Unofficial Exit Poll, Round 3

[cwslyclgh]

I believe when somebody says "in no particular order" they usually just mean that they are not ranking them by which ones they liked better.

[French Wolf]

Yeah, gbonehead, I tried to put them in an order but in the end decided that they were all pretty good craftsmen. So my order was just the way I wrote it as I read along.

Cheers

[Neil Spicer]

roguerouge wrote:

That's charitable, although I can fathom why people would do that. Accepting the inevitable is praiseworthy, certainly. But I'd rather people vote for candidates in the race, whether in contests like this one or in the real world. Voting for Fred Tuttle may be an amusing bit of political theater, but I'd rather my vote count. Now, if this were a plea for a protest vote to shake the powers that be, that would be another thing; but you're not arguing for that. Sorry to be the wet blanket, man.

No worries, Rogue. One of the reasons I would feel comfortable doing so is because they bumped up the number of votes we get for this round. Many people aren't even using them all (according to the exit poll posts so far). So, tossing one as a tribute isn't going to make that big a splash. Plus, I only suggested the remaining 16 contestants could choose to do that. That's all. But, I understand YMMV... :-)

[Chef's Slaad]

My votes go to:

ALEXANDER MACLEOD'S CHYMICK SWARM
BENJAMIN'S BRUCK'S CHURJIIR
JIM GROVES' ARDORWESP
MATT GOODALL'S CHAITRAKHAN
MATTHEW MORRIS'S CALTROP GOLEM

Note: I'm choosing to use only five out of my six votes.

[roguerouge]

My votes go to, in order:

Benjamin Bruck: best of the rat kings.
Matthew McGee: the tight meteor creature.
Matthew Morris: caltrop golem executed well.
Andrew McLeod: lowest CR with no big errors.
Jim Groves: chest-burster with some minor clarification issues on the spawning, made Skintaker.
Dennis Baker: rat king with solid stats, nice outsider touch, but spell dissonance error

Honorable mention: Goodall for making the popular rat king in the first place, Posener for most METAL submission.

[Jim Groves]

Thanks Chef's Slaad and RogueRogue! I'm grateful for your votes!

[Matthew Morris]

French Wolf wrote:

Yeah, gbonehead, I tried to put them in an order but in the end decided that they were all pretty good craftsmen. So my order was just the way I wrote it as I read along.

Cheers

I think he was commenting more on that you said 'in no particular order' and yet it turned out to be in a particular order. Just one of those amusing contradictions that turns up. No malice or anything intended.

That said thank you, and everyone else, for your votes. Hopefully you'll help me make points into the next round.

Vote for the caltrop golem, things always land face up!

[roguerouge]

Last Vote: roguerouge
Total: 126 votes from 24 voters
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Leaders
1 Benjamin Bruck — Churjiir — 20
2 Matthew McGee — Astrumal — 18
3 Jim Groves — Ardorwesp — 17
4 Matthew Morris — Caltrop Golem — 17
5 Alexander MacLeod — Chymick Swarm, A Thousand Alchemists — 15

Nervous
7 Matt Goodall — Chaitrakhan, icy pack-hunter — 8
7 Richard Hunt — Slithering Horror — 8

In the Hunt
8 Jesse Benner — The Lahamu (“The Soul Drinker) — 4
10 Chris Mortika — Haga — 3
10 Tom Phillips — Ossuary — 3
11 Dennis Baker — Churjiir — 3
12 Jason Schimmel — Chaitrakhan, icy pack-hunter — 2
15 David Posener — Astrumal — 1
15 James Martin — Churjiir, Two-Headed Rat King — 1
15 Joshua Kitchens — Churjiir, Two-headed Rat Emperor — 1

DQ
— Lief Clennon — Lantern Thrall — 5

Partial votes:
Bigmancheatle — 4 (Benjamin Bruck, Jim Groves', Matthew McGee's, Matthew Morris')
Zeugma — 2 (Matt Goodall, Matthew McGee)
FiddlerJones — 2 (Benjamin Bruck, Matthew McGee)

[French Wolf]

Matthew Morris wrote:

French Wolf wrote:

Yeah, gbonehead, I tried to put them in an order but in the end decided that they were all pretty good craftsmen. So my order was just the way I wrote it as I read along.

Cheers

I think he was commenting more on that you said 'in no particular order' and yet it turned out to be in a particular order. Just one of those amusing contradictions that turns up. No malice or anything intended.

That said thank you, and everyone else, for your votes. Hopefully you'll help me make points into the next round.

Vote for the caltrop golem, things always land face up!

No malice at all, I just agree with him.

[Glass Castle]

Votes:

Benjamin Bruck — Churjiir
(Solid design and a professional-seeming contestant. It looks like a lot of good work will come from his pen.)

Matthew McGee — Astrumal — 18
(Competent and professional-seeming. Likewise, it seems that much good work will come from here.)

Alexander MacLeod — Chymick Swarm, A Thousand Alchemists
(Creative and neat.)

Dennis Baker -Churjirr (I thought it was an interesting take on the creature; not as striking as Mr. Bruck's, but still solid. I also very much enjoyed the Brown Urus and would like to see Mr. Baker's creativity continue.)

Matt Goodall — Chaitrakhan, icy pack-hunter

Richard Hunt — Slithering Horror
(...I short of like "Shoggalug")

[d20pfsrd.com]

Vote:

Richard Hunt — Slithering Horror

[Jason Nelson]

My votes:

Alexander's Chymick Swarm
Matthew McGee's Astrumal
Dennis' Churjir
Benjamin's Churjir

Those were my four favorite monster entries from THIS round.

For my last two votes, I handed those out to:

Jim's Ardorwesp - for making the biggest improvement in a monster I didn't really care for in round 2 and making me like it in round 3, and for keeping the stat block mostly clean at a lower CR.

David's Astrumal - Honestly, I thought his astrumal entry this round was way overpowered, a swing and a mass, but I'm handing out one freebie vote for him on past performance, as I really liked the seeds and the haga. May you live to fight another day, but pick it up pardner.

How d'you like that: Two space rocks, two bugs, and two rats - well, four rat heads... :)

P.S. Honorable mention to the other two Matts; if I'd had 8 votes you'd be in like Flynn.

[Jason Nelson]

Marcus Ewert wrote:

N'wah wrote:

Oh, also: the general consensus seems to be that since this round's all stats, and three people chose the churjiir, it should be okay for me to post up the churjiir art I did.

Here it is: the churjiir. Enjoy!

Awesomely vile and hateful. I love it!

Ditto. My first response: Ewwww!

[N'wah]

Jason Nelson wrote:

Marcus Ewert wrote:

N'wah wrote:

Oh, also: the general consensus seems to be that since this round's all stats, and three people chose the churjiir, it should be okay for me to post up the churjiir art I did.

Here it is: the churjiir. Enjoy!

Awesomely vile and hateful. I love it!

Ditto. My first response: Ewwww!

Heh. My pleasure. :D

I did my best to make the guy skin-crawlingly gross, which makes the almost-pretty spittle even MORE gross.

I might be making minis of him to pass around sometime. We shall see. :D

[Richard A. Hunt]

I want to offer sincere thanks to David Saban, Lukas Klausner, Lucas Jung, Light Dragon and d20pfsrd.com for the gift of your votes and continued encouragement! Woohoo! Keep 'em coming! :)

[PhysChic]

Here are my votes:

Alexander MacLeod's Chymick Swarm, A Thousand Alchemists
This was one of my favorite creatures last round and you did a great job with it.

Benjamin's Bruck's Churjiir
While I wasn't fond of this creature as a whole, you did a great job bringing it to life in your stat block. Plus, with as many people as chose this creature, I felt I needed to vote for the person who did it the best.

Jason Schimmel's Chaitrakhan, icy pack-hunter
A few mistakes in this one, but a solid write-up as a whole. This was the only one I found that managed to really include all of the original monster concepts from last round.

Jesse Benner's The Lahamu ("The Soul Drinker")
Again, this wasn't a favorite of mine from last round, but the write-up was stellar. Very creative.

Jim Groves' Ardorwesp
This was definitely a favorite. A good choice of creature and an excellent job of turning the flavor text into solid stats.

Matthew Morris's Caltrop Golem
I loved this creature last round and you did a fairly decent job writing it up. While I thought it should have been lower level, I definitely like your work.

Some comments on those I didn't vote on:
Chris Mortika's Haga
Wasn't feeling this as a CR6 or lower. It just felt forced

David Posener's Astrumal
Didn't like this creature and definitely didn't like it as this low of a CR. Felt like you were just trying to do something unexpected and it didn't quite work.

Dennis Baker's Churjiir
James Martin's Churjiir, Two-Headed Rat King
Joshua Kitchens' Churjiir, Two-headed Rat Emperor
Matt Goodall's Chaitrakhan
Only wanted to vote for one of each creature unless there were two stellar entries, which none of them really were.

Matthew McGee's Astrumal
Again, hated it and didn't feel the mechanics fit. You also really left out a lot of what the original was all about.

Richard A. Hunt's Slithering Horror
Stat block was very weak.

Tom Phillips's Ossuary
I loved the original creature, but this appeared to murder it. This was probably my least favorite entry.

[Mikhaila Burnett]

Richard A. Hunt wrote:

Mikhaila Burnett wrote:

RICHARD A. HUNT'S SLITHERING HORROR

At first, I almost voted otherwise based on technical proficiency, then decided to go back and swap this one in for my 6th...

Yes! Thanks for the extremely kind words and especially your vote! I really hope others see 'awesome' too! :)

*smiles* You're quite very welcome. Just remember to punch up the fiddly bits and I'm sure you have a great chance to go all the way.

[Eric Morton]

Alexander MacLeod - Chymick
Benjamin Bruck - Churjiir
Dennis Baker - Churjiir
Jim Groves - Ardorwesp
Matthew McGee - Astrumal
Matthew Morris - Caltrop Golem

If I had a seventh vote, it would have gone to Jesse Benner. But in the end, my general dislike of monsters with fear effects that might make PCs run away put the lahamu firmly behind the monsters listed above.

If Lief Clennon's lantern thrall were still in the race, it might have bumped one of my top six. But I'm not going to risk ruining someone's chances at landing a career in the RPG industry by wasting a vote on an entry that isn't even eligible. A job interview where finalists' future professional success is on the line is not a very appropriate place for a throw-away, symbolic vote.

[Mike Welham]

My votes went to:

Alexander MacLeod's Chymick Swarm
Chris Mortika's Haga
Matt Goodall's Chaitrakhan
Matthew McGee's Astrumal
Richard A. Hunt's Slithering Horror
and in place of Lief Clennon, Matthew Morris's Caltrop Golem

[Lief Clennon]

Benjamin Bruck
David Posener
Dennis Baker
Jim Groves
Matthew McGee
Matthew Morris (this would have been me, but, y'know)

[Urizen]

Benjamin Bruck
Chris Mortika
Jim Groves
Matthew McGee
Matthew Morris
Tom Phillips

[La Femme Nikita]

I want to play too :)

I voted for (alphabetically):
Benjamin's Bruck's Churjiir
Jesse Benner's The Lahamu ("The Soul Drinker")
Jim Groves' Ardorwesp
Matthew McGee's Astrumal
Matthew Morris's Caltrop Golem

My sixth vote would have gone to Lief Clennon; I'm not sure if I'm going to vote for any of the others instead...

[Twings]

In no particular order:

Richard A. Hunt - Slithering Horror
Matthew Morris - Caltrop Golem
Matthew McGee - Astrumal
Matt Goodall - Chaitrakhan
Jim Groves - Ardorwesp
Benjamin's Bruck - Churjiir

Actually, that appears to be reverse alphabetical order. Hmmm.

[Joel Flank]

I actually had a hard time voting for this round - we finally get extra votes after 2.5 years of not enough to vote for all of the great entries, and overall, this round left me a bit flat. I only had 3 votes that I felt strongly about for this round's entries, and then went back and assigned 2 more based on past round's work (which is not normally how I like to vote), and my 6th vote will be uncast.

The three I though did a great job were:

Benjamin's Bruck's Churjiir
Jim Groves' Ardorwesp
Matthew Morris's Caltrop Golem

And the two votes for previous work were:

Matthew McGee's Astrumal
Tom Phillips's Ossuary

[Ziv Wities]

So far, I've cast for:
Benjamin's Bruck's Churjiir
James Martin's Churjiir
Matthew McGee's Astrumal

Still mulling over the others. Guess I'd better make up my mind quickly...

[terraleon]

I went with:

Alexander MacLeod's Chymick Swarm, A Thousand Alchemists
Chris Mortika's Haga
David Posener's Astrumal
Dennis Baker's Churjiir
Jim Groves' Ardorwesp
Matthew Morris's Caltrop Golem

-Ben.

[N'wah]

New illo of the churjiir is up. Took some comments and suggestions and mixed them with boredom to create this. Hope you guys like it!

[Mike Welham]

N'wah wrote:

New illo of the churjiir is up. Took some comments and suggestions and mixed them with boredom to create this. Hope you guys like it!

Looks great, N'wah! I'd hate to run into that in a dark alley. :)

[N'wah]

taig wrote:

N'wah wrote:

New illo of the churjiir is up. Took some comments and suggestions and mixed them with boredom to create this. Hope you guys like it!

Looks great, N'wah! I'd hate to run into that in a dark alley. :)

I'd hate to run into it in a well-lit alley, honestly. Damn thing is UG-LY. :P

Thanks!

[Matthew Morris]

N'wah wrote:

taig wrote:

N'wah wrote:

New illo of the churjiir is up. Took some comments and suggestions and mixed them with boredom to create this. Hope you guys like it!

Looks great, N'wah! I'd hate to run into that in a dark alley. :)

I'd hate to run into it in a well-lit alley, honestly. Damn thing is UG-LY. :P

Thanks!

I'd be curious (and flattered) to see what the lahamu looks like under your pencil.

[N'wah]

Matthew Morris wrote:

I'd be curious (and flattered) to see what the lahamu looks like under your pencil.

Stylus, actually. N'wah is all-digital now. :D

And I'll see what happens during my weekend. I'm buried in stuff at the moment, but side projects help break up the insanity.

[David Posener]

Jason Nelson wrote:

David's Astrumal - Honestly, I thought his astrumal entry this round was way overpowered, a swing and a mass, but I'm handing out one freebie vote for him on past performance, as I really liked the seeds and the haga. May you live to fight another day, but pick it up pardner.

Mate, I'm girding my loins and gridding my lines (assuming a mapping exercise) for the next round if I make it! There may also be some gilding of lions, but I can't promise anything.

[Joe Wells]

Last Vote: Joe Wells
Total: 198 votes from 38 voters
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Top of the heap
1 Benjamin Bruck — Churjiir — 30
2 Matthew McGee — Astrumal — 28
3 Matthew Morris — Caltrop Golem — 27
4 Jim Groves — Ardorwesp — 26
5 Alexander MacLeod — Chymick Swarm, A Thousand Alchemists — 21

Fingers crossed
6 Richard Hunt — Slithering Horror — 13
7 Matt Goodall — Chaitrakhan, icy pack-hunter — 12

In the Hunt
8 Dennis Baker — Churjiir — 8
9 Jesse Benner — The Lahamu (“The Soul Drinker") — 7
10 Chris Mortika — Haga — 6
11 Tom Phillips — Ossuary — 5
12 David Posener — Astrumal — 4
13 Jason Schimmel — Chaitrakhan, icy pack-hunter — 3
14 James Martin — Churjiir, Two-Headed Rat King — 2
15 Joshua Kitchens — Churjiir, Two-headed Rat Emperor — 1

DQ
— Lief Clennon — Lantern Thrall — 5

Partial votes:
Bigmancheatle — 4 (Benjamin Bruck, Jim Groves, Matthew McGee, Matthew Morris')
Zeugma — 2 (Matt Goodall, Matthew McGee)
FiddlerJones — 2 (Benjamin Bruck, Matthew McGee)
d20pfsrd.com — 1 (Richard Hunt)
La Femme Nikita — 5 (Benjamin Bruck, Jesse Benner, Jim Groves, Matthew McGee, Matthew Morris)
Joel Flank — 5 (Benjamin Bruck, Jim Groves, Matthew Morris, Matthew McGee, Tom Phillips)
Standback — 3 (Benjamin Bruck, James Martin, Matthew McGee)

[Drillboss D]

Alexander MacLeod's Chymick Swarm
Benjamin's Bruck's Churjiir
Jason Schimmel's Chaitrakhan
Jim Groves' Ardorwesp
Matthew McGee's Astrumal
Matthew Morris's Caltrop Golem

Things that started with C's or A's did very well with me.

-Drillboss

[Matthew Morris]

David Posener wrote:

Mate, I'm girding my loins and gridding my lines (assuming a mapping exercise) for the next round if I make it! There may also be some gilding of lions, but I can't promise anything.

Tell me about it. I have this voice in my head going, "Your mapping powers are weak, old man..."

[Chris Mortika]

Speaking of art, I attended a local gaming convention this weekend, and Tyler Wapole (the guy who painted the cover of the bonus bestiary, as well as a bucketful of other art for Paizo) was a guest of honor, and I asked him for a sketch of the Lantern Thralls. Turned out wonderful. (Among other things, he made their clothes tattered, because the mephits driving them forward don't really care about tending to their clothing. It makes them look haggard, which is wonderful.)

[Matthew Morris]

Chris Mortika wrote:

Speaking of art, I attended a local gaming convention this weekend, and Tyler Wapole (the guy who painted the cover of the bonus bestiary, as well as a bucketful of other art for Paizo) was a guest of honor, and I asked him for a sketch of the Lantern Thralls. Turned out wonderful. (Among other things, he made their clothes tattered, because the mephits driving them forward don't really care about tending to their clothing. It makes them look haggard, which is wonderful.)

oooh, can you share?

[Majuba]

Tough choices this round (thank you Paizo for 6 votes!)

In alphabetical order:
Alex' Chymick
Dennis' Churjiir
Jason's Chaitrakhan
Jesse's Lahamu
Jim's Ardorwesp
Matthew Morris' Caltrop Golem

[Seth White]

So many good entries.

Alexander MacLeod's Chymick Swarm, A Thousand Alchemists
Benjamin's Bruck's Churjiir
Matt Goodall's Chaitrakhan
Matthew Morris's Caltrop Golem
Dennis Baker's Churjiir
David Posener's Astrumal

[Charles Evans 25]

Given this round was supposed to test the contestants' abilities to create a stat block, I have awarded three votes, for what I consider the bext execution of stat blocks to (in the alphabetical order favoured by Paizo for this contest):

Dennis Baker

Jim Groves

Matthew Morris

At this point I am considering on what basis or if at all to use the three extra votes supplied this round.

[Lief Clennon]

Charles Evans 25 wrote:

Given this round was supposed to test the contestants' abilities to create a stat block,

That was my impression going into it, too. But from the judges' comments on submissions, I realized that this was not the case. What they really wanted this round was a Bestiary-style presentation which makes the monster exciting to GMs and module writers. So if you give out some extra votes, use that as your criterion.

[Nicolas Quimby]

Benhamin Bruck's Churjiir: Took the Curjiir in a delightfully creative "psychic hoarder" direction. Love it.
David Posener's Astrumal: An awesomely 'weirdfic' astrumal, with some great writing behind it.
Dennis Baker's Curjiir: Made the curjiir a demon, then made it feel evil enough to warrant the subtypes.
Jim Groves' Ardorwesp: Good execution, good world integration, really brought the creature to life to me.
Matt Goodall's Chaitrakhan: Ditto
Matthew McGee's Astrumal: I don't feel that this one was as good as Poseners, but I've just got to nod my head to that 'loadshard' mechanic. Totally sweet.

I'm really crossing my fingers for Posener here. It's looking like his over-the-top-ness/tendency to overdo things might kill him, which would be a tragedy, because I think he could give us a ridiculously cool R4 encounter/local/etc entry.

[Charles Evans 25]

'Honourable mention' votes to report (the same Paizo alphabetical order style presentation as before):

Alexander MacLeod

David Posener

Matt Goodall

James Martin just missed out.

Many thanks to all the contestants for their submissions this round, however.

[Charles Evans 25]

Lief Clennon wrote:

Charles Evans 25 wrote:

Given this round was supposed to test the contestants' abilities to create a stat block,

That was my impression going into it, too. But from the judges' comments on submissions, I realized that this was not the case. What they really wanted this round was a Bestiary-style presentation which makes the monster exciting to GMs and module writers. So if you give out some extra votes, use that as your criterion.

The round says 'create a monster stat block', not 'write a bestiary entry, even if the implication is that it's for a bestiary entry.

I did unbend a little at the end and put a vote in the direction of David Posener's Astrumal, however, which despite problems (CR most notably) and my general antipathy for 'things from space' was one of the entries of this Round which I most enjoyed.

[Richard A. Hunt]

I woulda gone with whatever entries would make future rounds more interesting myself, but that's just me. :)

[Dennis Baker]

Charles Evans 25 wrote:

Lief Clennon wrote:

Charles Evans 25 wrote:

Given this round was supposed to test the contestants' abilities to create a stat block,

That was my impression going into it, too. But from the judges' comments on submissions, I realized that this was not the case. What they really wanted this round was a Bestiary-style presentation which makes the monster exciting to GMs and module writers. So if you give out some extra votes, use that as your criterion.

The round says 'create a monster stat block', not 'write a bestiary entry, even if the implication is that it's for a bestiary entry.

I did unbend a little at the end and put a vote in the direction of David Posener's Astrumal, however, which despite problems (CR most notably) and my general antipathy for 'things from space' was one of the entries of this Round which I most enjoyed.

Well it's kind of interesting, the contestants instructions were:

Quote:

"Create a monster stat block in Pathfinder RPG format for another competitor's Top 16 monster entry as if you were creating a one-page monster's entry for a future Pathfinder RPG Bestiary."

However there were several things competitors were instructed that were contradictory to the voters expectations. For example, we were instructed to create a bestiary entry but the template given had no splash text before the creature the way the bestiary entries are formatted. One voter even complained about an entry lacking that text blurb when the contestant was following instructions. Some of the judges mentioned the flavor text being before entries in some cases but ultimately as a contestant I think you were better off ignoring the template and using the format people are more comfortable with.

[Matt Goodall]

A huge thank you to everyone who voted for me.
Thanks to Charles Evans 25, Nicolas Quimby, Seth White, Twings, taig, Light Dragon, Chef's Slaad, Illessa, Dance of Ruin, Mikhaila Burnett, Caedwyr, The Harbinger, Zeugma, and Neil Spicer, as well as everyone else who voted.

[Charles Evans 25]

I will add that by and large what were already the strongest concepts made it through to this round and that even where starting concepts might be considered weak, those who executed them found ways to improve on and shore up weaknesses of the original entries.

And as someone who occasionally posts querying about whether the AC of a villain is actually what is printed, or whether or not a villain's weapon was factored into their attack sequence correctly, I do perhaps have more of an interest in seeing stat blocks correctly presented than might be considered normal... :)

[Nicolas Quimby]

That's okay. I prettymuch skimmed stat blocks (only noting them if a judge or poster pointed out that something was off), mostly just looking for great unique abilities, and strong development (or re-imagining) of the original theme.

You and I probably even out in the long run. ;)