One, Two or Many?

[Matrissa the Enchantress]

I'm curious about something - how many of us fall into each of these three categories:

1. I had one AWESOME idea and went with it.
2. I had two KILLER ideas, worked on both, and chose the one that was my favourite (or I tossed a coin, or threw darts at print outs tacked to the wall, or whatever).
3. I had multitudes (a.k.a., three or more) of SUPERLATIVE ideas, worked up several, considered my options, maybe worked up a couple more, and eventually picked one that seemed like the best choice for a win.

I fall squarely into camp #1 - one great idea, wrote it up and went with it.

The process for me is that I think about an item concept idea but if it doesn't fire me up right away I just drop it and move on, seeking out another concept until I finally find the one that puts my muse into a grapple hold, starts shaking her violently and refuses to let go until she's finished coughing up all the details. Then I know, that's the one I have to write up. It was the same last year too.

:-j(enni)

[Steven Helt]

I was defintely a number 3. One night I couldn't sleep. I wrote 12 new item names in the dark (paper looked pretty funny in the morning) and added a few ideas over the weeks. I narrowed them down to six finalists, got a few opinions, and submitted yesterday. As much as I thought about it, I was passing in and out of a fever yesterday and I probably should have waited til today. But as I look it over, it's pretty good. It isn't the most popular of the finalists, but it's up there.

Of the remaining items, there was a lot of quality, but they didn't scream for clamor from players and gms the way my entry did. I am pretty sure every party would want a couple of these, but not every person in every party.

Good luck to everyone, no matter how you arrived at your items, I'm sure there's lots of tough competition.

[Yu Baka]

I'm afraid I went with option #1.

I picked an idea and stuck with it, cause I don't think I could have handled being torn between two options, especially when I have no idea how the judges would react to either. I'd feel like "oh, if I submitted the other one, I'd have placed."

I limited myself to only make one so that way I wouldn't tear myself apart over this contest. I'd make more if they allowed multiple entries, but as it stands, I just took the path of least resistance (not laziness).

[Starglim]

I came up with three ideas that looked feasible. One was clearly the best of them, though that doesn't mean it's good .. I didn't get as far as a full writeup for the others. Probably that would be case #1.

[Elora]

Definitely #1. That's just how I work, for better or worse. Once inspiration strikes, that's it for me :-).

[Ragwaine]

After the last RPG Superstar I brainstormed for a while and came up with about 6 items that I liked but one definitely was more exciting to me. So I wrote it up and then worked on it again when the contest was announced. Then about a week ago I decided it probably wasn't the best idea. So I wrote up one of the others and submitted it. So I guess #3.

[Adam Daigle]

I had ten.

I wrote them all up.

I went with the first.

We'll see what happens.

[Matrissa the Enchantress]

Ragwaine wrote:

After the last RPG Superstar I brainstormed for a while and came up with about 6 items that I liked but one definitely was more exciting to me. So I wrote it up and then worked on it again when the contest was announced. Then about a week ago I decided it probably wasn't the best idea. So I wrote up one of the others and submitted it. So I guess #3.

I'd be tempted to call that #2, since you only worked up that many :-)

:-j(enni)

[Abraham spalding]

I'm a three, I just grabbed one that I liked the most from my pile of homebrew.

[DmRrostarr]

I was planning on one cool thing. Then I went on vacation for xmas with a couple Pathfinder books and another idea popped into my head.

So hence I fell into option #2

I went with my latter choice. :)

[Samuel Kisko]

#3

Eventually went with my first inclination.

[Chad Patterson]

I fall into roup #1- went with an idea that has been bouncing around in my head since RPGSS2008.

Chad

[allen trussell]

Definitely 3. After last year's competition I worked up 100 items; that narrowed down to 4 this year that I reworked until I got the one I submitted.

[UriLifshitz]

Seems like I'm the only one who went with option 2. had two great items and before submitting i review them and discovered that one sucked so I sent the oter one :-)

[Koldoon]

I wasn't going to enter this year and decided at the last minute to do so. I don't really expect to advance, but at least I made the effort, even if it was last minute.

I fell into category 1, mostly due to time considerations.

- Ashavan

[Trevor Gulliver]

I had four related items. They were all variations on the theme. I had some that seemed cooler and some that seemed more functional. I went with one that seemed both.

[James Hunnicutt]

6 concepts, started writing up 3, but pretty early in my process focused on one. If I'd had more time, I woulda focused more on the other 2 of my 3, or maybe come up with a couple more concepts, but the holidays this year for me were nuts.

[Fern Herold]

Just the one idea, but it was a concept retweaked from something I didn't submit last year, when I threw ten ideas against the wall and saw what stuck.

[Mike Welham]

I had one (hopefully) awesome idea, and I worked on it until I felt I was going to make it worse by mucking with it.

[Snowlocke]

I fell into group three. I brainstormed and stated close to twenty items before I decided on what I wanted to submit. My players are loving it though because they got to playtest all sorts of new unique magical swag!

[Sartin Nevets]

1) I started w/ many ideas
2) I researched the "judges" and "hints" given on these message boards, to narrow it to 2.
3) Ran it past the people in my game and went with the one they thought had the most flavor.

This is almost more fun than playing... almost!

[Steven Helt]

NOTHING is more fun than playing. Which is something to keep in mind when you're running the game.

And those of you who never run a game...who always play and never give your GMs a chance to kill your stuff. I'm looking at all of you. : }

[Meds]

#1 for me.

I initially had four other runty ideas, but they never made it past a few malformed phrases on the back of an email. Either I couldn't force the mechanics to match the concept and flavor, or vice versa.

[Kor - Orc Scrollkeeper]

I'd say #3 for me. I did have a great idea, that required about 600 words. The 200 word limit provides an interesting challenge for trying to present a unique item that does not require a significant description of the mechanics.

[Heaven's Agent]

I fall into number three. I had four ideas (though I counted one out early on; found an item that I felt was too similar in a source I was flipping through), worked each into a basic framework, and picked my favorite for the final writeup and submission.

[Coy A. Lothrop]

#2, maybe #3, depends on how you look at it I guess.

Initially had an item written up that I liked but didn't love - kinda 'spell in a box'y. I wanted to try to innovate, not repackage.

Then, a second bubbled up, which I massaged until I almost submitted it - almost; finger hovering kind of almost. :)

I took that one, flipped it around, looked at it creatively from other less obvious angles, and finalized something that I think a PC would love to use for multiple purposes and have in his/her pack, as well as, an item that made life for the DM who drops it easier and more flavorful without compromising balance.

[Zuxius]

I did about 5, and just fell in love with the theme on one item. It was enough to represent me. Now I will see what some 1000 other guys can do, to out do.

Cheers,
Zuxius

[cwslyclgh]

#2 for me, I had two items that I really liked that I had created a while back, and rewrote both of them for the contest, then picked the one I liked better to submit.

[Vladislav Rashkovski]

I think it was #1 for me. It would've been #2, but after spending some time looking over 2008's top 32, I realized that one of the items was similar to my alternative item.

So I went with my original idea, and it was the only item I wrote completely.

[Coridan]

#1 for me, I came up with it about halfway through RPGS'08 and finally typed it up a day before the deadline =p

[Majuba]

Option #0: Never quite got my great idea, so wrote up my best homebrew item.

[Robert N. Emerson]

While I had a lot of ideas that I had brainstormed and outline, prior to the opening for entries, I really only had one solid idea that I wanted to enter. Sure, it's a bit of a gimmick, but more so in a "Oh, I get it" way, while still being massively useful.

I've only shared the idea with a couple of folk, one of whom is a gamer and one who isn't, and they both got it and thought it would be a useful think to own. Thus, I think it's an awesome idea.

[Steven Helt]

I almost entered an Intelligent item. I still think it's awesome, but it's a cloak and I didn't want to be one of thirty cloaks.

Pretty sure it would stand out, though.

[Curaigh]

Tarren Dei wrote:

I had four related items. They were all variations on the theme. I had some that seemed cooler and some that seemed more functional. I went with one that seemed both.

I had something similar.

One idea was trying to do too much. Ended up being four items. One was probably too obscure, the other was overpriced, worked up the other two and my testers chose my least favorite of the two. O:) It got the final work.

Good luck All.

[Nathan Morse]

Definitely a #1. I looked around for an item to enter and thought of one I'd wished there was when I was playing a cleric a few years ago. After that it was just a matter of getting the flavor and mechanics right (not that I haven't thought of several revisions to those since I submitted it).

[Nermal2097]

I had one awesome idea, wrote it up and was ready to enter it. Then I had another awesome idea so I wrote that one up too. Then I had to decide between the two. So instead of picking one or t'other I came up with a third item (which may or may not link in thematically with my villian concept) and entered that one instead. I posted my first idea to the Almost Ran thread.

[CouncilofFools]

I think I fall around 2.5. Is that an option? I had tons of ideas on paper from other adventures, but I only worked on 2 utilizing the magic item mechanics. After that, I picked the one I felt most comfortable with.

I like it. My friends like it. We'll see how it goes.

Good luck to everyone.

[ArgoForg]

I fell into camp #2. I had a couple pretty decent ideas, but after thinking it through, I felt one was just a touchup of an existing item, so I went with the second.

[Ryan Marsh]

I'm a group 1, I just came up with the one idea and went with it.

Really I didn't start building an item with any kind of idea of what I was going to make at first. I looked at the rest of the rounds and tried to think of a theme in which I could follow for the rest of the contest, and then built my item with that theme in mind. I found that it help me focus on the task at hand, with such an open-ended call I really needed some sort of focus.

[EricTheRed]

I had a great idea that I couldn't get to work. My unfamiliarity to Pathfinder and 3.5 in general contributed to that. I tossed it around and tried to figure out how to get my effect into game terms, but couldn't. While researching it, though, I found a different direction to go with it which actually turned out pretty cool.

[Sebastian]

I copied Daigle's submission from last year and wrote my name on it. That Tranz Am is b~*@*in'.

[delabarre]

Matrissa the Enchantress wrote:

I'm curious about something - how many of us fall into each of these three categories:

1. I had one AWESOME idea and went with it.
2. I had two KILLER ideas, worked on both, and chose the one that was my favourite (or I tossed a coin, or threw darts at print outs tacked to the wall, or whatever).
3. I had multitudes (a.k.a., three or more) of SUPERLATIVE ideas, worked up several, considered my options, maybe worked up a couple more, and eventually picked one that seemed like the best choice for a win.

When the contest was announced I decided to come up with as many possible items as I could, then mull them over and submit what I considered the best one. I ended up with three items, and submitted the very first one I came up with. The second one I wasn't able to make work the way I had envisioned it, so I'm keeping it quiet as an investment against future RPG Superstar contests.

The third was perfectly serviceable but lame: a mirror of spell reflection, which is just an example of a generic object of standard spell effect.