Yes, you may.
In previous years this would have been a great time to respond to questions, say thanks, and take a small breather. However this year the rules for the next round have been released, so I'd recommend you take as much time as you can to work on your villian, even if you don't feel that your archetype will get you into the Top 16. There's a big difference between what people say on the boards vs. what they do in the voting booth, so until the Top 16 are announced I'd keep bashing away at your stat blocks. Last year I personally felt that I was right on the edge of not making the cut, EVERY round of the competition. So don't stop fighting (and writing).
and again, not much has changed.
Tally (entries in green would be our expected winners based on this small sample size, because of the tie in this poll we have more people than would fit and now we just wait for the actual results to see how accurate this was)
Well now I feel like a duche; I was so wrapped up in finishing my entry for the Dreamscarred Press contest that I forgot to cast my 6th, 7th, and 8th votes!
I suppose it's not a huge deal in the long run, but now I'll feel bad if any of my second-choices don't make it (even though I couldn't have possibly voted for all of them anyway).
My votes, in order of appearance in the list:
Cody Coffelt — Hound Master (Cavalier)
David Vigil — First World Druid (Druid)
Erik Freund — Moon Shaman (Druid)
Jerry Keyes — Chronologist (Oracle)
Joel Flank — Hedge Wizard (Wizard)
John Bennett — Saboteur (Ranger)
Joshua Stevens — Wandslinger (Wizard)
Ryan Marsh — Goldfever Alchemist (Alchemist)
Not sure that'll affect the exit polls much.
As for the judges' input, I made a point of reading all 32 entries before looking at any of the judges' feedback. Then I read all the judges feedback, and then sporadically checked in on what people had to say.
It didn't change much, but the non-judge feedback caused me to vote for one that initially was on my reject pile.
Not sure that'll affect the exit polls much.
Nope, it pulled two people out of the 4 way tie we had at 3 votes and put saboteur back into a tie for 3rd place but no change for who is predicted to be in the top 16. The bottom of the list is still very crowded and...
The polls close at 2PM PST. And I can tell you it's a really tight race right now. Just a handful of votes either way could tip the scales on who makes the Top 16 and who has to wait until next year to try again.
Looks like that is reflected in the actual voting as well.
I read about half the entries. 3 struck out, so those were the ones I voted for: Hound Master, Charlatan, and Sabateur. I wish I had read the Evangalist before now, because that would have been my next vote.And I will add this to the ever-lengthening list of reasons why I wish my parents had thought 'Aaron' was a better name. ;-)
No, I read them in a fairly random order. The name evangalist just didn't strike me as something to persue though, until I saw other people mentioning that it was in their top. And I did get my vote for you in, a few minutes before the deadline.
I will be counting an exit poll for this round as well, I have not read the entries yet (and may not be able to tonight, stupid math homework.)
My votes this round:
Cody Coffelt Lyell, Deacon of Ash
Ethan Day-Jones Drayden D'Arteros, Prince of Knives
Jerall Toi Tarvin Haddon, Agent of the Grim Harvestman
Sam Zeitlin The Gentleman Knave
Scott Fernandez Hoarfrost Throat-Tearer, Shapeshifting Huntsman
Sean McGowan Lady Rosiline Mistandre, Razor of Crownsgate
Trevor Merback Ankradula the Sane
I could not find 8 to vote for this round, and a couple of mine just barely got my vote.
I struggled a bit with these. I didn't focus on the stat blocks too much, instead focusing on whether the villain was interesting and got my imagination fired up. It seemed very clear though that the 600 word limit was a tough imposition, and I wonder if many of the entries tried to do too much with the class combinations/stats, and didn't leave themselves enough for the concept/motivation.
That said, my votes based on the villains are:
Varstrius
Tarvin Haddon
Meneena
The Gentleman Knave
Lady Rosiline Mistandre
Even though the villains from the next three didn't grab me, based on the designers' previous work my last three votes went to:
Lyell
Drayden D'Arteros, Prince of Knives
Ankradula
I´ve only had time to read (and comment on) one entry so far,
but I thought I´d also mention a fact about the voting system for anybody who didn´t know:
Until voting time closes, you can return to the voting page and CHANGE your vote as many times as you want.
Just in case anybody thought their vote was final once they made it, that´s not the case.
I just finished casting my votes. I divided the 16 into four categories and voted for those in the top two categories. They're in alphabetical order inside their individual categories.
1. Artus Nemati's Varstrius, Connoisseur of Living Dolls
2. Cody Coffelt's Lyell, Deacon of Ash
3. Sam Zeitlin's The Gentleman Knave
4. Sean McGowan's Lady Rosiline Mistandre, Razor of Crownsgate
SECOND PLACE WINNERS
5. Joel Flank's Voracek
6. John Bennett's Meneena, Derro Bard
7. Nick Bolhuis's Karuuk Soulrender, The Unrelenting Embrace
8. Scott Fernandez's Hoarfrost Throat-Tearer, Shapeshifting Huntsman
RUNNERS-UP
9. David Vigil's Tamonash Byrraju, Vengeful Monk
10. Ethan Day-Jones's Drayden D'Arteros, Prince of Knives
11. Jerall Toi's Tarvin Haddon, Agent of the Grim Harvestman
12. Trevor Merback's Ankradula the Sane
PARTICIPANTS
13. Eric Hindley's Chittik, Fey Would-Be God
14. Erik Freund's Tellasara, Princess in Repose
15. Marie Small's Nyrazha, Soul Slayer
16. Ryan Marsh's Sarkun
Artus Nemati — Varstrius, Connoisseur of Living Dolls - A few things I would have done differently, but I can really sell this guy as a villian almost any PC will want to stop. He creeps me out more than all the others combined. Definetely my number 1 choice.
Erik Freund — Tellasara, Princess in Repose - Alot of mechanical issues, but I love the moral dilema with her not being evil herself. Sold me with the situation, but almost lost me with execution.
Sam Zeitlin — The Gentleman Knave - The plot hooks are bad and I would toss them, but I can work with this guy. I can build a campaign arround this guy. At low levels, he is the perfect employer for the PCs, only for them to realize his true plans later. Great twist on Robin Hood.
Sean McGowan — Lady Rosiline Mistandre, Razor of Crownsgate - It could use a little more on the motivation, but pulls through with the dreamer archtype where others thought it was impossible. Throws a couple nice wrenches into a murder mystery.
Jerall Toi — Tarvin Haddon, Agent of the Grim Harvestman - great for a low level party, and a possible single man BBEG. Lots of little suprizes you can pull on your party, and those are fun.
John Bennett — Meneena, Derro Bard - needs some more to not make her a single, forgettable encounter, but her motivation is fun and she plays the insanity well.
Scott Fernandez — Hoarfrost Throat-Tearer, Shapeshifting Huntsman - A fun villian to run, even if he is fairly standard.
Congratulations for making the Top 16!
I only found five villains I enjoyed enough to capture my vote. These villains were designed by:
- Ethan Day-Jones
- John Bennett
- Marie Small
- Sam Zeitland
- Sean McGowan
I cast a vote for these three contestants based on earlier work:
- Trevor Merback
- Cody Coffelt
- Scott Fernandez
Best of luck!!
First sampling of the results!
The order so far:
1st (two way tie):
Sam Zeitlin - The Gentleman Knave
Sean McGowan - Lady Rosiline Mistandre, Razor of Crownsgate
2nd (3 way tie):
Cody Coffelt - Lyell, Deacon of Ash
John Bennett - Meneena, Derro Bard
Scott Fernandez - Hoarfrost Throat-Tearer, Shapeshifting Huntsman
Still very early on, just wanted to count votes while I had a minute to spare.
I could only bring myself to vote for 6 this round... Lyell, Tarvin, Meneena, The Gentleman Rogue, Lady Rosiline, and Andrudula.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6
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Dedicated Voter Season 6
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Whoops. My comments were made based on thinking we had only 4 votes, so some of them won't make much sense. As such, a few of my no-votes got elevated.
Top 4:
Varstrius, the collector of gnomes
Lyell, a surprise vote for a dhampir
Tarvin, the saboteur
Lady Rosiline, of the stabby dreams
Next 4:
The Knave
Ankradula
Meneena
Chittine
The derro and pixie benefited greatly from having four more votes, and my reluctant cut (the Knave) made it in easily.
I have 4 votes so far:
Artus Nemati — Varstrius, Connoisseur of Living Dolls
Nick Bolhuis — Karuuk Soulrender, The Unrelenting Embrace
Sam Zeitlin — The Gentleman Knave
Sean McGowan — Lady Rosiline Mistandre, Razor of Crownsgate
I voted for 7:
Joel Flank *
Trevor Merback *
Sam Zeitlin *
Cody Coffelt
Ethan Day-Jones
Nick Bolhuis
Marie Small
The ones with the * I liked more than the others. I voted purely on the villans and not on previous work.
My votes are below. Note that not all are equal, and I *may* drop in an eighth vote, but so far no. It's interesting that my favorite villains and my favorite archetypes are an exclusive set - either I liked their archetype or I liked their villain. In no case was it both.
In the case of Cody, the Deacon of Ash was a well-done character but not really a good villain, so I gave him a golden ticket this round because his other two entries were so good and his villain wasn't bad, it just wasn't good.
- Artus Nemati, Varstrius, Connoisseur of Living Dolls
- Cody Coffelt, Lyell, Deacon of Ash
- John Bennett, Meneena, Derro Bard
- Sean McGowan, Lady Rosiline Mistandre, Razor of Crownsgate
- Nick Bolhuis, Karuuk Soulrender, The Unrelenting Embrace
- Sam Zeitlin, The Gentleman Knave
- Trevor Merback, Ankradula the Sane
Dedicated Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8
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Artus Nemati — Varstrius, Connoisseur of Living Dolls
John Bennett — Meneena, Derro Bard
Sean McGowan — Lady Rosiline Mistandre, Razor of Crownsgate
Erik Freund — Tellasara, Princess in Repose
Nick Bolhuis — Karuuk Soulrender, The Unrelenting Embrace
Joel Flank — Voracek
Marie Small — Nyrazha, Soul Slayer
Cody Coffelt — Lyell, Deacon of Ash
More counting.
1st (tie):
Sam Zeitlin - The Gentleman Knave
Sean McGowan - Lady Rosiline Mistandre, Razor of Crownsgate
2nd:
Cody Coffelt - Lyell, Deacon of Ash
3rd:
John Bennett - Meneena, Derro Bard
More counting.
1st (tie):
Sam Zeitlin - The Gentleman Knave
Sean McGowan - Lady Rosiline Mistandre, Razor of Crownsgate2nd:
Cody Coffelt - Lyell, Deacon of Ash3rd:
John Bennett - Meneena, Derro Bard
Shouldn't it be a top 8 rather than a top 4?
Shouldn't it be a top 8 rather than a top 4?
Well, that is what the link to the full results are for but it's not hard to do:
Sam Zeitlin - The Gentleman Knave
Sean McGowan - Lady Rosiline Mistandre, Razor of Crownsgate
Cody Coffelt - Lyell, Deacon of Ash
John Bennett - Meneena, Derro Bard
Trevor Merback - Ankradula the Sane
Artus Nemati - Varstrius, Connoisseur of Living Dolls
Nick Bolhuis - Karuuk Soulrender, The Unrelenting Embrace
Jerall Toi - Tarvin Haddon, Agent of the Grim Harvestman
There, a top 8 for you.
I can crunch even more numbers also, for example, 12 people have cast their votes casting an average of 7.17 votes each. Voting opened 48 hours ago which gives us .25 average votes being reported every hour, this means that we may expect another 24 voters (I actually don't think we will see that many but oh well) which would add another 172.08 total votes to the count (totaling to 257.08 votes, compared to 176 votes last round).
I just realized that somewhere in the middle of page 2 this thread switched from voting for archetypes to voting for villains. interesting.
My villain votes went to:
Cody Coffelt
Sam Zeitlin
Sean McGowan
Erik Freund
Nick Bolhuis
Jerall toi
Scott Fernandez
John Bennett
yeah, in previous years we had separate exit poll threads for each round, but this year it seems that we are making do with a single thread.
yeah, in previous years we had separate exit poll threads for each round, but this year it seems that we are making do with a single thread.
Okay by me; fewer threads to follow.
I can always make a new thread for each round but did not really see a need to do so.
I don't think it matters one way or the other.
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Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8
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While I had a definite order of preference, I think the contestants and most others will care more who gets through to the next round, so in the order presented, I voted for:
Artus Nemati — Varstrius, Connoisseur of Living Dolls
Cody Coffelt — Lyell, Deacon of Ash
David Vigil — Tamonash Byrraju, Vengeful Monk
Ethan Day-Jones — Drayden D'Arteros, Prince of Knives
Jerall Toi — Tarvin Haddon, Agent of the Grim Harvestman
John Bennett — Meneena, Derro Bard
Sam Zeitlin — The Gentleman Knave
Trevor Merback — Ankradula the Sane
In order of preference, my votes went to:
Artus Nemati — Varstrius, Connoisseur of Living Dolls
Sam Zeitlin — The Gentleman Knave
Erik Freund — Tellasara, Princess in Repose
Sean McGowan — Lady Rosiline Mistandre, Razor of Crownsgate
John Bennett — Meneena, Derro Bard
Jerall Toi — Tarvin Haddon, Agent of the Grim Harvestman
David Vigil — Tamonash Byrraju, Vengeful Monk
Trevor Merback — Ankradula the Sane
I´ll comment on each villain later, still working on the reviews...
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Struggled quite a bit on this round, none of the villans REALLY jumped out at me as outstanding, but my votes went to:
Cody Coffelt Lyell - Deacon of Ash, It took a minute but the subtle Lex Luthor-style evil of this entry grew on me. I can see him as a re-occurring villain the party finds themselves forced to ally with over and over again waiting for the madman to step over the line so they can put him down.
Jerall Toi Tarvin Haddon, Agent of the Grim Harvestman
Scott Fernandez Hoarfrost Throat-Tearer, Shapeshifting Huntsman
Sean McGowan Lady Rosiline Mistandre, Razor of Crownsgate
John Bennett — Meneena, Derro Bard
Nick Bolhuis — Karuuk Soulrender, The Unrelenting Embrace
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Star Voter Season 7
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These are my votes in no particular order:
Sam Zeitlin - the Gentleman Knave favorite of round
Ethan Day-Jones - Drayden D'Arteros really liked this one
Cody Coffelt - Lyell was ok, favorite of other rounds
Ryan Marsh - Sarkun awesome adventure hooks
Sean McGowan - Lady Rosiline good concept, poor excecution
Nick Bolhuis - Karuuk overall interesting but weak
Jerall Toi - Tarvin Hadden best idea, ok delivery
Artus Nemati - Varstrius needs a stong story, but cool
The rest of the field all produced some interesting works as well - I think this round was the hardest so far, and probably the weakest. Everyone in the competition has talent - good luck to everyone.
Top 8:
Sam Zeitlin - The Gentleman Knave (1st, tie)
Sean McGowan - Lady Rosiline Mistandre, Razor of Crownsgate (1st, tie)
Cody Coffelt - Lyell, Deacon of Ash
John Bennett - Meneena, Derro Bard
Artus Nemati - Varstrius, Connoisseur of Living Dolls
Jerall Toi - Tarvin Haddon, Agent of the Grim Harvestman
Nick Bolhuis - Karuuk Soulrender, The Unrelenting Embrace
Trevor Merback - Ankradula the Sane
Voted for:
Artus Nemati — Varstrius, Connoisseur of Living Dolls
Cody Coffelt — Lyell, Deacon of Ash
Joel Flank — Voracek
Sam Zeitlin — The Gentleman Knave
Sean McGowan — Lady Rosiline Mistandre, Razor of Crownsgate
Trevor Merback — Ankradula the Sane
Sam and Sean's are the ones that excited me. I felt like Trevor got the unholy shaft from the judge's comments and voted for him to help correct for the votes their errors likely cost him. Artus, Cody and Joel's had their good points, but their flaws kept them back a bit.
I can always make a new thread for each round but did not really see a need to do so.I suspect that not having the words "exit poll" in the title is probably reducing participation.
Probably. I remember in previous years the exit polls were fairly busy. Several pages for each round.
I can always make a new thread for each round but did not really see a need to do so.I suspect that not having the words "exit poll" in the title is probably reducing participation.
Yeah, we just kind of hijacked this thread for it but next round I will toss a new one up.
I do not have any actual votes which I wish to disclose at this point. However (for those who are interested) I will present a summary of my ratings of the Round 3 entries:
First of all, all the villains (in terms of general villainy):
Gulga-Bracht supersuccubus scale of villainy rating:
‘Tamonash Byrraju, Vengeful Monk’, ‘Lyell, Deacon of Ash’
5:
‘The Gentleman Knave’, ‘Karuuk Soulrender, the Unrelenting Embrace’, ‘Ankradula the Sane’
4:
‘Nyrazha, Soul Slayer’, ‘Hoarfrost Throat-Tearer, Shapeshifting Huntsman’, ‘Lady Rosiline Mistandre, Razor of Crownsgate’, ‘Chittik, Fey Would-be God’
3-4 (depending on my mood):
‘Voracek’
3:
‘Tarvin Haddon, Agent of the Grim Harvestman’, ‘Drayden D’Arteros, Prince of Knives’
2:
‘Varstrius, Connoisseur of Living Dolls’, ‘Sarkun’, ‘Meneena, Derro Bard’
1: ‘Tellasara, Princess in Repose’
As a note of explanation, the Gulga-Bracht supersuccubus scale reflects increasing orders of magnitude of villainy, with rising values. Only a very few individuals (mostly paladins) actually register anything resembling '0' on the scale.
Now for the villains whom I considered to be insane to some extent or another:
Fruitcake Rating:
- ‘Tellasara, Princess in Repose’, ‘Chittik, Fey Would-be God’
- ‘Lady Rosiline Mistandre, Razor of Crownsgate’
- ‘Nyrazha, Soul Slayer’
- ‘Voracek’
- ‘Tarvin Haddon, Agent of the Grim Harvestman’, ‘Meneena, Derro Bard’
- ‘Varstrius, Connoisseur of Living Dolls’, ‘Drayden D’Arteros, Prince of Knives’
The villains listed by fruitcake rating are given in terms of descending level of craziness, with villains I considered to be as approximately crazy as one another all listed on the same line. The actual scale (as those who may have perused my posts carefully may hav noticed) is somewhat subjective, but for the sake of clarity and ease of communication I have assembled and translated my opinions into the above format, for at-a-glance reference.
In both the GB Supersuccubus and Fruitcake ratings, villains on an approximately equal level have been listed in what I consider to be reverse alphabetical order.
Having presented my results, I will now get on with the usual disclaimer...
For villains, three were easy and six others were close. I chose 'cool' over 'tight' though to get down to these eight:
Varstrius
Lyell
Voracek
Meneena
Karuuk
Sarkun
Hoarfrost Throat-Tearer
Lady Rosiline
Good luck Top 16!
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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I struggled to find eight concepts I could vote for. I really didn't think any of them were Superstar. Gulga Cench or the nightmare from the first year blow away any of these concepts.
Having said that, I did see some standouts. Those who separated from the rest of the pack to me were:
Lady Rosaline
Hoarfrost Throat-tearer
Lyell
Ankradula
Tarvin Haddon
I struggled to find eight concepts I could vote for. I really didn't think any of them were Superstar. Gulga Cench or the nightmare from the first year blow away any of these concepts.
No otyugh in the portraits. The contestants couldn't go very far with a derro and a stone giant as the only freaks. Even the pixie was criticized for looking like an elf (which he did). I am just happy that the 3000-word stat block is a thing of the past.
I cast mine, and checked 'em twice.
I loved this round. Almost every entry was either very creative, or very (close to) professionally done; some few were marvelously both. Kudos to all the contestants - I had a really tough choice with my votes, and I salute you all for your great work.
I struggled to find eight concepts I could vote for.
Remember, eight votes is the maximum. If there was only four you liked, you only need to vote for four.
Also, only a little more than an hour to get your final votes in, so go cast your votes now!
If there are only four that you REALLY like, then it may be best not to vote for others (which might actually be competing with the ones you like for that 7th or 8th slot).
I originally only cast five, but there were three more (the orc vampire, the vudrani dhampir, and the braindamaged pixie) which I really came around to on second look. I really wouldn't mind seeing what those guys could do with Round 4.
In my opinion, Rosiline and the Knave were in a class of their own. At the very least the authors are really on my wavelength in terms of what they think is cool, and I'm excited to see what they do if/when they advance.
Final update for round 3.
Predicted top 8:
Sean McGowan - Lady Rosiline Mistandre, Razor of Crownsgate
Cody Coffelt - Lyell, Deacon of Ash
Sam Zeitlin - The Gentleman Knave
John Bennett - Meneena, Derro Bard
Artus Nemati - Varstrius, Connoisseur of Living Dolls
Jerall Toi - Tarvin Haddon, Agent of the Grim Harvestman
Trevor Merback - Ankradula the Sane
Nick Bolhuis - Karuuk Soulrender, The Unrelenting Embrace
The top 8 are ordered in their likelihood of being in the top 8.