Chief Technical Officer
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I wish I'd remembered to post this *before* the contest started, but there are a couple of things that some folks do with their submissions that the judges find annoying, but that we won't actually ding you for... this year.
Do not attempt to use BBCode in the Title field of the submission form. It does not work. And if you'd previewed your submission before you submitted it, you'd have *noticed* that it does not work. And the fact that you didn't notice makes us think you weren't paying attention to what you were doing, which is never a good thing.
And it's funny: nobody ever tries to use the code to italicize their item name (which makes at least *some* sense)—instead, folks always try use it to *bold* the item name. Which comes across, to me at least, as an attempt to make your item stand out in a list of items, which is cheesy.
Which leads me to my second tip, the ALL CAPS ITEM TITLE. As with anything else, ALL CAPS MAKES IT SEEM LIKE YOU'RE SHOUTING. Which is cheesy.
Don't do these things. There are no rules against them, so we won't reject your entry for doing them, but trust me—they do *not* work in your favor.
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I wish I'd remembered to post this *before* the contest started, but there are a couple of things that some folks do with their submissions that the judges find annoying, but that we won't actually ding you for... this year.
Do not attempt to use BBCode in the Title field of the submission form. It does not work. And if you'd previewed your submission before you submitted it, you'd have *noticed* that it does not work. And the fact that you didn't notice makes us think you weren't paying attention to what you were doing, which is never a good thing.
And it's funny: nobody ever tries to use the code to italicize their item name (which makes at least *some* sense)—instead, folks always try use it to *bold* the item name. Which comes across, to me at least, as an attempt to make your item stand out in a list of items, which is cheesy.
Which leads me to my second tip, the ALL CAPS ITEM TITLE. As with anything else, ALL CAPS MAKES IT SEEM LIKE YOU'RE SHOUTING. Which is cheesy.
Don't do these things. There are no rules against them, so we won't reject your entry for doing them, but trust me—they do *not* work in your favor.
Wait. I'm confused. When you say they try italicize their item name. Do you mean in the Title Field or within the description area?
In the Title field.
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Chief Technical Officer
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Okay... I think I've worked out why people are putting BBCode bold tags in the item name field.
The BBCode template we've given you has a field for "Item Name," and the entry form itself has two fields: "Wondrous Item Name" (for the subject) and "Description" (for the body). I can see why some people think they should cut the name of the item out of the templated text they've written (where it's surrounded by bold tags) and paste that in one place and the rest in the other.
We'll make this more clear for next year. But the way it's *supposed* to work is that you put the item name, without any formatting, into the Item Name field, and the complete item entry, *including* the formatted item name, into the main field.
Again, we're not going to ding anyone for doing this, as we realize that our intent was not clear. We also won't be changing anything related to the rules or the entry form on the fly, since some people have already submitted items... but we'll make it more clear next year.
... but we'll make it more clear next year.
Or we'll try to, at least... if only so people can still ignore it. ;)
I can assure you both... that some of us will not be ignoring it. (Assuming we see it in time!) Thanks for everything, Sean and Vic!
But what if it's a HORN OF SHOUTING?
I'll move on now...
I wish I'd remembered to post this *before* the contest started, but there are a couple of things that some folks do with their submissions that the judges find annoying, but that we won't actually ding you for... this year.
Do not attempt to use BBCode in the Title field of the submission form. It does not work. And if you'd previewed your submission before you submitted it, you'd have *noticed* that it does not work. And the fact that you didn't notice makes us think you weren't paying attention to what you were doing, which is never a good thing.
And it's funny: nobody ever tries to use the code to italicize their item name (which makes at least *some* sense)—instead, folks always try use it to *bold* the item name. Which comes across, to me at least, as an attempt to make your item stand out in a list of items, which is cheesy.
Which leads me to my second tip, the ALL CAPS ITEM TITLE. As with anything else, ALL CAPS MAKES IT SEEM LIKE YOU'RE SHOUTING. Which is cheesy.
Don't do these things. There are no rules against them, so we won't reject your entry for doing them, but trust me—they do *not* work in your favor.
I completely did the bold thing because I saw it in alot of examples.
Drat.
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Well, considering that I have been reading a bunch of judge's voting posts while putting together the Winner's PDF, I can assure everyone of this. The judge's may call out errors in submissions, but they do not ultimately mean an Auto-Reject. Plenty of winners from previous years have had issues. As long as the submission is Superstar worthy, slight errors are forgiven. Don't fret over it too much.
Now that I read this I think I screwed up when I submitted my item. I think I put the item's name in the title bloack but not down below with the rest of the description.
AHHHHH!
Don't worry Swamp Druid, as stated before in a previous thread it won't be held against you.
...The judge's may call out errors in submissions, but they do not ultimately mean an Auto-Reject. Plenty of winners from previous years have had issues. As long as the submission is Superstar worthy, slight errors are forgiven.
That said, I'll add that slight errors are being given a little more defining weight this year (at least by me) considering all the effort that went into advising everyone, providing a straight-up template for use, and the fact that there have been three prior years and 96 different items from which to learn the proper format and presentation of a wondrous item submission.
Yes, those previous items didn't get everything right. But, in almost every circumstance, the bits and pieces that were wrong with them were cited in the ensuing discussion. Superstar designers should be paying attention to that. They should get it right. Will everyone who makes the Top 32 this year manage 100% execution on the proper format? Probably not. But those who get more of it right than others, certainly do themselves a favor.
This is important. Neatness counts. Screwing up with a subpar presentation is the equivalent of submitting a resume in a totally unexpected format or with several typos on it. That kind of gaffe doesn't speak well of you as a potential freelance designer in the future. So get it right.
Just my two cents,
--Neil
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Star Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 9
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This advice reminds me of when I first entered the Master DM Competitions back in the day on the WotC boards. In every competition someone, usually a newby, would do some horrendous piece of formatting, like color coding the various parts of their text for 'easier' reading, lydexsic spelling, or 13 different text formats.
It was always 'interesting'.
Which leads me to my second tip, the ALL CAPS ITEM TITLE. As with anything else, ALL CAPS MAKES IT SEEM LIKE YOU'RE SHOUTING. Which is cheesy.
WELL THERE GOES MY CHANCE OF WINNING...
I did the all caps thing before seeing this. It's the standard format for an item name in the pathfinder core rules which I tried to follow. I imagine most folks who did so were thinking the same thing rather than some attempt at gaining additional attention.
I imagine all the entries receive a look from at least one of the judges regardless of their flash or lack there of.
I'm glad its not being held against anyone. :)
That's great.... Then why do they include it in the suggested format.... *BOO*
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That's great.... Then why do they include it in the suggested format.... *BOO*
Because the format is for the complete item, which you paste into the big text box of your entry. It's not for the title of your post (like starting a new message board thread). Nothing in the R1 rules say "copy and paste this into the title of your submission."
And if you'd use the Preview button (like the R1 rules say you can), you'd see any weird formatting like putting [b] in the title.
Here is a screenshot of what it looks like when you hit "Preview." Looking at the preview helps you catch obvious errors like having [b] in the message title, or not bolding headers, or forgetting a end-bold tag so your entire item is in bold, and so on.
Preview is your friend!
But don't worry, I'll make sure the R2 rules have a separate line for the Subject so this is less likely to happen. (Oh, it'll still happen for some competitors, I'm almost willing to bet money on it.)
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Champion Voter Season 6, Champion Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Champion Voter Season 9
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Which leads me to my second tip, the ALL CAPS ITEM TITLE. As with anything else, ALL CAPS MAKES IT SEEM LIKE YOU'RE SHOUTING. Which is cheesy.Well, so much for my
Does it allow you to make a unarmed attack (kick) and add a bullrush attempt at a +2 to the CMB?
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8
aka Benchak the Nightstalker
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Well, it won't give you any better idea of what the preview screen looks like, but for those who can't follow Sean's link, here's his item;
SEAN REYNOLD'S SWORD OF KILLING HITLER - 320 WORDS
Once there was this sword, created by an elf named Gandalf, and he was a badass. He used this sword to kill, like, a bajillion evil dudes. The sword gave him +2 to Strength, +2 to Agility, and +3 on will checks. His name was Gandalf. He decided one day that he was going to kill Hitler, so he did. This is that sword. Now the sword is tainted by the blood of Hitler, but is still a handy tool for killing goblins and stuff. The sword is +3 vs, goblins, can cast fly at will, and dimension door once per day. If the hero breaks the sword over his knee, it sends him back in time to 1940 wherever Hitler is at that time. The sword reforms in the past and is no longer broken. The hero can then kill Hitler. And the sword brings all the hero's allies with him when it time travels. Once you kill Hitler, you automatically return to your own time, except it's changed because Hitler is now dead, so everything he did after 1940 never happened and the timeline changed.
The sword is a mighty broadsword, made of adamantine and inscribed with lyrics to several Metallica songs, including "Enter Sandman." Runes on one side depict the hero valiantly slaying Hitler, his hair flowing heroically in the wind. The hilt is wrapped in fine Corinthian leather. The pommel is made of adamantine and looks like Angelina Jolie from 199, before she was married to Billy Bob Thornton. I mean, smokin' hot, you'd totally make out with this pommel if it were real.
The sword has an evil alignment and wants to rule Germany, but as long as the hero is good, the sword's ego cannot take control of him. It sometimes curses in German but otherwise does not speak.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, sound burst, wielder must kill Hitler; Cost 10,000 gp
Umm....
...To enter, submit an original wondrous item using the format shown in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook ...Opening my print copy of the core rulebook (first edition) I find all the wondrous items have their names at the top of their entry given in a font that looks like it's all UPPER CASE.
It seems to me some people might have been looking in print editions and using that as the format for entries...Edit:
I don't know if this has been changed in subsequent (print) editions, but looking closely at the current PRD it does seem to me that capitalization of the font does occur there. At a very hurried glance the PRD font could still be taken to be just uniform upper case though...
It seems to me that this came up in discussions prior to last year's contest as well. I think the font Paizo is using for item names looks as though it is all-upper case when printed, but isn't actually upper case when typed out as unformatted text. Most likely there's a behind-the-scenes reason for this that makes some poor guy's life easier, somewhere deep in the dungeons of Paizo where they jail the editors and layout people.
EDIT: I am a little curious as to why the template for submissions doesn't include tags for italicizing the names of spells used in the Construction section. I still followed the template to a T, because that's what it's there for, but nonetheless I wondered if I was failing some hidden test by doing so. :)
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2011 Top 16
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Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7
aka primemover003
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Umm....
...To enter, submit an original wondrous item using the format shown in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook ...Opening my print copy of the core rulebook (first edition) I find all the wondrous items have their names at the top of their entry given in a font that looks like it's all UPPER CASE.
It seems to me some people might have been looking in print editions and using that as the format for entries...Edit:
I don't know if this has been changed in subsequent (print) editions, but looking closely at the current PRD it does seem to me that capitalization of the font does occur there. At a very hurried glance the PRD font could still be taken to be just uniform upper case though...
It seems to me that this came up in discussions prior to last year's contest as well. I think the font Paizo is using for item names looks as though it is all-upper case when printed, but isn't actually upper case when typed out as unformatted text. Most likely there's a behind-the-scenes reason for this that makes some poor guy's life easier, somewhere deep in the dungeons of Paizo where they jail the editors and layout people.
EDIT: I am a little curious as to why the template for submissions doesn't include tags for italicizing the names of spells used in the Construction section. I still followed the template to a T, because that's what it's there for, but nonetheless I wondered if I was failing some hidden test by doing so. :)
Ooo, I italicized the spells too... oh well here's crossing my talons!
--Vrock, Stock, and Barrel
Spells should always be italicized (and lowercased...unless they begin a sentence or contain a proper noun). Doesn't matter if they appear in the description or the construction requirements or an adventure manuscript.
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Chief Technical Officer
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I am a little curious as to why the template for submissions doesn't include tags for italicizing the names of spells used in the Construction section. I still followed the template to a T, because that's what it's there for, but nonetheless I wondered if I was failing some hidden test by doing so. :)
You should always italicize spell names. The tags are not included in the template because you are *not* supposed to italicize the comma in between multiple spells, and if we had said something like "{i}ZZspell1{/i}, {i}ZZspell2{/i}" some folks might think they have to have more than one spell, or exactly two spells...
Also, we don't show by example in the template that if you mention spell names in the body they should be italicized too... you should just know that spell names are italicized.
Previous year winners did not italicize names and, technically, you should "just know" to format the input as it would appear in the book entirely anyway.