Not voting yet. Likely waiting till Monday, but these are my early preferences:
Ghost Hound
Iskandria
Carnamach
(Big Gap Here)
Cyrehllan
Y(i)thnai
In no order.
Stained Peaks
Bereket
Iskandria
Yithnai
Kestria
Honourable mention to Carnamach!
Way to go guys. Great work!
Kestria, Bereket, Iskandria, Vramaire, and Draeth
Honorable Mention: Karistynia
Yithnai, Iskandria, Akram Zafir, Stained Peaks, and Bereket.
I do think after reading it that Bekeret may replace one of my bottom two.
Yithnai, Iskandria, Akram Zafir, Stained Peaks, and Bereket.
I think this was my exact choice, ones I would actually use in game. I was half tempted to vote for the Blink Dog Nation out of curiosity of what kind of villain the author would come up with...
I've got 4 of my 5 figured out, but I have a 6 way tie for the last spot. Guess it comes down to which of them designed the best wondrous item. :)
Just out of curiosity, are most people voting solely on the basis of the countries, or are they voting for the superstars who they feel have done well in both rounds? I guess I have basically voted mostly on the strength of the country alone, using the wondrous items to break ties. But I wonder if I shouldn't be voting for the best overall designers so far, since this isn't the "Country Superstar" contest.
Eh, whatever. I just want to get this figured out so I can spend the rest of the round arguing about blink dog tactics.
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!
Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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This thread is interesting in that it makes me feel like I know what I'm talking about. Almost every entry mentioned here is in my "top 13" that I recommended move on to the next round.
I haven't decided which five I'm going to actually vote for yet, but it will contain many of the usual suspects.
This thread is interesting in that it makes me feel like I know what I'm talking about. Almost every entry mentioned here is in my "top 13" that I recommended move on to the next round.
I haven't decided which five I'm going to actually vote for yet, but it will contain many of the usual suspects.
I would say that my backing of Cyrehllan is because I'm curious if that video-game/final fantasy/anime influence might be just the way to breathe some new creative energy into the field that does tend to live in a shell.
Whittled mine down to 12. Tomorrow I'll decide. Right now it's:
Eluraelon
Vramaire
Beria
Zavaten Gura (Stained Peaks)
Bereket
Akram Zafir
Malar
Cyrhehllan
Iskandria
Moros Akalein
Carnamach
Ghost Hounds
Hmm. Think I left something off the list. Well, we'll see.
My list:
Freeholds of Karistynia
Steppenland
Ghost Hound Kinships of the Rolling Plains ->
Bereket
Iskandria
El Skootro
My five are as follows:
1)Cyrehllan by Clinton Boomer, aka Hennet and Pazuzu
2)Land of the Stained Peaks by James MacKenzie
3)Bereket by Jason Nelson
4)Eluraelon by Russell Taylor
5)Yithnai by Samuel Kisko
These all grabbed me and wouldn't let go. There were a few tough choices to whittle down from about 8 to 5. All in all though I think we got to see a lot of great entries and different takes on the contest.
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Dedicated Voter Season 6
aka Eyebite
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Whittled mine down to 12. Tomorrow I'll decide. Right now it's:
Eluraelon
Vramaire
Beria
Zavaten Gura (Stained Peaks)
Bereket
Akram Zafir
Malar
Cyrhehllan
Iskandria
Moros Akalein
Carnamach
Ghost HoundsHmm. Think I left something off the list. Well, we'll see.
Yithnai, you left it off the top of your list. :)
Seriously, how are more people not going completely a!+&@** for Yithnai?
EDIT: Ahahahaah "a$!@++%" slides on by the censor. This is maybe only the second time in my life I've ever wanted to high-five myself.
Don't have them down yet, probably won't til the weekend. There's a lot of words in them there entries.
I took a new tack on my standards today- Does this entry live up to what I'm seeing in Pathfinder?
Silly high standard, but it's what the end winner should live up to.
That makes it a little easier to winnow the maybes.
I'm going to be in big trouble here because I've only read 13 entires so far, and my little piece of notepaper already has 5 'Vote's on it.
Based on what I have now
Yithnai
Kestria
Carnamach
Bereket, &
Cyrehllan
But still have 19 entries to read.
Yithnai, you left it off the top of your list. :)Seriously, how are more people not going completely a+$$&+@ 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.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Dedicated Voter Season 6
aka Eyebite
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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.
Yithnai, you left it off the top of your list. :)Seriously, how are more people not going completely a#**+@& for Yithnai?
I agree, adventurers should be wary - but guarding a merchant caravan going there, rescuing someone who is a prisoner there about to be sacrificed, etc. all could bring the party in.
The place is pure adventure-bait.
I stated in another thread the place reminds me of REH's Stygia. Conan hated the place, yet look at how many times he wound up there, and the hairy things he experienced when he was in Stygia.
If I was from there, would I work for the Chamber of Commerce and tell people how great my country was? Nope.
If I was an adventurer wanting to rail against obvious evil, while seeking fame, glory, and riches, would I eventually end up there? Probably.
The one thing you can really tell about this sort of contest is the vast disparity in people's taste for role-playing. You most certainly will not please everyone, so you are really best off as an author to write what you enjoy and just try to do it well. So for me Pallen saying 'It's well written and evocative' is a high complement and I appreciate it even if I do not get the vote. I do hope some folks get some use out of Yithnai though, after all, that is the bottom line.
I've tentatively got it down as:
Theocracy of Carnamach
Cyrehllan
The Prison Colony of Saran
ISKANDRIA
Olanra
*Although, I'm still considering, I've got 2-3 other ones on the cusp, so I'm going to sleep on it and re-read them all at work tommorrow before voting.
I hate to say it, but I will keep my votes to myself for now. I am not normally one to rock a boat or start any sort of flame war. However, I feel I need to say some things:
1. I appreciate all the hard work people went into making these countries, especially with the amount of time they had.
2. I also appreciate the comments others (including the former judges) have made about each selection, although I often found myself wondering twice about a selection because the "judges" liked it -or- disliked it (For some reason that bothered me a little).
3. I am generally disappointed about the selections submitted however. Most seemed like they were either trying too hard, or not enough. I am man enought to say I had a tough time finding 5 that I liked. Maybe I'm just too picky, but this actually depressed me alot. I expected more.
4. I hope its just sour grapes talking, but I feel that only a select few managed to come close to the title of "Superstar" in the end.
5. Good luck to everybody. Seriously.
The ones that make me want to play and got my votes:
Stained Peaks
Yithnai
Akram Zafir
Karystinia
Carnamach
The ones that are still awesome possum and should IMO make it to the next round:
Cyrehllan
Bereket
Moros Akalein
Cumavea
Vramaire
Half done. Two mortal locks- blink dogs and stained dwarves.
About 5 other maybes. Which is too many. Heh.
My Top Five, in no particular order:
Freeholds of Karistynia
Theocracy of Carnamach
Iskandria
Eluraelon
Yithnai
Honorable Mention:
Bereket
Steppenlands and Land of the Stained Peaks were on my short list, too.
(Sorry if I butchered any spellings!!!)
Thanks SmiloDan,
I'm happy to hear that I made at least someone's short list.
Chad
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Star Voter Season 8
aka Sect
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So far, I've been through the first sixteen, and these are the ones in my Superstar list so far:
Alex M's Karistynia
Erik A's Blink Dog Nation
James' Stained Peaks
Jason N's Bereket
Joe O's Wandering Nation
Mind you, I've only gotten halfway through. When I finsih, I'll try to narrow it to five.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Star Voter Season 8
aka Sect
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So far, I've been through the first sixteen, and these are the ones in my Superstar list so far:
Alex M's Karistynia
Erik A's Blink Dog Nation
James' Stained Peaks
Jason N's Bereket
Joe O's Wandering NationMind you, I've only gotten halfway through. When I finsih, I'll try to narrow it to five.
Just finished the last sixteen, and I'll add these:
Neil M's Vramaire
Rob M's Iskandria
Samuel K's Yithnai
Silas M's Kestria
Walter P's Olanra
William M's Akram Zafir
Man, now I know how the big three feel after reviewing them. I'm going to go through these at a later time to choose my five.
All in all, I think everyone did a great job.
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My top 5 are:
Theocracy of Carnamach
Ghost Hound Kinships of the Rolling Plains
Moros Akalein, the Wandering Nation
Zavata Gura: Land of the Stained Peaks
Malar
Honorable mention goes out to:
Freeholds of Karistynia
Cyrehllan, the Isle of Cold Tears
Agregia
Enlightened Kingdom of Vramaire
Iskandria
Kestria
All of these sparked something, some evocative bit that made me start thinking of adventures to set there. Good luck to all!
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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Haven't finished reading, got about a dozen left, but right now I think my faves are...
Iskandria
Karystynia
Carnamach
Stained Peaks
and Bereket! It's good. You should vote for it. And I'm not just saying that because there's an Oninku here with a knife to my throat... :)
Right now my top 5 are
Freeholds of Karistynia
Theocracy of Carnamach
Land of the Stained Peaks
Yithnai
Kestria
Was stoked to see a killer spin on dwarves.
Reading more closely today, may change
Alexander MacLeod—Freeholds of Karistynia
Hal Maclean—Beria "Under New Management"
James MacKenzie—Land of the Stained Peaks
Neil McClean—The Enlightened Kingdom of Vramaire
Silas McDermott—Kestria - "A nation on the edge."
These are my top 5 after reviewing all 32.
Now I understand why the judges worked late in the evening, and appreciate it even more!
I voted for these entries because they sucked me into their world from the get go, even when they had the tag "under new management" ;>.
Really Hal, next round's entry better have a good name!
You know, it's funny. Finding my five wasn't nearly as agonizing as I thought it would be (okay where to spend my very last vote was kinda tough...realizing I only had one left.) For the most part though I just read through all of them once and then picked the ones that I had just totally fallen in love with. Mostly it just clicked right into place. There was some great, great stuff out there. Good luck to everybody. I'm going to try and leave comments on everyone's pages. One promise though, when it's all over I'm going to run some games in people's settings, to actually have real games with real players happen in them. When that happens I'll throw it in the Campaign Journals section for everyone to look at. Anyway here's my list:
1—Freeholds of Karistynia (Alexander MacLeod)
2—Cyrehllan, The Isle of Cold Tears (Clinton Boomer)
3—Land of the Stained Peaks (James MacKenzie)
4—The Enlightened Kingdom of Vramaire (Neil McClean)
5—Yithnai (Samuel Kisko)
My favorites, no contest, are:
1.) The Theocracy of Carnamach (Christine Schneider)
2.) Land of the Stained Peaks (James MacKenzie)
3.) Jason Nelson's Entry (Bereket)
followed by okay entries by:
4.) Russ Taylor (Eluraeleon)
5.) The Wandering City (Joe O)
and several other close entrants
6.) Walter Pullen's Entry (Olanra)
7.) The Freeholds of Karistynia (Alexander MacLeod)
8.) Ghost Hound Kinships
9.) The Prison City
-LD
You know, it's funny. Finding my five wasn't nearly as agonizing as I thought it would be (okay where to spend my very last vote was kinda tough...realizing I only had one left.)
Amen to that.
My five votes appear in alphabetical order after the colon:
Cyrehllan, Iskandria, Ghost Hounds, Theocracy of Carnamach, Zavatan Gura (Land of the Stained Peaks)
That said, it was tough to have to choose only five. I could have cheerfully voted for all 12 of my "rereads". I liked a lot of the entries, and truth to tell there was at least one good Idea Worth Stealing in each and every country.
I only found five I really liked, so it was easy.
I discounted a few good ones because of the writing--and that's probably because I also read 45 terms papers and bad grammar was really getting to me.
Who?
Not telling.
In the order I decided on them.
Land of the Stained Peaks
Ghost Hound Kinships of the Rolling Plains
Cyrehllan, The Isle of Cold Tears
The Enlightened Kingdom of Vramaire
The Grand Duchy of Draeth
The last is a wildcard vote, based more on the unrealized promise I saw in the entry than what is actually revealed. I held back voting for one entry I liked more, but that seems sure to sail to the next round. My hope is that this is a sort of "second chance" vote.
I chose the ones I thought were well wrought and had more than one idea.
Alexander MacLeod—Freeholds of Karistynia
James MacKenzie—Land of the Stained Peaks
Jason Nelson—Bereket
Rob McCreary—Iskandria
Samuel Kisko—Yithnai
Well, I just voted. I figured it was only fair of me to follow my own grade that I gave.
So that made it easy for 4 of them: Stained Peaks, Iskandria, Bereket and Yithnai. They all got As (Iskandria an A+, and it would have been my only vote had I gotten only 1, though that would have been really hard).
The question is, what did I do for my final vote between: Karistynia, Theocracy of Carnamach, Kestria and Cyrehllan? They were all my B+'s. I'm not telling...
Nobody came into the job interview with a handwritten resume wearing a t shirt and put his feet up on the interviewer's desk.
That's the guy you're supposed to hire, right?
this was hard but here are my top 5
akrm zarfir
beria
iskandria
staned peaks
yithania
all will find way into my game at some point
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Top 5 in no particular order, Eluraelon, Iskandria, Yithnai, Bereket and Vraimare.
Some of the others were every bit as good pieces of work, notably Stained Peaks, Kestria and Karistynia but two things swayed my final votes.
One was my preferences for adventure and two was the person's magic item. I hope that all three make it to the next round as well.
Cheers