Do I ever love and despise morning shifts. On the one hand, I'll arrive home EXACTLY when the winners of this round will be announced. On the other, I had to get up at 6 Am to be at work for 8 Am.
Can't really sympathize with you there. I'm an early riser. I get up at 5AM every morning. Which played havoc with my internal body clock when I flew out for my first PaizoCon.
Do I ever love and despise morning shifts. On the one hand, I'll arrive home EXACTLY when the winners of this round will be announced. On the other, I had to get up at 6 Am to be at work for 8 Am.Can't really sympathize with you there. I'm an early riser. I get up at 5AM every morning. Which played havoc with my internal body clock when I flew out for my first PaizoCon.
Ugh. A morning person. Where's my fisticup?
Then again, I'm a natural nightowl. Even with a 6 Am morning I can't go to bed prior to 2 Am, unless I'm sick. I did roofing for awhile, and I was up til 2 Am every night despite the work I was doing and that I was only getting 4 hours sleep every night. Even if I tried to crash before 2 Am, I wouldn't fall asleep until after 2 Am.
Thinking about it though. Once I get out to BC, if I don't try and adjust my sleeping schedule, I'd go to bed at a decent hour every night. 11 PM instead of 2 Am. hehe ^^;
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Thinking about it though. Once I get out to BC, if I don't try and adjust my sleeping schedule, I'd go to bed at a decent hour every night. 11 PM instead of 2 Am. hehe ^^;
As somebody who grew up in Ontario before moving to Alberta, I can attest that this plan does not work nearly as well as you imagine it would... something about your body taking it upon itself to adjust to sunlight and whatnot.
I've always been a night owl which is why I work 2nd shift (3pm-midnight). Usually don't have too much of problem but if I go out to the West Coast, I get all screwed up. I was in San Francisco a few years ago for two weeks for work and never adjusted.
Does Canada have an East Coast/West Coast thing like the U.S.? Like in New York City people are ruder but more honest, while in L.A., the stereotype is that everyone is really nice but faking it.
No one is rude in Canada :D The only real difference between the east and west is bigger mountains on the west, and more french on the east. Both are amazingly beautiful and both think the Canadians near Toronto (like me) think we are the centre of the universe (which we are) :P
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No one is rude in Canada :D The only real difference between the east and west is bigger mountains on the west, and more french on the east. Both are amazingly beautiful and both think the Canadians near Toronto (like me) think we are the centre of the universe (which we are) :P
Does Canada have an East Coast/West Coast thing like the U.S.? Like in New York City people are ruder but more honest, while in L.A., the stereotype is that everyone is really nice but faking it.
To be fair, most of us find the French-Canadians to be rude (or at least obnoxious);), though it's a relative thing. And Toronto actually is scientifically the centre of the universe (or so I keep hearing)...
I've only been to Montreal (about 5 hours from where I live in southern NH) but I hear Toronto is a beautiful city, like an old European city.
I've only been to Montreal (about 5 hours from where I live in southern NH) but I hear Toronto is a beautiful city, like an old European city.
Who's been weaving those lies? Now Ottawa that's a beautiful city.
Either way those places quite the distance from me. 8 - 12 hours. I'm up in Northern Ontario. A stone's throw away from Lake Superior.
I've always been a night owl which is why I work 2nd shift (3pm-midnight). Usually don't have too much of problem but if I go out to the West Coast, I get all screwed up. I was in San Francisco a few years ago for two weeks for work and never adjusted.
I know it won't work that way. But can't a man dream.
I've only been to Montreal (about 5 hours from where I live in southern NH) but I hear Toronto is a beautiful city, like an old European city.
You have been lied to, at least the european part. Montreal and Quebec city and Ottawa are far more european in terms of architecture and style. Toronto is quickly becoming a skyscraper garden like most other metropolises. There are many beautiful building there to be sure, but they are greatly overshadowed by glass and metal monstrosities. It seems like every day some new fifty-story condo building is going up near the lake, right in front of the previous one which sold "spacious lakeview condo's starting at the mid 500's", now stuffy "condoview condo's".
Also, I'm pretty sure Eric is right about the science. And the french aren't so much obnoxious as they are "fan's of Celine Dion", which I admit is essentially the same thing. Those Quebequois are a funny breed, in large numbers they are a raucous english-hating mob, but individually they're all pretty nice, friendly people, who claim to have never slandered the english speaking parts of the country in their lives.
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I've only been to Montreal (about 5 hours from where I live in southern NH) but I hear Toronto is a beautiful city, like an old European city.You have been lied to, at least the european part. Montreal and Quebec city and Ottawa are far more european in terms of architecture and style. Toronto is quickly becoming a skyscraper garden like most other metropolises. There are many beautiful building there to be sure, but they are greatly overshadowed by glass and metal monstrosities. It seems like every day some new fifty-story condo building is going up near the lake, right in front of the previous one which sold "spacious lakeview condo's starting at the mid 500's", now stuffy "condoview condo's".
Also, I'm pretty sure Eric is right about the science. And the french aren't so much obnoxious as they are "fan's of Celine Dion", which I admit is essentially the sane thing. Those Quebequois are a funny breed, in large numbers they are a raucous english-hating mob, but individually they're all pretty nice, friendly people, who claim to have never slandered the english speaking parts of the country in their lives.
All of this is true. There are parts of Toronto that have a bit of old-school appeal (the University and Parliment come to mind), but you find far more in Quebec City and Ottawa. I didn't see much of this in my (admittedly limited) visits to Montreal, but it wouldn't surprise me if there was more than in Toronto. Edmonton is also a gorgeous city, Calgary not so much. It has some very lovely areas, but most of it is residential sprawl.
Canadian cities have a strange love-hate relationship with one another. Each one has its stereotypes, but so few Canadians actually live up to those stereotypes they become meaningless. The areas outlying the actual cities do tend more toward the stereotypes, I've found.
Maybe it was Quebec City I was thinking of, not Toronto. Yeah, I think it was, since it's north of Montreal. I kind of feel the same way about East Coast cities in the US versus the West Coast. Boston and New Orleans are beautiful architecturally, but San Fran just felt manufactured (though beautiful weather). And Vegas...well, that's its own thing.
And look mom, I'm not only strengthening my knowledge of Pathfinder rules but learning about other countries as well!
Well, that's the end of the run for me this year. That was much better than I had hoped for. And I get to be back next year. :D
Best of luck to all that made to the top 8. It really is do or die now. Look forward to seeing all your locations.
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2011 Top 16
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Congratulations to the Top 8! While I am disappointed that I did not make it I am relieved that I can try again next year. I made a deep run on my rookie try and will hopefully impress Paizo with my next wondrous item.
Can't wait to see the maps and locations in this round! I've always been infatuated with maps and cartography and graph paper is my "go to" GM'ing tool. I'm envious of you all.
--Vrock on!
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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Well, that's the end of the run for me this year. That was much better than I had hoped for. And I get to be back next year. :D
Best of luck to all that made to the top 8. It really is do or die now. Look forward to seeing all your locations.
Everything Ryan said, but also "PHEW", now I can relax the rest of this week! I personally think that round 4 is the hardest of any round in any Superstar yet. The challenge of fitting one of the 16 villains in a 2 tiered encounter is a lot to juggle and make it all fit together.
Hopefully I can continue in spirit in this round if someone picks Voracek, it will be really cool to see what someone else chooses to do with him.
Well, that's the end of the run for me this year. That was much better than I had hoped for. And I get to be back next year. :D
Best of luck to all that made to the top 8. It really is do or die now. Look forward to seeing all your locations.
Everything Ryan said, but also "PHEW", now I can relax the rest of this week! I personally think that round 4 is the hardest of any round in any Superstar yet. The challenge of fitting one of the 16 villains in a 2 tiered encounter is a lot to juggle and make it all fit together.
Hopefully I can continue in spirit in this round if someone picks Voracek, it will be really cool to see what someone else chooses to do with him.
I second that "PHEW!". And my players will be glad that my attention won't be split again this week.
Hopefully I can continue in spirit in this round if someone picks Voracek, it will be really cool to see what someone else chooses to do with him.
I failed out as well so it doesn't really count, but for what's it worth, my round 4 entry starred Voracek. I won't be working on it any more, but I have it pretty much finished already: I'll share it after that round closes if you'd like. As you might come to expect from my other entries, it's pretty wild. I hope you like what I did with him. ;-)
If anyone cares, I posted my reply to my villain.
Now to finish up this location.
I hope my new Canadian friends stick around in the guildhall for awhile.
Congratulations to the Top 8. It has been one wild ride. :) I'll stick around and be quite a bit more present than I've been to date now that I don't have to worry about what to say/not to say.
Thank you to the judges (one last time), and the community for the vast amount of information contained in your critiques. As always, it's greatly appreciated.
It has been an honor and a privilege to compete with this year's contestants, those who made Top 32 and those who didn't. I'll see you next year, too. :D
As an obnoxious, raucous english-hating member of the funny breed, and also a rude fan of Celine Dion, I congratulate all the Canadian, American, Irish and South African contestants. I love you all.
I'll be around.
Seems my lack of advancement is a bit of good tiding. Seeing as I apparently have a rather nasty stomach flu. I don't beleive the bathroom would be a very conductive place to be writing.
Anyways, back to my bucket. Best of luck again.
Seems my lack of advancement is a bit of good tiding. Seeing as I apparently have a rather nasty stomach flu. I don't beleive the bathroom would be a very conductive place to be writing.
Anyways, back to my bucket. Best of luck again.
Thanks, I hope you feel better soon. It could be just the weight of the contest being lifted off your shoulders. My first semester in college, my pysch teacher said that since stress can suppress illness, often college kids don't get sick until they go home for winter break and relax.
Paizo must have a deal with Staples- since this contest started, I've been having to go there for supplies. Just made another raid tonight and I'll be there again tomorrow night. Think I'll watch some Tudors while I "work" on my entry. For some reason, I just like have that show on while I work. Gets me in a kind of medieval vibe.
Just a thought, since it seems most of you are hand drawing your maps. I wonder why no one has mentioned using a graphic programs? Maybe I'm just used to working with them to make my PBP maps.
Just a thought, since it seems most of you are hand drawing your maps. I wonder why no one has mentioned using a graphic programs? Maybe I'm just used to working with them to make my PBP maps.
Definitely something I want to get into. I've studied all the maps in the previous contests. The judges go for clear, understandable, and readable. Some of the computer maps look great- some just hurt the eyes. Same for the hand drawn maps.
For sure, I wouldn't say one is better or worse. Especially in this competition. I just thought it was interesting. This may be sharing trade secrets....but I'm using Inkscape, a free vector based program for my work.
Just a thought, since it seems most of you are hand drawing your maps. I wonder why no one has mentioned using a graphic programs? Maybe I'm just used to working with them to make my PBP maps.
Personally, I'm just sticking with what I know. I actually scanned a pencil-drawn first draft of my map to see what I could do with it via cheap graphics shareware; honestly, even trying to trace over my pencil lines with a cursor was... comical, at best. Apparently I can't draw a straight line with a mouse if my life depended on it, and curved lines? oh, dear, forget it. I doubt I'd do much better working it from scratch. I'll still probably use it after inking a final version of my map, just to add legible text (seriously, my penmanship is atrocious, even just printing.) Maybe some coloring too, if the map merits it, though I could do that by hand as well and probably slightly quicker than I could on computer.
Oh, and since this is my first post since the announcement went up, let me add: congrats to everyone else in the final 8!
Just a thought, since it seems most of you are hand drawing your maps. I wonder why no one has mentioned using a graphic programs? Maybe I'm just used to working with them to make my PBP maps.Personally, I'm just sticking with what I know. I actually scanned a pencil-drawn first draft of my map to see what I could do with it via cheap graphics shareware; honestly, even trying to trace over my pencil lines with a cursor was... comical, at best. Apparently I can't draw a straight line with a mouse if my life depended on it, and curved lines? oh, dear, forget it. I doubt I'd do much better working it from scratch. I'll still probably use it after inking a final version of my map, just to add legible text (seriously, my penmanship is atrocious, even just printing.) Maybe some coloring too, if the map merits it, though I could do that by hand as well and probably slightly quicker than I could on computer.
Oh, and since this is my first post since the announcement went up, let me add: congrats to everyone else in the final 8!
Sean, I was wondering where you were. I agree with you about the computer. You know what I could do? Draw it using Mario Paint from SNES and send in a screen shot. Honestly, no matter what I go with, I expect to spend up to the wee hours of Friday morning screaming at my computer until it makes my map usable.
For sure, I wouldn't say one is better or worse. Especially in this competition. I just thought it was interesting. This may be sharing trade secrets....but I'm using Inkscape, a free vector based program for my work.
Haha! Honestly, I would probably spend more time yelling at it then getting it work. I went to my local gamestore this weekend because I remembered seeing something but it was a little too flashy for a simple map.
I do remember reading a thread a few months back in the off topic discussion area. Someone asked what programs people were using. Neil chimed in quite a bit as well as James and a bunch of others with various programs, etc. It was a very good thread. Let me see if I can find it...
Sean, I was wondering where you were.
Aw, it's nice to be missed! I work nights, so don't get home till midnight-ish, so I'm always behind on announcements and the like.
I agree with you about the computer. You know what I could do? Draw it using Mario Paint from SNES and send in a screen shot.
The sheer awesomeness of that would actually get you my vote.
Honestly, no matter what I go with, I expect to spend up to the wee hours of Friday morning screaming at my computer until it makes my map usable.
Ahh, ghetto voice recognition software. Gotcha. :-)
Honestly, no matter what I go with, I expect to spend up to the wee hours of Friday morning screaming at my computer until it makes my map usable.Start screaming now. It'd be funnier.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
But seriously, technology and I always don't get along very well. In high school when it came time to edit movies, we had to do it from VCR to VCR. We'd have all these cables hooked up to the TV, VCRs, stereo, and we'd waste about four hours troubleshooting a faulty connection somewhere. Every time...
Sean, I was wondering where you were.Aw, it's nice to be missed! I work nights, so don't get home till midnight-ish, so I'm always behind on announcements and the like.
I agree with you about the computer. You know what I could do? Draw it using Mario Paint from SNES and send in a screen shot.The sheer awesomeness of that would actually get you my vote.
Honestly, no matter what I go with, I expect to spend up to the wee hours of Friday morning screaming at my computer until it makes my map usable.Ahh, ghetto voice recognition software. Gotcha. :-)
I'd vote for whoever makes their maps out of Legos!
I'd vote for whoever makes their maps out of Legos!
Will there still be votes left over for the rogue-like ASCII maps?
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. . . . @ +
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I do remember reading a thread a few months back in the off topic discussion area. Someone asked what programs people were using. Neil chimed in quite a bit as well as James and a bunch of others with various programs, etc. It was a very good thread. Let me see if I can find it...
Here you go!
I've always been a fan of hand drawn maps. I have a degree of artistic ability that I just can't translate onto computer. For my home games I usually end up drawing my battlemats a few days ahead of time, all nice and colored with dry-erase.
I would have really liked to map something up for this round, but I'll concede that I'm relieved not to advance. The top 8 are far more deserving than I, they seem to have a much stronger sense of what works. Honestly I feel like I would have screwed up this scaling encounter thing, and the would have no chance for a comeback next year.
I do love writing encounters though, and there are some pretty awesome opportunities for amazing encounters out there. I think I had a pretty solid idea (which I might outline after the round is over), and I'm sure you top 8'ers will do us proud.
Re: drawing with a mouse...
Drawing with a mouse is akin to drawing with a bar of soap when you can't use the sides or corners - an exercise in frustration. ;)
For those who are interested - I used Adobe Illustrator to get my outlines down after sketching in a graph notepad. Next step was to import the file into Photoshop to texture and color the rest. I find that combination works best when drawing since it's easier to get the lines down and adjusted in Illustrator and Photoshop has all the fun gadgets. I was still considering just going with an ink-drawn map. :)
I'd vote for whoever makes their maps out of Legos!Will there still be votes left over for the rogue-like ASCII maps?
######
....@+
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I used to basically do this while GMing. Didn't have a battlemat or mini's, but we did have a big whiteboard and markers. The only issue was I couldn't draw (and still can't) so I was reduced to just labeling everything as a letter. In particularly epic fights big monsters got their whole names written on the board. The players knew that stuff had hit the fan when I started writing something up on the board and got to D-R-A-and was still writing.
More on topic, I plan on getting some serious assistance from map making software for this round. Everything still starts as a sketch on notebook or graph paper though, depending on both what level of detail I am trying to work out and if I can find any graph paper. Seriously, graph paper acts like socks in the dryer for me, it always seems to just disappear into the ether when I'm not looking.
I do remember reading a thread a few months back in the off topic discussion area. Someone asked what programs people were using. Neil chimed in quite a bit as well as James and a bunch of others with various programs, etc. It was a very good thread. Let me see if I can find it...Here you go!
Thanks! I was looking for that last night but couldn't find it. I think it's just a good thread to keep around whenever you're thinking of doing a map.
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I'll chime in with some brief commentary. Stick with what you know- now is not the time to be learning a new design program, even something like Campaign Cartographer or Dungeongrapher which seem to be designed for just this purpose. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a good hand-drawn map. It goes over much better than a 1st attempt with MS Paint or whatever.
I'd vote for whoever makes their maps out of Legos!Will there still be votes left over for the rogue-like ASCII maps?
######
....@+
######I used to basically do this while GMing. Didn't have a battlemat or mini's, but we did have a big whiteboard and markers. The only issue was I couldn't draw (and still can't) so I was reduced to just labeling everything as a letter. In particularly epic fights big monsters got their whole names written on the board. The players knew that stuff had hit the fan when I started writing something up on the board and got to D-R-A-and was still writing.
More on topic, I plan on getting some serious assistance from map making software for this round. Everything still starts as a sketch on notebook or graph paper though, depending on both what level of detail I am trying to work out and if I can find any graph paper. Seriously, graph paper acts like socks in the dryer for me, it always seems to just disappear into the ether when I'm not looking.
Gah! I'm looking for my rough draft now! I have every other piece of graph paper except that one!
Edit: Found it!
Well, good night everyone, I'm day done for the day (or night). It's quiet here so you are all busy working. I expect to see some awesomeness on Tuesday. If I lose this round, I want it be because I totally got my behind handed to me.
And Mark, get some ear muffs. I can curse at my computer foul enough to send the Tarrasque back into hiding.
Whew, almost done!
Had I made it this far, I would have likely drawn the base of the map on a diagram tool I use to diagram crashes. (Other fun uses include crime scene diagrams!)
Maybe I'd finally find use for the kangaroo icon, either in its normal birds-eye-view mode or the on-its-side mode. I guess someone, somewhere, does a lot of accidents involved knocked-over kangaroos.
I THINK I'm done. Just finished adding the BBC codes. Not submitting yet; going to wait till I've slept so I can double check it and make sure my math and formatting aren't crazy off due to fatigue. REALLY didn't expect this round would cause as much sleep deprivation as it has. :-)