I'm curious as to whether contestants from the final 32 onwards are allowed to include commentary (purpose, design, considerations, balance arguments, etc) in their submissions.
Thanks :)
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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I'm curious as to whether contestants from the final 32 onwards are allowed to include commentary (purpose, design, considerations, balance arguments, etc) in their submissions.
Thanks :)
5. During public voting rounds, contestants are prohibited from any public discussion that could be considered as adding to, expanding upon, or clarifying the content of their current submission. This applies to (but is not limited to) interviews, personal blogs, and messageboard posts on paizo.com or elsewhere, including the paizo.com discussion thread for the entry itself. Any such discussion may result in disqualification, in the sole discretion of the judges and/or Paizo.
Submissions should be able to stand on their own. I had to throw out 1 of my ideas I have been working on because it would cause a rules headache and/or riot.
RPG Superstar 2013
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Dedicated Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
aka Steven T. Helt
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You ought to be able to write a submission that makes players want to whip out their character sheets and get it on. Not only that, but eating up word count on explanations is going to make it impossible to develop your idea any.
Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8
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It would be nice to be able to explain the reasons (especially when it comes to balance) that you chose to do what you did with an archetype, but at the same time any idea can sound legitimate with the right explaination. Otherwise munchkins would have gone extinct long ago. I think I like the idea of how challenging it is to just throw your idea out there and see if it can survive on it's own merit.
Then again I'm an overconfident prick who's already planning for every tier of the competition as if I was already chosen, lol.
Think of it this way: When you're an actual freelancer and you design material for the public, you don't get to inject your purpose, design considerations, balance arguments, etc. into the finished product. Your work has to stand on its own. This contest simulates exactly that. And, although some contestants want to include design notes to help prop up their work, it doesn't help. It just wastes word count. And it makes you come across like you're a) unsure of what you've done because you feel the need to justify it, b) over-confident in your knowledge of the rules because you feel the need to demonstrate it, or c) pandering for votes by trying to convince people you know your stuff on the off-chance your actual work didn't demonstrate it enough.
None of that is a good thing.
Remember, the public (and that includes the voters during RPG Superstar) will form their own opinions of your written work and the design considerations and balance they perceive in it. They don't get to have you (or your design notes) with them when they assess your work. Thus, it's up to you to make sure your actual designs demonstrate quality. Not the added explanations you try to glom onto them.
Now, that said...once your work is published (and, in this case, voted upon), then you can come back afterward and discuss it to your heart's content. In the real world of freelancing, sometimes that means engaging those who bought your product here on Paizo's messageboards. Or maybe at a convention. Or via a podcast interview, blog, etc. For the purposes of RPG Superstar, you can do some of that after the voting has closed for your item. But not before. That's because voting shouldn't be swayed by anything other than your actual work.
My two cents,
--Neil
Thanks; consider me helped :)
The questioned stemmed from me reading (a while back and only in passing) that some contestants had submitted explanations in their work back in 2009 or 2010. I wasn't sure if there was a desirable component to it or not.
...that said, sometimes it would have been nice if there was a helpful little box of "This is what we were thinking" in the rule books. Sometimes adventure paths or chronicles/companions feature such a blurp, and it might be worth considering in a more fundamental way in the core product line.
Of course, without it we get the delightful division between the creationists-read-the-lines-exactly-as-written and the relativists-read-the-mind-of-the-(design)-gods.
What if they did a stand alone book explaining some of their thoughts during the creation process. You know, something nice for a geek to use as a coffee table book.
I'd read it.
You know, I would too. I think such a book should cover the 10 or so most contentious topics on the forums and have a reasonably complex in-play example; along with a breakdown of the rules in question and the design philosophy behind them.
Topics could/should include:
- Stealth
- Magic crafting (especially Master Craftsman and other cases where requirements are not all met)
- Perceived overpoweredness of certain abilities (witch with sleep hex)
- ??
A few books have 'behind the scenes' or 'behind the veil' to differing rules. I think you will most likely find those, as Neil said, in interviews. Sadly there is no special features options on these DVDs. That being said, if you wanted to do a biography or history or-making-of of Paizo or RPG SS, you could probably get the compatibility approval easy enough. :)
...that said, sometimes it would have been nice if there was a helpful little box of "This is what we were thinking" in the rule books. Sometimes adventure paths or chronicles/companions feature such a blurp, and it might be worth considering in a more fundamental way in the core product line.
Exactly. The 3e Unearthed Arcana did the same thing, as have a few of Monte Cook's supplements. In moderation these asides are EXCELLENT contributions to the value of the whole, and I love the fact that this is an industry where this sort of producer/consumer dialogue takes place. Because, I feel, there really ISN'T any fundamental difference between "producers" and "consumers" here. We're all game designers to some extent or another, from those who research an original spell every now and then and/or come up with a cool backstory for a halforc oracle, to those who write entire game systems and expansive fantasy worlds just for their friends.
That said, moderation is key, or else the talking-about-your-content would start to drown out your actual content. You don't see a sidebar attached to EVERY archetype or wondrous item in the APG*, for instance. If you only have 300 (or 450) words, well, you should ideally have better things to do with those words than explain yourself (and getting to add more words OUTSIDE your wordcount would just be unfair).
* But you do here. ;)
Probably the best "Designer Notes" I've seen are in the 3.5 Red Hand of Doom. Like Hydro noted, they are fairly infrequent, yet give SO MUCH insight into what makes (and possibly breaks) the encounters. Seriously, pick that book up just for the notes.
TM
Red Hand of Doom is also one of the best written modules out there, in my opinion.
True story.
TM
What if they did a stand alone book explaining some of their thoughts during the creation process. You know, something nice for a geek to use as a coffee table book.
I'd read it.
You know, I would too. I think such a book should cover the 10 or so most contentious topics on the forums and have a reasonably complex in-play example; along with a breakdown of the rules in question and the design philosophy behind them.
Topics could/should include:
- Stealth
- Magic crafting (especially Master Craftsman and other cases where requirements are not all met)
- Perceived overpoweredness of certain abilities (witch with sleep hex)
- ??
Yeah, I'd geek out and buy it too. A run through on how RPGs have developed from the humble beginnings of Gygax could be a good read. A PF focused book would be an interesting read if it went through the design philosphies and what they wanted to do with 3.5 material. A run through the major changes and a chapter or two on game balancing should make for a real interesting read.
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Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8
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There is a book like that for D&D. I think it has a foreward by Wil Weaton... Trying to remember pre-coffee this morning is rough. But I think there is one that was for the 25 (30?) year anniversary of D&D.
It was awesome, and that's why I'd like to see one for Pathfinder.
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There is a book like that for D&D. I think it has a foreward by Wil Weaton... Trying to remember pre-coffee this morning is rough. But I think there is one that was for the 25 (30?) year anniversary of D&D.
It was awesome, and that's why I'd like to see one for Pathfinder.
30 Years of Adventure, with a foreward by Vin Deisel. It was a decent enough book, content-wise. The internal layout was about as reader unfriendly as you could get, though. I don't think there was a single page that had the text columns running top to bottom; they did a 45 degree slant all through the book. Too much style, not enough substance, IMO.
Three years later, Atlas Games and Robin D. Laws put out 40 Years of Gen Con, and I enjoyed that a lot more. Same amount of nostalgia and it plumbed some of the same history, but the layout was readable. I can't honestly say I've ever gone back to 30 Years of Adventure, but I pick up the book about Gen Con and re-read sections of it often.
One last shot at 30 Years of Adventure: I didn't think it was possible to make Larry Elmore's artwork look awful. But they did it. Whatever possessed them to make it monochrome and then (on the hardcover version I have, anyway) hide it behind a fogged mylar cover? If I were Mr. Elmore, that would make me want to punch D&D in the face. In. The. Face. Yeesh!