Sean K Reynolds Contributor |
I hear what you are saying, but I have to admit that isn't exactly the attitude we (well, Paizo) is looking for.
Remember, a part of this is your presence and professionalism on these boards. Things you say can and will be used against you. Just keep that in mind. :)
I think of it this way:
If I get in the habit of writing it the correct way all the time, then I've trained myself to do it right when it's needed. Doing it right when it's not needed is just a bonus.
Not that I nitpick posts and think "he should have used an em-dash instead of two hyphens!" But I do nitpick posts when I see (frex) there/they're/their issues, because they're a sign of a different problem...
ValmarTheMad |
But I do nitpick posts when I see (frex) there/they're/their issues, because they're a sign of a different problem...
Some of those, I think, are DYAC errors that go unnoticed, especially if you're using talk-to-text and it fills it what it wants and you don't check it when it posts.
...or not...might depend on the person...but it seems like more of an epidemic now that many surf the forums (any forums, not just here) on their smartphones instead of only on their PC/Laptop...
gbonehead Owner - House of Books and Games LLC , Marathon Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7 |
*sigh*
I was thinking about all of this earlier today, and I came to a ghastly conclusion.
While probably nobody other than a supreme nitpicker would notice whether or not I put em and en dashes in my posts, now *everyone* is going to remember me as "the guy who's too lazy to learn to do em and en dashes."
And now I've even got Clark and Neil noticing me as "that lazy guy with the attitude Paizo doesn't want."
Awesome :)
I'll just quit while the hole as deep as it is before I dig it any deeper.
Anthony Adam Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 |
Here goes the next build... it's still in progress and some new sections added, it's taking a while to wade through all the previous years entries again, but it is coming along now as a reasonable guide.
I'll put up another update in a few days time as I get more and more incorporated into it.
Breakdown of the Wondrous Item Template (Updated - Version 2)
It should be noted that this article steps through the Wondrous Item template and is not necessarily the order in which you would work on things; however it does give detailed advice on completion of the wondrous item template for submission to RPG Superstar. Additional hints and tips are included here to assist in understanding of the odd gotcha or two.
This post therefore is a what to do much more than a what not to do post.
There are way too many posts by way too many people to accredit them all, so many thanks to everyone on the forums, judges past and present, guest judges, the tea provider, my mum. You all know who you are - so thanks.
I have now incorporated many discussion items from other threads, so this post has grown to cover not only completion of template but also answer many common questions that get asked every year, so that you don't have to wade through tangent posts and divergent comments to find the meat and potatoes of theory, query and answer.
I have tried to place items in the relevant sections of the Wondrous Item Template, so let's begin and I hope it proves useful.
My soul intent is to minimise your surf time for guidelines and advice and to maximise your design time. It is a distillation of my experiences, item rejects and general reading on Wondrous Item design. I really hope you find this useful and food for thought.
Please bear in mind things change over time, so always double check back to the rules to be sure what is said herein is still valid.
Line: Item Name:
Formatting of the main entry block starts with the item name enclosed in Bulletin Board (BB) Bold tags. The content is self-evident.
The magic item name header in the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook looks like all caps, but it's just a text style — don't type yours in all caps in your submission unless the template changes, do remember your BB tags though.
Note that words in the Item Name tend to be capitalised rather than all lower case, conjunctions do not generally get capitalised unless they are the first word of the item name. - e.g. "a glove of the finger" would be entered as "A Glove of the Finger". The Latter I believe is preferred.
Wondrous Items names come in many flavours. There is the "X of Y" named items, the alliterative names, the names with convoluted, complex and downright weird words that are not part of normal everyday language. When naming your item, you need to gauge your audience as best you can, some people get alienated by cliché or well used naming themes, and others get confused of put off by the use of complex or unfamiliar words. The naming of items therefore is a balancing act, trying to name an item without alienating the majority of the audience.
Another item to bear in mind is the expectation that your name brings. It's the first thing your audience will see. Does it convey an image in the readers mind, an expectation of the likely powers or utilisation of the item. If it does, and the item description bears out the expectations, then you have a tightly named item. The benefit of this is that names that reflect their use are often easiest to remember, raising your item profile in the audience mind set.
I will use a dummy item known as "Awesome Item of Splendiferousness", yeah a rubbish name, but that's where I often struggle but it will do for showing template completion. We will build the submission using the template as we go along.
If done right, using preview you would see...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Line: Aura and Caster Level:
There is no separating or blank lines in the format used each year thus far for each section, so don’t do it.
This section exists so the GM can quickly tell a player what schools of magic the item uses. This is noteworthy only if the PC fails the Spellcraft check to identify the item and needs an idea of what it may do.
Aura
First things first, Aura is BB Bold bounded.
Auras are always written as "faint," "moderate," or "strong," plus the appropriate school or schools, and perhaps a sub school if relevant.
In my original post, I mentioned "overwhelming" which I had extracted from Detect Magic. Therefore Sean's list above excluding this, confirms that overwhelming shouldn’t be used. If you find yourself wanting to use overwhelming, then consider your item might be heading to artefact territory and review it thoroughly.
The strength is the first word after Aura - not bold, no italics, no capitalisation.
School of magic is next separated from the strength by a single space.
If a sub school is used, this would follow, separated by a space and enclosed in rounded bracers, e.g. strength school (sub school)
3E and the Core Rulebook isn't really consistent on whether a multispell item has one or multiple auras listed, so I would suggest if you need to do this, repeat the strength school (sub school) format separating by a single comma and space as used to separate entries in other sections, e.g. faint illusion, moderate necromancy, moderate transmutation, strong evocation
I ordered each alphabetically by school within strength, and listed them in ascending order of strength. Again, this is just me applying personal consistency. I can't say this is 100% right, but should be a good measure of thumb and it follows the ordering of spell names for consistency.
This may be clarified in future templates and competitions, but I don’t think you would get dinged for attempting consistency with other parts of the template.
Gotcha: If your item is 100% necromancy and the aura only lists illusion... say no more.
Immediately following your school entry is a semi colon and a space...
Caster Level
... and then the title for Caster Level in bold simply as CL.
CL: The caster level tells you what caster level the item operates at.
This means you don't have to specify a caster level in the item's description — if you find an orb that can create a fireball, it doesn't need to say "fireball (10d6)." Unless otherwise specified, the item uses this caster level for all of its abilities. The caster level should include the ordinal abbreviation for that number: "CL 1st" instead of just "CL 1," "CL 2nd" instead of just "CL 2," and so on.
When multiple spells are used the caster level required to cast the highest level spell at the required level of effect is used, e.g. the CL for a 5 die fireball effect is lower than the caster level for a 10 die fireball effect - same spell but different caster levels needed.
The level entry has no space between the number and the "st", "nd", “rd” or "th" post fix, is in normal typeface and no italics. There is also no terminating period.
Gotcha: In the construction entry of the template, if you list more feats than any caster of the necessary level could have, well, that needs sorting out methinks - (Paizo Judges/Designers query - revise the feats list or increase the Caster Level to a point of having sufficient feat slots? What is recommended here as a general guide line approach?)
Ok, so I'm now adding my formatting to my line for my item, if done right, preview would look like...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Aura strong conjuration; CL 17th
Line: Slot, Price and Weight:
All three titles are capitalized and bold, and should not be omitted even if you have no slot or no discernable weight - see below.
Slot
Tells you which of the magic item "body slots" the item uses (Core Rulebook 459).
If you have to hold the item in your hand (like a rod of wonder) or if it doesn't use a slot at all (like an ioun stone), its listed slot is "none" - Paizo used to put a dash there for slotless items but no longer does it that way.
Slot names, just like strength and school are neither italicized nor capitalised and always is followed immediately by a semi colon.
Design Gotcha Check your item against other wondrous items for the same slot. Check what a PC may sacrifice in order to utilise your item? IS it worth it? Does it make sense? Be aware of the slot affinities, particularly when dealing with stat bonuses, e.g. head items tend to be intelligence based, hands tend to be dexterity based. Always, always compare against similar slot items, observe the inherent themes underpinning those item sets.
Price
This is the item's market price — how much you'd pay for it if you bought it from an NPC.
This is never expressed as a fraction or decimal; "12 gp, 5 sp" is correct, "12.5 gp" is not, nor is "12 1/2 gp."
If the item costs thousands, use a comma (not a period or other number format type, you must use US number formats) as the ordinal numeric separator ("20,000 gp" instead of "20000 gp" or "20.000 gp").
If the item has several types (like a figurine of wondrous power) with different costs, each is listed here, separated by commas.
The last or only price coinage indicator is followed by a semi colon, e.g. 100 gp, 150gp, 200gp;
All prices are normal weight, non italic, all lower case.
Gotcha: If your item costs more than 200,000 gp, it's probably an artefact rather than a regular magic item.
Gotcha: I mentioned in my original post that this is often twice the cost of creating it - this is my foo bar understanding of the Cost entry - ignore this advice as I was mistaken as to what Cost was.
Gotcha: Once you have determined your price, check it against Wondrous Items of the same level. Compare not just prices but relative usefulness against items in the same market space for that level. Does is compare favourably? This is an art which takes some development and practice.
In the RPG Superstar seminar, the judges made particular note that pricing had never got an entry into top 32 or forced an item out of top 32. As long as the order of magnitude seems correct, they are more interested in the item itself. Later Neil mentioned that wildly overpriced items had recently got dinged, but then went on to say that it was for the magnitude of error (the example quoted was far beyond the most expensive wondrous items).
You also need to compare your item's price to what level a PC would need to be (according to the Wealth By Level table elsewhere in the Core Rulebook) to see if that item would be a "good buy" for them. By that, I mean, if the item produces an effect that's more easily achieved by such a PC with a spell he'll readily have available almost all the time...or won't come up all that often...then he's probably going to always buy something other than your item with his hard-earned gold, because it's a far better value for him.
Or, if that same PC can buy up enough scrolls or potions (or even wands) to do pretty much what your item allows him to do, but he can buy those other things far more cheaply than your item, you've pretty much priced it wrong and need to adjust accordingly. You also need to reconsider if your item is just a SIAC if this situation exists, as that's exactly what potions, scrolls, and wands are. So, if they're able to duplicate what your item does, you're entering SIAC territory.
Also, if your item produces an effect with a really low DC, you've got to consider the "power level" of the creatures and NPCs your character might use that item on. If those creatures and NPCs can easily and routinely beat the DC, once again it's not going to be an item that your character will want. Instead, he'll always be selling it rather than keeping it...because, it's pretty much useless to him. Items that run into those kinds of problems need to be priced lower...thereby pushing them further down the wondrous item price list so lower-level PCs can acquire them at a point in their adventuring careers where the item's effects would still be relevant.
When you see items in the Core Rulebook that don't seem priced "right" according to the math of the wondrous item pricing rules, it's often because of these exact reasons. This is most assuredly the "art" of wondrous item pricing. And you can bet the original game designers looked across the entirety of the game and the balance between character power levels, wealth levels, an item's in-game effect vs. creatures in a certain CR range those characters would likely be facing, and they deemed they needed to slide the price up or down a bit to make it harmonize better with everything else that's in the game.
Weight
This is how much the item weighs, in pounds (abbreviated "lb." for 1 pound or less and "lbs." for 2 or more pounds).
Most common items in the game have a specific weight, just for consistency. For example, boots weigh 1 lb., so players don't have to remember different boot weights. Some light items, like gems, headbands, and rings, have a standard weight of "—," which means individually their weight isn't important (though the GM can rule that a chest full of them has weight).
When in doubt, find a similar item in the Core Rulebook and use the listed weight.
The weight again has a bold capitalized title, with two entry formats
- if there is no weight discernable, you enter a dash and remove the lb/lbs and the period,
- if you have a discernable weight, the format is number <space> lb. - for 1 pound items, number <space> lbs. - for weight other than 1. Note the abbreviation for pounds is followed by a period.
Using US number formatting for the weight if entered.
My preview now looks like this...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Aura strong conjuration; CL 17th
Slot head; Price 57,500 gp; Weight 5 lbs.
Line: Description:
This is the Description entry title - it stays on its own line, bolded and capitalized. Like the item name, don't type this line in all caps, and don't add underlining.
Short and sweet, my preview now looks like this...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Aura strong conjuration; CL 17th
Slot head; Price 57,500 gp; Weight 5 lbs.
Description
This is a text format we call a "breaker"—the all caps and lines above and below the text are just an applied style.
Paragraph(s): Description:
Now we enter the descriptive text of our item.
The first line is usually a simple description of what the item is/looks like/made of. Keep it short, to the point, avoid backstory, avoid names if you can - but note by that we mean PC type names, Witch Queen, King's, etc are fine, just don't name a specific individual.
Start a new paragraph after this descriptive entry - Do not present a wall of words - it is painful in the extreme and likely to push you towards the dreaded reject button. Structured paragraphs and good grammar really add sparkle here.
Things you need here in addition to the descriptive element include what the item does, how often you can use the item, any other limitations or activation requirements and so forth.
There now follows some gotcha/consideration items extrapolated from comments and feedbacks from the merged articles:
Gotcha: Normally, using a magic item is a standard action. You shouldn't give an item a shorter activation time than that because it messes with the "action economy" of the combat round —a player who tries to create a faster item is trying to do more than one magical thing per round.
Gotcha: Whether or not using an item provokes an attack of opportunity is built into how it's activated (Core Rulebook 458). This means for command word items you don't need to say that it's a standard action to activate and that it doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity—that's assumed for all command word items. In fact, the assumption is if an item doesn't say how you activate it, it's a command word item.
Gotcha: Magic items that have effects requiring saving throws should include those saves in the item description. If it's duplicating a spell, the default save DC is the minimum for casting that spell: 10 + 1.5 x the spell's level.
BTW that minimum DC is based on the minimum ability score bonus a caster would have to cast a spell of that level.
So for a 3rd level spell like fireball, spell level is 3, minimum wizard Int score (or sorcerer Cha score) is 13, which is a +1 ability score bonus, so 10 + 3 + 1 = 14. The math works out the same if you use the formula (10 + 1.5 x 3 = 10 + 4.5 --> 10 + 4 = 14), as "half the spell level rounded down" is the ability score bonus of the required ability score.
Do you assume it's a cleric / druid / wizard casting it? Assume whatever is appropriate for the item. If it's a druid item, use the druid spell level to determine the DC. Usually the spell level difference (usually 1, rarely 2) isn't going to have a significant effect on the DC.
Gotcha: If you refer to specific spells, italicize them, like fireball or pearl of power. If you refer to feats or skill names, capitalize them, like Power Attack, Weapon Focus (longsword), Perception, or Knowledge (local). There's very little else in the game that always requires capitalization—you don't capitalize class names (cleric), race names (dwarf), combat manoeuvres (grapple, trip), or other specific rules (breath weapon, drowning, trample, poison).
Examples Look through the wondrous items in the Core Rulebook. How many of them have to include examples of their mechanics? Few to none. By this we are talking about introducing new rules, stating an action that must be performed to active an item is a valid thing to include, but including new rules and examples on how the resulting action affects game play has the potential to be frowned upon.
Neil also said "An RPG Superstar submission isn't the place to start introducing an all new rules subsystem. That said, something simple that doesn't require too much explanation...or, something that draws upon existing game mechanics in a new and interesting way...could be viewed as having Superstar potential."
I'd also add, that not only do examples eat your word count, that your item should be clear and obvious in use and effect such that it needs no wordy explanations or examples.
Design Gotcha Watch for out of slot bonus type stacking - see the Slot for affinity checking gotcha. Also be aware that bonuses may need to be typed to preserve the whole game balance. Check for similar bonuses in items in other slots, what type are they? Do your bonuses need to be the same type to prevent min/max stacking?
Design Gotcha Watch out for random tables in items, although a classic design, they are not viewed as superstar. There is also a tendency to fill those last couple random slots with goodies that turn a tight item into a Swiss army knife. This style of design seriously increases that danger. Maybe in the future the competition may put a round 1 twist to create such items, but if you can avoid randomness in your item, it would probably be for the best.
Review your item in the cold light of day. Be aware of whether it could be abused in any way to break game balance or provide excessive benefits to the user. Be honest in this appraisal.
Also look through the spells, if there is a spell that provides similar benefits, check the price of the spell. If your item is more restrictive than the spell, it should be cheaper than purchasing of a spell scroll.
If the majority of benefits of your item can be found in one or a couple of spells, have you simply created a spell in a can or a Swiss army knife of loosely related benefits.
Ask yourself, and be brutally honest with yourself, would you, as a player, really desire this item?
Once you have jumped all these design hurdles, self reviews and gotchas, you should be satisfied with the description of your item.
If done right, in your preview you would now see something like...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Aura strong conjuration; CL 17th
Slot head; Price 57,500 gp; Weight 5 lbs.
Description
A thin banded helm of platinum rather like a crown but devoid of any gemstones.
Wearing this will allow you to create the most amazing wondrous items that everyone will want.
Items created whilst wearing this helm have zero failure chance on creation checks.
Line: Construction:
This is the Construction entry title - it stays on its own line, bolded and capitalized. Like the item name, don't type this line in all caps, and don't add underlining.
Short and sweet, my preview now looks like this...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Aura strong conjuration; CL 17th
Slot head; Price 57,500 gp; Weight 5 lbs.
Description
A thin banded helm of platinum rather like a crown but devoid of any gemstones.
Wearing this will allow you to create the most amazing wondrous items that everyone will want.
Items created whilst wearing this helm have zero failure chance on creation checks.
Construction
Line: Requirements and Cost:
This is then followed by the construction requirements and cost to create the item.
Titles parts are bold and capitalized as before.
Requirements
Requirements are a comma separated list, grouped as follows.
This section is all the stuff a character needs to create the item using an item-crafting feat. List the crafting feat first (capitalized), followed by spell names (italicized), followed by any other requirements such as needing ranks in a skill (capitalized) or an ability like channel energy.
The whole entry for Requirement is terminated by one semi colon and it should be the only semi colon in this entry.
Gotcha: Don't forget that spells that are a part of the requirements are listed in alphabetical order, not in order of relevance. So if you have an item that includes sanctuary as its biggest power and protection from evil also, you would list them in this order: protection from evil, sanctuary.
Gotcha: Each spell is followed by comma and space - this separator is not italicised between each spell.
Gotcha: In a fun post I made, Sean kindly pointed out not to put specific items into other requirements (e.g. a big red button), so it looks like this part is for skills/abilities only and not a general materials bucket. So if your item is made of something specific, note material/specific objects in line 1 of your description, in my example, you need a crown/helm made of platinum.
Cost
This is the item's sale cost—how much a PC could get for selling it to an NPC.
And it is not the cost of making the item like I thought it was - DOH!
But in general, whichever you calculate by your costing/pricing methods, the relationship between cost and price is such that Price = 2 x Cost for Wondrous Items. Variation is allowed to cater for expensive components and foci used in the creation of the item (e.g. a golden dragon's eye would be expensive to collect in more than one way).
All formatting rules for the Price also apply to the Cost (no decimals, no fractions, separate variants with commas).
Energy resistance costs what it should cost based on how powerful the ability is, not at what level some weird new class or race gets it.
There isn't enough space in the book to include specific costs and examples for every possible power in the Core Rulebook, let alone ideas from other books and things not yet invented. That's why the first rule is "compare your item to items of similar power and effect."
So completing my example entry, we get a preview of...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Aura strong conjuration; CL 17th
Slot head; Price 57,500 gp; Weight 5 lbs.
Description
A thin banded helm of platinum rather like a crown but devoid of any gemstones.
Wearing this will allow you to create the most amazing wondrous items that everyone will want.
Items created whilst wearing this helm have zero failure chance on creation checks.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, fabricate, wish; Cost 28,750 gp
Gotcha During preview, your submission should look as much like items found in the current rule books as possible within the limitations of the submission tool. If like me, you are a pdf subscriber rather than a printed product owner, the one to watch for is underline. This is used for linking in pdf and PRD but is not used in printed product.
Auto Rejects and Bad Design
This is a new section and will be ordered to align with Sean's consolidated post in due course, but I thought you would like an interim posting to be going on with, bear with me, this guide is still being refined.
The usual auto rejects are summarised below with the addition of common bad design pitfalls that would your entry progressing so much harder - and yes, the example above is an auto reject joke item, BUT it is technically correct and is also poor design.
One comment to start with, A totally awesome item can over-rule the auto rejects but that assumes it is read through enough to be noticed that its not just an auto reject. So do yourself the biggest favour you can and don't make your chances more difficult - avoid the auto rejects and maximise your chances...
Do NOT Post your Item publicly ANYWHERE - these forums, other forums, anywhere on the net, if it gets found, your anonymity is shot and so is your entry. This doesn’t preclude you asking your games table friends and family for feedback, just don’t publish it. once submitted, treat yourself as signed under a CIA government Secret, don't talk about it, and don’t ask specific questions that might identify your item, just sit tight and wait. It's the safest thing to do for your entry.
Your entry is NOT a Wondrous Item - Don't describe weapons, armor, etc - look at the categories in the Core Rules, if your item falls into a mainstream category, then it's not a Wondrous Item. Also beware the artefact threshold - be honest with yourself if your item is very powerful/costly - does it fall into artefact territory, if it does, its also not a Wondrous Item.
No backstory - Sean says "Show me an item in the core rules that has backstory." - because you cant, there isn't any. Clark also provides the reason that backstory "forces world issues on the GM with this text". So this is a no brainer. Don't do it - plus if you don't do it, you have extra words free to work with. Don't do it, don't waste your precious word count.
It's a plot device - more tricky to avoid as this sometimes is subtle, it can be subjective to each person. One thing to help eliminate this is to check if there are rules in existence already for what you are doing or affecting with your item,. As an example, an item dealing in childbirth - there are no rules for childbirth, so the item is likely a plot device.
#09 - Intellectual Property and Inspiration
If you suspect that your item is in endangerment of this, show it to friends and relatives without mentioning the inspiration. If they can spot where it has come from, chances are the judges will too. Distancing yourself from your own work to assess it is a difficult skill to master and takes time, so use the resources around you to help you in such assessments.
Exceeds word count - you are also meant to prove you can follow instructions when commissioned for writing work. This rule is so simple, do NOT write more words than is asked for. As of 2012, it was a 300 limit. If you entry comes to more than that, the preview kindly tells you. You can use other tools if you want to avoid the risk of accidental submission, but if you do, I would aim for 90% of the word count to allow for tool counting discrepancies. ALWAYS check the work count in your preview to be sure, and to get that word count, you must have entered a name in the name field of the on line form.
As the submission form now appends the word count to your item title, and the judges see this, they can very quickly eliminate over word count entries. Don't fall foul of this or any other round requirements. Reading the requirements is a big test that you can do this. It's easy to skip words - how many times have you read a book and returned for a second reading to notice stuff you didn’t notice before? So train yourself, read the rules and write them down as you read them. This forces you to concentrate on each requirement, get it from eyes to brain through to hand. Eventually you will train yourself to be more thorough in reading instructions without missing items.
General Items and Queries
The following list items, queries and answers that are more general design/entry type queries. These have been collated and entered here for your convenience.
Item 1 Is it possible for multiple people to enter a team entry? No, the competition is for individual entry and is aimed at finding individual freelancers / designers of the future.
Item 2 How do I know if my entry was received safely? Simply make sure your account name is shown at the top of the web page - It's usually the first think in the links list - e.g. Welcome, your name. Click the Superstar link icon. The main page will then tell you "Thanks for entering..." beneath the banner and above the body text if your entry was successfully entered.
Item 3 How many entries? This has never been answered and never will. All you need to know is if you enter, you are a winner as you have a chance at Superstardom, if you don't enter, you can't win.
Item 4 Do not rush your entry, take some time - Clark posted this and I couldn’t agree more.
"First, the best ideas DON'T EVER win. The best entries win. Ideas are only the start of an entry. We are all gamers. We all have great ideas. If that is all it took, we'd all be game designers. So ideas are not enough, you need execution. And turning now to that...
Second, good writing is rewriting. I don't know that I've ever seen a professional first draft (i.e. 30 minutes of writing) that is good enough to make the cut at the level of scrutiny we are applying. Frankly, even Neil or Sean would have a hard time designing a good, tight item with proper mojo and rules-fu in 30 minutes. If they can't do it, then people not named Neil and Sean certainly can't do it.
Let your submission percolate and cook for a while, let it simmer in your mental juices. Then take a look at it. Check every rules issue you have in your item. Spells, feats, powers, effects, whatever. Compare to existing items. Check where it fits on the price list. Check if you italicized the right stuff and capitalized the right stuff. Then let it sit some more."
From this, I take the message as things will be tight on time in later rounds, your task is to reach round 2 and to do that, you have time on round 1 to really polish and shine your entry. So take the time to do so.
Item 5 Technical skills come second to Mo-jo. Creativity, originality, inventiveness, that spark of greatness needs to be fanned into a flame in your entry. Another post by Clark highlights the thoughts and aims that are involved and influence the judging and selection process.
"The first round is funny. Our GOAL for the first round is to find 32 contestants, and by that I mean 32 potential designers to compete to win a chance to write a pathfinder adventure. Of course, the best way to do that would be to have a comprehensive in person interview with everyone who wanted the job and read extensive writing samples. But we can't do that, since hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds want to enter the contest. And we can only pick 32. So we came up with a TASK for the potential contestants to work on to help us pick who from all the potential contestants should be the actual contestants. That task is to design a wondrous item, which is a genius task for a lot of reasons.
Sometimes, however, I remind the judges not to be too strict on the TASK because the real purpose of the task is the GOAL of finding the best 32 contestants for the contest. If we could interview everyone we would. But we can't. So sometimes though a submission may have some flaws, sometimes we see some spark or mojo or creativity or design-fu that makes us say, ok, the person did good (but not great) on the TASK but we see things here that make the person really fit for the GOAL we have of choosing the best 32 contestants."
Neil takes it further
"My judging style is that I always go very in-depth. I think everyone can tell that just from my detailed item critiques. But, basically, I do all that because I want to assess the TASK as thoroughly as I can. I want all the analysis in front of me before I make a final decision. And I want as good a sense as I can get about how a potential contestant did at the TASK. Then, I set that aside and examine the GOAL. For every misstep in the TASK, was there enough there (creative mojo, attention to detail, innovative spark, etc.) to override my concerns? And, once I've assessed things from both those angles, that's when I cast my vote."
So my take on this is that the judges work towards their common goal and share a base philosophy in doing so. This means every entry must be the best entry you can possibly produce not just technically (which this post should help) but also creatively. I want my item to make them want me for the next rounds. I want it to show how much I have to offer not just for the contest but beyond it. You should be wanting that too and trying to whack that ball out of the ball park. Make just one judge go "Wow" and you are on the right track, make them all go "wow" and you are there. So take the time to do so.
Item 6 Use only Pathfinder resources - from the FAQ
"You may use material from the Pathfinder RPG (including the Bestiary, Advanced Player's Guide, and so on) and any of Paizo's Pathfinder products. All other books (including the 3.5 SRD) are off limits (unless you're specifically directed otherwise in later rounds). Use of other content is grounds for disqualification."
Entering your Item
So now we get onto posting your item...
Ok, when posting your wondrous item, put the name without any Bulletin Code Tags into the name entry box.
Then paste your wondrous item with full formatting into the second larger box (include it all from the title to the cost. - Yes the item name is replicated but that is what is asked for).
Before doing anything else, hit PREVIEW button. - if you don’t do this, we will line you up and slap your wrists a LOT.
If the word count that appears in the title exceeds the maximum for the round, guess what...
Do NOT submit
No, really, fix it, do not submit it.
Revise and repeat until this is ok - close IE/Chrome/Safari/Whatever to prevent accidental submission and do your rework in notepad/edlin/open office/word or similar.
Once you are happy with word count, format, content and your preview looks wonderful, and you believe it is done. Then and only then SUBMIT the item.
And then say nothing, don't post that you posted - that could be tracked back and break anonymity and get you auto rejected. It's not worth the risk. Sit quiet, play in the fun threads, read up on Golarion, look towards the coming rounds and plan ahead a little.
But above all else, enjoy the experience and discover your own writer within.
Disclaimer
I should note that although I have entered every year, I have yet to make the elusive Top 32 myself.
This post is a distillation and accumulation of posts, practice, feedback and general soul searching I have performed in this time. I don't think anything I have written into this guide should hurt anyone's chances, my desire was to help technically.
Mo-jo, Creativity and Superstar Spark are something that must come from within yourself. That is the thing that I cannot assist you with. Homework, study, lots and lots of practice and hard work are your only friends on this aspect.
Finis
Now, having set a record length post entry for myself, I leave you to read, ponder, cogitate and design to your hearts content. Enjoy.
Anthony Adam Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 |
Hey all - Im over half way through the "feedback my item" threads and am starting to see repeat reasons and the like, so this amalgamation post should prove pretty useful to us all next time.
Who knows, we may make Neil's day whereby on the winnowing, they have more than 32 items with all strong keeps - then there shall be thunder and lightning, the world shall split and be reformed under the titanic battles that would ensue :)
Anthony Adam Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 |
Phew - not much left to get through now...
All I need to do now is add in the remaining auto reject summaries and then go through the positives on previous years winning items.
Here's the current version listing auto rejects and linking back to Sean's amazing thread to keep you going till it's all done.
Breakdown of the Wondrous Item Template (Updated - Version 3)
It should be noted that this article steps through the Wondrous Item template and is not necessarily the order in which you would work on things; however it does give detailed advice on completion of the wondrous item template for submission to RPG Superstar. Additional hints and tips are included here to assist in understanding of the odd gotcha or two.
There are way too many posts by way too many people to accredit them all, so many thanks to everyone on the forums, judges past and present, guest judges, the tea provider, my mum. You all know who you are - so thanks.
I have now incorporated many discussion items from other threads, so this post has grown to cover not only completion of template but also answer many common questions that get asked every year, so that you don't have to wade through tangent posts and divergent comments to find the meat and potatoes of theory, query and answer.
My soul intent is to minimise your surf time for guidelines and advice and to maximise your design time. It is a distillation of my experiences, item rejects and general reading on Wondrous Item design. I really hope you find this useful and food for thought.
I have tried to place items in the relevant sections of the Wondrous Item Template.
Please bear in mind things change over time, so always double check back to the rules for the Wondrous Item round each year to be sure this post remains valid.
I will also start with Sean's rule 27 (bit like Order 66 but nicer) as the ultimate disclaimer :)
Rule 27: An awesome item may disregard other rules/advice. A dangerous rule to rely on, as you are trying to be so awesome that your awesomeness infects the judges rule 27ness. My advice, aim for awesomeness irrespective of and not requiring of rule 27.
Line: Item Name:
Formatting of the main entry block starts with the item name enclosed in Bulletin Board (BB) Bold tags. The content is self-evident.
The magic item name header in the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook looks like all caps, but it's just a text style — don't type yours in all caps in your submission unless the template changes, do remember your BB tags though.
Note that words in the Item Name tend to be capitalised rather than all lower case, conjunctions do not generally get capitalised unless they are the first word of the item name. - e.g. "a glove of the finger" would be entered as "A Glove of the Finger". The Latter I believe is preferred.
Wondrous Items names come in many flavours. There is the "X of Y" named items, the alliterative names, the names with convoluted, complex and downright weird words that are not part of normal everyday language. When naming your item, you need to gauge your audience as best you can, some people get alienated by cliché or well used naming themes, and others get confused of put off by the use of complex or unfamiliar words. The naming of items therefore is a balancing act, trying to name an item without alienating the majority of the audience.
Another item to bear in mind is the expectation that your name brings. It's the first thing your audience will see. Does it convey an image in the readers mind, an expectation of the likely powers or utilisation of the item. If it does, and the item description bears out the expectations, then you have a tightly named item. The benefit of this is that names that reflect their use are often easiest to remember, raising your item profile in the audience mind set.
I will use a dummy item known as "Awesome Item of Splendiferousness", yeah a rubbish name, but that's where I often struggle but it will do for showing template completion. We will build the submission using the template as we go along.
If done right, using preview you would see...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Line: Aura and Caster Level:
There is no separating or blank lines in the format used each year thus far for each section, so don’t do it.
This section exists so the GM can quickly tell a player what schools of magic the item uses. This is noteworthy only if the PC fails the Spellcraft check to identify the item and needs an idea of what it may do.
Aura
First things first, Aura is BB Bold bounded.
Auras are always written as "faint," "moderate," or "strong," plus the appropriate school or schools, and perhaps a sub school if relevant.
In my original post, I mentioned "overwhelming" which I had extracted from Detect Magic. Therefore Sean's list above excluding this, confirms that overwhelming shouldn’t be used. If you find yourself wanting to use overwhelming, then consider your item might be heading to artefact territory and review it thoroughly.
The strength is the first word after Aura - not bold, no italics, no capitalisation.
School of magic is next separated from the strength by a single space.
If a sub school is used, this would follow, separated by a space and enclosed in rounded bracers, e.g. strength school (sub school)
3E and the Core Rulebook isn't really consistent on whether a multispell item has one or multiple auras listed, so I would suggest if you need to do this, repeat the strength school (sub school) format separating by a single comma and space as used to separate entries in other sections, e.g. faint illusion, moderate necromancy, moderate transmutation, strong evocation
I ordered each alphabetically by school within strength, and listed them in ascending order of strength. Again, this is just me applying personal consistency. I can't say this is 100% right, but should be a good measure of thumb and it follows the ordering of spell names for consistency.
This may be clarified in future templates and competitions, but I don’t think you would get dinged for attempting consistency with other parts of the template.
Gotcha: If your item is 100% necromancy and the aura only lists illusion... say no more.
Immediately following your school entry is a semi colon and a space...
Caster Level
... and then the title for Caster Level in bold simply as CL.
CL: The caster level tells you what caster level the item operates at.
This means you don't have to specify a caster level in the item's description — if you find an orb that can create a fireball, it doesn't need to say "fireball (10d6)." Unless otherwise specified, the item uses this caster level for all of its abilities. The caster level should include the ordinal abbreviation for that number: "CL 1st" instead of just "CL 1," "CL 2nd" instead of just "CL 2," and so on.
When multiple spells are used the caster level required to cast the highest level spell at the required level of effect is used, e.g. the CL for a 5 die fireball effect is lower than the caster level for a 10 die fireball effect - same spell but different caster levels needed.
The level entry has no space between the number and the "st", "nd", “rd” or "th" post fix, is in normal typeface and no italics. There is also no terminating period.
Gotcha: In the construction entry of the template, if you list more feats than any caster of the necessary level could have, well, that needs sorting out methinks - (Paizo Judges/Designers query - revise the feats list or increase the Caster Level to a point of having sufficient feat slots? What is recommended here as a general guide line approach?)
Ok, so I'm now adding my formatting to my line for my item, if done right, preview would look like...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Aura strong conjuration; CL 17th
Line: Slot, Price and Weight:
All three titles are capitalized and bold, and should not be omitted even if you have no slot or no discernable weight - see below.
Slot
Tells you which of the magic item "body slots" the item uses (Core Rulebook 459).
If you have to hold the item in your hand (like a rod of wonder) or if it doesn't use a slot at all (like an ioun stone), its listed slot is "none" - Paizo used to put a dash there for slotless items but no longer does it that way.
Slot names, just like strength and school are neither italicized nor capitalised and always is followed immediately by a semi colon.
Design Gotcha Check your item against other wondrous items for the same slot. Check what a PC may sacrifice in order to utilise your item? IS it worth it? Does it make sense? Be aware of the slot affinities, particularly when dealing with stat bonuses, e.g. head items tend to be intelligence based, hands tend to be dexterity based. Always, always compare against similar slot items, observe the inherent themes underpinning those item sets.
Price
This is the item's market price — how much you'd pay for it if you bought it from an NPC.
This is never expressed as a fraction or decimal; "12 gp, 5 sp" is correct, "12.5 gp" is not, nor is "12 1/2 gp."
If the item costs thousands, use a comma (not a period or other number format type, you must use US number formats) as the ordinal numeric separator ("20,000 gp" instead of "20000 gp" or "20.000 gp").
If the item has several types (like a figurine of wondrous power) with different costs, each is listed here, separated by commas.
The last or only price coinage indicator is followed by a semi colon, e.g. 100 gp, 150gp, 200gp;
All prices are normal weight, non italic, all lower case.
Gotcha: If your item costs more than 200,000 gp, it's probably an artefact rather than a regular magic item.
Gotcha: I mentioned in my original post that this is often twice the cost of creating it - this is my foo bar understanding of the Cost entry - ignore this advice as I was mistaken as to what Cost was.
Gotcha: Once you have determined your price, check it against Wondrous Items of the same level. Compare not just prices but relative usefulness against items in the same market space for that level. Does is compare favourably? This is an art which takes some development and practice.
In the RPG Superstar seminar, the judges made particular note that pricing had never got an entry into top 32 or forced an item out of top 32. As long as the order of magnitude seems correct, they are more interested in the item itself. Later Neil mentioned that wildly overpriced items had recently got dinged, but then went on to say that it was for the magnitude of error (the example quoted was far beyond the most expensive wondrous items).
You also need to compare your item's price to what level a PC would need to be (according to the Wealth By Level table elsewhere in the Core Rulebook) to see if that item would be a "good buy" for them. By that, I mean, if the item produces an effect that's more easily achieved by such a PC with a spell he'll readily have available almost all the time...or won't come up all that often...then he's probably going to always buy something other than your item with his hard-earned gold, because it's a far better value for him.
Or, if that same PC can buy up enough scrolls or potions (or even wands) to do pretty much what your item allows him to do, but he can buy those other things far more cheaply than your item, you've pretty much priced it wrong and need to adjust accordingly. You also need to reconsider if your item is just a SIAC if this situation exists, as that's exactly what potions, scrolls, and wands are. So, if they're able to duplicate what your item does, you're entering SIAC territory.
Also, if your item produces an effect with a really low DC, you've got to consider the "power level" of the creatures and NPCs your character might use that item on. If those creatures and NPCs can easily and routinely beat the DC, once again it's not going to be an item that your character will want. Instead, he'll always be selling it rather than keeping it...because, it's pretty much useless to him. Items that run into those kinds of problems need to be priced lower...thereby pushing them further down the wondrous item price list so lower-level PCs can acquire them at a point in their adventuring careers where the item's effects would still be relevant.
When you see items in the Core Rulebook that don't seem priced "right" according to the math of the wondrous item pricing rules, it's often because of these exact reasons. This is most assuredly the "art" of wondrous item pricing. And you can bet the original game designers looked across the entirety of the game and the balance between character power levels, wealth levels, an item's in-game effect vs. creatures in a certain CR range those characters would likely be facing, and they deemed they needed to slide the price up or down a bit to make it harmonize better with everything else that's in the game.
Weight
This is how much the item weighs, in pounds (abbreviated "lb." for 1 pound or less and "lbs." for 2 or more pounds).
Most common items in the game have a specific weight, just for consistency. For example, boots weigh 1 lb., so players don't have to remember different boot weights. Some light items, like gems, headbands, and rings, have a standard weight of "—," which means individually their weight isn't important (though the GM can rule that a chest full of them has weight).
When in doubt, find a similar item in the Core Rulebook and use the listed weight.
The weight again has a bold capitalized title, with two entry formats
- if there is no weight discernable, you enter a dash and remove the lb/lbs and the period,
- if you have a discernable weight, the format is number <space> lb. - for 1 pound items, number <space> lbs. - for weight other than 1. Note the abbreviation for pounds is followed by a period.
Using US number formatting for the weight if entered.
My preview now looks like this...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Aura strong conjuration; CL 17th
Slot head; Price 57,500 gp; Weight 5 lbs.
Line: Description:
This is the Description entry title - it stays on its own line, bolded and capitalized. Like the item name, don't type this line in all caps, and don't add underlining.
Short and sweet, my preview now looks like this...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Aura strong conjuration; CL 17th
Slot head; Price 57,500 gp; Weight 5 lbs.
Description
This is a text format we call a "breaker"—the all caps and lines above and below the text are just an applied style.
Paragraph(s): Description:
Now we enter the descriptive text of our item.
The first line is usually a simple description of what the item is/looks like/made of. Keep it short, to the point, avoid backstory, avoid names if you can - but note by that we mean PC type names, Witch Queen, King's, etc are fine, just don't name a specific individual.
Start a new paragraph after this descriptive entry - Do not present a wall of words - it is painful in the extreme and likely to push you towards the dreaded reject button. Structured paragraphs and good grammar really add sparkle here.
Things you need here in addition to the descriptive element include what the item does, how often you can use the item, any other limitations or activation requirements and so forth.
There now follows some gotcha/consideration items extrapolated from comments and feedbacks from the merged articles:
Gotcha: Normally, using a magic item is a standard action. You shouldn't give an item a shorter activation time than that because it messes with the "action economy" of the combat round —a player who tries to create a faster item is trying to do more than one magical thing per round.
Gotcha: Whether or not using an item provokes an attack of opportunity is built into how it's activated (Core Rulebook 458). This means for command word items you don't need to say that it's a standard action to activate and that it doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity—that's assumed for all command word items. In fact, the assumption is if an item doesn't say how you activate it, it's a command word item.
Gotcha: Magic items that have effects requiring saving throws should include those saves in the item description. If it's duplicating a spell, the default save DC is the minimum for casting that spell: 10 + 1.5 x the spell's level.
BTW that minimum DC is based on the minimum ability score bonus a caster would have to cast a spell of that level.
So for a 3rd level spell like fireball, spell level is 3, minimum wizard Int score (or sorcerer Cha score) is 13, which is a +1 ability score bonus, so 10 + 3 + 1 = 14. The math works out the same if you use the formula (10 + 1.5 x 3 = 10 + 4.5 --> 10 + 4 = 14), as "half the spell level rounded down" is the ability score bonus of the required ability score.
Do you assume it's a cleric / druid / wizard casting it? Assume whatever is appropriate for the item. If it's a druid item, use the druid spell level to determine the DC. Usually the spell level difference (usually 1, rarely 2) isn't going to have a significant effect on the DC.
Gotcha: If you refer to specific spells, italicize them, like fireball or pearl of power. If you refer to feats or skill names, capitalize them, like Power Attack, Weapon Focus (longsword), Perception, or Knowledge (local). There's very little else in the game that always requires capitalization—you don't capitalize class names (cleric), race names (dwarf), combat manoeuvres (grapple, trip), or other specific rules (breath weapon, drowning, trample, poison).
Examples Look through the wondrous items in the Core Rulebook. How many of them have to include examples of their mechanics? Few to none. By this we are talking about introducing new rules, stating an action that must be performed to active an item is a valid thing to include, but including new rules and examples on how the resulting action affects game play has the potential to be frowned upon.
Neil also said "An RPG Superstar submission isn't the place to start introducing an all new rules subsystem. That said, something simple that doesn't require too much explanation...or, something that draws upon existing game mechanics in a new and interesting way...could be viewed as having Superstar potential."
I'd also add, that not only do examples eat your word count, that your item should be clear and obvious in use and effect such that it needs no wordy explanations or examples.
Design Gotcha Watch for out of slot bonus type stacking - see the Slot for affinity checking gotcha. Also be aware that bonuses may need to be typed to preserve the whole game balance. Check for similar bonuses in items in other slots, what type are they? Do your bonuses need to be the same type to prevent min/max stacking?
Design Gotcha Watch out for random tables in items, although a classic design, they are not viewed as superstar. There is also a tendency to fill those last couple random slots with goodies that turn a tight item into a Swiss army knife. This style of design seriously increases that danger. Maybe in the future the competition may put a round 1 twist to create such items, but if you can avoid randomness in your item, it would probably be for the best.
Review your item in the cold light of day. Be aware of whether it could be abused in any way to break game balance or provide excessive benefits to the user. Be honest in this appraisal.
Also look through the spells, if there is a spell that provides similar benefits, check the price of the spell. If your item is more restrictive than the spell, it should be cheaper than purchasing of a spell scroll.
If the majority of benefits of your item can be found in one or a couple of spells, have you simply created a spell in a can or a Swiss army knife of loosely related benefits.
Ask yourself, and be brutally honest with yourself, would you, as a player, really desire this item?
Once you have jumped all these design hurdles, self reviews and gotchas, you should be satisfied with the description of your item.
If done right, in your preview you would now see something like...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Aura strong conjuration; CL 17th
Slot head; Price 57,500 gp; Weight 5 lbs.
Description
A thin banded helm of platinum rather like a crown but devoid of any gemstones.
Wearing this will allow you to create the most amazing wondrous items that everyone will want.
Items created whilst wearing this helm have zero failure chance on creation checks.
Line: Construction:
This is the Construction entry title - it stays on its own line, bolded and capitalized. Like the item name, don't type this line in all caps, and don't add underlining.
Short and sweet, my preview now looks like this...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Aura strong conjuration; CL 17th
Slot head; Price 57,500 gp; Weight 5 lbs.
Description
A thin banded helm of platinum rather like a crown but devoid of any gemstones.
Wearing this will allow you to create the most amazing wondrous items that everyone will want.
Items created whilst wearing this helm have zero failure chance on creation checks.
Construction
Line: Requirements and Cost:
This is then followed by the construction requirements and cost to create the item.
Titles parts are bold and capitalized as before.
Requirements
Requirements are a comma separated list, grouped as follows.
This section is all the stuff a character needs to create the item using an item-crafting feat. List the crafting feat first (capitalized), followed by spell names (italicized), followed by any other requirements such as needing ranks in a skill (capitalized) or an ability like channel energy.
The whole entry for Requirement is terminated by one semi colon and it should be the only semi colon in this entry.
Gotcha: Don't forget that spells that are a part of the requirements are listed in alphabetical order, not in order of relevance. So if you have an item that includes sanctuary as its biggest power and protection from evil also, you would list them in this order: protection from evil, sanctuary.
Gotcha: Each spell is followed by comma and space - this separator is not italicised between each spell.
Gotcha: In a fun post I made, Sean kindly pointed out not to put specific items into other requirements (e.g. a big red button), so it looks like this part is for skills/abilities only and not a general materials bucket. So if your item is made of something specific, note material/specific objects in line 1 of your description, in my example, you need a crown/helm made of platinum.
Cost
This is the item's sale cost—how much a PC could get for selling it to an NPC.
And it is not the cost of making the item like I thought it was - DOH!
But in general, whichever you calculate by your costing/pricing methods, the relationship between cost and price is such that Price = 2 x Cost for Wondrous Items. Variation is allowed to cater for expensive components and foci used in the creation of the item (e.g. a golden dragon's eye would be expensive to collect in more than one way).
All formatting rules for the Price also apply to the Cost (no decimals, no fractions, separate variants with commas).
Energy resistance costs what it should cost based on how powerful the ability is, not at what level some weird new class or race gets it.
There isn't enough space in the book to include specific costs and examples for every possible power in the Core Rulebook, let alone ideas from other books and things not yet invented. That's why the first rule is "compare your item to items of similar power and effect."
So completing my example entry, we get a preview of...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Aura strong conjuration; CL 17th
Slot head; Price 57,500 gp; Weight 5 lbs.
Description
A thin banded helm of platinum rather like a crown but devoid of any gemstones.
Wearing this will allow you to create the most amazing wondrous items that everyone will want.
Items created whilst wearing this helm have zero failure chance on creation checks.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, fabricate, wish; Cost 28,750 gp
Gotcha During preview, your submission should look as much like items found in the current rule books as possible within the limitations of the submission tool. If like me, you are a pdf subscriber rather than a printed product owner, the one to watch for is underline. This is used for linking in pdf and PRD but is not used in printed product.
Auto Rejects and Bad Design
This is a new section and will be ordered to align with Sean's consolidated post in due course, but I thought you would like an interim posting to be going on with, bear with me, this guide is still being refined.
The usual auto rejects are summarised below with the addition of common bad design pitfalls that would your entry progressing so much harder - and yes, the example above is an auto reject joke item, BUT it is technically correct and is also poor design.
One comment to start with, A totally awesome item can over-rule the auto rejects but that assumes it is read through enough to be noticed that its not just an auto reject. So do yourself the biggest favour you can and don't make your chances more difficult - avoid the auto rejects and maximise your chances...
Where numbers are used on these, they refer directly to Seans amazing post. I have also grouped related extras to the numbered items - the very first item numbered 00 isn't on Sean's list, I have added it because these mistakes simply should not be happening.
Important Sometimes Sean's original threads get appended to as the competitions come and go. So I would use the link above and read these posts fully and not rely solely on the summarisations below.
#00 - Failed to follow / read the round rules Come on, read ALL the rules. Don't do the silly stuff, real easy silly stuff is noted below:
Do NOT Post your Item publicly ANYWHERE - these forums, other forums, anywhere on the net, if it gets found, your anonymity is shot and so is your entry. This doesn’t preclude you asking your games table friends and family for feedback, just don’t publish it. Once submitted, treat yourself as signed under government secrecy with death penalty if you blab, don't talk about it, and don’t ask specific questions that might identify your item, just sit tight and wait. It's the safest thing to do for your entry.
Don't post you just posted This could identify your item, if you post that you just posted. Don't risk it. If you do join in on the "I'm in" threads, just post that you have entered but avoid any time references, any indications of type of item, anything that might make your item identifyable.
Exceeds word count - you are also meant to prove you can follow instructions when commissioned for writing work. This rule is so simple, do NOT write more words than is asked for. As of 2012, it was a 300 limit. If you entry comes to more than that, the preview kindly tells you. You can use other tools if you want to avoid the risk of accidental submission, but if you do, I would aim for 90% of the word count to allow for tool counting discrepancies. ALWAYS check the work count in your preview to be sure, and to get that word count, you must have entered a name in the name field of the on line form.
As the submission form now appends the word count to your item title, and the judges see this, they can very quickly eliminate over word count entries. Don't fall foul of this or any other round requirements. Reading the requirements is a big test that you can do this. It's easy to skip words - how many times have you read a book and returned for a second reading to notice stuff you didn’t notice before? So train yourself, read the rules and write them down as you read them. This forces you to concentrate on each requirement, get it from eyes to brain through to hand. Eventually you will train yourself to be more thorough in reading instructions without missing items.
#01 - Spell in a Can TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#02 - Swiss Army Knife TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#03 - Back Story / History / Description Item
Backstory - Sean says "Show me an item in the core rules that has backstory." - because you cant, there isn't any. Clark also provides the reason that backstory "forces world issues on the GM with this text". So this is a no brainer. Don't do it - plus if you don't do it, you have extra words free to work with. Don't do it, don't waste your precious word count.
History TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
Description Item TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
It's a plot device - more tricky to avoid as this sometimes is subtle, it can be subjective to each person. One thing to help eliminate this is to check if there are rules in existence already for what you are doing or affecting with your item,. As an example, an item dealing in childbirth - there are no rules for childbirth, so the item is likely a plot device.
Your entry is NOT a Wondrous Item - Don't describe weapons, armor, etc - look at the categories in the Core Rules, if your item falls into a mainstream category, then it's not a Wondrous Item. Also beware the artefact threshold - be honest with yourself if your item is very powerful/costly - does it fall into artefact territory, if it does, its also not a Wondrous Item.
#04 - Item ought to be Not An Item TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#05 - Item fails to follow Game Rules TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#06 - Item is a variant of an existing Item TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#07 - Obvious Pricing Errors TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#08 - The Random Item TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#09 - Intellectual Property and Inspiration If you suspect that your item is in endangerment of this, show it to friends and relatives without mentioning the inspiration. If they can spot where it has come from, chances are the judges will too. Distancing yourself from your own work to assess it is a difficult skill to master and takes time, so use the resources around you to help you in such assessments.
#10 - Item isn't spell checked or proof read TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#11 - The In Character Quote TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#12 - Item is a joke TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#13 - Item makes you blind and not blind TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#14 - Item has mature or offensive content TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#15 - Item is unclear on repeat use TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#16 - Items name is a real world name TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#17 - Item is modern technology presented as magic TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#18 - Item makes bearer unable to be lost TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#19 - Item involves vomit TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#20 - Item makes GM'ing harder TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#21 - Item gives a class ability or feat TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#22 - Item makes adventuring safe TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#23 - Item's drawback is actually a benefit TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#24 - Item repeats existing rules in the description TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#25 - Item is a child's toy TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#26 - Item encourages metagaming TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
General Items and Queries
The following list items, queries and answers that are more general design/entry type queries. These have been collated and entered here for your convenience.
Item 1 Is it possible for multiple people to enter a team entry? No, the competition is for individual entry and is aimed at finding individual freelancers / designers of the future.
Item 2 How do I know if my entry was received safely? Simply make sure your account name is shown at the top of the web page - It's usually the first think in the links list - e.g. Welcome, your name. Click the Superstar link icon. The main page will then tell you "Thanks for entering..." beneath the banner and above the body text if your entry was successfully entered.
Item 3 How many entries? This has never been answered and never will. All you need to know is if you enter, you are a winner as you have a chance at Superstardom, if you don't enter, you can't win.
Item 4 Do not rush your entry, take some time - Clark posted this and I couldn’t agree more.
"First, the best ideas DON'T EVER win. The best entries win. Ideas are only the start of an entry. We are all gamers. We all have great ideas. If that is all it took, we'd all be game designers. So ideas are not enough, you need execution. And turning now to that...
Second, good writing is rewriting. I don't know that I've ever seen a professional first draft (i.e. 30 minutes of writing) that is good enough to make the cut at the level of scrutiny we are applying. Frankly, even Neil or Sean would have a hard time designing a good, tight item with proper mojo and rules-fu in 30 minutes. If they can't do it, then people not named Neil and Sean certainly can't do it.
Let your submission percolate and cook for a while, let it simmer in your mental juices. Then take a look at it. Check every rules issue you have in your item. Spells, feats, powers, effects, whatever. Compare to existing items. Check where it fits on the price list. Check if you italicized the right stuff and capitalized the right stuff. Then let it sit some more."
From this, I take the message as things will be tight on time in later rounds, your task is to reach round 2 and to do that, you have time on round 1 to really polish and shine your entry. So take the time to do so.
Item 5 Technical skills come second to Mo-jo. Creativity, originality, inventiveness, that spark of greatness needs to be fanned into a flame in your entry. Another post by Clark highlights the thoughts and aims that are involved and influence the judging and selection process.
"The first round is funny. Our GOAL for the first round is to find 32 contestants, and by that I mean 32 potential designers to compete to win a chance to write a pathfinder adventure. Of course, the best way to do that would be to have a comprehensive in person interview with everyone who wanted the job and read extensive writing samples. But we can't do that, since hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds want to enter the contest. And we can only pick 32. So we came up with a TASK for the potential contestants to work on to help us pick who from all the potential contestants should be the actual contestants. That task is to design a wondrous item, which is a genius task for a lot of reasons.
Sometimes, however, I remind the judges not to be too strict on the TASK because the real purpose of the task is the GOAL of finding the best 32 contestants for the contest. If we could interview everyone we would. But we can't. So sometimes though a submission may have some flaws, sometimes we see some spark or mojo or creativity or design-fu that makes us say, ok, the person did good (but not great) on the TASK but we see things here that make the person really fit for the GOAL we have of choosing the best 32 contestants."
Neil takes it further
"My judging style is that I always go very in-depth. I think everyone can tell that just from my detailed item critiques. But, basically, I do all that because I want to assess the TASK as thoroughly as I can. I want all the analysis in front of me before I make a final decision. And I want as good a sense as I can get about how a potential contestant did at the TASK. Then, I set that aside and examine the GOAL. For every misstep in the TASK, was there enough there (creative mojo, attention to detail, innovative spark, etc.) to override my concerns? And, once I've assessed things from both those angles, that's when I cast my vote."
So my take on this is that the judges work towards their common goal and share a base philosophy in doing so. This means every entry must be the best entry you can possibly produce not just technically (which this post should help) but also creatively. I want my item to make them want me for the next rounds. I want it to show how much I have to offer not just for the contest but beyond it. You should be wanting that too and trying to whack that ball out of the ball park. Make just one judge go "Wow" and you are on the right track, make them all go "wow" and you are there. So take the time to do so.
Item 6 Use only Pathfinder resources - from the FAQ
"You may use material from the Pathfinder RPG (including the Bestiary, Advanced Player's Guide, and so on) and any of Paizo's Pathfinder products. All other books (including the 3.5 SRD) are off limits (unless you're specifically directed otherwise in later rounds). Use of other content is grounds for disqualification."
Entering your Item
So now we get onto posting your item...
Ok, when posting your wondrous item, put the name without any Bulletin Code Tags into the name entry box.
Then paste your wondrous item with full formatting into the second larger box (include it all from the title to the cost. - Yes the item name is replicated but that is what is asked for).
Before doing anything else, hit PREVIEW button. - if you don’t do this, we will line you up and slap your wrists a LOT.
If the word count that appears in the title exceeds the maximum for the round, guess what...
Do NOT submit
No, really, fix it, do not submit it.
Revise and repeat until this is ok - close IE/Chrome/Safari/Whatever to prevent accidental submission and do your rework in notepad/edlin/open office/word or similar.
Once you are happy with word count, format, content and your preview looks wonderful, and you believe it is done. Then and only then SUBMIT the item.
And then say nothing, don't post that you posted - that could be tracked back and break anonymity and get you auto rejected. It's not worth the risk. Sit quiet, play in the fun threads, read up on Golarion, look towards the coming rounds and plan ahead a little.
But above all else, enjoy the experience and discover your own writer within.
Disclaimer
I should note that although I have entered every year, I have yet to make the elusive Top 32 myself.
This post is a distillation and accumulation of posts, practice, feedback and general soul searching I have performed in this time. I don't think anything I have written into this guide should hurt anyone's chances, my desire was to help technically.
Mo-jo, Creativity and Superstar Spark are something that must come from within yourself. That is the thing that I cannot assist you with. Homework, study, lots and lots of practice and hard work are your only friends on this aspect.
Finis
Now, having set a record length post entry for myself, I leave you to read, ponder, cogitate and design to your hearts content. Enjoy.
Ziv Wities RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32 , Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7 aka Standback |
Wow. This is quite a comprehensive document you've built up here :)
I'm thinking for something of this scope, you'll want something more than a forum post. This would look a lot better as a page somewhere - with big headers, with a clearer structure, with a table of contents, etc. Maybe consider recasting this as a public Google Doc, or a webpage somewhere, or a PDF (I can see the gotchas as sidebars...).
In terms of structure, you might want to separate between different major elements of the entry. I'd say at least "Mechanics," "Presentation," and "Item Design." Mixing them all together is less helpful, because you don't write an item by filling in the template in order... Rather, you start with one aspect, build in another, and proceed in layers. So a navigable reference is more helpful than a step-by-step. For example, choosing an awesome name and capitalizing the name correctly (not too little, not too much!) are two very different issues. And I'd better know a hella lot about how to handle item CL before I'm ready to add the bolding tag and remember it's "CL 9th" and not "CL 9".
Again, I'm extremely impressed by your thoroughness :D
Anthony Adam Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 |
Mikko Kallio Contributor , Dedicated Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 |
This is a very comphrehensive guide on the subject, nice work Anthony!
My only complaint is that the scannability of the text is rather poor, and your writing style is verbose and conversational, which makes it difficult to locate specific pieces of information if you're not interested in reading all the way through it. I'd use layout and formatting to make it easier to look up information.
There are some bits of information that are a little inaccurate, I'll elaborate on that when I have the time. :)
Anthony Adam Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 |
yeah, the conversational style was intentional - nothing I hate more than huge dry documents, its a personal thing.
I have no objections to anyone taking the basis and formatting technical style if they so wish, you just might want to wait until I have finished the collation though - still loads to add.
Curaigh Star Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 |
Nice work Anthony,
Done right you could submit this to Kobold Quarterly.
Except they have already done an article on it. Have you read the KQ article on superstar/item design?
I think you should just add links to SKR's sticky posts (and the blog) and save yourself from rewriting what is already out there, :) Still I hope all this work pays off for you. The attention to detail should be a boon to a designer.
Nice Job!
Clark Peterson Legendary Games, Necromancer Games |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
And now I've even got Clark and Neil noticing me as "that lazy guy with the attitude Paizo doesn't want."
At least you're getting noticed :)
Listen, we are just trying to help you. That's all. We are just trying to guide you towards a successful mindset and board presence. Take it as that, and nothing more. We aren't criticizing you as a person.
Anthony Adam Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 |
Nice work Anthony,
Done right you could submit this to Kobold Quarterly.
Except they have already done an article on it. Have you read the KQ article on superstar/item design?
I think you should just add links to SKR's sticky posts (and the blog) and save yourself from rewriting what is already out there, :) Still I hope all this work pays off for you. The attention to detail should be a boon to a designer.
Nice Job!
Funnily enough, I just purchased all the pdfs of KQ and intend sitting reading them.
Yeah, I was going to link to Sean's posts and have just a couple lines of summary in this main post. That way, at least I will wade through all the posts on each to pick out the pertinent bits ;)
gbonehead Owner - House of Books and Games LLC , Marathon Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7 |
gbonehead wrote:And now I've even got Clark and Neil noticing me as "that lazy guy with the attitude Paizo doesn't want."
At least you're getting noticed :)
Listen, we are just trying to help you. That's all. We are just trying to guide you towards a successful mindset and board presence. Take it as that, and nothing more. We aren't criticizing you as a person.
Heheheh ... Oh, I know, and I appreciate it.
Ironic that I switched my avatar to a target recently :)
Anthony Adam Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 |
Hey all, not a lot added to the post thats new - this is simply a bit of rearranging and reformatting based on current feedback.
Each template line is now split descriptively in the following way
Formatting
General Advice
Gotchas
Example
Where a line has multiple components, each component is detailed within the sections for the line.
Then after the template you will find the general items, advice, links to posts of interest and the how to fill in your form and enter safely.
This means, if all you are doing is checking your format, you can skip to each formatting section, peruse that and move on to the next formatting section.
If you are looking for general advice, you can skip through those sections.
And so on.
Hope it's a bit more useful this way.
(As an aside here, there is a freeware tool called Fass which lets you edit and preview common forum type posts - it's way safer than preview in the forum entry panel - you might want to check it out).
Breakdown of the Wondrous Item Template (Updated - Version 4)
It should be noted that this article steps through the Wondrous Item template and is not necessarily the order in which you would work on things; however it does give detailed advice on completion of the wondrous item template for submission to RPG Superstar.
There are way too many posts by way too many people to accredit them all, so many thanks to everyone.
This article has grown to cover not only completion of template but also answer many common questions that get asked every year.
I really hope you find this useful and food for thought.
Please bear in mind things change over time, so always double check back to the rules for the Wondrous Item round each year to be sure this post remains valid against the lastest rules.
I start with Sean's rule 27:
Rule 27: An awesome item may disregard other rules/advice.
A dangerous rule to rely on, aim for technical competence and originality so awesome that rule 27 is redundant.
So let us begin...
TEMPLATE LINE: Item Name:
Formatting
Formatting of the main entry block starts with the item name enclosed in Bulletin Board (BB) Bold tags. The content is self-evident.
The magic item name header in the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook looks like all caps, but it's just a text style ? don't type yours in all caps in your submission unless the template changes, do remember your BB tags though.
Note that words in the Item Name tend to be capitalised rather than all lower case, conjunctions do not generally get capitalised unless they are the first word of the item name. - e.g. "a glove of the finger" would be entered as "A Glove of the Finger". The Latter I believe is preferred.
General Advice
Wondrous Items names come in many flavours. There is the "X of Y" named items, the alliterative names, the names with convoluted, complex and downright weird words that are not part of normal everyday language.
When naming your item, you need to gauge your audience as best you can, some people get alienated by clich? or well used naming themes, and others get confused of put off by the use of complex or unfamiliar words. The naming of items therefore is a balancing act.
Another item to bear in mind is the expectation that your item name brings. It's the first thing your audience will see. Does it convey an image in the readers mind, an expectation of the likely powers or utilisation of the item? If it does, and the item description bears out the expectations, then you have a tightly named item. The benefit of this is that names that reflect their use are often easiest to remember, raising your items profile in the audience mind set.
Template Example
I will use a dummy item known as "Awesome Item of Splendiferousness", yeah a rubbish name, but that's where I often struggle but it will do for showing template completion. We will build the submission using the template as we go along.
If done right, using preview you would see...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
- - -
TEMPLATE LINE: Aura and Caster Level:
This section exists so the GM can quickly tell a player what schools of magic the item uses. This is noteworthy only if the PC fails the Spellcraft check to identify the item and needs an idea of what it may do.
Formatting
There are no extra blank lines in the format used between each template line, so don?t do it.
Aura
Aura is BB Bold bounded. The follow the format of strength school (sub school).
The strength is the first word after Aura - not bold, no italics, no capitalisation. It is always written as "faint", "moderate" or "strong".
School of magic is next separated from the strength by a single space, not bold, no italics, no capitalisation.
If a sub school is used, this would follow, separated by a space and enclosed in rounded bracers, not bold, no italics, no capitalisation. If there is no sub school - omit the bracers, faint transmutation () is wrong.
Immediately following your school entry is a semi colon and a space...
Caster Level
... and then the title for Caster Level in bold simply as CL.
The caster level is an integer numeric entry followed by ordinal abbreviations with no separating space between number and abbreviation ("st", "nd", ?rd? or "th").
The entry is in normal typeface, no italics and no terminating period.
General Advice
Aura
In my original post, I mentioned "overwhelming" which I had extracted from Detect Magic. If you find yourself wanting to use "overwhelming", then consider that your item might be heading into artefact territory and review it thoroughly.
3E and the Core Rulebook isn't really consistent on whether a multispell item has one or multiple auras listed. I would suggest if you need to do this, repeat the strength school (sub school) format separating by a single comma and space as used to separate entries in other sections, e.g. faint illusion, moderate necromancy, moderate transmutation, strong evocation
I ordered each alphabetically by school within strength, and listed them in ascending order of strength. Again, this is just me applying personal consistency. I can't say this is 100% right, but should be a good measure of thumb and it follows the ordering of spell names for consistency.
This may be clarified in future templates and competitions, but I don?t think you would get dinged for attempting consistency with other parts of the template.
Caster Level
The caster level tells you what caster level the item operates at. This means you don't have to specify a caster level in the item's description ? if you find an orb that can create a fireball, it doesn't need to say "fireball (10d6)."
Unless otherwise specified, the item uses this caster level for all of its abilities. The caster level should include the ordinal abbreviation for that number: "CL 1st" instead of just "CL 1," "CL 2nd" instead of just "CL 2," and so on.
When multiple spells are used the caster level required to cast the highest level spell at the required level of effect is used, e.g. the CL for a 5 die fireball effect is lower than the caster level for a 10 die fireball effect - same spell but different caster levels needed.
Gotcha's, Pitfalls and Traps
Aura
If your item is 100% necromancy and the aura only lists illusion... double check your construction requirements match with your aura entry.
Caster Level
The item caster level is too low for listed spells in the construction and/or effects in the description. Double check all you spell levels and cross reference to the relevant caster tables to identify the required caster level.
Be aware that your caster level also sets a limit to the number of feats you can use in the construction. The number of feats used could mean a higher caster level than the spells being used - be careful to check this.
Template Example
If done right, preview would look like...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Aura strong conjuration; CL 17th
- - -
TEMPLATE LINE: Slot, Price and Weight:
The Slot entry tells you which of the magic item "body slots" the item uses.
The Price entry is the item's market price, it is the minimum amount you would pay for it when buying from an NPC.
This is how much the item weighs, in pounds.
Formatting
All three titles are capitalized and bold, and should not be omitted even if you have no slot or no discernable weight.
Slot
Slot names, just like strength and school are neither italicized nor capitalised and always followed immediately by a semi colon.
If you have to hold the item in your hand (like a rod of wonder) or if it doesn't use a slot at all (like an ioun stone), its listed slot is "none" - Paizo used to put an em-dash there for slotless items but no longer does it that way (5th printing onwards).
Price
All prices are normal weight, non italic, all lower case.
This is never expressed as a fraction or decimal; "12 gp, 5 sp" is correct, "12.5 gp" is not, nor is "12 1/2 gp."
If the item costs thousands, use a comma (not a period or other number format type, you must use US number formats) as the ordinal numeric separator ("20,000 gp" instead of "20000 gp" or "20.000 gp").
If the item has several types (like a figurine of wondrous power) with different prices, each is listed here, separated by comma and space.
The last or only price entry is followed by a semi colon, e.g. 100 gp, 150gp, 200gp;
Weight
The weight again has a bold capitalized title, with two entry formats
- if there is no weight discernable, you enter a dash and remove the lb/lbs and the period,
- if you have a discernable weight, the format is number <space> lb. - for 1 pound or less items, number <space> lbs. - for weight other than 1. Note the abbreviation for pounds is followed by a period.
(abbreviated "lb." for 1 pound or less and "lbs." for 2 or more pounds).
Use US number formatting for the weight if entered.
General Advice
Slot
Make sure you use the slot names from the Core Rules / PRD, don't invent slots.
Price
In the RPG Superstar seminar, the judges made particular note that pricing had never got an entry into top 32 or forced an item out of top 32. As long as the order of magnitude seems correct, they are more interested in the item itself. Later Neil mentioned that wildly overpriced items had recently got dinged, but then went on to say that it was for the magnitude of error (the example quoted was far beyond the most expensive wondrous items).
You also need to compare your item's price to what level a PC would need to be (according to the Wealth By Level table elsewhere in the Core Rulebook) to see if that item would be a "good buy" for them. By that, I mean, if the item produces an effect that's more easily achieved by such a PC with a spell he'll readily have available almost all the time...or won't come up all that often...then he's probably going to always buy something other than your item with his hard-earned gold, because it's a far better value for him.
Or, if that same PC can buy up enough scrolls or potions (or even wands) to do pretty much what your item allows him to do, but he can buy those other things far more cheaply than your item, you've pretty much priced it wrong and need to adjust accordingly. You also need to reconsider if your item is just a SIAC if this situation exists, as that's exactly what potions, scrolls, and wands are. So, if they're able to duplicate what your item does, you're entering SIAC territory.
Also, if your item produces an effect with a really low DC, you've got to consider the "power level" of the creatures and NPCs your character might use that item on. If those creatures and NPCs can easily and routinely beat the DC, once again it's not going to be an item that your character will want. Instead, he'll always be selling it rather than keeping it...because, it's pretty much useless to him. Items that run into those kinds of problems need to be priced lower...thereby pushing them further down the wondrous item price list so lower-level PCs can acquire them at a point in their adventuring careers where the item's effects would still be relevant.
When you see items in the Core Rulebook that don't seem priced "right" according to the math of the wondrous item pricing rules, it's often because of these exact reasons. This is most assuredly the "art" of wondrous item pricing. And you can bet the original game designers looked across the entirety of the game and the balance between character power levels, wealth levels, an item's in-game effect vs. creatures in a certain CR range those characters would likely be facing, and they deemed they needed to slide the price up or down a bit to make it harmonize better with everything else that's in the game.
Weight
Most common items in the game have a specific weight, just for consistency.
For example, boots weigh 1 lb., so players don't have to remember different boot weights. Some light items, like gems, headbands, and rings, have a standard weight of — (em-dash), which means individually their weight isn't important (though the GM can rule that a chest full of them has weight).
When in doubt, find a similar item in the Core Rulebook and use the listed weight.
Gotcha's, Pitfalls and Traps
Slot
Check your item against other wondrous items for the same slot. Check what a PC may sacrifice in order to utilise your item? Is it worth it? Does it make sense? Be aware of the slot affinities, particularly when dealing with stat bonuses, e.g. head items tend to be intelligence based, hands tend to be dexterity based. Always, always compare against similar slot items, observe the inherent themes underpinning those item sets.
Price
If your item costs more than 200,000 gp, it's probably an artefact rather than a regular magic item.
Once you have determined your price, check it against Wondrous Items of the same level. Compare not just prices but relative usefulness against items in the same market space for that level. Does is compare favourably? This is an art which takes some development and practice.
Template Example
My preview now looks like this...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Aura strong conjuration; CL 17th
Slot head; Price 57,500 gp; Weight 5 lbs.
- - -
TEMPLATE LINE: Description:
This is the Description entry title.
Formatting
It stays on its own line, bolded and capitalized. Like the item name, don't type this line in all caps, and don't add underlining.
Template Example
Short and sweet, my preview now looks like this...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Aura strong conjuration; CL 17th
Slot head; Price 57,500 gp; Weight 5 lbs.
Description
- - -
PARAGRAPH: Description:
Now we enter the descriptive text of our item.
The first line is usually a simple description of what the item is, looks like and occasionally made of (if not obvious).
.
Formatting
General Advice
For your initial line, Keep it short, to the point.
Start a new paragraph after this descriptive entry, grab your reader with the wow factor of your item deatils.
Try to use good structure and grammar - Do not present a wall of words - it is painful in the extreme and likely to push you towards the dreaded reject button.
Things you need here in addition to the descriptive element include what the item does, how often you can use the item, any other limitations or activation requirements and so forth.
If you refer to specific spells, italicize them, like fireball or pearl of power. If you refer to feats or skill names, capitalize them, like Power Attack, Weapon Focus (longsword), Perception, or Knowledge (local). There's very little else in the game that always requires capitalization?you don't capitalize class names (cleric), race names (dwarf), combat manoeuvres (grapple, trip), or other specific rules (breath weapon, drowning, trample, poison).
Gotcha's, Pitfalls and Traps
Avoid backstory.
Avoid PC/NPC names, but "roles" are fine, King's, Queen's[i/], etc., are fine, just don't name specific individual.
Normally, using a magic item is a standard action. You shouldn't give an item a shorter activation time than that because it messes with the "action economy" of the combat round.
Whether or not using an item provokes an attack of opportunity is built into how it's activated. This means for command word items you don't need to say that it's a standard action to activate and that it doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity? In fact, the assumption is if an item doesn't say how you activate it, it's a command word item.
Magic items that have effects requiring saving throws should include those saves in the item description. If it's duplicating a spell, the default save DC is the minimum for casting that spell: 10 + 1.5 x the spell's level. Note that the minimum DC is based on the minimum ability score bonus a caster would have to cast a spell of that level.
So for a 3rd level spell like fireball, spell level is 3, minimum wizard Int score (or sorcerer Cha score) is 13, which is a +1 ability score bonus, so 10 + 3 + 1 = 14. The math works out the same if you use the formula (10 + 1.5 x 3 = 10 + 4.5 --> 10 + 4 = 14), as "half the spell level rounded down" is the ability score bonus of the required ability score.
Do you assume it's a cleric / druid / wizard casting it? Assume whatever is appropriate for the item. If it's a druid item, use the druid spell level to determine the DC. Usually the spell level difference (usually 1, rarely 2) isn't going to have a significant effect on the DC.
Look through the wondrous items in the Core Rulebook. How many of them have to include examples of their mechanics? Few to none. By this we are talking about introducing new rules, stating an action that must be performed to active an item is a valid thing to include, but including new rules and examples on how the resulting action affects game play has the potential to be frowned upon.
Neil also said "An RPG Superstar submission isn't the place to start introducing an all new rules subsystem. That said, something simple that doesn't require too much explanation...or, something that draws upon existing game mechanics in a new and interesting way...could be viewed as having Superstar potential."
I'd also add, that not only do examples eat your word count, that your item should be clear and obvious in use and effect such that it needs no wordy explanations or examples.
[Watch for out of slot bonus type stacking - see the Slot for affinity checking gotcha. Also be aware that bonuses may need to be typed to preserve the whole game balance. Check for similar bonuses in items in other slots, what type are they? Do your bonuses need to be the same type to prevent min/max stacking?
Watch out for random tables in items, although a classic design, they are not viewed as superstar. There is also a tendency to fill those last couple random slots with goodies that turn a tight item into a Swiss army knife. This style of design seriously increases that danger. Maybe in the future the competition may put a round 1 twist to create such items, but if you can avoid randomness in your item, it would probably be for the best.
Review your item in the cold light of day. Be aware of whether it could be abused in any way to break game balance or provide excessive benefits to the user. Be honest in this appraisal. Also look through the spells, if there is a spell that provides similar benefits, check the price of the spell. If your item is more restrictive than the spell, it should be cheaper than purchasing of a spell scroll. If the majority of benefits of your item can be found in one or a couple of spells, have you simply created a spell in a can or a Swiss army knife of loosely related benefits.
[i]Template Example
If done right, in your preview you would now see something like...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Aura strong conjuration; CL 17th
Slot head; Price 57,500 gp; Weight 5 lbs.
Description
A thin banded helm of platinum rather like a crown but devoid of any gemstones.
Wearing this will allow you to create the most amazing wondrous items that everyone will want.
Items created whilst wearing this helm have zero failure chance on creation checks.
- - -
TEMPLATE LINE: Construction:
This is the Construction entry title.
Formatting
It stays on its own line, bolded and capitalized. Like the item name, don't type this line in all caps, and don't add underlining.
Template Example
Short and sweet, my preview now looks like this...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Aura strong conjuration; CL 17th
Slot head; Price 57,500 gp; Weight 5 lbs.
Description
A thin banded helm of platinum rather like a crown but devoid of any gemstones.
Wearing this will allow you to create the most amazing wondrous items that everyone will want.
Items created whilst wearing this helm have zero failure chance on creation checks.
Construction
- - -
TEMPLATE LINE: Requirements and Cost:
This is then followed by the construction requirements and cost to create the item.
The construction requirements are all the stuff a character needs to create the item using an item-crafting feat.
The cost is the item's sale cost, i.e how much a PC could get for selling it to an NPC.
Formatting
Titles parts are bold and capitalized as before.
Requirements
Requirements are a comma separated list.
List the crafting feat first (capitalized), followed by spell names (italicized), followed by any other requirements such as needing ranks in a skill (capitalized) or an ability like channel energy.
Each spell is followed by comma and space - the comma and space separating requirement items are not italicised.
The whole entry for Requirement is terminated by one semi colon and it should be the only semi colon in this entry.
Cost
All formatting rules for the Price also apply to the Cost:
All pcosts are normal weight, non italic, all lower case.
This is never expressed as a fraction or decimal; "12 gp, 5 sp" is correct, "12.5 gp" is not, nor is "12 1/2 gp."
If the item costs thousands, use a comma (not a period or other number format type, you must use US number formats) as the ordinal numeric separator ("20,000 gp" instead of "20000 gp" or "20.000 gp").
If the item has several types (like a figurine of wondrous power) with different costs, each is listed here, separated by comma and space.
The last or only cost entry is followed by a semi colon, e.g. 100 gp, 150gp, 200gp;
General Advice
Requirements
Don't forget that spells that are a part of the requirements are listed in alphabetical order, not in order of relevance. So if you have an item that includes sanctuary as its biggest power and protection from evil also, you would list them in this order: protection from evil, sanctuary.
Cost
But in general, whichever you calculate by your costing/pricing methods, the relationship between cost and price is such that Price = 2 x Cost for Wondrous Items.
Energy resistance costs what it should cost based on how powerful the ability is, not at what level some weird new class or race gets it.
There isn't enough space in the book to include specific costs and examples for every possible power in the Core Rulebook, let alone ideas from other books and things not yet invented. That's why the first rule is "compare your item to items of similar power and effect."
Gotcha's, Pitfalls and Traps
Requirements
In a fun post I made, Sean kindly pointed out not to put specific items into other requirements (e.g. a big red button), so it looks like this part is for skills/abilities only and not a general materials bucket. So if your item is made of something specific, note material/specific objects in line 1 of your description, in my example, you need a crown/helm made of platinum.
Cost
Template Example
So completing my example entry, we get a preview of...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Aura strong conjuration; CL 17th
Slot head; Price 57,500 gp; Weight 5 lbs.
Description
A thin banded helm of platinum rather like a crown but devoid of any gemstones.
Wearing this will allow you to create the most amazing wondrous items that everyone will want.
Items created whilst wearing this helm have zero failure chance on creation checks.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, fabricate, wish; Cost 28,750 gp
- - -
Using the Preview
During preview, your submission should look as much like items found in the current rule books as possible within the limitations of the submission tool. If like me, you are a pdf subscriber rather than a printed product owner, the one to watch for is underline. This is used for linking in pdf and PRD but is not used in printed product.
Entering your Item
So now we get onto posting your item...
Ok, when posting your wondrous item, put the name without any Bulletin Code Tags into the name entry box.
Then paste your wondrous item with full formatting into the second larger box (include it all from the title to the cost. - Yes the item name is replicated but that is what is asked for).
Before doing anything else, hit PREVIEW button. - if you don?t do this, we will line you up and slap your wrists a LOT.
If the word count that appears in the title exceeds the maximum for the round, guess what...
Do NOT submit
No, really, fix it, do not submit it.
Revise and repeat until this is ok - close IE/Chrome/Safari/Whatever to prevent accidental submission and do your rework in notepad/edlin/open office/word or similar.
Once you are happy with word count, format, content and your preview looks wonderful, and you believe it is done. Then and only then SUBMIT the item.
And then say nothing, don't post that you posted - that could be tracked back and break anonymity and get you auto rejected. It's not worth the risk. Sit quiet, play in the fun threads, read up on Golarion, look towards the coming rounds and plan ahead a little.
But above all else, enjoy the experience and discover your own writer within.
Auto Rejects
This is a new section and will be ordered to align with Sean's consolidated post in due course, but I thought you would like an interim posting to be going on with, bear with me, this guide is still being refined.
One comment to start with, A totally awesome item can over-rule the auto rejects but that assumes it is read through enough to be noticed that its not just an auto reject (known as Rule #27).
So do yourself the biggest favour you can and don't make your chances more difficult - avoid the auto rejects and maximise your chances...
Where numbers are used on these items, they refer directly to Seans amazing post. I have also grouped related extras to the numbered items - the very first item numbered 00 isn't on Sean's list, I have added it because these mistakes simply should not be happening and crop up every year driving the judges nutso.
Important Sometimes Sean's original threads get appended to as the competitions come and go. So I would use the links and read these posts fully and not rely solely on the summarisations below.
#00 - Failed to follow / read the round rules Come on, read ALL the rules. Don't do the silly stuff, real easy silly stuff is noted below:
Do NOT Post your Item publicly ANYWHERE - these forums, other forums, anywhere on the net, if it gets found, your anonymity is shot and so is your entry. This doesn?t preclude you asking your games table friends and family for feedback, just don?t publish it. Once submitted, treat yourself as signed under government secrecy with death penalty if you blab, don't talk about it, and don?t ask specific questions that might identify your item, just sit tight and wait. It's the safest thing to do for your entry.
Don't post you just posted This could identify your item, if you post that you just posted. Don't risk it. If you do join in on the "I'm in" threads, just post that you have entered but avoid any time references, any indications of type of item, anything that might make your item identifyable.
Exceeds word count - you are also meant to prove you can follow instructions when commissioned for writing work. This rule is so simple, do NOT write more words than is asked for. As of 2012, it was a 300 limit. If you entry comes to more than that, the preview kindly tells you. You can use other tools if you want to avoid the risk of accidental submission, but if you do, I would aim for 90% of the word count to allow for tool counting discrepancies. ALWAYS check the work count in your preview to be sure, and to get that word count, you must have entered a name in the name field of the on line form.
As the submission form now appends the word count to your item title, and the judges see this, they can very quickly eliminate over word count entries. Don't fall foul of this or any other round requirements. Reading the requirements is a big test that you can do this. It's easy to skip words - how many times have you read a book and returned for a second reading to notice stuff you didn?t notice before? So train yourself, read the rules and write them down as you read them. This forces you to concentrate on each requirement, get it from eyes to brain through to hand. Eventually you will train yourself to be more thorough in reading instructions without missing items.
#01 - Spell in a Can TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#02 - Swiss Army Knife TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#03 - Back Story / History / Description Item
Backstory - Sean says "Show me an item in the core rules that has backstory." - because you cant, there isn't any. Clark also provides the reason that backstory "forces world issues on the GM with this text". So this is a no brainer. Don't do it - plus if you don't do it, you have extra words free to work with. Don't do it, don't waste your precious word count.
History TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
Description Item TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
It's a plot device - more tricky to avoid as this sometimes is subtle, it can be subjective to each person. One thing to help eliminate this is to check if there are rules in existence already for what you are doing or affecting with your item,. As an example, an item dealing in childbirth - there are no rules for childbirth, so the item is likely a plot device.
Your entry is NOT a Wondrous Item - Don't describe weapons, armor, etc - look at the categories in the Core Rules, if your item falls into a mainstream category, then it's not a Wondrous Item. Also beware the artefact threshold - be honest with yourself if your item is very powerful/costly - does it fall into artefact territory, if it does, its also not a Wondrous Item.
#04 - Item ought to be Not An Item TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#05 - Item fails to follow Game Rules TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#06 - Item is a variant of an existing Item TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#07 - Obvious Pricing Errors TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#08 - The Random Item TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#09 - Intellectual Property and Inspiration If you suspect that your item is in endangerment of this, show it to friends and relatives without mentioning the inspiration. If they can spot where it has come from, chances are the judges will too. Distancing yourself from your own work to assess it is a difficult skill to master and takes time, so use the resources around you to help you in such assessments.
#10 - Item isn't spell checked or proof read TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#11 - The In Character Quote TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#12 - Item is a joke TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#13 - Item makes you blind and not blind TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#14 - Item has mature or offensive content TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#15 - Item is unclear on repeat use TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#16 - Items name is a real world name TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#17 - Item is modern technology presented as magic TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#18 - Item makes bearer unable to be lost TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#19 - Item involves vomit TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#20 - Item makes GM'ing harder TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#21 - Item gives a class ability or feat TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#22 - Item makes adventuring safe TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#23 - Item's drawback is actually a benefit TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#24 - Item repeats existing rules in the description TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#25 - Item is a child's toy TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#26 - Item encourages metagaming TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
General Items and Queries
The following list items, queries and answers that are more general design/entry type queries. These have been collated and entered here for your convenience.
Item 1 Is it possible for multiple people to enter a team entry? No, the competition is for individual entry and is aimed at finding individual freelancers / designers of the future.
Item 2 How do I know if my entry was received safely? Simply make sure your account name is shown at the top of the web page - It's usually the first think in the links list - e.g. Welcome, your name. Click the Superstar link icon. The main page will then tell you "Thanks for entering..." beneath the banner and above the body text if your entry was successfully entered.
Item 3 How many entries? This has never been answered and never will. All you need to know is if you enter, you are a winner as you have a chance at Superstardom, if you don't enter, you can't win.
Item 4 Do not rush your entry, take some time - Clark posted this and I couldn?t agree more.
"First, the best ideas DON'T EVER win. The best entries win. Ideas are only the start of an entry. We are all gamers. We all have great ideas. If that is all it took, we'd all be game designers. So ideas are not enough, you need execution. And turning now to that...
Second, good writing is rewriting. I don't know that I've ever seen a professional first draft (i.e. 30 minutes of writing) that is good enough to make the cut at the level of scrutiny we are applying. Frankly, even Neil or Sean would have a hard time designing a good, tight item with proper mojo and rules-fu in 30 minutes. If they can't do it, then people not named Neil and Sean certainly can't do it.
Let your submission percolate and cook for a while, let it simmer in your mental juices. Then take a look at it. Check every rules issue you have in your item. Spells, feats, powers, effects, whatever. Compare to existing items. Check where it fits on the price list. Check if you italicized the right stuff and capitalized the right stuff. Then let it sit some more."
From this, I take the message as things will be tight on time in later rounds, your task is to reach round 2 and to do that, you have time on round 1 to really polish and shine your entry. So take the time to do so.
Item 5 Technical skills come second to Mo-jo. Creativity, originality, inventiveness, that spark of greatness needs to be fanned into a flame in your entry. Another post by Clark highlights the thoughts and aims that are involved and influence the judging and selection process.
"The first round is funny. Our GOAL for the first round is to find 32 contestants, and by that I mean 32 potential designers to compete to win a chance to write a pathfinder adventure. Of course, the best way to do that would be to have a comprehensive in person interview with everyone who wanted the job and read extensive writing samples. But we can't do that, since hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds want to enter the contest. And we can only pick 32. So we came up with a TASK for the potential contestants to work on to help us pick who from all the potential contestants should be the actual contestants. That task is to design a wondrous item, which is a genius task for a lot of reasons.
Sometimes, however, I remind the judges not to be too strict on the TASK because the real purpose of the task is the GOAL of finding the best 32 contestants for the contest. If we could interview everyone we would. But we can't. So sometimes though a submission may have some flaws, sometimes we see some spark or mojo or creativity or design-fu that makes us say, ok, the person did good (but not great) on the TASK but we see things here that make the person really fit for the GOAL we have of choosing the best 32 contestants."
Neil takes it further
"My judging style is that I always go very in-depth. I think everyone can tell that just from my detailed item critiques. But, basically, I do all that because I want to assess the TASK as thoroughly as I can. I want all the analysis in front of me before I make a final decision. And I want as good a sense as I can get about how a potential contestant did at the TASK. Then, I set that aside and examine the GOAL. For every misstep in the TASK, was there enough there (creative mojo, attention to detail, innovative spark, etc.) to override my concerns? And, once I've assessed things from both those angles, that's when I cast my vote."
So my take on this is that the judges work towards their common goal and share a base philosophy in doing so. This means every entry must be the best entry you can possibly produce not just technically (which this post should help) but also creatively. I want my item to make them want me for the next rounds. I want it to show how much I have to offer not just for the contest but beyond it. You should be wanting that too and trying to whack that ball out of the ball park. Make just one judge go "Wow" and you are on the right track, make them all go "wow" and you are there. So take the time to do so.
Item 6 Use only Pathfinder resources - from the FAQ
"You may use material from the Pathfinder RPG (including the Bestiary, Advanced Player's Guide, and so on) and any of Paizo's Pathfinder products. All other books (including the 3.5 SRD) are off limits (unless you're specifically directed otherwise in later rounds). Use of other content is grounds for disqualification."
Disclaimer
I should note that although I have entered every year, I have yet to make the elusive Top 32 myself.
This post is a distillation and accumulation of posts, practice, feedback and general soul searching I have performed in this time. I don't think anything I have written into this guide should hurt anyone's chances, my desire was to help technically.
Mo-jo, Creativity and Superstar Spark are something that must come from within yourself. That is the thing that I cannot assist you with. Homework, study, lots and lots of practice and hard work are your only friends on this aspect.
Finis
Now, having set a record length post entry for myself, I leave you to read, ponder, cogitate and design to your hearts content. Enjoy.
RonarsCorruption Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 9 |
You've got a few broken characters in the first two sections. And a broken italics tag in the "Gotcha's, Pitfalls and Traps" of Description.
Further, some suggestions for one of the autoreject summaries:
#01 - Spell in a Can: Your item does nothing than recreate a single spell effect. A necklace of fireballs might be neat, but it is a spell in a can. A superstar item always changes the way a spell does something, it doesn't simply duplicate it.
Anthony Adam Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 |
Yeah, I spotted the broken italic and that's fixed in the next version. Looks like something weird happened to my apostrophe's along the line, I'll fix those too for next build.
Clark Peterson Legendary Games, Necromancer Games |
I think you just got added to my list of things a contestant has to do.
It used to have three things:
1. read Sean's consolidated advice thread,
2. read the top 32 from the prior 2 years of the contest
3. listen to the audio of the superstar panel from paizocon.
Now I have to add:
4. read Anthony's round 1 template explained thread
Nice work.
Jacob Trier RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8 |
Anthony Adam Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 |
I think you just got added to my list of things a contestant has to do.
It used to have three things:
1. read Sean's consolidated advice thread,
2. read the top 32 from the prior 2 years of the contest
3. listen to the audio of the superstar panel from paizocon.Now I have to add:
4. read Anthony's round 1 template explained thread
Nice work.
Many thanks Clark. Just got home from one of "those" days at work, so those kind words were just the pick me up I needed.
Anthony Adam Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 |
Since you have now officially made Clark's list, might I suggest that you copy the text into a google doc and convince Gary to edit your first post to include a link to it?
There's still a lot to gather together, I want to go through the winners threads of past years and glean some of the good "do this" stuff into it as well.
As the info was gathered from numerous resources on this forum, I don't feel comfortable in adding it elsewhere - it seems natural to have it here on Paizo, it's where it was all born, and where it's most likely to get used.
If Paizo want to link from Google, Facebook, provide a free pdf of it to contestants, etc., thats fine by me, it belongs to Paizo and the forum members, I just pulled it all together into a convenient post.
There might be a delay for the next update, I dont want to distract from the main competition, but I will complete it over the coming weeks.
Once we have a "final draft", I will probably post that to a clean thread which can be stickied if needed.
Anthony Adam Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 |
Hey all
I needed diversion this lunchtime (that reveal is still hours away), so i fixed up the formatting and broken bits (let me know if you spot anymore) and have started linking the auto reject threads and adding some summaries to them.
I've even bared my soul on some of my past entries for you to point and lol at. Enjoy.
Breakdown of the Wondrous Item Template (Updated - Version 4.5)
It should be noted that this article steps through the Wondrous Item template and is not necessarily the order in which you would work on things; however it does give detailed advice on completion of the wondrous item template for submission to RPG Superstar.
There are way too many posts by way too many people to accredit them all, so many thanks to everyone.
This article has grown to cover not only completion of template but also answer many common questions that get asked every year.
I really hope you find this useful and food for thought.
Please bear in mind things change over time, so always double check back to the rules for the Wondrous Item round each year to be sure this post remains valid against the lastest rules.
I start with Sean's rule 27:
Rule 27: An awesome item may disregard other rules/advice.
A dangerous rule to rely on, aim for technical competence and originality so awesome that rule 27 is redundant.
So let us begin...
TEMPLATE LINE: Item Name:
Formatting
Formatting of the main entry block starts with the item name enclosed in Bulletin Board (BB) Bold tags. The content is self-evident.
The magic item name header in the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook looks like all caps, but it's just a text style. Don't type yours in all caps in your submission unless the template changes, do remember your BB tags though.
Note that words in the Item Name tend to be capitalised rather than all lower case, conjunctions do not generally get capitalised unless they are the first word of the item name. - e.g. "a glove of the finger" would be entered as "A Glove of the Finger". The Latter I believe is preferred.
General Advice
Wondrous Items names come in many flavours. There is the "X of Y" named items, the alliterative names, the names with convoluted, complex and downright weird words that are not part of normal everyday language.
When naming your item, you need to gauge your audience as best you can, some people get alienated by cliche or well used naming themes, and others get confused of put off by the use of complex or unfamiliar words. The naming of items therefore is a balancing act.
Another item to bear in mind is the expectation that your item name brings. It's the first thing your audience will see. Does it convey an image in the readers mind, an expectation of the likely powers or utilisation of the item? If it does, and the item description bears out the expectations, then you have a tightly named item. The benefit of this is that names that reflect their use are often easiest to remember, raising your items profile in the audience mind set.
Template Example
I will use a dummy item known as "Awesome Item of Splendiferousness", yeah a rubbish name, but that's where I often struggle but it will do for showing template completion. We will build the submission using the template as we go along.
If done right, using preview you would see...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
- - -
TEMPLATE LINE: Aura and Caster Level:
This section exists so the GM can quickly tell a player what schools of magic the item uses. This is noteworthy only if the PC fails the Spellcraft check to identify the item and needs an idea of what it may do.
Formatting
There are no extra blank lines in the format used between each template line, so don't do it.
Aura
Aura is BB Bold bounded. The follow the format of strength school (sub school).
The strength is the first word after Aura - not bold, no italics, no capitalisation. It is always written as "faint", "moderate" or "strong".
School of magic is next separated from the strength by a single space, not bold, no italics, no capitalisation.
If a sub school is used, this would follow, separated by a space and enclosed in rounded bracers, not bold, no italics, no capitalisation. If there is no sub school - omit the bracers, faint transmutation () is wrong.
Immediately following your school entry is a semi colon and a space...
Caster Level
... and then the title for Caster Level in bold simply as CL.
The caster level is an integer numeric entry followed by ordinal abbreviations with no separating space between number and abbreviation ("st", "nd", "rd" or "th").
The entry is in normal typeface, no italics and no terminating period.
General Advice
Aura
In my original post, I mentioned "overwhelming" which I had extracted from Detect Magic. If you find yourself wanting to use "overwhelming", then consider that your item might be heading into artefact territory and review it thoroughly.
3E and the Core Rulebook isn't really consistent on whether a multispell item has one or multiple auras listed. I would suggest if you need to do this, repeat the strength school (sub school) format separating by a single comma and space as used to separate entries in other sections, e.g. faint illusion, moderate necromancy, moderate transmutation, strong evocation
I ordered each alphabetically by school within strength, and listed them in ascending order of strength. Again, this is just me applying personal consistency. I can't say this is 100% right, but should be a good measure of thumb and it follows the ordering of spell names for consistency.
This may be clarified in future templates and competitions, but I don't think you would get dinged for attempting consistency with other parts of the template.
Caster Level
The caster level tells you what caster level the item operates at. This means you don't have to specify a caster level in the item's description - if you find an orb that can create a fireball, it doesn't need to say "fireball (10d6)."
Unless otherwise specified, the item uses this caster level for all of its abilities. The caster level should include the ordinal abbreviation for that number: "CL 1st" instead of just "CL 1," "CL 2nd" instead of just "CL 2," and so on.
When multiple spells are used the caster level required to cast the highest level spell at the required level of effect is used, e.g. the CL for a 5 die fireball effect is lower than the caster level for a 10 die fireball effect - same spell but different caster levels needed.
Gotcha's, Pitfalls and Traps
Aura
If your item is 100% necromancy and the aura only lists illusion... double check your construction requirements match with your aura entry.
Caster Level
The item caster level is too low for listed spells in the construction and/or effects in the description. Double check all you spell levels and cross reference to the relevant caster tables to identify the required caster level.
Be aware that your caster level also sets a limit to the number of feats you can use in the construction. The number of feats used could mean a higher caster level than the spells being used - be careful to check this.
Template Example
If done right, preview would look like...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Aura strong conjuration; CL 17th
- - -
TEMPLATE LINE: Slot, Price and Weight:
The Slot entry tells you which of the magic item "body slots" the item uses.
The Price entry is the item's market price, it is the minimum amount you would pay for it when buying from an NPC.
This is how much the item weighs, in pounds.
Formatting
All three titles are capitalized and bold, and should not be omitted even if you have no slot or no discernable weight.
Slot
Slot names, just like strength and school are neither italicized nor capitalised and always followed immediately by a semi colon.
If you have to hold the item in your hand (like a rod of wonder) or if it doesn't use a slot at all (like an ioun stone), its listed slot is "none" - Paizo used to put an em-dash there for slotless items but no longer does it that way (5th printing onwards).
Price
All prices are normal weight, non italic, all lower case.
This is never expressed as a fraction or decimal; "12 gp, 5 sp" is correct, "12.5 gp" is not, nor is "12 1/2 gp."
If the item costs thousands, use a comma (not a period or other number format type, you must use US number formats) as the ordinal numeric separator ("20,000 gp" instead of "20000 gp" or "20.000 gp").
If the item has several types (like a figurine of wondrous power) with different prices, each is listed here, separated by comma and space.
The last or only price entry is followed by a semi colon, e.g. 100 gp, 150gp, 200gp;
Weight
The weight again has a bold capitalized title, with two entry formats
- if there is no weight discernable, you enter a dash and remove the lb/lbs and the period,
- if you have a discernable weight, the format is number <space> lb. - for 1 pound or less items, number <space> lbs. - for weight other than 1. Note the abbreviation for pounds is followed by a period.
(abbreviated "lb." for 1 pound or less and "lbs." for 2 or more pounds).
Use US number formatting for the weight if entered.
General Advice
Slot
Make sure you use the slot names from the Core Rules / PRD, don't invent slots.
Price
In the RPG Superstar seminar, the judges made particular note that pricing had never got an entry into top 32 or forced an item out of top 32. As long as the order of magnitude seems correct, they are more interested in the item itself. Later Neil mentioned that wildly overpriced items had recently got dinged, but then went on to say that it was for the magnitude of error (the example quoted was far beyond the most expensive wondrous items).
You also need to compare your item's price to what level a PC would need to be (according to the Wealth By Level table elsewhere in the Core Rulebook) to see if that item would be a "good buy" for them. By that, I mean, if the item produces an effect that's more easily achieved by such a PC with a spell he'll readily have available almost all the time...or won't come up all that often...then he's probably going to always buy something other than your item with his hard-earned gold, because it's a far better value for him.
Or, if that same PC can buy up enough scrolls or potions (or even wands) to do pretty much what your item allows him to do, but he can buy those other things far more cheaply than your item, you've pretty much priced it wrong and need to adjust accordingly. You also need to reconsider if your item is just a SIAC if this situation exists, as that's exactly what potions, scrolls, and wands are. So, if they're able to duplicate what your item does, you're entering SIAC territory.
Also, if your item produces an effect with a really low DC, you've got to consider the "power level" of the creatures and NPCs your character might use that item on. If those creatures and NPCs can easily and routinely beat the DC, once again it's not going to be an item that your character will want. Instead, he'll always be selling it rather than keeping it...because, it's pretty much useless to him. Items that run into those kinds of problems need to be priced lower...thereby pushing them further down the wondrous item price list so lower-level PCs can acquire them at a point in their adventuring careers where the item's effects would still be relevant.
When you see items in the Core Rulebook that don't seem priced "right" according to the math of the wondrous item pricing rules, it's often because of these exact reasons. This is most assuredly the "art" of wondrous item pricing. And you can bet the original game designers looked across the entirety of the game and the balance between character power levels, wealth levels, an item's in-game effect vs. creatures in a certain CR range those characters would likely be facing, and they deemed they needed to slide the price up or down a bit to make it harmonize better with everything else that's in the game.
Weight
Most common items in the game have a specific weight, just for consistency.
For example, boots weigh 1 lb., so players don't have to remember different boot weights. Some light items, like gems, headbands, and rings, have a standard weight of — (em-dash), which means individually their weight isn't important (though the GM can rule that a chest full of them has weight).
When in doubt, find a similar item in the Core Rulebook and use the listed weight.
Gotcha's, Pitfalls and Traps
Slot
Check your item against other wondrous items for the same slot. Check what a PC may sacrifice in order to utilise your item. Is it worth it? Does it make sense? Be aware of the slot affinities, particularly when dealing with stat bonuses, e.g. head items tend to be intelligence based, hands tend to be dexterity based. Always, always compare against similar slot items, observe the inherent themes underpinning those item sets.
Price
If your item costs more than 200,000 gp, it's probably an artefact rather than a regular magic item.
Once you have determined your price, check it against Wondrous Items of the same level. Compare not just prices but relative usefulness against items in the same market space for that level. Does is compare favourably? This is an art which takes some development and practice.
Template Example
My preview now looks like this...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Aura strong conjuration; CL 17th
Slot head; Price 57,500 gp; Weight 5 lbs.
- - -
TEMPLATE LINE: Description:
This is the Description entry title.
Formatting
It stays on its own line, bolded and capitalized. Like the item name, don't type this line in all caps, and don't add underlining.
Template Example
Short and sweet, my preview now looks like this...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Aura strong conjuration; CL 17th
Slot head; Price 57,500 gp; Weight 5 lbs.
Description
- - -
PARAGRAPH: Description:
Now we enter the descriptive text of our item.
The first line is usually a simple description of what the item is, looks like and occasionally made of (if not obvious).
.
Formatting
General Advice
For your initial line, Keep it short, to the point.
Start a new paragraph after this descriptive entry, grab your reader with the wow factor of your item deatils.
Try to use good structure and grammar - Do not present a wall of words - it is painful in the extreme and likely to push you towards the dreaded reject button.
Things you need here in addition to the descriptive element include what the item does, how often you can use the item, any other limitations or activation requirements and so forth.
If you refer to specific spells, italicize them, like fireball or pearl of power. If you refer to feats or skill names, capitalize them, like Power Attack, Weapon Focus (longsword), Perception, or Knowledge (local). There's very little else in the game that always requires capitalization - you don't capitalize class names (cleric), race names (dwarf), combat manoeuvres (grapple, trip), or other specific rules (breath weapon, drowning, trample, poison).
Gotcha's, Pitfalls and Traps
Avoid backstory.
Avoid PC/NPC names, but "roles" are fine, King's, Queen's, etc., are fine, just don't name specific individual.
Normally, using a magic item is a standard action. You shouldn't give an item a shorter activation time than that because it messes with the "action economy" of the combat round.
Whether or not using an item provokes an attack of opportunity is built into how it's activated. This means for command word items you don't need to say that it's a standard action to activate and that it doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity? In fact, the assumption is if an item doesn't say how you activate it, it's a command word item.
Magic items that have effects requiring saving throws should include those saves in the item description. If it's duplicating a spell, the default save DC is the minimum for casting that spell: 10 + 1.5 x the spell's level. Note that the minimum DC is based on the minimum ability score bonus a caster would have to cast a spell of that level.
So for a 3rd level spell like fireball, spell level is 3, minimum wizard Int score (or sorcerer Cha score) is 13, which is a +1 ability score bonus, so 10 + 3 + 1 = 14. The math works out the same if you use the formula (10 + 1.5 x 3 = 10 + 4.5 --> 10 + 4 = 14), as "half the spell level rounded down" is the ability score bonus of the required ability score.
Do you assume it's a cleric / druid / wizard casting it? Assume whatever is appropriate for the item. If it's a druid item, use the druid spell level to determine the DC. Usually the spell level difference (usually 1, rarely 2) isn't going to have a significant effect on the DC.
Look through the wondrous items in the Core Rulebook. How many of them have to include examples of their mechanics? Few to none. By this we are talking about introducing new rules, stating an action that must be performed to active an item is a valid thing to include, but including new rules and examples on how the resulting action affects game play has the potential to be frowned upon.
Neil also said "An RPG Superstar submission isn't the place to start introducing an all new rules subsystem. That said, something simple that doesn't require too much explanation...or, something that draws upon existing game mechanics in a new and interesting way...could be viewed as having Superstar potential."
I'd also add, that not only do examples eat your word count, that your item should be clear and obvious in use and effect such that it needs no wordy explanations or examples.
Watch for out of slot bonus type stacking - see the Slot for affinity checking gotcha. Also be aware that bonuses may need to be typed to preserve the whole game balance. Check for similar bonuses in items in other slots, what type are they? Do your bonuses need to be the same type to prevent min/max stacking?
Watch out for random tables in items, although a classic design, they are not viewed as superstar. There is also a tendency to fill those last couple random slots with goodies that turn a tight item into a Swiss army knife. This style of design seriously increases that danger. Maybe in the future the competition may put a round 1 twist to create such items, but if you can avoid randomness in your item, it would probably be for the best.
Review your item in the cold light of day. Be aware of whether it could be abused in any way to break game balance or provide excessive benefits to the user. Be honest in this appraisal. Also look through the spells, if there is a spell that provides similar benefits, check the price of the spell. If your item is more restrictive than the spell, it should be cheaper than purchasing of a spell scroll. If the majority of benefits of your item can be found in one or a couple of spells, have you simply created a spell in a can or a Swiss army knife of loosely related benefits.
Template Example
If done right, in your preview you would now see something like...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Aura strong conjuration; CL 17th
Slot head; Price 57,500 gp; Weight 5 lbs.
Description
A thin banded helm of platinum rather like a crown but devoid of any gemstones.
Wearing this will allow you to create the most amazing wondrous items that everyone will want.
Items created whilst wearing this helm have zero failure chance on creation checks.
- - -
TEMPLATE LINE: Construction:
This is the Construction entry title.
Formatting
It stays on its own line, bolded and capitalized. Like the item name, don't type this line in all caps, and don't add underlining.
Template Example
Short and sweet, my preview now looks like this...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Aura strong conjuration; CL 17th
Slot head; Price 57,500 gp; Weight 5 lbs.
Description
A thin banded helm of platinum rather like a crown but devoid of any gemstones.
Wearing this will allow you to create the most amazing wondrous items that everyone will want.
Items created whilst wearing this helm have zero failure chance on creation checks.
Construction
- - -
TEMPLATE LINE: Requirements and Cost:
This is then followed by the construction requirements and cost to create the item.
The construction requirements are all the stuff a character needs to create the item using an item-crafting feat.
The cost is the item's sale cost, i.e how much a PC could get for selling it to an NPC.
Formatting
Titles parts are bold and capitalized as before.
Requirements
Requirements are a comma separated list.
List the crafting feat first (capitalized), followed by spell names (italicized), followed by any other requirements such as needing ranks in a skill (capitalized) or an ability like channel energy.
Each spell is followed by comma and space - the comma and space separating requirement items are not italicised.
The whole entry for Requirement is terminated by one semi colon and it should be the only semi colon in this entry.
Cost
All formatting rules for the Price also apply to the Cost:
All pcosts are normal weight, non italic, all lower case.
This is never expressed as a fraction or decimal; "12 gp, 5 sp" is correct, "12.5 gp" is not, nor is "12 1/2 gp."
If the item costs thousands, use a comma (not a period or other number format type, you must use US number formats) as the ordinal numeric separator ("20,000 gp" instead of "20000 gp" or "20.000 gp").
If the item has several types (like a figurine of wondrous power) with different costs, each is listed here, separated by comma and space.
The last or only cost entry is followed by a semi colon, e.g. 100 gp, 150gp, 200gp;
General Advice
Requirements
Don't forget that spells that are a part of the requirements are listed in alphabetical order, not in order of relevance. So if you have an item that includes sanctuary as its biggest power and protection from evil also, you would list them in this order: protection from evil, sanctuary.
Cost
But in general, whichever you calculate by your costing/pricing methods, the relationship between cost and price is such that Price = 2 x Cost for Wondrous Items.
Energy resistance costs what it should cost based on how powerful the ability is, not at what level some weird new class or race gets it.
There isn't enough space in the book to include specific costs and examples for every possible power in the Core Rulebook, let alone ideas from other books and things not yet invented. That's why the first rule is "compare your item to items of similar power and effect."
Gotcha's, Pitfalls and Traps
Requirements
In a fun post I made, Sean kindly pointed out not to put specific items into other requirements (e.g. a big red button), so it looks like this part is for skills/abilities only and not a general materials bucket. So if your item is made of something specific, note material/specific objects in line 1 of your description, in my example, you need a crown/helm made of platinum.
Cost
Template Example
So completing my example entry, we get a preview of...
Awesome Item of Splendiferousness
Aura strong conjuration; CL 17th
Slot head; Price 57,500 gp; Weight 5 lbs.
Description
A thin banded helm of platinum rather like a crown but devoid of any gemstones.
Wearing this will allow you to create the most amazing wondrous items that everyone will want.
Items created whilst wearing this helm have zero failure chance on creation checks.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, fabricate, wish; Cost 28,750 gp
- - -
Using the Preview
During preview, your submission should look as much like items found in the current rule books as possible within the limitations of the submission tool. If like me, you are a pdf subscriber rather than a printed product owner, the one to watch for is underline. This is used for linking in pdf and PRD but is not used in printed product.
Entering your Item
So now we get onto posting your item...
Ok, when posting your wondrous item, put the name without any Bulletin Code Tags into the name entry box.
Then paste your wondrous item with full formatting into the second larger box (include it all from the title to the cost. - Yes the item name is replicated but that is what is asked for).
Before doing anything else, hit PREVIEW button. - if you don't do this, we will line you up and slap your wrists a LOT.
If the word count that appears in the title exceeds the maximum for the round, guess what...
Do NOT submit
No, really, fix it, do not submit it.
Revise and repeat until this is ok - close IE/Chrome/Safari/Whatever to prevent accidental submission and do your rework in notepad/edlin/open office/word or similar. Safe preview: there is a freeware tool called Fass which lets you edit and preview common forum type posts - it's way safer than preview in the forum entry panel - you might want to check it out).
Once you are happy with word count, format, content and your preview looks wonderful, and you believe it is done. Then and only then SUBMIT the item.
And then say nothing, don't post that you posted - that could be tracked back and break anonymity and get you auto rejected. It's not worth the risk. Sit quiet, play in the fun threads, read up on Golarion, look towards the coming rounds and plan ahead a little.
But above all else, enjoy the experience and discover your own writer within.
Auto Rejects
This is a new section and will be ordered to align with Sean's consolidated post in due course, but I thought you would like an interim posting to be going on with, bear with me, this guide is still being refined.
One comment to start with, A totally awesome item can over-rule the auto rejects but that assumes it is read through enough to be noticed that its not just an auto reject (known as Rule #27).
So do yourself the biggest favour you can and don't make your chances more difficult - avoid the auto rejects and maximise your chances...
Where numbers are used on these items, they refer directly to Seans amazing post. I have also grouped related extras to the numbered items - the very first item numbered 00 isn't on Sean's list, I have added it because these mistakes simply should not be happening and crop up every year driving the judges nutso.
Important Sometimes Sean's original threads get appended to as the competitions come and go. So I would use the links and read these posts fully and not rely solely on the summarisations below.
- - -
#00 - Failed to follow / read the round rules Come on, read ALL the rules. Don't do the silly stuff, real easy silly stuff is noted below:
Do NOT Post your Item publicly ANYWHERE - these forums, other forums, anywhere on the net, if it gets found, your anonymity is shot and so is your entry. This doesn't preclude you asking your games table friends and family for feedback, just don't publish it. Once submitted, treat yourself as signed under government secrecy with death penalty if you blab, don't talk about it, and don't ask specific questions that might identify your item, just sit tight and wait. It's the safest thing to do for your entry.
Don't post you just posted This could identify your item, if you post that you just posted. Don't risk it. If you do join in on the "I'm in" threads, just post that you have entered but avoid any time references, any indications of type of item, anything that might make your item identifyable.
Exceeds word count - you are also meant to prove you can follow instructions when commissioned for writing work. This rule is so simple, do NOT write more words than is asked for. As of 2012, it was a 300 limit. If you entry comes to more than that, the preview kindly tells you. You can use other tools if you want to avoid the risk of accidental submission, but if you do, I would aim for 90% of the word count to allow for tool counting discrepancies. ALWAYS check the work count in your preview to be sure, and to get that word count, you must have entered a name in the name field of the on line form.
As the submission form now appends the word count to your item title, and the judges see this, they can very quickly eliminate over word count entries. Don't fall foul of this or any other round requirements. Reading the requirements is a big test that you can do this. It's easy to skip words - how many times have you read a book and returned for a second reading to notice stuff you didn't notice before? So train yourself, read the rules and write them down as you read them. This forces you to concentrate on each requirement, get it from eyes to brain through to hand. Eventually you will train yourself to be more thorough in reading instructions without missing items.
- - -
#01 - Spell in a Can Will often be shown in feedback and posts as SIAC. Your item does nothing than recreate a single spell effect. A necklace of fireballs might be neat, but it is a spell in a can. A superstar item always changes the way a spell does something, it doesn't simply duplicate it.
Although you can find examples of such in the Core Rulebook, a SIAC item does not exhibit your Superstar potential.
In the main thread, Neil gives some great advice on avoiding the SIAC trap, a shortened extract follows for your convenience.
A good trick for avoiding the SIAC trap is to shake things up a bit. If your item needs to provide something "spell-like" in how it functions, just make sure your item takes it a step further than the spell itself or somehow functions just a little bit differently (and hopefully in a cool way).
Look for ways to put multiple spells together so they interact in ways that are different than how they work independently. Sometimes you get your greatest inspiration by pursuing this path, because the interplay between spells you might not normally put together create something even more "magical" (and cool!) than the individual spells.
- - -
#02 - Swiss Army Knife Will often be shown in feedback and posts as SAK. Your item basically is nothing more than a collection of effects (maybe following a loosely related theme). If you find yourself adding effects to make an item more interesting, it will often result in a SAK. Adding effects doesnt change a boring/semi-cool item into a Superstar item. If you find yourself doing this, stop and rethink the item. Be tight on design and resist the urge to "I'll just add...".
I fell into this trap, learn from my mistake :) - I created a cloak which changed appearance on the season, it provided anti cold for winter and anti heat in summer, added some extra shape changes based on the season equinoxes if the wearer was a druid, then added some other benefits based on the season. Yeah, I was soooooooo SAK. Don't fall into that trap >.<
How did I not notice this? Neil summed it up perfectly on reflection... They get wrapped up in portraying the really cool theme they want their item to embody, so they just keep adding more and more to it...until it's basically just overkill.
As an aside, once comment made on my cloak was that I had ot only said when it was used, but had included what happens when it couldnt be used (e.g. a plain of existence devoid of seasons) - Thinking of this scored some brucie points, so do try to think if your item can be nullified or cancelled under unusual circumstances and include that if it can.
Another stereotypical form of the SAK is the random table item. Similar to my druid example - it kind of was a random table, but controlled by the seasons rather than dice rolls. That's not innovative, creative or Superstar.
This is why the judges often talk about "tight" item design when they praise something that gets selected for the Top 32. You need to get in...describe your item...give it something unique and interesting...and get out!
- - -
#03 - Back Story / History / Description Item
Backstory - Sean says "Show me an item in the core rules that has backstory." - because you cant, there isn't any. Clark also provides the reason that backstory "forces world issues on the GM with this text". So this is a no brainer. Don't do it - plus if you don't do it, you have extra words free to work with. Don't do it, don't waste your precious word count.
History Again, you wont find this in existing items. Additionally, this enforces history on the GM who may have to do extra work to enable your item to be used in his campaign. Thats bad. Don't add restrictions to an item that don't appear to be restrictions. History is one of those. Don't do it.
Description Item If the description of your item is longer than the items game mechanics, you're likely recognising the it
em itself is not cool and trying to cover that up with bling. Bling is bad. Don't bling the description.
I'll give you one very important reason to avoid the backstory/history trap. In one word. Wordcount. These things eat words like no tomorrow. If you don't do these, you have more words to be cool with, and if you dont need them and you item is still cool, then the great word counting genie will not scare you.
- - -
#04 - Item ought to be Not An Item
It's a plot device - Examples are things that you'd use to assassinate the king and conceal the assassin. If you can only see one specific use for the item, and especially if you can't see PCs (whether evil or good) having a use for this item, and if the item is more a story element than an item, try a different idea.
One thing to help eliminate this is to check if there are rules in existence already for what you are doing / affecting with your item. As an example, an item dealing in childbirth - there are no rules for childbirth, so the item is likely a plot device.
Another example is my artefact come plot device entry - the base idea was parts of an assassin zombie butler who if all the parts were collected would go off and kill the royalty of the region, yet before all the parts were collected and joined together, each part did some useful butlering type task for the party. So plot device and so so first ever go. Dinger, rightly and royally so.
Item is an effect - Items that merely create dangerous conditions or augment all the monsters in an area, such as "this creates a pool of lava/green slime/acid" or "all creatures within 100 feet gain the fiendish template". These are better off as localized magical effects, part of an encounter. If your item works better as a permanent magical effect, try a different idea.
Your entry is NOT a Wondrous Item - Don't describe weapons, armor, etc - look at the categories in the Core Rules, if your item falls into a mainstream category, then it's not a Wondrous Item. Also beware the artefact threshold - be honest with yourself if your item is very powerful/costly - does it fall into artefact territory, if it does, its also not a Wondrous Item.
These are often the results of the effect having more import than the item. Effects are results of powers, they are the special effects in the films and I'm sure we have all seen at least one "nice effect, shame about the story" film. Dont be all flash and no substence. Get the item right and the effects become the icing on the cake.
#05 - Item fails to follow Game Rules TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#06 - Item is a variant of an existing Item TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#07 - Obvious Pricing Errors TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#08 - The Random Item TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#09 - Intellectual Property and Inspiration If you suspect that your item is in endangerment of this, show it to friends and relatives without mentioning the inspiration. If they can spot where it has come from, chances are the judges will too. Distancing yourself from your own work to assess it is a difficult skill to master and takes time, so use the resources around you to help you in such assessments.
#10 - Item isn't spell checked or proof read TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#11 - The In Character Quote TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#12 - Item is a joke TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#13 - Item makes you blind and not blind TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#14 - Item has mature or offensive content TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#15 - Item is unclear on repeat use TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#16 - Items name is a real world name TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#17 - Item is modern technology presented as magic TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#18 - Item makes bearer unable to be lost TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#19 - Item involves vomit TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#20 - Item makes GM'ing harder TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#21 - Item gives a class ability or feat TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#22 - Item makes adventuring safe TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#23 - Item's drawback is actually a benefit TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#24 - Item repeats existing rules in the description TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#25 - Item is a child's toy TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
#26 - Item encourages metagaming TODO: Pertinent Summary Here.
- - -
General Items and Queries
The following list items, queries and answers that are more general design/entry type queries. These have been collated and entered here for your convenience.
Item 1 Is it possible for multiple people to enter a team entry? No, the competition is for individual entry and is aimed at finding individual freelancers / designers of the future.
Item 2 How do I know if my entry was received safely? Simply make sure your account name is shown at the top of the web page - It's usually the first think in the links list - e.g. Welcome, your name. Click the Superstar link icon. The main page will then tell you "Thanks for entering..." beneath the banner and above the body text if your entry was successfully entered.
Item 3 How many entries? This has never been answered and never will. All you need to know is if you enter, you are a winner as you have a chance at Superstardom, if you don't enter, you can't win.
Item 4 Do not rush your entry, take some time - Clark posted this and I couldn't agree more.
"First, the best ideas DON'T EVER win. The best entries win. Ideas are only the start of an entry. We are all gamers. We all have great ideas. If that is all it took, we'd all be game designers. So ideas are not enough, you need execution. And turning now to that...
Second, good writing is rewriting. I don't know that I've ever seen a professional first draft (i.e. 30 minutes of writing) that is good enough to make the cut at the level of scrutiny we are applying. Frankly, even Neil or Sean would have a hard time designing a good, tight item with proper mojo and rules-fu in 30 minutes. If they can't do it, then people not named Neil and Sean certainly can't do it.
Let your submission percolate and cook for a while, let it simmer in your mental juices. Then take a look at it. Check every rules issue you have in your item. Spells, feats, powers, effects, whatever. Compare to existing items. Check where it fits on the price list. Check if you italicized the right stuff and capitalized the right stuff. Then let it sit some more."
From this, I take the message as things will be tight on time in later rounds, your task is to reach round 2 and to do that, you have time on round 1 to really polish and shine your entry. So take the time to do so.
Item 5 Technical skills come second to Mo-jo. Creativity, originality, inventiveness, that spark of greatness needs to be fanned into a flame in your entry. Another post by Clark highlights the thoughts and aims that are involved and influence the judging and selection process.
"The first round is funny. Our GOAL for the first round is to find 32 contestants, and by that I mean 32 potential designers to compete to win a chance to write a pathfinder adventure. Of course, the best way to do that would be to have a comprehensive in person interview with everyone who wanted the job and read extensive writing samples. But we can't do that, since hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds want to enter the contest. And we can only pick 32. So we came up with a TASK for the potential contestants to work on to help us pick who from all the potential contestants should be the actual contestants. That task is to design a wondrous item, which is a genius task for a lot of reasons.
Sometimes, however, I remind the judges not to be too strict on the TASK because the real purpose of the task is the GOAL of finding the best 32 contestants for the contest. If we could interview everyone we would. But we can't. So sometimes though a submission may have some flaws, sometimes we see some spark or mojo or creativity or design-fu that makes us say, ok, the person did good (but not great) on the TASK but we see things here that make the person really fit for the GOAL we have of choosing the best 32 contestants."
Neil takes it further
"My judging style is that I always go very in-depth. I think everyone can tell that just from my detailed item critiques. But, basically, I do all that because I want to assess the TASK as thoroughly as I can. I want all the analysis in front of me before I make a final decision. And I want as good a sense as I can get about how a potential contestant did at the TASK. Then, I set that aside and examine the GOAL. For every misstep in the TASK, was there enough there (creative mojo, attention to detail, innovative spark, etc.) to override my concerns? And, once I've assessed things from both those angles, that's when I cast my vote."
So my take on this is that the judges work towards their common goal and share a base philosophy in doing so. This means every entry must be the best entry you can possibly produce not just technically (which this post should help) but also creatively. I want my item to make them want me for the next rounds. I want it to show how much I have to offer not just for the contest but beyond it. You should be wanting that too and trying to whack that ball out of the ball park. Make just one judge go "Wow" and you are on the right track, make them all go "wow" and you are there. So take the time to do so.
Item 6 Use only Pathfinder resources - from the FAQ
"You may use material from the Pathfinder RPG (including the Bestiary, Advanced Player's Guide, and so on) and any of Paizo's Pathfinder products. All other books (including the 3.5 SRD) are off limits (unless you're specifically directed otherwise in later rounds). Use of other content is grounds for disqualification."
Disclaimer
I should note that although I have entered every year, I have yet to make the elusive Top 32 myself.
This post is a distillation and accumulation of posts, practice, feedback and general soul searching I have performed in this time. I don't think anything I have written into this guide should hurt anyone's chances, my desire was to help technically.
Mo-jo, Creativity and Superstar Spark are something that must come from within yourself. That is the thing that I cannot assist you with. Homework, study, lots and lots of practice and hard work are your only friends on this aspect.
Finis
Now, having set a record length post entry for myself, I leave you to read, ponder, cogitate and design to your hearts content. Enjoy.
Anthony Adam Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hey all, I am adding a new section which extracts from the Superstar chat log interesting points to ponder when designing your items. They certainly made me look at my item design in a new light.
I thought you might like something to peruse to whittle away another 15 minutes or so, so here's a preview...
Superstar Chat Log Quotes
There follows a few snippets from a recent Superstar chat log that you may find give you some guiding lights, ah-ha moments and general guidance. I love Neils 2:13AM post - now thats an interesting item. I think all of these I pulled simply because I thought they were good points well made and had value to guide me to improve. Read each one, and take a minute or two to think about it, then the next, repeat to the end. Above all, enjoy, I did.
"Sean K Reynolds 2:10 AM 12/09/11: Neil's item had just the right mix of flava and mechanics that made it stand out for being clever, efficient, and smart."
"Neil Spicer 2:11 AM 12/09/11: As for my item submission, yeah...that was a bit more of a nailbiter. The hardest part was second-guessing yourself. Does it have enough appeal? Is it mechanically right? Does the descriptive text flow well? Is it priced correctly? Will someone else do something similar or better?"
"Sean K Reynolds 2:13 AM 12/09/11: Dawson, last year I wrote 27 "auto-reject" categories for items. About half of those are eye-rollers that make me disappointed in humanity. <snip>...<Snip> Things that make me want to throttle people. :)"
"Neil Spicer 2:13 AM 12/09/11: It's true that I intentionally made things hard on myself. That's because I wanted to take the toughest elements of any challenge round and try to impress both the judges and Paizo...as well as the voters, of course. But I wanted to catch Paizo's eye regardless of how the voting shook out. And, that added pressure helped me turn out stuff that just happened to appeal to the voters, too. So it was a win-win."
"Sean K Reynolds 2:14 AM 12/09/11: I want to see creativity, rules knowledge, and a sense of what is fun and cool to add to the game. We can teach grammar, punctuation, and math, but it's really hard to teach someone to recognize an awesome untapped part of the design-space and make something that really pops."
"Sean K Reynolds 2:24 AM 12/09/11: There's been a lot of talk on the boards about being a new writer, and it comes down to this: all great writers started as crappy writers, writing a lot of junk in their early years. Keep writing, keep practicing, keep working on the parts you know aren't up to par. I've suggested working on several items over the month, polishing them, and selecting your favorite toward the end of the submission period. You don't HAVE to submit right away... something 1 day before the deadline has just as good a chance as something in on day 1."
"Sean K Reynolds 2:26 AM 12/09/11: So, Marie, just work on what you have. If you're nervous about it, that's okay... I still get nervous about parts of stuff I write, and I've been doing this professionally for 10+ years. :)"
"Neil Spicer 2:26 AM 12/09/11: @Marie - My advice is to quiet those voices by finding the item you love the most. Not so much that you're blinded by it. But rather, the one that just keeps coming back in your mind. Take that idea that you're passionate about and make it the best that you can according to all the design-fu and creativity you can muster. And be awesome with it. That's what the judges pick up on when we're assessing items in the judging chambers."
"Neil Spicer 2:29 AM 12/09/11: @Dawson - The judges have often said that innovation is appealing to them. One of the best ways to be innovative is to look at some of the new classes, rules, magic, etc. that can be drawn upon. It's easier to carve out a new, innovative niche with those things, because very little is out there in the wondrous item category that makes use of those things yet. And, if someone can do something creative in that space, we often recognize that's smart design, because the author recognized an underutilized space and created something especially for it."
"Sean K Reynolds 2:31 AM 12/09/11: ... R1 is about a wondrous item. If aspects of your item aren't from being a magic item, it's sort of distracting you from the point of making a wondrous item. If there's stuff you can't do with Craft Wondrous Item, I'm not sure it belongs in the competition."
"Sean K Reynolds 2:35 AM 12/09/11: Unfortunately, many of us grew up on Gygax's flowery language and like to make big, convoluted sentences. Write tightly. :)"
"Sean K Reynolds 2:36 AM 12/09/11: Don't get me wrong, I enjoy his style, but if you're writing a magic item that you'll have to skim in the middle of battle, tighter prose is more helpful to the player and GM."
"Neil Spicer 2:36 AM 12/09/11: No matter what word limit you're given, you'll always use it up. The trick is to define a smaller limit and hold yourself to that to ensure you don't go over. Then, when refining the item, if you feel you need to widen the explanation of something, you've got the extra words to play around with without having to make excruciating cuts first."
"Sean K Reynolds 2:38 AM 12/09/11: Yes, don't cut just for the sake of cutting. But if an item's power is "Once per day on command you can use it to cast death knell," don't say "As a standard action, once per day, the bearer can speak a command word and have the item create an effect identical to death knell." Same content, tighter writing."
"Sean K Reynolds 2:47 AM 12/09/11: Pedro, we try to balance use of gender pronouns equally. So pick one that you prefer. However, if referring specifically to a class, it's best to go with the gender of the iconic character shown in the Core Rulebook. So if your item is for rogues, use "she." (Personally, I'd like to see a trend toward using "you," like we do in spells and feats... the current style is a holdover from 3.5.)"
"Sean K Reynolds 2:49 AM 12/09/11: Talks about how absolute values in the game (like "you can't be critted" or "you are immune to fire") are kinda poopy in game design."
"Sean K Reynolds 2:53 AM 12/09/11: Yes, the god of fire should be immune to fire. But should the fire giant be immune to fire, so the god of fire can't burn him? That's sort of thing. ;)"
This last one, I include as it shows how chat logs without grammar can make you read things in more than one way, and to give you a smile at the end of a very long article. :D
"Ryan Dancey 2:52 AM 12/09/11: Yeah I'm dealing with tech on my end sorry for the late arrival"
On your end? Indeed. :p
Anthony Adam Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 |
Hi all
Version 5 about to be posted bringing all the auto rejects and items from the chat logs together.
This means:
a) the thread is now complete apart from adding any useful items I find digging through 5 years worth of winners and 5 years worth of critique voluntary threads.
b) so it's now really useable
c) I now need YOUR help - please post if anything is wrong in this latest post below.
I'm hoping I will only need to do another 1 or 2 more update posts before signing it off as complete, so please help if you can.
Thanks
Anthony
Anthony Adam Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 |