Given the choice, which would you prefer to see in these submissions: Originality or applicability? Ideally, submissions will be both unique and easy to use in future games, but which is the higher priority?
Yesterday, I was discussing the competition with one of my friends. When I described one idea I had, he responded that it was original, but he couldn't see how most DMs could use it. On the other hand, I've occasionally found exotic ideas that inspired me to rethink entire games.
What do you all think?
Given the choice, which would you prefer to see in these submissions: Originality or applicability? Ideally, submissions will be both unique and easy to use in future games, but which is the higher priority?
Yesterday, I was discussing the competition with one of my friends. When I described one idea I had, he responded that it was original, but he couldn't see how most DMs could use it. On the other hand, I've occasionally found exotic ideas that inspired me to rethink entire games.
What do you all think?
If I can't use it, I won't vote for it.
If it's not entertaining, I won't vote for it.If it's not original, I won't vote for it.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4
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Yesterday, I was discussing the competition with one of my friends. When I described one idea I had, he responded that it was original, but he couldn't see how most DMs could use it. On the other hand, I've occasionally found exotic ideas that inspired me to rethink entire games.What do you all think?
Ooooh, good question! Since I went the route of applicability, I'm hoping for THAT to be the common response, but I, for one, am a man with a taste for the strange, exotic and unusual. Originality will probably be the big seller for me - my favorite fantasy novel is "The Scar" by China Meiville, with Brust's "Jhereg" novels as a close second.
When I sit down to play any game, I always want to be the odd man out - if everyone is good, I want to be evil. I everyone is undead, I want to be alive. Everyone has guns? Give me a sword. Everyone has swords, give me a naginata or a set of nunchucks or my bare hands. I want to be only foreigner, unless we're all foreigners - then I want to be the local.
If one of the contestants can give me a strange and exotic land for me to be from to bring in a Sha'ir or Warlock or Wu Jen or, god help me, something weirder, it'll stick for me.
And probably get more than a second look - it might get my vote.
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!"
"It's the one with the cannibal gnomes trying to overthrow their necromancer overlords!"
Damn. Why didn't I think of that?
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4
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"It's the one with the cannibal gnomes trying to overthrow their necromancer overlords!"Damn. Why didn't I think of that?
Oi. I know, right?
A couple of my players did that to me on Monday night - jerks. Among the suggestions (Dogs that talk! Land of invisible pants! Reverse vampires subjugated by reverse vampire hunters!) was one that was SO weird, I almost hated myself for not writing it up:
"An upside-down floating haunted city made of intelligent crystal, ruled by a Half-Fiend Ravid!"
Just begs to be fleshed out, don't it?
My players did the same. Suggestions were as thick as flies on $^*#, if you know what I mean. Things like bardic trolls in desert wastelands hired by mindflayers to scare the populace away, and other such non sense. Though the upside down world you have their is interesting. The other oddity was a balloon kingdom ruled by half - celestial halflings that co habitat with storm giants. I felt this inappropriate with the co habitation thing and all :)
WC
I'm not looking for any specifics with any of the countries and I won't judge very closely by grammar or format or originality in any particular order. However, I am sure that after reading 32 entries I'll be able to say "Yep, that's the one for me!"
Applicability with originality will be my criteria.
Of course everyone wants a country that is both applicable and original, and I'm sure just about every submission will have both in varying degrees. If those are the only two criteria, I'll go on record as saying originality is probably more important to me. That and no obvious spelling errors. :)
And I should point out that by "original" I don't mean "blatantly weird". I'm looking for originality that is still more or less within the box of established fantasy archetypes.
My players did the same. Suggestions were as thick as flies on $^*#, if you know what I mean. Things like bardic trolls in desert wastelands hired by mindflayers to scare the populace away, and other such non sense. Though the upside down world you have their is interesting. The other oddity was a balloon kingdom ruled by half - celestial halflings that co habitat with storm giants. I felt this inappropriate with the co habitation thing and all :)
WC
Better not include mindflayers. That is off limits content.
If I can't use it, I won't vote for it.
I disagree with that criteria.
The assignment was not "country that would fit into Setting X" or even "country that would fit into most fantasy games". The only thing they really asked for was that you could play D&D in it. Troll Psions or epic-level kingdoms are very much on the table for me even though I don't use psi or epic levels.
The question is not if you can use this submission in your game. The question is if the author can produce good material. Otherwise....
If it's not original, I won't vote for it.
... you won't see as much of that.
I mean, gosh, it has to be original and fit in your game? You aren't buying a product, you're evaluating the prose.
Since I already voted...my personal criteria was "Did this get me excited as a DM? Would I want to run a group of players through this country?" To paraphrase a car commercial, I want to be turned on by the country submission from the moment I start reading it.
Given the ultimate goal of this contest, I would hope at least some of you ask yourself this:
"Do I think this person can write RPG products (and especially an adventure module) that I'd want to buy and play?"
I think that is definitely a good question to ask yourself. At this point I am making sure that I read through all the entries and then make comments. I am going to hold off voting until near the end. I'm very picky when it comes to game worlds, writing styles, etc., but this gives me another thing to think about. Appreciated.
If I may add my highly unbiased opinion, now having voted, what my primary criteon was was simply whether it grabbed my imagination.
I disagreed with some but not all of the comments of the judges on several of ones they rated highly them because they didn't capture my imagination. I write all of my own adventures based on a single image that pops into my head which I work into a story. If the country didn't pop an image into my head, I wasn't hugely impressed. I figured words-create-picture > politics/history; the latter being a subject better for an more thorough description. (This applies in hindsight to my own entry; there were bits I could have done with cutting out for more meaty ones. Like I said last round, though, unlive and learn!)
A priority that in my own, twisted Lich-mind that would have marked people down was cliches or even, worse inverted cliches. So I was looking for stuff that wasn't a country hung around Race X of Class Y where X and Y are either complementary or opposing. I don't recall any such entries (if there are any then they must have really past my radar!)
Given the ultimate goal of this contest, I would hope at least some of you ask yourself this:
"Do I think this person can write RPG products (and especially an adventure module) that I'd want to buy and play?"
That was certainly part of my thinking. The other part was - do I really want to see what kind of villian this author produces.
- Ashavan
I mean, gosh, it has to be original and fit in your game? You aren't buying a product, you're evaluating the prose.
But I am buying a future product. And that future product has to be usable by me in my game. I do like reading adventures, so yes, prose does matter, but primarily the adventure has to give me ideas, original ideas, it needs to make me want to run the adventure.
This is not a writing contest, it's a game design contest.
RPG Superstar 2013
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Dedicated Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
aka Steven T. Helt
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Well, I think so far everyone point made has been good. I want to be impressed in terms of:
writing
originality
usefulness
got my juices flowing (saliva, blood, whatever)
appears to be able to write an adventure i want to buy
seems to be as good as or better than my planned entry for the round (cause i cant vote for someone when i think there are nonsuperstars who would have done better).
For better or wors, those all played a factor. One exception: the content issue that made me reluctantly not read one post before I voted.
Usefulness is the last issue here for me, because if it meets some or all of the other issues, I can find a use for the author (and maybe the current entry).
For example, I am not gonna run a ghost hounds campaign, but you can bet that because it interests me, because I love dogs, and because all the work is already done for me, I'm gonna have an encounter using blink dog nation as a tribute to my new friend Boomer.
Still waiting to be contacted about my role in someone's Iskandria campaign.
For better or wors, those all played a factor. One exception: the content issue that made me reluctantly not read one post before I voted.
May I inquire which post that was?
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RPG Superstar 2013
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Dedicated Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
aka Steven T. Helt
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It was the one titled Malar, and also used the unacceptible Dungeon Master phrase.
I felt bad about it, but I can't reward the author for not taking a precaution everyone took, and I reasoned that even if the entry was good enough to go into my top 5, the tiebreaker with ghost hounds or yithnai would have been the IP issue, so I'll just give him a good read in a couple of days, after my votes are cast.
Again, sorry, dude. Be careful next time.
Would I pay money to read more about this?
To answer with a yes, the entry must inspire me. That requires originality in offering ideas, or a combination of ideas, that I haven't seen before. If I've seen this before or could come up with it myself, why would I pay for it?
But it must be an original idea that I can see myself using. Unlike a book or short story, I'm not likely to buy a module and not use it in a game. This might not require using all of it, but enough to be worth paying for the ideas I will use.
I think this is why some of my votes discounted other favorites. They had great writing and functional countries, but lack ideas original enough to justify me paying for a gaming product. Would I buy a short story in this world? Maybe. A gaming product, not so much.
As with so much of this, in the end, it's pretty subjective. One aspect that affects my voting is that I play several campaigns that don't use core races, and so I'm more open to originality and adaptation than those who use just core product.
It was the one titled Malar, and also used the unacceptible Dungeon Master phrase.
I felt bad about it, but I can't reward the author for not taking a precaution everyone took, and I reasoned that even if the entry was good enough to go into my top 5, the tiebreaker with ghost hounds or yithnai would have been the IP issue, so I'll just give him a good read in a couple of days, after my votes are cast.
Again, sorry, dude. Be careful next time.
Its all cool. I don't blame you in the least.
All I can say is do a google search for Malar by itself and you get very little D&D stuff. Do it with D&D and you get stuff, but mostly an adventure. Silly me I did neither. It was poor planning on my part I agree, but I must admit, I have never heard of Malar before this. Not excusable I know, but true.
Hey, for a first time at anything like this, it has REALLY opened my eyes. I have learned more in the last few weeks than I have in along time. Its been a great experience. Thanks guys for giving me the chance to come out and play.
WC
It was the one titled Malar, and also used the unacceptible Dungeon Master phrase.
I felt bad about it, but I can't reward the author for not taking a precaution everyone took, and I reasoned that even if the entry was good enough to go into my top 5, the tiebreaker with ghost hounds or yithnai would have been the IP issue, so I'll just give him a good read in a couple of days, after my votes are cast.
Again, sorry, dude. Be careful next time.
Its all cool. I don't blame you in the least.
All I can say is do a google search for Malar by itself and you get very little D&D stuff. Do it with D&D and you get stuff, but mostly an adventure. Silly me I did neither. It was poor planning on my part I agree, but I must admit, I have never heard of Malar before this. Not excusable I know, but true.
Hey, for a first time at anything like this, it has REALLY opened my eyes. I have learned more in the last few weeks than I have in along time. Its been a great experience. Thanks guys for giving me the chance to come out and play.
WC
It's a learning experience, and I hope it works out. I admit the Malar thing likely weighed on me when I read it. Doesn't help that I find Malar a silly deity to begin with ;)
I can't help but think all these posts about might help you. There do seem to be a large number of countries that aren't getting any press at all. In a popularity contest, having a well-known entry, even if for less than desirable reasons, is better than a forgotten entry.