Round 3 is called "Dance!"...It involves me firing an 1860s era Colt .45 into the dirt at your feet and you dance, pilgrim, dance!!!
::perks up::
Now this is a round I want to see!
Who's the guest judge going to be? :-D
Me. :-)
Judge, jury, and executioner. DANCE!!
Me. :-)
Judge, jury, and executioner. DANCE!!
Have you been playing Deadlands or Boot Hill lately? ;-)
Not at all. I'm just a little ... off.
Me. :-)
Judge, jury, and executioner. DANCE!!
Move over Dredd, Mega-City One has a new lawman!
Judge Frost!
There were some hints in the round two rules, as well as some of the judges' comments, so I'm pretty sure the next round will be:
Stat up your monster + X
I really hope X will be "and use it in an encounter"
And my guess for round 4 would be: design a villain that uses any monster form round 3 (except your own) as his minion"
But thats just because I love thematically linked rounds and villain rounds.
Spoiler:Explosive Runes
*boom*
GORBACZ!!!
Round 3 is called "Dance!"It involves me playing an 1970s era Gloria Gaynor 8-track and you dance, pilgrim, dance!!!
The more I think about it, the more I think that "stat up any other contestant's monster" wouldn't be a very good round. For instance, people love the Ossuary Golem, and whoever does the best Ossuary Golem stats is likely to get a lot of votes even if their work isn't that remarkable in its own right. Additionally, two or more contestant's entries will probably end up looking very, very similar.
The "design a lair round" last year let you riff off of another villain's mojo, certainly, but at the end of the day the lair was a unique creation designed to be compatible with another unique creation.
I suspect that next round you'll most certainly be statting up something...probably your own monster...and then maybe even introduce some new rules element (much like we were required to do last year with our villain's stat block).
My reasoning behind this speculation is that typically the contest plays itself out with Round One focused on something short and sweet with a perfect blend of flavor and rules knowledge -- hence, the wondrous item. Round Two typically swings 100% flavor text to test a contestant's narrative abilities. Round Three then typically swings back the other way and tests your knowledge and execution of the rules, including some bit of innovation with regards to the mechanics of the game. Down the road, you'll probably see Round Four test your ability to create an encounter or a lair...maybe with someone else's monster, or maybe something different...but, in general, a contestant will have to show they can craft a compelling scene or series of scenes (if it's a lair), complete with descriptive text, stat-blocks, tactical and terrain considerations, mapping, and a flair for being entertaining. After that, Round Five is your adventure proposal and I expect that will pretty much stay the same year-after-year.
Lastly, besides all that, I think you can also take some guidance from the guest judges who'll be tapped to judge each round. If you look at the "Meet the Judges" page, you can see they're pretty much listed in the order that they'll appear round-by-round. Kevin, Eric, Matt, and I followed the primary judges for the Round One feedback. Greg followed us as the guest judge for the monster round. Next up is Jason Bulmahn...and, as the primary author for the Pathfinder RPG, I think we all know Jason's purpose is likely to assess everyone's grasp of the rules. Hence, the next challenge will almost certainly focus heavily on that aspect of an RPG Superstar's skillset. After that, you've got James Jacobs and a couple of professional cartographers on standby to presumably assess your ability to craft a good scene and map it as it would appear in a published product.
Anyway, that's just my two-cents on the speculation,
--Neil