OK, Neil posted his pet peeve ("wonderous" vs. "wondrous"). Let me post mine. I have two, that seem to keep appearing again this year:
1. The lame intro line. "Forged in the furnaces of Eldradir by the famous wizard Lornagor, this necklace was created to give power to the adepts of Burnagon," or some other such nonsense. No wondrous item has that as an intro sentence. None. Not one. Don't do it. It's self-indulgent and shows you don't know what you are doing. I've harped on this before many, many times. How about just a description? Do wondrous items have that? Why yes they do! Do wondrous items ever specifically name their creator and give some cheesy backstory in the first line? Why, no they do not! Really guys, its just bad, self-indulgent writing. We've talked about this since Superstar number 1.
2. Confusing special effects for good design--don't do it! These are not the same. Making a spell in a can, but just covering it up with some serious special effects gravy doesn't actually hide the fact that it's a spell in a can. I can't tell you how many times already I have rejected an item and commented "once again the author is confusing fancy special effects for good item design." More than once. I know I've said this before, so this is nothing new. I'm not saying neat effects are bad, I am just saying that you won't fool us into thinking your item is superstar by layering flashing lights and funky weirdness on a mediocre item.
3. Proofread! Nothing says "I just submitted a first draft and didn't proofread my submission" more than getting your item's name wrong in your descriptive text. Say you changed your item's name at the last minute. Please, please, take the time to change it within the rest of your entry. And also check spacing. I don't want to see spaces before commas. This should never happen: "When wearing the robe , once per day..." See what I mean. That just says "I am sloppy and I don't check my work."
3.5. Know when to use caps and italics. Come on, guys. Sean gave you the BCC code. Study the wondrous item entries in the core rules. Figure out when something gets caps and when it gets italics. Spell names in text, your item name in text, etc. You need to know when you are supposed to do what with text.
Now, these things aren't in and of themselves fatal. So, if you did this you may still make the cut, but the odds are against you I have to say (at least from me).
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Star Voter Season 6
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If I might add to 3.5 (Does that make this post 3PC? Do I need to include the OGL?)
If you're holding off submitting your item (or if you have and are kicking yourself) practice in the message boards. By that I mean if you are asking "Does magic missile affect objects?" italics around magic missile. It takes a little extra time, but if it becomes second nature to refer to game mechanics in the correct format, it will help when you turn in an item (or post one to the boards for fun)
I'm a little more lenient on the exclusion of the BBCode stuff (i.e., gettting all the italics and boldface right in the submission tool). That's because I don't want to hold that against someone who might be a newcomer to Paizo's messageboards and they just don't understand how to apply BBCode yet. Getting all the pieces in the right place within the provided template is a bit more important than having the italics and boldface perfect. You get some neatness points if you're able to do all that. But I'm far more interested in the awesome idea at the core of an item, some good descriptive text and flavor, solid (even innovative) mechanics, and a good name that fits what the item does by giving you an early mental picture or expectation. Those things help an entry standout far more.
Now, one caveat. If you demonstrate you know how to use BBCode...say, by italicizing your spell names in the construction requirements or bolding the header tags, but you forget to bold or italicize something else in the entry when it should be, that tells me you know what you're doing with BBCode, but you were too lazy to ensure you applied it everywhere it was needed. And, in instances like that, I do hold missteps in italicizing, bolding, etc. a little more against a designer. And, of course, in the "Judges, Please Critique My Item" threads, I'll call out any boldface or italics that might be missing in an entry. That's more to educate people than to cite it as the reason something got rejected, though.
Just my two cents,
--Neil
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...practice in the message boards.
Back before we had the preview capability in the submission tool, I used to go to some other thread on the messageboards (usually a Play-by-Post game) and create a new post so I could paste in my submission for each round. I'd be careful to never hit submit, of course...as I wouldn't want to show the world my submission before getting it in to the judges. But what that enabled me to do was preview the item, play around with the BBCode, tweak its presentation, and make it look as polished as possible.
The more you can make your submissions (in every round of the contest, not just the wondrous item stage) look like the real thing from one of Paizo's products, the more professional you come off looking. I don't know how much that helped me, per se. But it did foster comments from Clark and maybe some of the other judges about the "professional polish" of my entries and my "readiness" to win the prize and deliver the goods. That helped build up a persona that I was prepared for this...that I could be trusted with a freelance assignment and deliver quality work to spec. Also, it showed I could apply all of Paizo's conventions...that I'd been studying them and educating myself on them, in anticipation of someday getting to do the real thing.
Again, this gets back to treating the contest as if it's a job interview. You want to impress your potential employer. You do that by learning everything you can about how they do things. Then, you emulate that. You put your best work in front of them. And you hope they realize you're the perfect guy for the job. You can't control how they view any other candidates. You can only control how they view you. Make sure they view you in the best light possible with how you conduct yourself, both in your work and your behavior on the boards.
Now, putting your best foot forward is supremely important in the wondrous item round. You're trying to convince the judges to give you that shot at the Top 32. The rounds after that depend on the voting public to advance you. But, if I've learned anything, the fans and customers of Paizo know their stuff. They know all the conventions you should be applying, because they buy (and use) Paizo's products. So, they're going to know when you're demonstrating professional polish just as much as the judges commenting on your stuff round-by-round. You want to impress them, too. And, sometimes, you can achieve that by winning the recommendations of the judges, whose opinions some voters defer to when all things are equal.
So, as always, put your best foot forward. If you want a shot at being a Paizo freelancer, work like you already are one. Be that which you wish to become. And it'll happen. At least, it did for me. And I haven't looked back.
Another two cents,
--Neil
A thousand times this.