Okay. So for those of you who have made it into the competition (and yes, I realize the big reveal won't be until tomorrow), I've got one last bit of advice to share for anyone who's interested. After this, I'm going to sit back and watch along with everyone else and cheer you guys on. So here goes. And yes, it's another novel. Take from it what you can, or ignore it if you wish.
This is your chance! From here on out, get ready for one wild ride. This contest is about to substantially change (or, in some ways, officially begin). All those weeks you had to craft your wondrous item are a luxury you will not enjoy over the remainder of the competition. In addition, the voting public gets to decide if you advance now, not the judges. And there are a lot of other nuances to the RPG Superstar contest in the rounds to come. With that in mind, here are a few thoughts that might help you navigate all those challenges and avoid a few pitfalls:
Know Your Audience
Obviously, everyone understands the power of this competition passes from the judges to the voting public in Round Two. But, I think a lot of people miss the fact that the judges are still evaluating and posting their professional opinions of your work from here on out, too. Getting their endorsement is important (if not vital). So you don't want to pretend they aren't a part of the audience for whom you're crafting these future submissions. Pay very careful attention to what they like and dislike about your work. And go back to review their comments on previous rounds from prior years of the competition. What they conveyed back then, still applies today.
At the same time, you also need to have some idea of what people are looking for and/or enjoy in their villains, lairs, monsters, adventures, and all kinds of imaginative RPG writing. If you haven't been following along with Paizo's current product line, I'd encourage you take a moment and peruse the various threads here on the messageboards. They're a real good indicator of what catches the eye of the buying public. And, much of the buying public here on Paizo's website also translates into the votiing public in the actual RPG Superstar competition. So pay attention to them. Pay attention to them throughout the competition as they comment on your stuff and everyone else's stuff.
Additionally, go back and review the submissions from the prior two years. This is doubly important if one of the "secret" rounds this year duplicates the type of assignment they faced back then. Look through what those competitors created. Pay attention to what worked and what didn't in terms of its appeal to the voting public. And, even as this competition plays out, pay careful attention to what appeals to everyone this year, too...because it might have changed a little. Last year, I can tell you I paid particular attention to how the villains were received...what constituted a villain in the eyes of the judges and the voters...what kinds of villains grabbed their attention...and so on. That type of information proved invaluable in navigating my own choices for what to do round-by-round. Even if I used an idea I'd had for a long time from way before RPG Superstar, I still reviewed and refined it to make sure it conformed to everything I gleaned from the previous year.
Now, I'm not suggesting that you always write and design just to your audience. Sometimes you have to write for you, too. If there's an idea you have that no one's seen before...or commented on...or expressed a desire for...that's great. You might just be onto the Next Big Thing...in which case, you can dazzle everyone with your awesome mojo. But, make sure as you do that, you also find bits and pieces in your design that will still appeal to everyone. Don't go off the tracks and create something so strange, so gonzo, or so fringe that it fails to attract voters.
Know Yourself
Take stock of your strengths and weaknesses as a designer. You probably already have an idea of what they are. We're all our own worst critics, after all. But some of your perceived shortcomings may have been highlighted already by the judges in their examination of your wondrous item. Even if you perceive you're actually stronger in some area that they thought you were weak, be conscious of the fact that you may now have an associated image in the mind of the voters that you're actually weak in that area. Prove them wrong. You want to dispel that illusion as soon as you can. And, you know what? Even if their analysis of your weakness on something was spot-on, recognize it. Use their comments to light a fire under you to improve. Research whatever you have to so you shore up that weakness. And come back with your next submission so you can showcase your improvement.
After all, I believe it's highly important for a competitor to demonstrate growth throughout the RPG Superstar competition. As Clark pointed out before, no one comes into the contest fully-formed as the next RPG Superstar. If they did, they wouldn't need this competition to get their foot in the industry's door. If they were that good, they'd have already found a way to establish themselves. So, don't underestimate yourself. But don't over-estimate yourself either. Continuously look for ways to drive home your skill, your creativity, and your willingness to learn and apply whatever lessons come as a result of having your work reviewed and critiqued here.
Swing For The Fence
Seriously, it may sound cliche. But don't get lazy. Don't take your foot off the gas. Keep it full throttle the whole time. And be awesome! Be innovative! Do something no one's seen before...or in a way no one's imagined before. Put simply, knock everyone's socks off! And don't be afraid to swing as hard as you possibly can. You want to demonstrate you can knock it out of the park. Not just once, but hopefully multiple times over the course of the contest. That's going to be eye-catching...if not eye-popping...and it will serve you, and the contest as a whole, very well.
In addition, I've said it before, but an important part of this competition isn't just what you do round-by-round. It's also the accumulation of what you do over the entire contest. Your whole body of work will be judged, whether consciously or subconsciously, by the voters. If they've got entries they like equally well and only one vote to split between them, guess what? More often than not, they're going to dip into your previous work and assess it for who they think shows the most promise...or who entertained them the most during the previous rounds. So, be aware of that. Let it motivate you to bring it every single round. And, when it's all said and done, at the end of the competition you will have built up a portfolio of work that will linger here on Paizo's messageboards probably for as long as they hold this competition. So make sure it's something you take pride in...and let it show in your work!
Pay Attention to the Rules!
If the header for this section wasn't enough, I'll say it again. PAY ATTENTION TO THE RULES! Don't disqualify yourself by commenting on your item in your own thread while the voting is going on. Don't think so far outside the box that you convince yourself the rules don't apply to you and you can take on each challenge however you want according to your own self-prescribed rules.
In addition, pay attention to the guidelines in each round. Make sure you understand them and apply them to your design. Don't go off and craft a villain that isn't a villain. Don't go over word count. Make sure you use any templates that are provided. Do your homework. And don't miss your submission deadline or wait until the last minute and risk falling out of the competition on a no-show. How well you pay attention to the instructions will demonstrate how well you can follow them as a real freelance designer. So, it's important you get it right.
Develop a Cult of Personality
Be advised that everything you say and do on the messageboards and through your work will be on display for all to see. Conduct yourself like a sanctimonious boor and people will view you that way. Convince yourself that you know-it-all and your opinion matters more than anyone else's perception of your work, and you will crash and burn in the voting.
What you really want to do now that you're in the competition is to start editing what you say. Consider every word and how it might be recieved when posted without any voice inflection or facial expressions on the messageboards. There were a number of times last year where I started to post something...read it out loud to myself...realized it would likely be taken the wrong way...and then totally deleted it. You also have to resist the urge to argue (even politely) with what others are saying about your stuff. Regardless of how you feel about it, you must tell yourself that their perception is still valid, because your writing is what took them there. So listen to their criticisms (and suggestions) and figure out what you can apply and what you can't to improve yourself. If you reach the point where you can do that, you'll have centered yourself in such a way that it'll improve your work as you go forward as well as shield the voting public from the worst aspects of your own sense of self-worth and cost you their support.
In addition, you also should start looking to cultivate positive relationships (if you haven't already) here on Paizo's boards. If you show yourself to be witty, outgoing, friendly, and most of all, supportive...you'll find the voters cheering you on and rallying behind you. Pair that with solid, excellent work, and you're well on your way to creating a groundswell of support that can take you deep into the competition. But don't be disingenuous with how you portray yourself. If you don't truly feel these things or if you're pretending to be something you're not, it will eventually make itself known. And that won't serve you well, at all.
Have Confidence in Yourself
Sometimes it seems a few people make it into the competition's first round who seem dazzled by the notion they made it...or think maybe they don't belong because they're amazed by the quality of the other Top 32 items. Then, they get too distracted and seize up, failing to deliver in the next round. More often than not, that's a fatal mistake that leaves them with a Top 32 tag and nothing more. So, don't be surprised to be where you are. Don't measure yourself by what others have done. Be thankful. Be humble. And, be confident. All 32 have an equal chance of taking the prize. So look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself that until you believe it. Then, come out swinging with your best stuff, backed by all that confidence.
This goes double for later rounds when the judges pan your stuff and several voters comment in your thread and tear your item apart. Some may even campaign against you to lobby for votes to go to someone else. Don't let any of that get you down. Even if some of the criticism might be warranted, you never know until the votes come in whether you're moving on or not. And if you do advance to the next round, you still have a very good chance of totally blowing everyone away with your next assignment. In fact, that should become your driving goal...to prove the naysayers and those who doubted you wrong. If you can show that kind of moxie and never-say-die attitude, it will make a difference.
Pace Yourself
As each new assignment comes, recognize that you've only got a 3-day turnaround (except for the final round which lasts a week). Don't waste that time. It is so precious. Set aside several hours each day to absorb the assignment, brainstorm your best ideas, distill them down to the one you think will resonate the strongest with everyone based on what's transpired in the contest up to that point, and then boldly put it together to the absolute best of your ability.
When I was competing last year, I found it difficult to carve out the time I knew would be necessary to do all that to the level of detail I wanted. And, because I work a full-time job and have a family with several small children, I actually took a vacation day and dropped the kids off at their grandparents so I could fully focus on the assignment during a couple of those rounds. I also generally split my time up so that Day One involved making sure I understood the full assignment and that I could brainstorm several potentially cool ideas that might work. Sometimes, I had an idea I'd stored away for a long time in my head (like my villain last year) that I just needed to tweak a bit to make it fit the assignment. Other times, I had to design something from whole cloth (especially when the new assignment turned out to be an extreme curveball like the villain's lair round). Regardless, Day One was very rarely spent actually designing anything in terms of writing stuff down. It was a day for idea generation and refinement. Day Two, on the other hand, paid particular attention to the craft of writing whatever the assignment called for...translating that idea down into written form. Once I had it mostly done, I'd put it aside until Day Three, because I knew I'd need some "away" time from it. And granted, a single day often isn't enough, but for the purposes of RPG Superstar, it's all you've got. So, Day Three became my editing day. Usually, I'd wind up with several copies of my original writeup, all tweaked in some small way with different paragraphs or options included based on different ideas or directions that came to me as I went back and reviewed my previous day's work. And, then, well before the deadline on Day Three, I made sure I typed up my submission (usually in a text editor like WordPad or NotePad) so I could add all the necessary BBCode to make it look pretty for posting via the submission tool. That way, I could cut-and-paste it...perform one last edit...do a preview to make sure it looked good...and then hit submit.
Now that's how I tended to operate from round-to-round, but I'm not sure how others went about it. It's just what worked for me. The primary thing is that I had a defined process I followed each round, regardless of the assignment. And I stuck to it, because I had confidence in it that I could turn out my best work that way. In the end, I think it helped me present stuff as professionally as possible. And that's something else you want to demonstrate over the course of this contest. Professionalism and presentation goes a long way in convincing people you've got the chops for this kind of work. You need the creative spark, too...obviously. And any rules-related stuff needs to be as tight as possible. But even when you're done with that, the third goal should be to make it look and read like something quoted straight out of a published product. If you can do all that, then clearly, you've got Superstar potential.
Rally Your Voting Bloc
Lastly, I'm going to end with an acknowledgement that part of this contest does indeed depend on mustering a large enough bloc of voters to carry you forward in the contest. Hopefully, you attract more and more of someone else's followers as others fall out of the contest. But you should also have a core group of people supporting you from the beginning. For me, that included my gaming groups (both online and tabletop), my family, my co-workers, some friends I already knew from conventions and other gaming companies, friends I'd made here on Paizo's messageboards by already having a somewhat established presence here, folks I "met" in the DMTools chatroom where they host the Tuesday night Paizo chats, friends from Facebook or other internet sites, and so on. Some of these people never knew I played RPGs, but just thought it was cool I was in a contest with the chance to eventually have something I wrote published as the prize. It doesn't matter. If they like your work and follow along with the contest, their support can help you.
One thing I always told my supporters, though. Be sure and read the other entries. If you like my work, vote for it. But, if you like what someone else wrote better, feel free to vote for them. They probably deserve it. And that gets back to making sure you support one another in this contest. You're all going through the same thing. So treat one another the way you'd want to be treated. And may the best designer come out on top as the next RPG Superstar!
Best wishes everyone! I'm really excited to see your creativity and professionalism on display. Make the most of your opportunity. And enjoy the ride!
--Neil
Bullet points please Neal. Bullet points. ;)
Good stuff though, and I appreciate your putting it up there! I hope all the next round folks read it.
Bullet points please Neal. Bullet points. ;)
Hey, I gave you boldface headers! Don't get greedy! ;-P
But seriously, I've done these advice posts because I really love this contest and want to see it continue to grow and charge-up the industry and the fanbase. To that point, I'm hoping maybe by having someone who's gone through the gauntlet post some of these things, maybe it will resonate with folks and improve the overall quality of what gets created over the course of the contest.
Spicer. There appear to be some heavies in dark suits and glasses out the back. Something about a bill from last year regarding a leaked release from an unofficial bard's publicity office, and Gulga Cench said they could take it out of you...
More great advice from the Spicemeister. I'm looking forward to reading your voluminous item commentaries, whatever the outcome. Every day's a school day, right?
Neil, this is AWESOME advice, thank you for taking the time to post this.
A lot of it (well maybe some of it) is common sense, but its great that you've outlined what worked for you and how you went about the contest last year.
I can't think of anything else to add, and I'm afraid further accolades will seem insincere... or worse... sycophant-ish. ;)
Regards,
Dean Siemsen; The_Minstrel_Wyrm
Okay, I'm looking forward to reading and reviewing your entries, top 32. And please, no vampire-rakshasas this year.... :)
That leaves the door wide open for rakshasa-vampires.
Yes thank you Neil for all the advice you have given I must have read you post for round one three or four times before I submitted. again to you, the judges, and Paizo thank you for your advice, your time, and this competition.
Director of Brand Strategy
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So what if someone like Yoda8myhead of the Pathfinder wikipedia & PFS or an industry writer with half a dozen pdf credits ends up there too?
I would prefer not to be singled out like this and used as an example. I'm just a fan like everyone else. But thank you for the vote of confidence.
[serious]I want to ditto most of the comments in this thread... I haven't been involved in the Paizo boards for long, but Neil, you and the rest of the gang from this contest and from the boards in general have been positive, helpful, and humorous. I appreciate that a lot: If I wanted my hobby to be emotionally trying, I'd do civil service for fun. You guys make this a good place to be, and I appreciate it.[/serious]
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
aka Tarren Dei
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So what if someone like Yoda8myhead of the Pathfinder wikipedia & PFS or an industry writer with half a dozen pdf credits ends up there too?I would prefer not to be singled out like this and used as an example. I'm just a fan like everyone else. But thank you for the vote of confidence.(edited)
My apologies for not putting others up there alongside you, but since you have written for PFS and oversee a resource (The Paizo wikipedia) which judges or posters may well end up referring contestants to, I feel that you are a big name... :)
Best of luck... we'll see if you made it in this time around in a little over eight hours from the time of my posting this.
It would be great to see yoda in the Top 32. I'm sure, however, that all contestants will benefit from the Pathfinder wiki. I know that I did last year.
Of course, all those who didn't get in the Top 32 could spend the next year contributing to the Pathfinder wiki, honing their writing skills while deepening their knowledge of Golarion. I hope that I'll find some time to do that this year.
Of course, all those who didn't get in the Top 32 could spend the next year contributing to the Pathfinder wiki, honing their writing skills while deepening their knowledge of Golarion. I hope that I'll find some time to do that this year.
Me too. This won't mean much to Yoda till such time that I actually do it, instead of talking about doing it.. but I've looked at the Wiki in the last few days with a mind to contribute. As you say, finding the time is always a challenge.
EDIT: I've wanted to run some online PFS, and after opening my mouth that in of itself is tricky. If I make Round One, I will slice/dice my schedule even further to fully commit to the contest. Of course I'm sure that will be true for every single person who makes it into Round One. It'll be an awesome problem to have!
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
aka Tarren Dei
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Of course, all those who didn't get in the Top 32 could spend the next year contributing to the Pathfinder wiki, honing their writing skills while deepening their knowledge of Golarion. I hope that I'll find some time to do that this year.Me too. This won't mean much to Yoda till such time that I actually do it, instead of talking about doing it.. but I've looked at the Wiki in the last few days with a mind to contribute. As you say, finding the time is always a challenge.
I keep thinking that I'd like to look at the languages in Golarion and start collecting the words that we know from these languages so far. It's an area that I am interested in. But, you're right, saying you'll do it doesn't mean much.
If one of the rounds of RPG Superstar was to write up some advice about RPG Superstar (how meta!) then Neil would definitely win (again).
Not true. I would totally disqualify myself by going over word count. ;-D
If one of the rounds of RPG Superstar was to write up some advice about RPG Superstar (how meta!) then Neil would definitely win (again).Not true. I would totally disqualify myself by going over word count. ;-D
Oh, No. Such an contest would surely have a minimum word count ;)
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Developer
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Dedicated Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8
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If one of the rounds of RPG Superstar was to write up some advice about RPG Superstar (how meta!) then Neil would definitely win (again).Not true. I would totally disqualify myself by going over word count. ;-D
Haha, fair enough!
Okay, I'm looking forward to reading and reviewing your entries, top 32. And please, no vampire-rakshasas this year.... :)
Do vampire catgirls count? My wife thinks they're soooo cute.
I was a first time submitter this year and found your advice EXTREMELY helpful, Neil. Thank you very much for taking the time to share your experience with us. I found your advice invaluable during my item creation.
Good luck! It's awesome to see first timers stepping up to the plate!
You mean coming out to the crease to bat in their first test-match, right?
My knowledge of Cricket is woefully inadequate!
My lovely wife, however, has explained 'Rounders' to me and all the similarities to baseball. As well as who stereotypically plays it. ;D
And we called baseball, ‘America’s pastime’. :D
Why... such a short, long evening of waiting (living in Europe does make this one excellent torment) ... Only 3 hours now. 3 long hours unfortunately...
But thanks for the advice readin it makes the wait less horrifying...
You do say so very many sensible things... so feel free to write more novels of them...