8 of a certain card in the blessings deck. But we only have 6. We put in different placeholders for the missing 2 cards, but this is the second time this has happened.

Is it now assumed that we don't just buy the base game + scenario packs?

I have signed up for the current Pathfinder Adventure Path subscription, but did so after the initial ship date of #31. So I'm scheduled to receive the first two adventure hardcopies (31 and 32) together in April.

My question: When should I be able to download the PDF version of #31? Will that only be enabled when my hardcopy of #31 hits the mail?

I'm not a huge fan of the map requirement. I know that it'd put me at a serious disadvantage because I have no drawing/mapmaking talent, and regardless what the rules say, and entry with a pretty map will have an advantage over one that doesn't.

I dont know why you ask what the point is? That kind of stuff (allowing a stumble to a person who has previously hit home runs) happens all the time in the very reality contests that this contest is based on.

I don't watch reality TV, but judging by the quality of entertainers who have won American Idol, I think you'd do better to base your contest on something else.

Back to the task at hand, regardless of the quality of magic item and country entries, I argue that a designer that can't come up with a decent villain isn't an RPG superstar. If anything, villains are more important to a good adventure than either magic items or countries. I won't vote for a mediocre villain just because the author's previous entries were golden. (And, in fact, I think you'd end up with a better overall superstar result if entries were anonymous until voting for each round was over.)

Again, having said that, these comments are not directed at Sam or his entry.

Strangely, I'm not sure I'm going to use all four of my votes in this round.

That's at a first read, though. I probably need to give a couple of them some time.

Maybe it's because of the fewer number of contestants, but I really felt like there were fewer stand-outs this round. In round 2, I knew without a doubt that 4 of my 5 votes were a shoo-in for round 3. They were just that good. In the villain round, there are lots of solid entries, but only two really exceptional ones.

I'll reiterate what others have said and mention that I liked your unique hook. I believe that Avinash's secret could really throw some players off their game. They'd likely believe that they're up against some kind of Headless Horseman type enemy that just won't stay defeated.

Although I would have appreciated more original goals and motivations for Avinash, and perhaps some more detail about the Marauders, this was a good enough entry for my vote.

I'm a sucker for good creatures gone bad, so this entry really caught my eye. I really enjoyed the corrupted forest theme and the imagery of Kotalya trying to replicate her demonic woodlands home. At first, I had a couple of reservations about this entry -- Kotalya's reluctance to expand her territory and her relative fragility. But I can see her as a perfect end-of-adventure villain (with the PC's investigating the corruption of the woods) who has lots of ways to escape and turn into a campaign-level villain out for vengeance against the PC's.

All in all, a strong entry, and one that gets my vote.

I really like this guy. I can definitely use Abzirael as a high level campaign villain. I like the poem. I like the three wishes story. I like the imagery of Abzirael flying around, leaving a trail of chaos behind.

I would have liked a little more detail on specific adventure hooks, however. (While I liked the poem and the three wishes story, maybe one should have been sacrificed for more meat, given the 500 word limitation.) I also agree that Whirlwind is better than Whirling.

In any case, you get my vote this round. Keep up the good work.

Ok, I've finally read through them all, and this one definitely deserves my vote. Of all the villains, he seems like the one I could best use for a long-term campaign. The only reservation that I have is that Onuyaka has a pretty generic goal, and it would have been nice for something a little meatier.

Aside from that, great villain.

I dont want to give this a full review. I stick with my prior comments. This is a big miss. I am so disappointed.

That said, this one I think qualifies to advance based on prior work and that should be considered--Yithnai, the Migrus.

(This comment is not aimed at Sam. I actually like his entry. This is a comment on Clark's statement above...)

What's the point of having multiple rounds of this contest if judges are going to let bad entries slide based on past rounds? That's a bit unfair to the people who were good enough to get to this round of the contest and did a better job with the task at hand. A true "RPG superstar" should be well-rounded enough to do well at all levels of the contest, and shouldn't require a free pass.

I'm not sure I buy the existence of a "map to Onuyaka"

I think that the courier was carrying a map (of some undisclosed location) so that he could deliver it to Onuyaka, not literally a map to Onuyaka. (Although I would really hate to be the guy who drew that map if I'm wrong...)

In any case, I really liked this entry. A master manipulator may be a little cliche, but I like how the ogre mage's change shape ability is used to take on multiple personas. I haven't picked my top 4 yet, but this is currently my favorite of the first ones that I've read.

Response to Zurai (don't you just love spoiler conversations?):

In response to Zurai's spoiler comments...

Good on your players!

Yep, I love 'em for it.

However, this seems like a reasonable tactic for PC's to take, and yet there's no advice or guidelines to cover this turn of events in the adventure. Given that it sidetracks over half of the published content, I find this pretty disappointing.

Published adventures, by their nature, have to assume that the PC's stick to the story. However, this one seems more railroady than normal. The adventure just assumes that the PC's are going to undertake a very dangerous mission when there are arguably better, safer alternatives. Maybe my players are just more cautious than most, but I'd be surprised.

Agree with the OP 100%, except that I am just plain underwhelmed by this entry . The first three adventures in this series are great. A nice mix of adventure, roleplaying, and mystery. This one? A lot of combat with some pretty boring monsters.

Comment on monsters (minor spoiler):

On top of that, I have a major plot concern (major spoiler for #4):

Clarify SRD-only or any OGL. (EDIT: I would personally prefer SRD-only, to show what can be done with less, or more limited, resources. It also prevents the problem of an author using a creature or PrC from a source that someone might not have, leading inevitably to questions like "What the hell is that?" or "Where does that come from?")

If OGL is allowed, I'd recommend the contestants be careful with what they use. I'm not familiar with most third-party OGL supplements, so you'd have to explain every OGL feat, ability, class, prestige class, template, etc. for me to understand what they do. And that all eats into your word count.

Also, let me beat a dead horse and submit: regardless of the format requested by the judges, lead with your best material. I think that many of the best country entries led with some flavor text or a brief description that summarized the cool bits about their countries. Once you've grabbed the attention of the audience, then you can bore them with your stat block. :)

I guess my problem (weird, I know) isn't with the blink dogs. It's that blink dogs can't build a country in any way that I understand a country. If you can't put together a building, you can't have a country. It feels like a big, inhabited wilderness full of blink dogs.

I'm surprised that so many other people are saying that they're going to drop this place into an existing campaign, because my reaction was there's no logical place in my campaign where this place could exist. As far as I can tell, this place can only exist where humans and other "good" races are newcomers (as stated in the country writeup). Why? Because barring any kind of defenses or aggression, humans would have taken over these lands in a decade or two.

Now if the country had been written up to include a history of conflict with its human neighbors, that would seem much more reasonable to me. I don't know how it would fit into the whole LG Lassie picture of blink dogs that some people seem to have, but it'd be much more realistic.

I'm on the fence on this one. I think this country is really close to being great, but comes up just a bit short.

After much re-reading, I've thrown my #5 vote to this one. This country has so much potential, I just can't pass it up. Once the voting's done, I'd love to hear some more detail about the design decisions that were made.

Those totals posted in this thread only cover a small subset of the voting public. (For example, I haven't posted my top 5.) So it's very possible that someone you think is a lock for the top 16 isn't, and someone who's on the bubble is doing much better than you think.

Given that, I'm voting for my favorite 5. I'd hate to think that an entry that I really liked just missed the top 16 because I was being cute with my votes.

Yithnai, you left it off the top of your list. :)

Seriously, how are more people not going completely apeshit for Yithnai?

I can understand why some people like it, but for me it's all flash and no substance. It's well written and evocative. But there's little reason why any sane adventurer would ever go there.

Strangely, I want to like this one but I can't. The writing is crisp and there's decent execution, but I couldn't get into it.

I feel the same way. The writing's top notch and the place just oozes theme, but I can't help thinking that there's not really a whole lot to do here. Maybe it's just not my kind of setting, but if this place existed in a world I was playing in, I'd avoid it like the plague. Not only is it dark and depressing, but there's nothing to draw me in.

Part of me really likes this country: the writing is good, the place is memorable, there are plenty of villains to occupy the PC's. And necromantic ogres are almost as cool as cannibalistic gnomes. I also like how you weren't content to just set up the Tiger Princes as the only villains of the land.

I think the bit that's holding me back is that half of the Description section is devoted to explaining what the country was like before the Tiger Princes took over. Back story is nice, but I'd prefer more information on the current state of Cyrehllan. The old kingdom could have been summed up in one paragraph, leaving room to better describe what the country is like now.

For example, I'd like a little more description of the Tiger Princes. How'd they take over Cyrehllan so quickly? And it's great that they plot against each other...why not describe that in a little more detail?

I'm on the fence about this one. I have four votes spoken for, and I'm trying to decide between this entry and one other for my remaining vote.

I enjoyed this entry. The Verdant Obelisk is an interesting twist for a desert setting. I like the growing conflict between the druids and native creatures of the area. Do the players side with the druids who are unquestionably evil, or fight against them and risk leaving Bereket unprotected from the elements?

One question that hopefully someone can answer: What's with the two-letter abbreviations in the NPC stats? NE hf druid? NE gm bard? I'm guessing that refers to race, but is this a standard notation somewhere? I've never seen it before and did a double-take each time I saw it here.

In any case, this entry isn't my favorite, but is good enough for a vote. Nice job, Jason.

One thing I like about this country is the feeling that everything seems safe, yet everyone knows that it isn't. I enjoyed the description of the region as being "too hospitable to be natural". However, for all of the raw potential this place has, I don't think enough is done with it.

I agree with some of the others that urgency is needed to really give this place some oomph. The potential danger is great, it'd be even better if it was imminent.

I may be in the minority here, but I like the fact that you left the big mysteries of this place undefined. While DM's always have the prerogative to change things up, I can't imagine how you could define the Big Secret of Kerpiquan and have it not impact everything else about the country.

I'm on the fence on this one. I think this country is really close to being great, but comes up just a bit short.

I really like this entry. This is a good example of an evil empire with a believable background. I disagree with the earlier poster who thought this entry is a thinly veiled political statement. Fantasy literature is full of empires and kingdoms that slowly transformed from bastions of good to models of corruption, all without its people noticing the change.

I like that the setting isn't black and white, but shades of grey, and that there is a wide range of possible adventures, from standard hack-and-slash to political intrigue.

This entry is definitely in my top 5.

Honestly, I didn't want to like this one. In the first paragraph, you use the words "harsh", "inflexible", "unyielding", "forbidding", and "cruel". I get it, Stained Peaks is a nasty place... But still, something stuck with me and I had to read it again. And again.

Now, it's my favorite entry not named Iskandria. There's something about your country that's familiar, yet original. The writing's great. (Rusticles? Wonderful.) This is the kind of place that players dread, but can't resist. And survive or not, they'll always remember their travels there.

Nice job, James. You've got my #2 vote.

This was one of the first entries I read, which was unfortunate for everyone else. In my notes, I have several entries which read "Good, but it's no Iskandria." The flavor text grabbed me. Thousand ziggurats? Awesome. Sorcerous cultists, monkey goblins, and Bonemaw? Man, if you don't happen to win this contest, publish this country and I'll preorder right now.

I like this country so much that I considered forgoing my other 4 votes, so that I didn't risk bumping Rob off with one of my other votes. Then I realized that he's not going to have any trouble making the top 16.

Great country, Rob. I can't wait to see what's next.

I'm trying to vote based solely on the country submitted. In fact, I narrowed it down to my top 10 or so before I even bothered to check who made which item. Surprisingly enough, none of the designers of my favorite items made my top 10 countries!

For what it's worth, I really liked the Chiurgeon's Chest.

In the thread "Round 2 Assignment Questions--Taking Your Input", Vic made the following suggestion:

Which leads to this unsolicited advice from me: regardless of the length we assign, prospective authors should plan to make sure that the audience has fallen in love with the submission before they've read 100 words.

Apparently, many of the RPG Superstar Top 32 didn't read this advice. Over half of the country entries open up with something droll like government, history, or geography. (And if geography is the most compelling thing about your entry, you have other problems.) The excellent entries opened up with either a teaser or a description section that summarized the coolness of their country.

So, to the 16 of you that make it to the next round, please heed Vic's advice. If you're not leading with your best material, you're going to lose to others who do. Lazy judges like me won't even bother to finish reading your entry if you don't grab us in the first few lines.

Originally each voter got one vote per round. Now it looks like we can choose up to five votes for this round. Why the change?

NE looks like a great campaign setting! The idea of Super Villains who have to save the world is very clever.

First off, Savage Worlds is greatness. As you said, it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. But from what I can tell, you can run everything from a gritty, Romero-esque zombie survival game to swashbuckling pirates to superheroes.

Having said that...I like Necessary Evil. It's a cool setup. But the plot is a bit railroady, and in a way that most players aren't going to like. (Minor spoiler)

pallen wrote:

- Two coiled snakes: given that this is a modern symbol for the medical profession, it will feel out of place in some fantasy settings. I'd recommend a more original description.

Actually, that symbol (the Caduceus) originates in Greek Mythology. So it's not anachronistic.

It isn't a symbol of medicine, however. It's a symbol of Hermes. It's often confused with the rod of Asclepius (a single snake wrapped around a staff, without wings) which is a symbol of medicine.

I didn't mean to infer that the symbol didn't have ancient meaning. I simply meant that it's a symbol recognized in modern day for the medical profession. (If you doubt this, type in "medical symbol" in Google Image. You get lots of two-snake symbols and no one-snake ones.) Regardless of the symbol's roots, I consider the description jarring. It'd be like having healers wear red crosses on their helmets or a sporting competition using the Olympics symbol. The symbols may not only have meaning in a modern setting, but they immediately evoke a modern setting and not a more traditional D&D one.

All IMO of course.

I plan on voting for a country that does both. It has to be original enough to catch my attention, but applicable enough that I could use it.

I expect that given the nature of the contest, originality will probably be more successful. Originality makes your country stand out, which in turn will get you votes. Even if it's a silly country that no one will ever use, you'll get votes because people will remember: "It's the one with the cannibal gnomes trying to overthrow their necromancer overlords!"

I would also like to add that due to word count I removed the dice code for spell effects, which I would normally have left in. The spell is a 2nd level cure/inflict light so it is 2d8+2 not just a 1d8+1(thanks to Exile for the idea to add that level 2 caster) I figured that would make it more worth while than a cure light potion.

A second level cure light heals 1d8+2 damage.

Overall, it seems like a cool item. But there are a few improvements that I suggest:

- Two coiled snakes: given that this is a modern symbol for the medical profession, it will feel out of place in some fantasy settings. I'd recommend a more original description.

- "Inflict light wounds", not cause light wounds

- I second the suggestion to make neutral users choose either the poison effect or cure effect when being attuned.

- You are missing the Caster Level needed to create the item.

What happens to the remaining alternate after this point? If a top 16 misses the deadline for round 3, for instance, would he get the spot?

Note that one of the 32 submitted countries may be disqualified for not following the rules or exceeding the word count.

I would appreciate, as someone who intends on voting, that the submissions be kept to less than 10 minutes of reading each.

Regardless of the official word count, I seriously doubt that I'll bother spending 10 minutes reading a single entry. Like Vic mentioned earlier, if you can't grab my attention with the first 100 words, you're not going to get my vote. I don't care how detailed your politics section is in paragraph twelve...I'm not going to bother reading it unless you've already sold me in paragraph one.

Having said that, everyone is working with the same word limit. IMO, a good designer should be able to create an interesting entry in 500, 2000, or 10000 words. A good designer should be able to highlight the coolest aspects of their entry in a couple of sentences. If you need thousands of words to truly express the coolness that is your country, maybe you should reconsider and submit a different one.

Maybe I'm just a lazy voter, but I intend to read the first few lines of each entry and narrow down my selection to the top 3-5. Then I'll read those entire entries and vote on the one I like the best. The good thing about being a voter in round 2 (as opposed to round 1) is that I only have to pick one winner, not 32!

My copy is also listed as shipping on August 20th and I haven't received it yet. At my count, today is 8 business days after the 20th, so I'm expecting it today or tomorrow. (Which I'm really hoping for, because we'd hoped to get started over the Labor Day weekend!)