"I can't find the country submit button" or "I've got the SRD blues"


RPG Superstar™ 2008 General Discussion


I've got about 1000 words on my new country and I like it even more than the old country I was going to use. But that's not surprising because it's "new". Anyway, thanks Paizo for "making me" flex my creative muscles. Now can we please fast forward to Wednesday my universal remote control doesn't seem to be working?

I started this thread to find out 2 things. How many people are actually working on the next round and to what extent AND also because I've got an SRD question.

The SRD question is this. If it's not in the srd are we allowed to create something similar? Let's take cleric domains for instance. Let's say you create a God of Artifice, there is no Artifice domain in the SRD but there is one in the Eberron setting. So if let's say I have to describe the gods worshiped in my country can I just create a Domain called "Creation", make a couple changes in spell choices and the domain power and call it a day?

The SRD just seems so limiting, I'm used to choosing monsters from at least 10 different monster books for my adventures, it's really hard for me to think in terms of only the Monster Manual since it's had pretty much the same monsters in it across about 8 different incarnations (and I have them all). Maybe I'm just not understanding the ogl/srd policy?

Paizo Employee Director of Game Development , Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9

Boom! Artifice Domain and Creation Domain.

I don't know if you were using those as general examples or if you were unaware that they are indeed SRD.

RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 aka Darkjoy

1) Not flexing the creative muscle without some specific guidance.
2) Creation domain, the SRD does contain one....

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/domains.htm#creationDomain

But hey, practice makes perfect huh?

ETA: Daigle beat me to it, grmbl


Don't use the Monster Manual. Use the SRD. Monsters you may think are "open" are not (yuan-ti, displacer beasts, devils are not baatezu, demons are not tanar'ri).

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2013 , Dedicated Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka Steven T. Helt

The SRD is a bigger challenge when I think of designing my villain. I have a load of villains and PCs that my local group thinks would really excite people. But their feats and prestige classes are intrinsically tied to their memorable abilities, which really shape their character and role-play opportunities. So back to the drawing board.

By way of satisfying your curiosity, I have about 2 pages of polished text for three different 'countries', but with no definition of 'country', I have a wide range: which I will not give away here, but almost did. : }

I have scattered, underdeveloped ideas for four projects, one of which (with no polished work so far) is likely getting the axe before I do much more. It will be good for development later, especially if someone ever buys my ingenius, unique, high-adventure game world.

hint hint.


Daigle wrote:

Boom! Artifice Domain and Creation Domain.

I don't know if you were using those as general examples or if you were unaware that they are indeed SRD.

I picked that one as a random example but I wasn't aware that those domains existed in the SRD so that helps.

Lilith, I assumed that the SRD was a subset of the Monster Manual because I saw the list of monsters not included (mind flayers etc...) and every monster I did see in the SRD was from the monster manual.

Does anyone know of a list of monsters that are in the SRD that are NOT in the monster manual?


Ragwaine wrote:
Does anyone know of a list of monsters that are in the SRD that are NOT in the monster manual?

You can check yourself at:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/srd35

Upon quick review, it looks like Psionic Monsters and Epic Monsters made it in.

Cheers,
Roger

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2013 , Dedicated Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka Steven T. Helt

There are race variants, which could be used as monster encounters, from unearthed arcana. Also most/all monsters from the epic handbook are in the srd.


RogerC wrote:
Ragwaine wrote:
Does anyone know of a list of monsters that are in the SRD that are NOT in the monster manual?

You can check yourself at:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/srd35

Yep I know about that and www.d20srd.org too but I didn't feel like checking the entire document. When I did scan it I didn't see anything from any other source. Unfortunately I don't think I would submit anything epic or psionic.

But I guess that's a test in and of itself. How do I make these tired ass monsters into something interesting to catch people's attentions.

Legendary Games, Necromancer Games

Go to www.d20srd.org.

If you dont know the srd, you arent a superstar.

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2013 , Dedicated Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka Steven T. Helt

At the risk of giving a competitor good advice, I don't the the SRD has a single 'tired old monster' in it.

Kobolds might be sucky little dorks, only good for a few laughs, until you realize they are a set of numbers and abilities that you can play with to get the kind of encounter you want. Beyond that, the oft-used ones can help establish a scene that everyone sees the same way. If I throw a bunch of ravids at my PCs, they won't know them at all. They might have read them or seen their picture fifty times, but they don't get much play. So I have to redescribe the way they look, how they act, etc. With more common monsters, that's out of the way. You can get on with your scene and the PCs are in your game, but not confused.

Also with the above example, the unfamiliar ravid also comes right out of the MM (and SRD), but catches players off guard and can make your new setting look new. I looked for creatures like that to fit into some of my country designs for round 2, the goal being to have a mixture of familiar creatures that really belong in the setting (that people would expect to see), and also new things to fascinate new and old players alike.

But given a slight adjustment, or the right terrain, or the right descriptive text, or a great role-playing scene, even the most 'tired' monsters come back into their own, and sometimes there's just no substitute for them.

Take Logue's hillbilly ogres from Hook Mountain. An encounter with them will have you coming away thinking three things:

1. Those were ogres? Tired, boring, cr3 ogres?
2. What about this adventure was PG-13?
3. Will there be DnD in Hell? If so, can I play at Nick's table?

Then the lightning will crack outside and you'll be transported back inside that scene and get the willies all over again.

Spooky willies, not ogre willies. I hope.


Clark Peterson wrote:

Go to www.d20srd.org.

If you dont know the srd, you arent a superstar.

I've actually just started using it these last couple weeks. I made a list of monsters I thought fit in my country then I went through and checked to make sure they were all in the SRD. So I guess I'm a superstar in training.


ancientsensei wrote:

At the risk of giving a competitor good advice, I don't (think) the the SRD has a single 'tired old monster' in it.

After playing for 30 years many of them are tired for me. But that was my point, a "real" superstar would be able to make them exciting. I haven't had an orc in one of my games for 20 years, I've never liked them. I am partial to kobolds though, I've always liked them.

Many of my players are also veterans and DMs so while I do occasionally shoot for the superstar-make-old-boring-creature-exciting thing, many times it's easier to throw something at them they've never encountered before. It's exciting because they don't know what the creature can do, it's kind of like playing hot potato with a grenade. They're just waiting to see what the creature is going to do to knock them on their rump.

I do agree about the mix though, if every creature you throw at your group is exotic then the exotic becomes the mundane.

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2013 , Dedicated Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka Steven T. Helt

That's true. Also, nothing bugs me more than a scene grinding to a screeching halt while one of my players announces the AC or spell resistance of the bad guy. So I disguise my guys with illusions, or choose radically different feats or alter them in some other way. In a country I am probably not going to propose, I intended to use a very new and surprising twist on a dnd creature that gets abused by adventurers all the time and is sort of schtuck with its schtick.

But when you have to fight them, you'll be thinking "$^*&#!!"


There's everything right with taking an SRD monster, filing off the serial numbers **cough cough** appearance-flavor-text and changing it up a bit with a feat or two swapped and even one new ability. Freaks my players out all the time.


varianor wrote:
There's everything right with taking an SRD monster, filing off the serial numbers **cough cough** appearance-flavor-text and changing it up a bit with a feat or two swapped and even one new ability. Freaks my players out all the time.

Yep that is cool because they're like, "Oh no biggie it's just a gob... HOLY MOTHER OF PELOR!!! TAKE COVER!!! NEVER MIND RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!"


I'm waiting for the guidlines. I've got an idea in my head but I'm not going to bother writing a bunch of crap up only to find out I had the complete wrong idea in mind.

I'm sure they've factored in plenty of time for us to get submissions in and complete by their due date, so I'm not going to sweat it.

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2013 , Dedicated Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka Steven T. Helt

If by 'plenty of time' you mean fives days to wrangle a Superstar-caliber submission, four kids, christmas shopping and managing a restaurant for 50 hours, then you are both correct and insane.

But to be honest, if I weren't writing in the wee hours of the morning for Superstar, I'd be working out the fine details of my ghoul rogue's Affiliation, and planning his continued undermining of the Silver Marches.

RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 aka Darkjoy

ancientsensei wrote:

If by 'plenty of time' you mean fives days to wrangle a Superstar-caliber submission, four kids, christmas shopping and managing a restaurant for 50 hours, then you are both correct and insane.

But to be honest, if I weren't writing in the wee hours of the morning for Superstar, I'd be working out the fine details of my ghoul rogue's Affiliation, and planning his continued undermining of the Silver Marches.

If I make it to the top 32, I've got some scheduling problems. I'm going to Prague that weekend, that's two whole days lost. Or two whole days of inspiration gained.


Prague should be fantastic inspiration, Dj! I know if I'm still in the contest while I'm in Italy, I'll be crawling through every ruin I can find converting them into D&D scenarios. Of course, if I'm not in the contest, I'll be doing the exact same thing. I mean, isn't that what vacations are for? As far my job? I quit that pain in the @$$, Bartending jobs are like boxers, they can and should be changed regularly.
How many others of us will be world travellers this holiday season, I wonder. The later stages of this contest could very well resemble dispatches from a bunch of foriegn correspondents. I like that imagery, especially if we're all wearing hats.
Until Wednesday, good luck and stay sane!
DD


I just finished the first of my 3 thematically linked monsters and I like it a lot. Now I can only hope that they don't give us the theme. Either way I have a cool new monster much like the wondrous item I created. Plus I honed my monster creation skills a bit, which were fine for jotting things down for a game but not so hot when it comes to making something that fits all the rules and has the correct labels (ex, su, etc...) and formating attached to its powers.

Another thing I'm wondering about is, if the theme is not pre-chosen, when they say "thematically linked" do they mean you would put them all in the same encounter or adventure together OR that they are of the same general type (like 3 types of demon or 3 aquatic creatures) or have related origins or powers (like they all use shape changing abilities)?

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2013 , Dedicated Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka Steven T. Helt

I am spending so much time worrying about countries and villains that I haven't even started worrying about monsters yet. The only thing I decided initially is that I would try to not make them related to my other submissions unless shown otherwise. I set a goal of having very different ideas from one round to the next. But if the conversation on the forums seems to suggest people will vote for that, I will consider a change.

Maybe. I hope sticking by my thoughts about the contest and entries will earn me votes also, but I imagine a lot of us are in this to win. We'd be silly not to take direction from the dynamic of the boards between now and endgame.

Of course, some of us feel great about our items, and won't be doing anything but voting after Wednesday.

Stop...being...neurotic. Your...stuff...is..good. Iron...DM...mojo.

There. All better now. : }


Ragwaine wrote:
I've got about 1000 words on my new country and I like it even more than the old country I was going to use.

Just curisous how you are working on this without knowing the parameters. Do you know what they will be asking for? Or are you just putting together something and plan to re-work it once you know what they actually want?

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2013 , Dedicated Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka Steven T. Helt

That's what I'm doing. Four times. : }


Midrealm DM wrote:


Just curisous how you are working on this without knowing the parameters. Do you know what they will be asking for? Or are you just putting together something and plan to re-work it once you know what they actually want?

I don't know anything about the parameters. I'm just creating a country as if I was creating it for my own campaign. The people, the religion, the politics, the laws, the monsters etc...

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32 , Star Voter Season 6 aka exile

I'm pretty much writing my entry up as if it were a country that I would use in my own campaign. I am using a format that is a bastardization of country entries the Living Greyhawk Campaign Guide and the Eberron Campaign Setting, along with some city write-ups a la the FR Campaign Setting. I have close to 2000 words so far, and could write a good bit more. Certainly it will require polishing when I know the requirements.

I have no idea if I'll make the top 32 or not. Actually, I suspect that I will not. I have two gripes with my own entry (both of which have been fixed for my home use), plus I suspect it falls into the "solid, but not superstar quality, monster in a box" type item. None of that changes the fact that I am going to keep writing for each round of the contest and then some. This contest has changed my whoel outlook on gaming.

I'm a Creator now- with a capital C, not just a consumer. I love it.

Chad

Scarab Sages

I have been working on a country in case I make it to round 2. I can always use it in a campaign even if I don't make the cut. :)


Ragwaine wrote:
The SRD just seems so limiting

I've never thought of it that way. You just have to look at it as a toolkit and not a rulebook.

Stupid:
Advanced Vampiric Fiendish Black Pudding Druid-3/Rogue-3

Not Stupid:
A dark terror that creeps through the forest without a sound and leaves no trail; it strikes without warning and steals the souls of the unwary.

Get your inspiration and let the SRD come afterwards! Your only limits are your imagination! Now get out there and give us your nation populated entirely by Rust Monster Paladins!


Derek Becker wrote:
Ragwaine wrote:
The SRD just seems so limiting

I've never thought of it that way. You just have to look at it as a toolkit and not a rulebook.

Yea but my usual toolkit includes MM2, FF, Monsternomicon, Tome of Horrors, Creature Catalog 1 & 2, Jade Dragons & Hungry Ghosts and that just for monsters. Then add about 20 other books for spells, feats, and prestige classes.

So I guess I'm complaining about recreating the wheel or having to use boring monsters because the word count is too low to create something new and describe it.

Derek Becker wrote:


Now get out there and give us your nation populated entirely by Rust Monster Paladins!

Rust Monster Paladin: "Hey guys check out my shiny new... oh crap. Never mind."

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