Unofficial Round 4 Exit Poll

[Ernest Mueller]

In this order:

Alexander MacLeod — Cloister of Saint Bethaene
Matthew McGee — False Tomb of the Crawling Pharaoh
Benjamin Bruck — The Peerless Menagerie of Ashpanjara Isle
Richard Hunt — The Green Barrow

[Illessa]

Oops! I wasn't counting bigmancheatle's vote for Matthew McGee (I managed to type an apostrophe into the cell instead of a 1 without noticing), hohum.

Vote breakdown here (.xls file compatible with open office)

Last Vote: Ernest Mueller
Total: 122 from 33 voters

1 Matthew McGee — False Tomb of the Crawling Pharaoh — 29
2 Alexander MacLeod — Cloister of Saint Bethaene — 27

3 Jim Groves — Seven Towers Observatory — 19
4 Benjamin Bruck — The Peerless Menagerie of Ashpanjara Isle — 16

5 Matt Goodall — The Lost Ziggurat of Amar Zedas — 12
6 Richard Hunt — The Green Barrow — 10
7 Matthew Morris — The Lost Winery — 5
8 Jesse Benner — Hassaldor's Span — 4

[Richard A. Hunt]

Tom Phillips wrote:

My last vote was tough, since my grading system created a tie between Richard and Matt Goodall. In the end, I went with Richard since he and I share a love for horrors that slither.

Thanks for your vote, Tom! :)

[Epervier]

my vote are:
Alexander MacLeod — Cloister of Saint Bethaene
Matthew McGee — False Tomb of the Crawling Pharaoh
Matthew Morris — The Lost Winery
Benjamin Bruck — The Peerless Menagerie of Ashpanjara Isle

[Chris Mortika]

I began by setting aside Matthew McGee's "False Tomb", for the reasons Lief spelled out in his comment. (WotC intellectual property.)

Then I voted for what I saw as the entries' strengths, ignoring any weaknesses:

The best (most well-made) map - Richard Hunt's Green Barrow
The best (most evocative) location, ignoring the encounter - Jesse Benner's Hassaldor's Span
The best (clearest and most powerful) prose - Jim Groves' Seven Towers Observatory
The best (balanced, fun, logical) encounter - Matt Goodall's Lost Ziggurat

If I had decided to choose the best overall entries, some of my votes would have been different.

[Jim Groves]

Good insights Chris, and thank you.

[Bigmancheatle]

Chris Mortika wrote:

I began by setting aside Matthew McGee's "False Tomb", for the reasons Lief spelled out in his comment. (WotC intellectual property.)

Hijacking thread.

No offense, but if that is your only reason I think it is really nit pick, it could be any color in its place and no one would have said anything about it...

Un-Hijacking thread.

[Matthew Morris]

Jim Groves wrote:

Good insights Chris, and thank you.

Of course you said that... he voted fro you :P

(j/k if anyone can't figure that out)

[Jim Groves]

By the way.. I had lunch yesterday with Ben Bruck. We talked over the contest and had a good time!

He's a gentleman and a fine fellow!

[Chris Mortika]

Bigmancheatle wrote:

[No offense, but if that is your only reason I think it is really nit pick, it could be any color in its place and no one would have said anything about it...

I understand your opinion. But this kind of thing matters. If we're looking at unspeakable abominations whose very existence shatters the sanity of those around them, there's only a couple of synonyms between calling them creatures from the Distant Kingdoms and saying they're from the Far Realms. The two terms are virtually identical, but one will get you in trouble. Underdark versus Darklands.

Matthew could have picked any other color, any other description, and it wouldn't have bumped against WotC IP. Sky gold. Green steel. Stellar bronze. The ore celestial.

If it slipped by you, then it might slip by an editor, and assuming Wizards has lawyers who like to defend their IP, that would land a publisher in serious trouble.

[Benjamin Bruck]

Glad to hear you had a good time Jim, I did as well!

Please, feel free to give me a call if you're ever in town again.

[Charles Evans 25]

Reporting my first vote:
Watcher (Jim Groves) - Seven Towers Observatory

[Eric Morton]

"A few people wrote:

stuff about copyright infringement

Would everyone who's not a contest judge and/or a practicing lawyer please stop leveling accusations of infringement. If you aren't able to issue contest rulings and/or actual legal advice, you have no legal basis for your opinion about this alleged copyright infringement based on possible allusions that may or may not indirectly reference obscure WotC material without using either proper names or specific game mechanics.

[Tom Phillips]

Eric Morton wrote:

"A few people wrote:

stuff about copyright infringement

Would everyone who's not a contest judge and/or a practicing lawyer please stop leveling accusations of infringement. If you aren't able to issue contest rulings and/or actual legal advice, you have no legal basis for your opinion about this alleged copyright infringement based on possible allusions that may or may not indirectly reference obscure WotC material without using either proper names or specific game mechanics.

Well said.

[Chris Mortika]

Eric,

I apologize if you think I'm making legal claims. That wsn't my intention. Bigmancheatle brought up the reasons that I'd cited for my voting, and I offered an explanation.

I'm not trying to gather anyone else to agree with me, and I'm certainly not suggesting that anyone "take action" of any sort. I'm sorry if I gave that opinion.

[Mikhaila Burnett]

My votes went to:

Alexander MacLeod
Matthew McGee
Richard Hunt

[Caedwyr]

Doesn't the Golarion setting have a Green Planet? It is not unusual to refer to planets within the same solar system as stars (Morning Star, Evening Star, Red Star, etc to use a few real-life and literary allusions).

[Lief Clennon]

Count me for:

Benjamin Bruck
Matthew McGee
Jim Groves
Richard Hunt

Edit: Oh, for the love of crap. Eric, please get off that hair trigger. Nobody is claiming infringement. I voted for him. It's a "Hey, watch that stuff," nothing more.

[Charles Evans 25]

My second vote has gone to:
Richard A. Hunt - The Green Barrow

[james knowles]

lol. i listed my choices here, and then almost forgot to actually vote. that would have been an epic fail for sure.

[htrajan]

Clearly, if Mr. McGee would be at fault for significant infringement, the judges would have decided to eliminate him from the contest. I would find it unlikely, given how well-versed they are in RPG literature, that they would be unable to spot anything that might be a red flag for plagiarism. It is up to them to enforce the rules (ie don't plagiarize), and up to us to vote based on content, not on the upholding of said rules.

Furthermore, all that is at issue here is a phrase "green star", not a concept, stat block or anything else of actual intellectual value. Anyone who calls this infringement of Wizards' IP should go look up the definition of IP. It seems Lief understands this because he still voted for Matt's entry based on the content, even though it was he who pointed out the correlation.

And for the record, I voted for Matt McGee's entry only.

[Goodtree]

Although I wanted to hold a grudge, I eventually decided that I shouldn't, so my votes went to:

Matthew McGee
Alex MacLeod
Matt Goodall
Jim Groves

[Charles Evans 25]

After much contemplation and agonising my third vote has gone to:
Alexander MacLeod - Cloister of Saint Bethaene

[Charles Evans 25]

My fourth and final vote of Round 4 has gone (by dice roll) to:
Matthew Morris - The Lost Winery

[Starglim]

My votes, in the order presented for voting:

Benjamin Bruck - The Peerless Menagerie of Ashpanjara Isle
Matt Goodall - The Lost Ziggurat of Amar Zedas
Matthew McGee - False Tomb of the Crawling Pharaoh
Matthew Morris - The Lost Winery

[Joel Flank]

Jesse Benner — Hassaldor's Span
Jim Groves — Seven Towers Observatory
Matthew McGee — False Tomb of the Crawling Pharaoh
Matthew Morris — The Lost Winery

Again, this round I didn't really have enough entries that I wanted to vote for, so I picked some based on previous work.

[Twings]

Two solid entries, and easy votes:
- Alexander MacLeod
- Jim Groves

Votes for people I want to see what they do in the next round:
- Benjamin Bruck
- Richard Hunt

Best of luck to all!

[Lucas Jung]

.
.
.
.

• Jesse Benner — Hassaldor's Span
  
• Jim Groves — Seven Towers Observatory
  
• Matt Goodall — The Lost Ziggurat of Amar Zedas
  
• Matthew McGee — False Tomb of the Crawling Pharaoh
  

Never before have I been so out of phase with the judges. I think this mainly happened because I cared more about description and ambiance than the encounters. I agree with the judges that the encounter was a weak point in The Lost Ziggurat of Amar Zedas, but I liked the rest of it so much that it didn't matter. I really liked the encounter in Hassaldor's Span, and was kind of surprised that it got hammered so badly by the judges.

[Urizen]

Just voted and in no particular order:

Alexander MacLeod
Jim Groves
Matthew McGee
Matthew Morris

[Chris Mortika]

Last Vote: Urizen
Total: 161 from 43 voters

1 Matthew McGee — False Tomb of the Crawling Pharaoh — 36
2 Alexander MacLeod — Cloister of Saint Bethaene — 33

3 Jim Groves — Seven Towers Observatory — 27
4 Benjamin Bruck — The Peerless Menagerie of Ashpanjara Isle — 20

5 Matt Goodall — The Lost Ziggurat of Amar Zedas — 15
5 Richard Hunt — The Green Barrow — 15
7 Matthew Morris — The Lost Winery — 9
8 Jesse Benner — Hassaldor's Span — 6

[Jason Nelson]

There were only two of the eight that made me want to vote for them on the merits of THIS round:

Alex M - The Cloister
Matt M - The Tomb of the Crawling Pharaoh

I contemplated just voting twice, but we got four votes so I'll use em.

One goes to the Green Barrow because it's a neat idea for an encounter location and an inventive and different idea for a map.

For the final vote, I was tempted to give one to the Ziggurat just for its extreme old-school map, but in the end I tossed it over to Ben B for the menagerie for its excellent backstory and as a residual vote on past accomplishments.

Next round, there can be only one. If you make it through, guys, bring your A game. No more second chances or take-backs.

[Nerrat Dei]

My Final standings.
McGee -- Vote Recieved
MacLeod -- Vote Recieved
Hunt -- Vote Recieved
Bruck -- Vote Recieved
Groves -- No Vote (Sorry!)
Goodall -- No Vote (Sorry!)
Morris -- No Vote (Sorry!)
Benner -- No Vote (Sorry!)

[Trevor Gulliver]

My votes in alphabetical order:

Benjamin Bruck — The Peerless Menagerie of Ashpanjara Isle
Matthew McGee — False Tomb of the Crawling Pharaoh
Jim Groves — Seven Towers Observatory
Richard Hunt — The Green Barrow

My predictions:
The Watcher is the one to watch next round.

[Mike Welham]

Here are my votes in alphabetical order:

Benjamin Bruck — The Peerless Menagerie of Ashpanjara Isle
Matt Goodall — The Lost Ziggurat of Amar Zedas
Matthew McGee — False Tomb of the Crawling Pharaoh
Richard Hunt — The Green Barrow

Good luck to everyone!

[Joshua Kitchens]

My votes:

Matthew McGee — False Tomb of the Crawling Pharaoh
Alexander MacLeod — Cloister of Saint Bethaene
Benjamin Bruck — The Peerless Menagerie of Ashpanjara Isle
Richard Hunt — The Green Barrow

G'luck to the contestants until tomorrow's reveal!

[Nicolas Quimby]

Richard Hunt — The Green Barrow
Matt Goodall — The Lost Ziggurat of Amar Zedas
Matthew McGee — False Tomb of the Crawling Pharaoh
Alexander MacLeod — Cloister of Saint Bethaene

Until I got to the False Tomb, I thought Richard Hunt had delivered my favorite location. Mr Goodall is the star of the hour (awesome encounter), but I still have to say I loved the Green Barrow. The presentation had serious issues, but it displayed the kind of creativity and vision that I, as a Paizo fan, want to see shining through in future APs.

And, as a spectator, it makes me want to see what this guy would do with 3,000 words.

[Mark Moreland]

That's it, folks! It's up to the bean counters now. Best of luck to the Top 8, one and all.

[+1 longsword]

Voted over the weekend, hadn't reported yet:

My first three votes went to my clear three favorites:

Richard Hunt — The Green Barrow
Alexander MacLeod — Cloister of Saint Bethaene
Benjamin Bruck — The Peerless Menagerie of Ashpanjara Isle

I meant to make the tougher decision on a fourth finalist today, but the deadline passed.

[Joshua Kitchens]

Last Vote: +1 longsword
Total: 184 from 50 voters

1 Matthew McGee — False Tomb of the Crawling Pharaoh — 42
2 Alexander MacLeod — Cloister of Saint Bethaene — 38

3 Jim Groves — Seven Towers Observatory — 28
4 Benjamin Bruck — The Peerless Menagerie of Ashpanjara Isle — 26

5 Richard Hunt — The Green Barrow — 22
6 Matt Goodall — The Lost Ziggurat of Amar Zedas — 17
7 Matthew Morris — The Lost Winery — 9
8 Jesse Benner — Hassaldor's Span — 6

[Seabyrn]

Good luck everyone!

(I'm curious to see how well the exit poll matches up with reality too... maybe not everyone is posting their votes here?)

[Taoish]

There are definitely two that rose to the top on this round, but congrats to everyone whether or not you advance this time.

My Votes:

Alexander MacLeod - Cloister of Saint Bethaene
Matthew McGee - False Tomb of the Crawling Pharaoh
Jim Groves - Seven Towers Observatory
Richard Hunt - The Green Barrow

Fall seven times, stand up eight.  ~ Japanese Proverb

[Chef's Slaad]

Seabyrn wrote:

Good luck everyone!

(I'm curious to see how well the exit poll matches up with reality too... maybe not everyone is posting their votes here?)

I hope so. 50 votes seems a bit... meager.

[gbonehead]

Seabyrn wrote:

Good luck everyone!

(I'm curious to see how well the exit poll matches up with reality too... maybe not everyone is posting their votes here?)

Chef's Slaad wrote:

I hope so. 50 votes seems a bit... meager.

50 votes is a bit meager, but historically the exit polls have been pretty darn close to the actual results.

That's one of the reasons I never look until after I've voted.

[Mike Kimmel]

I for one have not posted my vote here... so there's at least one you haven't tallied!

[cwslyclgh]

Mike Kimmel wrote:

I for one have not posted my vote here... so there's at least one you haven't tallied!

doesn't really matter, as long as we got a true representative sample of the voting population the true results should be pretty close to what is predicted.

[Curaigh]

cwslyclgh wrote:

Mike Kimmel wrote:

I for one have not posted my vote here... so there's at least one you haven't tallied!

doesn't really matter, as long as we got a true representative sample of the voting population the true results should be pretty close to what is predicted.

True representative is the key word there. 1st and 2nd are far enough ahead and 7th and 8th are fare enough behind, it may not matter much. But With only five votes between 4th and 5th places a few votes could change these. More importantly only 9 points separate 3rd from 6th in this poll. That is potentially only FIVE voters! :)

moot point but have to pass the time somehow O:)

[Ziv Wities]

:anticipatory nail-biting:

[Mike Kimmel]

Looks like the poll was not quite accurate this time around...!

[Mike Welham]

The top three from the exit poll are in.

And, yay!, two of the people I voted for made it in.

[Alex Martin]

I am actually a little amazed by these results. Two of the four don't surprise me, but I thought for sure Richard would be in among them.

Good luck to (4) finalists. To the rest, well done work in any case.