Under Round 1 Rules
It says you can be disqualified if your entry is not anonymous.
What exactly does this mean?
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Star Voter Season 6
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When you submit the entry, it gets to the judges, sans nickname, e-mail etc. So the judges don't know if the knickers of knocking are yours or mine or Neil's (Neil and I can't enter, but the point stands)
Now if I made a wondrous item that was called 'Morris's Coda', that's going to point to me.
Or if I put my own name in the description or something.
The idea is to remove the image of any bias. That way they can't be influenced by 'Well Bill just missed the cut last year' or 'I liked his work in the final 8, lets golden ticket him to give him another shot.
(Or, 'Oh gods, Matt's trying again, and with a mapping item to boot. I don't care how cool it is, he's not getting another tag on his name!' for that matter) :-)
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Under Round 1 Rules
It says you can be disqualified if your entry is not anonymous.
What exactly does this mean?
The first rule of Fight Club is, you do not talk about Fight Club.
Seriously though, when your item is submitted to the judges your name is witheld from them. If you were to submit your item and then go on the boards talking in great detail about your Bowtie of Awesomeness it would ruin your item's anonymity and result in a disqualification. Also, obviously, do not include your name or any other potential identifying references (aliases or screenames even) in the text of the item. Don't include "designer notes" (just a bad idea in general) and specifically don't sign off "Sincerely, Matthias." Stuff like that. Not saying you would do that, just giving examples.
Somewhat related, in later rounds your submissions are open to public voting and will be posted in threads on these boards for public scrutiny. DO NOT comment on these threads or attempt to defend/clarify your design! You can be disqualified for that and someone actually has been. The most you can do is post some sort of pre-approved blurb, something to the effect of "Thanks for the comments, vote for my submission!" I'm sure the actual wording will be posted in the rules for the appropriate round.
Good luck!
EDIT: Ninja'd by MM!
Thanks... I was wondering how they would attribute each entry to it's creator while having true anonymity.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
,
Star Voter Season 6
|
Somewhat related, in later rounds your submissions are open to public voting and will be posted in threads on these boards for public scrutiny. DO NOT comment on these threads or attempt to defend/clarify your design! You can be disqualified for that and someone actually has been. The most you can do is post some sort of pre-approved blurb, something ot the effect of "Thanks for the comments, vote for my submission!" I'm sure the actual wording will be posted in the rules for the appropriate round.
Good luck!
EDIT: Ninja'd by MM!
If I may add, after the voting is closed you can defend your item, I encourage it. I did after all my entries. That said, be careful about commenting on your, or anyone else's items. One bad turn of phrase may sour people on voting for your item or subsequent round entry. "Matt called Neil a poopy head! I'm not voting for him!"
"Matt called Neil a poopy head! I'm not voting for him!"
I'm not only NOT going to vote for him, I'm going to make sure he NEVER makes it into the contest in the first place!
Oh.
Wait.
You made Top 8 last year. So you can't compete anyway.
Oh well.
But if you were eligible, hoo boy! I'd really have your number!
Oh.
Wait.
Each submission is anonymous. So I wouldn't know which item was yours.
Crap!
What's the perk of being a judge if you can't squash people's dreams and enact terrible retribution on those who hurl insults at you?!
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On a more serious note, the entries are all anonymous via the submission tool that'll go live on Dec. 3rd. As long as you don't make the mistake of 1) including some kind of identifying text in your submission that indicates who you are, or 2) going on the messageboards and trumpeting how awesome your item is and then identifying it by name or function...it should come to the judges with no indication of who submitted it. That's what keeps the contest anonymous. I highly suspect there'll be a fair number of friends from the boards or PaizoCon or past RPG Superstar competitions who'll submit again. And I wouldn't want to be influenced by seeing their name attached to their submission.
Hope that helps,
--Neil
Under Round 1 Rules
It says you can be disqualified if your entry is not anonymous.
What exactly does this mean?
The other posters in this thread have this pretty well covered. Don't put your name, email address, screen name, etc in your entry. Don't go posting details about your item on the forums.
I just want to add 'And don't post details about your item anywhere else on the internet, either.' We had at least one entry disqualified last year because the submitter went and posted his entry on his blog, and the judges found out because people were Twittering about it.
The judges are people too, and often frequent other sites besides Paizo.com. Don't think that just because you posted your information somewhere else that they won't find it, either on purpose or by accident.