The Waiting Begins


RPG Superstar™ 2008 General Discussion

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16 aka amusingsn

With the deadline now past, all that's left for me to do is wait. I am enjoying myself very much with this contest, even if the anticipation is going to drive me to an early grave!

Scarab Sages Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games

amusingsn wrote:
With the deadline now past, all that's left for me to do is wait. I am enjoying myself very much with this contest, even if the anticipation is going to drive me to an early grave!

I'm with you. I had a little extra drama in that I logged on about 11:30 to post my country and couldn't find the link!

Turns out I was logged in as a guest, not as myself. Oops!

Thankfully I figured out what the problem was in time, submitted my country, and all is right with the world...

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32 aka Spar

I have to admit I can't wait to see what everyone come up with. It should be a good competition. I hope so anyway :)

Good luck all.

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

Yeah, I'm pretty eager to see the countries get posted. Almost more eager for that than for the results of voting.

Chad

Scarab Sages

Sigh... two days until we get to see the entries. And due to the Noon PST release time, it might as well be three...

Not only the authors are edgy with antici...

...pation.

;)

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

Just think how the judges feel. We have to read and post lengthy comments on all of them in the next two and a half days!


Erik Mona wrote:
Just think how the judges feel. We have to read and post lengthy comments on all of them in the next two and a half days!

So that gives me 2 1/2 days to relax and prep the brain matter for thinking and do finger exercises in preparation for commenting...hmmm....work in between to make money. Might just work. :)

Good luck in the next 2 1/2 days reading! I do not in anyway envy you.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16 aka amusingsn

Erik Mona wrote:
Just think how the judges feel. We have to read and post lengthy comments on all of them in the next two and a half days!

This is true.

And if the first round was any indication, you can expect to be judged as critically if not more so than the contestants. And no prize at the end for you, either. Bum deal!

Liberty's Edge RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16 , Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka JoelF847

amusingsn wrote:
Erik Mona wrote:
Just think how the judges feel. We have to read and post lengthy comments on all of them in the next two and a half days!

This is true.

And if the first round was any indication, you can expect to be judged as critically if not more so than the contestants. And no prize at the end for you, either. Bum deal!

Well, Erik gets the prize of a new freelancer to work with.

Dark Archive Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4

This is going to be AWESOME - just, you know, not for the judges over the next two days.

I fully expect someone to snap, and one-third of the comments will be:

"Grrabba-fundehfuwsfcjjsmedje! Bugjnhwhbnsi; faijerijffh, hauuummm."

That's what I'd do.

Kari Houle wrote:


So that gives me 2 1/2 days to relax and prep the brain matter for thinking and do finger exercises in preparation for commenting...hmmm....work in between to make money. Might just work. :)

Guitar Hero might be a good choice for keeping those fingers in tip-top shape. Wadda you think?

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32 aka Sheyd

Waiting... I've never been good at waiting. I don't envy the Judges their task over the next few days although I would love to be reading the submissions. 31 countries to read through, ALLLL the wonderful names and imagry, all the ideas expressed and all the hints and referances to envision. Yeah that'd be the fun part. Posting critiques and such... That'll be the task.

Dark Archive Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4

Sheyd wrote:
Waiting... I've never been good at waiting.

I hate waiting. Fortunately, I have a rich internal fantasy life. Then again, so do we ALL, I suppose.

It's funny - now, maybe I'm wrong, but I assume that each and every one of the contestants (including alternates) is playing in a D&D game at the moment, perhaps more, even perhaps running their own game. Oddly, I've never been part of a contest, or anything else, where that might be true. Hell, I don't know that many gamers outside of my own private social circle.

So a question, then, to pass the time: How is your winning entry in this contest, along with your contry, affecting your at-the-table gaming?

Hilariously, all of my Sunday night "Drow of Faurun" players are offering me suggestions for future submission improvement, while my fellow players in my Monday night "Shackled City" game are hoping to get mentioned in my country, villain, or adventure.

Of course, my Monday night DM, Roommate Dave, has made subtle references to something called the Crown of the Leeching Bregion{/i], also called the [i]Crown of the Pretentious A##**&~.

Weird stuff like that happening to anybody else?

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16 aka amusingsn

thatboomerkid wrote:
How is your winning entry in this contest, along with your contry, affecting your at-the-table gaming?

I have a few hours per week that I like to spend plotting out encounters, adventures, and missions for the two games I run. This week, I spent those few hours working on my country instead.

Scarab Sages Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games

Patrick Walsh wrote:

Sigh... two days until we get to see the entries. And due to the Noon PST release time, it might as well be three...

Not only the authors are edgy with antici...

SAY IT!!!

Patrick Walsh wrote:


...pation.

;)

Maybe the rain

is not really in vain
So I'll remove the cause
but not
THE SYMPTOM!

Ah, Rocky Horror, how I love thee...

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Luckily I don't have to sit back and start waiting, work is keeping me busy.

Clinton Boomer wrote:
How is your winning entry in this contest, along with your contry, affecting your at-the-table gaming?

Not at all, for I have to skip my next session. People here are celebrating "Sinterklaas" and I have to parcipitate.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32 aka Darrien

Jason Nelson 20 wrote:

Maybe the rain

is not really in vain
So I'll remove the cause
but not
THE SYMPTOM!

Ah, Rocky Horror, how I love thee...

Maybe the rain

is not really to blame...

Dark Archive Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4

amusingsn wrote:


I have a few hours per week that I like to spend plotting out encounters, adventures, and missions for the two games I run. This week, I spent those few hours working on my country instead.

So your players had to do without your usual, asumably AWESOME, prep?

Mine, too. This week was "Hateful Hall of the Kobold King", AKA "Trap-A-Palooza" - where I grabbed a D&D Minis map, used every trap in the DMG that I'd never seen used on the table before and threw handfulls of 1/4 CR critters at them until they cried.

Would you believe it, they loved it.

Dark Archive Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4

Darrien wrote:
Jason Nelson 20 wrote:


Ah, Rocky Horror, how I love thee...

Maybe the rain

is not really to blame...

*grin*

You guys will both love the ending credits theme to the next PSA.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16 aka amusingsn

thatboomerkid wrote:
So your players had to do without your usual, asumably AWESOME, prep?

Yes, unfortunately. Hopefully it'll just make them appreciate my efforts more next time.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32 aka Spar

My game prep is more along the lines of a napkin scribbled with ideas and a mad flurry of manuals before the game begins :) That said, both the games I have running are intermittent (one is over 5 hours away and the other is dictated by shift workers) so I do have lots of time to figure out things if I need to. We are also very free form in our playing style and I've seen sessions to rival the council of Rivendell for blathering on and on and on and ... zzzzz :)

Hey Boomer, have I ever said you have an ingeniously simple quirky sense of humour. And an awesome first name...

W Clint Cronk


thatboomerkid wrote:
So a question, then, to pass the time: How is your winning entry in this contest, along with your contry, affecting your at-the-table gaming?

Well I'm not in the contest per se, other than as the panel of excited judges waiting with fork in one hand, knife in the other, ready to dive headfirst into a steaming plateful of RPG goodness...but even at that it's been having an effect on our home game.

For one thing, most of the items in the contest are going to find their way into our Pathfinder game in one form or another...not something I ever, ever do with fan made stuff. So yeah, compliment.

For another thing, I'm contemplating maybe taking one of/some of/all of the countries here and playing in them at some point in the future. Depends though, since I don't know how campaign specific any of this stuff is.

I'm pretty excited though--the quality of your guys' stuff has been stellar.

Sovereign Court aka Robert G. McCreary

thatboomerkid wrote:
[How is your winning entry in this contest, along with your contry, affecting your at-the-table gaming?

Sadly, since I'm currently living in a foreign (and non-English-speaking) country, I am not playing any games at the moment. I keep trying to get my fiancee to play, but she's lukewarm about it, at best. And the VAST majority of my gaming books are in boxes in my parent's attic in the States. [sigh]

But I am playing in a few PbPs here, so at least I'm getting my game on that way.

So no effect at all really, although after writing up my country, I'd love to set my next game in it, whenever that is.

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

I play in one monthly game and am contemplating jumping into a new semimonthly game. I really have very little in the way of prep time, save for making/updating my characters.

The contest has givenme reason to call/e-mail gaming buddies past and present more frequently to bounce ideas off them and such.

Chad

Scarab Sages

Darrien wrote:
Jason Nelson 20 wrote:

Maybe the rain

is not really in vain
So I'll remove the cause
but not
THE SYMPTOM!

Ah, Rocky Horror, how I love thee...

Maybe the rain

is not really to blame...

"No, Sue's to Blane!"

Scarab Sages

Patrick Walsh wrote:


"No, Sue's to Blane!"

For those not in the know (or who have different Rocky lines than in Houston), one of the people in the opening credits is Sue Blane and she gets Blaned for a lot. ;)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32 aka Aotrscommander

thatboomerkid wrote:
So a question, then, to pass the time: How is your winning entry in this contest, along with your contry, affecting your at-the-table gaming?

Oddly enough, not at all. My country may well be slapped into my homebrew world, and the Talisman might show up eventually, but neither is having any effect on my games at the moment.

thatboomerkid wrote:
So your players had to do without your usual, asumably AWESOME, prep?

Mine didn't, mainly because I'm a player in one group and the other I'm running the Dragon Lost Caverns module straight out of the book.

That and the fact that I normally write my campaign all up in the first place (like modules, actually!) before I start running them.


thatboomerkid wrote:


Kari Houle wrote:


So that gives me 2 1/2 days to relax and prep the brain matter for thinking and do finger exercises in preparation for commenting...hmmm....work in between to make money. Might just work. :)
Guitar Hero might be a good choice for keeping those fingers in tip-top shape. Wadda you think?

Damn - I hate it when my roommates know all to well my addictions. Hmph.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32 , Star Voter Season 7

thatboomerkid wrote:
It's funny - now, maybe I'm wrong, but I assume that each and every one of the contestants (including alternates) is playing in a D&D game at the moment, perhaps more, even perhaps running their own game. Oddly, I've never been part of a contest, or anything else, where that might be true. Hell, I don't know that many gamers outside of my own private social circle.

I'm sad to report I'm not actually involved in a game right now. It's been a year since my last game of D&D. I have been waiting for a Dragonstar PbP here to get going since August, though.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

thatboomerkid wrote:
So a question, then, to pass the time: How is your winning entry in this contest, along with your contry, affecting your at-the-table gaming?

More than my game, entering the contest has caused a shift in habits. I am a person who's passionate to a fault about what I like, so I have spent more than a few evenings with my wife peeking over my shoulder asking, "are you done yet?" as I work into the night. She has been incredibly supportive, mind you, so I will take this as an opportunity to publicly thank her for her patience with my hobby-turned-competition...

I have a homebrew world that I've been using since I started running games quite a few years ago. Oddly enough, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't take anything out of there for this contest, so I have been coming up with "all-new" material for my entries, and that has been very rewarding. (designing a country not located in my Homebrew world, making sure nothing from there leaked, was really hard!!)

There are quite a few items from the Top 32 that will find their way into my game eventually. My players and a couple of old-time gaming buddies have been very helpful bouncing ideas off with.

I usually don't have a problem with waiting, although I admit I am pretty excited about this... I don't envy the judges, though. It is really hard to maintain one's focus and see each entry with fresh eyes. Here's wishing them patience, clear-headedness, and good sleep untroubled by dreams of cryptogeographica....

M

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32 aka Spar

Mauricio, you have a mouthful. If it weren't for the gaming communities we are part of, none of us would be here. My wife, like yours, has been an pillar and very supportive while I burn the midnight oil getting things just right. Also, my bud Joe, who told me about the competition in the first place deserves a public thanks. i wouldn't be here without his, "Hey, why don't you try it". Thank god for our friends :)

WC


Spar wrote:

My wife, like yours, has been an pillar and very supportive while I burn the midnight oil getting things just right. Also, my bud Joe, who told me about the competition in the first place deserves a public thanks. i wouldn't be here without his, "Hey, why don't you try it". Thank god for our friends :)

WC

My wife has been quite patient too, as I (virtually) read over the shoulder of WC. But she has seen the light (and joy) in my eyes and knows that I am happier for being involved.

I am so glad that I passed on the word about this contest. Madness and passion should be shared.

*grin*

Liberty's Edge RPG Superstar 2008 Top 8

Mauricio Quintana wrote:
thatboomerkid wrote:
So a question, then, to pass the time: How is your winning entry in this contest, along with your contry, affecting your at-the-table gaming?

More than my game, entering the contest has caused a shift in habits. I am a person who's passionate to a fault about what I like, so I have spent more than a few evenings with my wife peeking over my shoulder asking, "are you done yet?" as I work into the night. She has been incredibly supportive, mind you, so I will take this as an opportunity to publicly thank her for her patience with my hobby-turned-competition...

I have a homebrew world that I've been using since I started running games quite a few years ago. Oddly enough, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't take anything out of there for this contest, so I have been coming up with "all-new" material for my entries, and that has been very rewarding. (designing a country not located in my Homebrew world, making sure nothing from there leaked, was really hard!!)

There are quite a few items from the Top 32 that will find their way into my game eventually. My players and a couple of old-time gaming buddies have been very helpful bouncing ideas off with.

I usually don't have a problem with waiting, although I admit I am pretty excited about this... I don't envy the judges, though. It is really hard to maintain one's focus and see each entry with fresh eyes. Here's wishing them patience, clear-headedness, and good sleep untroubled by dreams of cryptogeographica....

M

Here, Here. Same as I have. Sadly it has forced me to bench myself from DMing for 2 weeks as I focused on this and the things that make the world go round, jobs and such. Thankfully I can prep for this weekend unabashedly and perhaps get ahead once more in hope of advancing.

Liberty's Edge RPG Superstar 2008 Top 8

Patrick Walsh wrote:
Darrien wrote:
Jason Nelson 20 wrote:

Maybe the rain

is not really in vain
So I'll remove the cause
but not
THE SYMPTOM!

Ah, Rocky Horror, how I love thee...

Maybe the rain

is not really to blame...

"No, Sue's to Blane!"

Sorry, we do have different lines down in Florida. I hadn't heard that one, but perhaps I shall introduce it. Of course that means getting to go again...http://ip.rhps.org/

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32 aka Sheyd

thatboomerkid wrote:
So a question, then, to pass the time: How is your winning entry in this contest, along with your contry, affecting your at-the-table gaming?

Well, lessee... I DM twice a week (online that is, it's good but nothing replaces that face to face table top gaming) One group is in the campaign world my item and country came from. Their reaction was 'When do we get that item?' and 'Didn't we find a small cache of glyph-covered stones in the mine mangers office?' So I know what I'll be doing this week, dealing with them trying to find out if those are glyphstones (which they're not. They're knowstones (an item which appeared in the Class Acts section of the Dragon (can't remember which one)) The players in my second game which takes place on another world really liked the item (They're on a demi-plane adjacent to the elemental plane of fire fighting frost giant invaders lead by an aspect of the Prince of Wrath, Kostchtchie pouring out of the Realm-rifter Glacier) My past players that I keep in contact with also liked the item.. Only one of them has seen the country and he liked it. The first group will be headed there after they deal with the goblin incursions so they'll find out soon enough.

I do play in a table-top game every other weekend and that DM and the players were happy I got a winning entry. I'll show them the country this weekend.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16

thatboomerkid wrote:
So a question, then, to pass the time: How is your winning entry in this contest, along with your contry, affecting your at-the-table gaming?

This really doesn't effect my game that much. I'm decided to run the Pathfinder Rise of the Rune Lords. It makes for less prep time and I was planning on working on my own system, but getting in the top 32 will now be using that time and energy. I run a once a week game and also a two once of months game. One of my once of months game is gestalt using the Rise of Runelords. I'm force to buff up the game. That group's wizard/cleric can do some good damage.

I'm wife to be is also very supportive. She wanted to take me out to dinner when the 32 were announced, but I rather wait till the end for me comes up.

And by the way, has anyone got more info about what we are allowed to say for our answering to comments about are entries?

Scarab Sages Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games

Darrien wrote:
Jason Nelson 20 wrote:

Maybe the rain

is not really in vain
So I'll remove the cause
but not
THE SYMPTOM!

Ah, Rocky Horror, how I love thee...

Maybe the rain

is not really to blame...

Ummm... right. Now what in the heck what was I thinking?

I've only sung that song a coupla hundred times. How did I mess that up?

*sigh*

The RHPS nerd police are gonna come revoke my streed cred.

Scarab Sages Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games

Spar wrote:

Mauricio, you have a mouthful. If it weren't for the gaming communities we are part of, none of us would be here. My wife, like yours, has been an pillar and very supportive while I burn the midnight oil getting things just right. Also, my bud Joe, who told me about the competition in the first place deserves a public thanks. i wouldn't be here without his, "Hey, why don't you try it". Thank god for our friends :)

WC

Amusingly, I'm on the opposite end of this spectrum, being recently divorced (from a decidedly non-gamer spouse) and finding myself with rather more free time than I am used to. Of course, I have a ton of OTHER projects to do, including academic research and writing, and being a single parent is more challenging in its own way, but just having more 'alone time' also has helped to get things done when they need to get done.

As for the impact of the competition on my ongoing games, not much really as far as stuff I have created, other than I bounced my country idea off of people in the group I DM, and they liked it and I may use it at some point down the road (even though they know it's dark and terrible secrets already).

I have liked a number of the submitted items enough that I will probably find a way to drop them into the campaign--ironically, the first one will probably be the Elemental Quiver, which wasn't one of my favorite "Wow! Awesome!" items, but which really would fit well with one of the characters in the campaign. I can see some other ones getting dropped in as well (Beacon of Hope comes to mind)--my current campaign is low/mid level (4th-6th) and in a modified Al-Qadim setting, so not everything fits, but lots of things do and others could with a little massaging.

Dark Archive Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4

Jason Nelson 20 wrote:
I can see some other ones getting dropped in as well (Beacon of Hope comes to mind)--my current campaign is low/mid level (4th-6th) and in a modified Al-Qadim setting, so not everything fits, but lots of things do and others could with a little massaging.

So you're saying that the Crown might not be showing up any time soon?

It's okay. It'll wait.

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

Phew. I have just now finished reading my 16th entry. I am half done.

Now to drive home from work, throw together some dinner, and spend the rest of the night until tomorrow morning reading the other half.

It's good to be a judge! (?)

:)

Some great stuff so far.

--Erik

Dark Archive Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4

Spar wrote:

Hey Boomer, have I ever said you have an ingeniously simple quirky sense of humour. And an awesome first name...

W Clint Cronk

No, you've never told me either of those things - and I know that for a fact, because I absolutely THIRST for compliments and flattery of any kind. More! More compliments! I beg of you!

*grin*

Also, yeah, my first name is Clinton - but the family calls me "C.J.", short for "Clinton John", so there's a list of, like, maybe three people, all of whom I've known since third grade, who use that name for me. Hell, even my girlfriend calls me "Booms".

At work and at home, I'm Boom, Boomamos, Boom-Stick, Boom-Skillet, Boom-Dog, Boom-Daddy, Boom-Diggity, Boomerino or El Boomero Uno, if you're not into the whole brevity thing.

. . . weird.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32 , Star Voter Season 7

thatboomerkid wrote:
Hell, even my girlfriend calls me "Booms".

That's more about your personal life than I'm comfortable knowing.

Anyway, I hope my entry is among the 'Great Stuff' Erik mentioned. I'm slightly worried I didn't pack in enough 'zing'.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka MythrilDragon

Waiting....

Waiting....

Is it three yet???

Seriously, I too need to say a special thanks to my wife who puts up with my addiction to D&D as well as a shout out to my oldest friend, Andrew, who's been an awsome sounding board for my gaming creations for years.

As for my gaming group..I found out just before kicking of the first session of a RotRL campagin. All my prep work has pretty much been done for my by PAZIO allowing me to use all my free time writting for the contest.

Good Luck to every one who submitted a country, I can't wait to see what eveyone came up with.

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

Ross Byers wrote:
thatboomerkid wrote:
Hell, even my girlfriend calls me "Booms".

That's more about your personal life than I'm comfortable knowing.

Anyway, I hope my entry is among the 'Great Stuff' Erik mentioned. I'm slightly worried I didn't pack in enough 'zing'.

Haven't read yours yet. :)

--Erik


*sigh*

waiting...

i officially joined paizo just so i could vote in the contest. :-D

i can't wait to what everyone came up with.

i'm excited...

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32 , Star Voter Season 7

Erik Mona wrote:

Haven't read yours yet. :)

--Erik

I figured. You'd been through 16, which means 50/50 right there. And I submitted on the last day. And you're doing alphabetical based on first name. So if you're going in either order of submission or alphabetical, my odds are even worse.

Have I put way too much thought into this?

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32 aka Spar

Yes, but then we all have. Like Clark's post where he didn't grade on of the submissions. I am sitting here going, "what did I forget" :)

Dark Archive Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4

Spar wrote:
Yes, but then we all have. Like Clark's post where he didn't grade on of the submissions. I am sitting here going, "what did I forget" :)

I actually panicked the other day & dug my stupid entry back out because I had become convinced in the night that I had forgotten the 'Evocative Concept in Brief'.

Oh, wait, THERE it is. Right where I f$#+ing left it. DUH.

If I wasn't a drunk already, this contest would have driven me to it.

(KIDDING!)


Have the judges given any idea about what time they will post the winning countries?

Thanks

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32 aka Spar

The judges comments go up at 12 PM Pacific Time, and then the populace votes. See the Superstar rules for details.

WC


barbican wrote:

Have the judges given any idea about what time they will post the winning countries?

Thanks

Today there will be posting the country entries to the public and public voting will then close on Dec. 11th. We will have input into the decisions for this round.

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