Advice to the top 32

[Charles Evans 25]

Having followed the contest for some years, I thought I'd take the liberty of posting some advice to those who make the top 32, based on some of the things which I've seen.

1) Keep in mind that if you plan on working right up until the last minute before a deadline, then you leave your submission for that round a hostage to fortune. Your computer may suffer Blue Screen Death, the power/phonelines to your house may be destroyed by weather or manmade disaster, or some other catastrophe may befall.

2) Keep backup copies of your submissions on a medium other than your computer hard-drive, and regularly update them. Viruses or random hard-drive corruption suck, even more so when you're on a deadline and there are several thousand words involved.

3) Always copy posts before hitting preview or submit post. These days the messageboard bug seems to have mostly gone into abeyance, but posts do still occasionally 'get eaten'.

4) There will almost certainly be a round where contestants must present a map. One of Paizo's cartographers is there on the list of judges, and (given what has happened in previous years) my thought is that such a round will likely take the format of design a lair or design an encounter.

5) Pay attention to what's going on in other contestants' threads/ entries. There may be things in their submissions that spark ideas for you or that they post (once voting closes) that you can learn from, and in the past two years there has been a 'take someone else's idea and run with it' round.

6) Following on from point 4, the moment you know you've made the top 32 you can start preparing ideas for future rounds which are to come. Even if Paizo do not announce (whether in public or by private email to contestants) the precise nature of future rounds it should still be possible to make an educated guess at what may be to come and sketch out some loose ideas. If nothing else, you know that the last round is 'present an idea for a 32 page module'.

7) Do not infringe the contest rules, especially when it comes to not commenting on one of your own entries whilst voting for a round is still open. If you're lucky a judge may spot and simply remove anything which breaks the rules, but the 2010 contest saw a DQ for a contestant who commented on their own entry whilst voting was still open. Yes, posters may very well write things that make you want to scream and tear your hair (if any) out, but confidentiality contracts exist in the world of business and you should be looking to show Paizo you can maintain a professional and dignified silence when required to do so. If you're fortunate and a post is genuinely unfair, a non-contestant browsing the contest threads may pop up with a post to defend you or refute a point. There are a lot of intelligent, decent, posters around on the Paizo boards.

8) It's probably safest to avoid your entries getting too involved in the minutia of major pieces of Golarion canon. Even if you think you're correct about a detail one of the judges may well have a different reading of things to you. In the 2010 contest there was an unfortunate incident where a contestant asserted something to the effect that Cayden Cailean had tried to commit suicide by Starstone and was taken to task for this.
Keep in mind that even when there seems to be some latitude to make things up about a major piece of canon that Paizo may already have plans for the future already involving it which you ideas would upset.

9) For that matter it's probably a good idea not to mention the Starstone or anything to do with it at all unless a round specifically requires that you do so...

10) Oh, and good luck. To mangle a gladiatoral quote, you, who are about to die, I salute you. Oh, and on a humorous note, hello again to those of you who've made it back into the top 32 after placing in it in a previous year. I look forward to shredding your entries again.. ;)

[Charles Evans 25]

Hah, and that's what I get for not double-checking stuff. :D Paizo have actually posted in advance of Round 2 this time around what (in broad outline) the theme of all the rounds will be. So, get working away on ideas for possible archetypes right now...

[Matthew Morris]

Charles Evans 25 wrote:

Hah, and that's what I get for not double-checking stuff. :D Paizo have actually posted in advance of Round 2 this time around what (in broad outline) the theme of all the rounds will be. So, get working away on ideas for possible archetypes right now...

Hmm, rule 11, read all the rules? ;-)

[Matthew Morris]

Rule 12.

If you make it into the top 32, and don't advance, keep writing. Work on the other rounds, it's good practice, and, under the OGL, anything you write you can publish and share (google docs is your friend for this)

[Freehold DM]

Matthew Morris wrote:

Rule 12.

If you make it into the top 32, and don't advance, keep writing. Work on the other rounds, it's good practice, and, under the OGL, anything you write you can publish and share (google docs is your friend for this)

Like the song says, "Never Gonna Stop".

[Charles Evans 25]

A couple of late updates:
13) [channel basil fawlty] Don't mention the Slor![/channel basil fawlty]
Seriously, though, don't. It was a (Ghostbusters) Easter egg which wasn't spotted by James Jacobs until after the first edition of the Campaign Setting had gone to print. James Jacobs has said that the Slor is gone from the revised Campaign Setting.

14) Paladins of Asmodeus (Pathfinder #29, Mother of Flies) are a further land-mine, being something else which seemed a good idea at the time and which slipped past the editorial pen.

James Jacobs (responding to a question about paladins of Asmodeus staying in the setting) wrote:

Only if your GM, or if you AS the GM, want them to be in the setting.

Officially, though, they're not going to be mentioned again in any books and if we reprint that article about Asmodeus the mention of his paladins will be removed.

Also of possible interest to this year's top 32, Chris Mortika posted his own thoughts on posting in response to feedback and last year's unfortunate DQ on another thread: *Link*

[Charles Evans 25]

And to anyone unclear on semicolon and colon usage, I recommend a post Chris Mortika made last year on his Round 2 thread: *Link*
Okay, that's it for now (I hope); even if I do think of anything else to say, I doubt I'll get it posted before the top 32 are announced and Round 2 gets seriously under way...

[Azmahel]

Charles Evans 25 wrote:

And to anyone unclear on semicolon and colon usage, I recommend a post Chris Mortika made last year on his Round 2 thread: *Link*

Okay, that's it for now (I hope); even if I do think of anything else to say, I doubt I'll get it posted before the top 32 are announced and Round 2 gets seriously under way...

also listed. Its amazing what you find between the cracks ;)

[Damien Mc Gurrell]

I've found Google Docs is a handy enough way to have your work in a meltdown free separate location.

[Charles Evans 25]

This one's more a thought to anyone looking back on this thread from future contests. It's a bit late for 2011. :(
You've made the top 32, and a lot of people have said a lot of very nice things (as likely as not) about your Round 1 entry.
Don't ease up now.
And I hope you've been practising your mechanics and game-balance... ;)

[Scott Fernandez]

Charles Evans 25 wrote:

And to anyone unclear on semicolon and colon usage, I recommend a post Chris Mortika made last year on his Round 2 thread: *Link*

Okay, that's it for now (I hope); even if I do think of anything else to say, I doubt I'll get it posted before the top 32 are announced and Round 2 gets seriously under way...

Thanks Charles (and Chris Mortika) your link has come in very handy for this round!

--Schoolhouse Vrock

[Charles Evans 25]

Just saw the following useful 'lesson learned' post on another 2011 thread (*link*):

Matthew Morris wrote:

Sean McGowan wrote:

Matthew Morris wrote:

If you hand draw maps, do not use blue line graph paper. As I found out, the lines don't scan.

Specifically because of your troubles last year, and remembering that issue in particular, I gave my scanner a trial run on the (blue lined) graph paper I have this weekend. (Just in case things go well.) It worked, actually, which was a nice relief. I did scan at a crazy high resolution, though, so maybe that's a difference.

So what I think I'm saying here is: if there's a possibility of being in the next round (i.e., you're a contestant now), and you're planning on hand drawing and scanning, test that scanner right now to be sure all is well.

Mine worked at a high resolution too, it's when you drop it down to the required resolution (from last year) that it disappeared.

** spoiler omitted **

So: Contestants beware of blue-lined graph paper in any maps round!