The Unofficial Top 32 Guildhall: End of the Mayan Calendar Edition

[Eric Morton]

Alexander Bennett wrote:

If someone has the same name as my leader their parents need a visit from the police.

I look forward to finding out why.

And if someone has a name matching my organization... I'll have to finish that statement when the round is over.

[Jacob W. Michaels]

*phew* Thank goodness. I was having a panic attack for 26 minutes there. Thank you, Neil.

(And, yes, it's definitely my own work.)

[Eric Morton]

And... Submitted!

Game on! Round 2 is about to become collateral damage in a barrage of awesome that I'm riding all the way to Round 3 and beyond! I want it, I own it, and I'm not about to let Round 2 stand in my way!

I'm ready! I'm bringing the awesome! Who's with me? [/motivational speech]

[James Raine]

*Epic Brofists his nervousness*

Waiting to hear back from my proofers, then I'll have a submission.

[Ian Studebaker-Grey]

Mine is done and in - ran it through the family member with the English degree (my wife's pet name for me is "the Word-mangler!") and butchered it down to size. Now to twiddle my thumbs for a week and think about what monstrosity to submit if I'm lucky enough to saunter onward.

[Will Cooper]

Don't think I've ever stared so intently at so few words before in my life. Two new things I've learned today (every day is a school day)...

1 - It's amazing how much hard work it takes to improve the writing.
2 - It's amazing how much improvement is possible with hard work.

I'll get it proofed, mull a little bit more, then get it in tonight I think. Don't want a last minute SNAFU.

[Alexander Bennett]

Sent it out to my gaming group and my writing friends. One group that knows the system, one group that knows how to write.

Now to wait...
-Xander

[Steve Miller]

I seem to remember some advice about not creating new city names. Can someone direct me to that advice, please?

[Mike Welham]

My organization is in the final editing stages. I'm letting it sit for a couple more hours before I go back and reread it (out loud).

How I found out story
I checked the website at 5:05 EST, and it partially loaded at first. I was looking for a friend's name and I was disappointed not to see his name. By then, the full page loaded, and my name was among the Top 32. I immediately called my wife at her job and left her an incoherent voice mail. Then I burst into my teenage daughter's room and shouted, "I made it into RPG SuperStar!" At first she just looked at me like I was crazy, then she congratulated me, and then she asked me what I was talking about. :)

[Mike Welham]

Steve Miller wrote:

I seem to remember some advice about not creating new city names. Can someone direct me to that advice, please?

There's this:

Mark Moreland wrote:

Shadowborn wrote:

Should we presume the entries need to be tailored to Golarion?

Yes. Ultimately, the winner(s) will be writing for Paizo, and thus Golarion, so showing your knowledge of the world and ability to write within established constraints is a good thing.

But it doesn't explicitly say "no new city names". I'll keep looking.

[Mike Welham]

Eureka!

Sean K Reynolds wrote:

It's Golarion-specific.

It doesn't matter if it violates canon (in terms of the "new towns in Ustalav" problem), but it shouldn't break the *concept* of the region or the setting ("my organization is a secret society in Ustalav that stockpiles laser weapons").

[Mike Welham]

Looks like you can add a new city. Just not a laser city...unless it's in Numeria.

[Steve Miller]

Thanks a bunch, Mike. And congratulations!

[Mike Welham]

Congratulations to you as well, Steve!

[Charles Evans 25]

Profound apologies to those who got Ask A RPGSupersuccubus reviews so far and the slightly garbled initial disclaimer. The disclaimer should have read:

Spoiler:

This post constitutes the views of a (very advanced) CE aligned succubus. Being such, Ask A RPGSupersuccubus is at complete liberty to change her mind on anything without giving any notice whatsoever. For those of you who missed last year (or as a reminder for those whose memories have failed) Ask A RPGSupersuccubus subscribes absolutely to balance, fairness, and logic in these reviews – in the sense that balance is what a couple of mortals on opposite ends of a plank pivoted on a rocky spire above a drop of several hundred feet into a pool of molten basalt frantically try to do, fairness is a term applicable to assessing either hair colour or more general beauteousness and logic is something which proves anything a demon of adequate status and charm requires it to demonstrate.

The correct version has now been copied into the template for the subsequent reviews... Officially, this was a cut and paste error in final editting of the round 1 review format. Unofficially it was probably one of those Froy-Dian things from Tian Xia, intended to spread that bit more chaos and confusion around...

[Bob Drouin]

Congratulations to everyone else who made it!

I also logged into Paizo when I got home from work, and saw my name. It was much later that night when I checked my email and saw the Inner Sea Guide for a pleasant suprise! :)

I do have a question, however. Several pages in the 112-120 page range have been whited out and are missing. Has anyone else run into that? (It's in the Mana Wastes area, I was scrolling through locations to put my organization).

===Bob D.

[Mike Welham]

Bob Drouin wrote:

Congratulations to everyone else who made it!

I also logged into Paizo when I got home from work, and saw my name. It was much later that night when I checked my email and saw the Inner Sea Guide for a pleasant suprise! :)

I do have a question, however. Several pages in the 112-120 page range have been whited out and are missing. Has anyone else run into that? (It's in the Mana Wastes area, I was scrolling through locations to put my organization).

===Bob D.

I got my PDF when the book was originally released, and I don't have that problem. Unless you got a later version of the file, it could be your reader that's doing something odd.

[Andrew Marlowe]

Maybe try downloading the file again?

[Bob Drouin]

I'll give it a try.

Now I'm all nervous from submitting. I typed in the name of my organization, copy-pasted in the words, and previewed it like 4 times, making minor revisions (mostly spacing errors from the copy/paste translation). And I didn't see the word counter, so I'm hoping my 10 word buffer was good...

Now I'm hoping it didn't wipe the name of the organization from the subject line and earn me a boot for not following the format!

Heh

==Bob Drouin

[Mike Welham]

Best of luck to you, Bob! Also, best of luck to the rest of you. I look forward to seeing what you cooked up.

I just turned in my organization. I wouldn't be able to sleep if I didn't submit it tonight. :)

[Mike Welham]

Charles Evans 25 wrote:

Profound apologies to those who got Ask A RPGSupersuccubus reviews so far and the slightly garbled initial disclaimer. The disclaimer should have read:

** spoiler omitted **
The correct version has now been copied into the template for the subsequent reviews... Officially, this was a cut and paste error in final editting of the round 1 review format. Unofficially it was probably one of those Froy-Dian things from Tian Xia, intended to spread that bit more chaos and confusion around...

I hear fried Froy-Dian is the best!

[James Raine]

Still waiting to hear back from one of my proofers, so I'm going to wait until tomorrow morning to turn it in. But NO LATER THAN 10 because I'm not going to let an internet hiccough or power outage or something screw me over.

[Andrew Marlowe]

Bob Drouin wrote:

I'll give it a try.

And I didn't see the word counter, so I'm hoping my 10 word buffer was good...

If you make it to the next round it's in the header bar where your entry's title goes when you preview. I almost missed where it was too.

[N. Edward Lange]

Neil Spicer wrote:

Jacob Kellogg wrote:

Jacob W. Michaels wrote:

Just finished up and sent out a second organization to my beta readers.

Wait, we can do that?

Yes, you can. Clearly, it always needs to be your work rather than the work of someone else when you submit your entries from round to round. But, it's always wise to have someone proofread it for you, read aloud to you, and to serve as a sounding board. I have a very good friend of mine who's always helped me in that regard with pretty much all of my professional work as a freelancer.

wow, i wish i had read this before submitting my organization! if i'm lucky enough to make round three i'll be sure to do that.

[Jacob W. Michaels]

OK, I'm taking a break from agonizing over which of my two organizations to submit. I like both, but they bring very different things to the table. (And I'm very impressed at all of you submitting early. I'm not going to wait until 5 EST, certainly, but I'm going to still take a couple hours tomorrow, I think. James did just make me paranoid enough, though, that I forwarded a copy to my work email in case I would have to submit from there.)

Anyway, to take my mind off that for a few hours, any guesses on what the Round 3 twist will be? If it was to create a villain, I'd guess it would have to be part of one of these organizations we're all creating, but as a monster, I've got nothing. I'm guessing a CR limit (or minimum, I suppose)...

[Mike Welham]

I saw a suggestion of basing a monster off a selection of illustrations. That would certainly be an interesting twist.

I really do think there will be an upper CR limit.

[Will Cooper]

Jacob, that's an interesting question. I'm going to go with the 'no twist' twist, as for round two. That, or choose from a limited palette of pictures. Can't wait to find out.

[N. Edward Lange]

in case anyone hasn't noticed... i r n00b to rpg superstar. aside from the existance of this 'guildhall' (which i discovered 15 minutes ago) and the fact we can have people proofread for us (learned at the same time), is there anything that i should really know moving forward (if i happen to get to move forward)?

EDIT: this is just a stab in the dark, but maybe a creature with some connection to one of the organizations?

[Jacob W. Michaels]

*sigh* I've managed to start writing this two times now and accidentally navigated away from the page... I may need sleep soon.

Edward, welcome aboard. I think the biggest thing I've picked up to know is you can NOT lobby for votes or try to explain anything about your entry once it's posted for the voting public. From the FAQ:

Quote:

No! At least, not while voting is open. See Rule #5 on the Contest Rules page: "During public voting rounds, contestants are prohibited from any public discussion that could be considered as adding to, expanding upon, or clarifying the content of their current submission. This applies to (but is not limited to) interviews, personal blogs, and messageboard posts on paizo.com or elsewhere, including the paizo.com discussion thread for the entry itself. Any such discussion may result in disqualification, in the sole discretion of the judges and/or Paizo." In other words, your submission has to get by on its own, even if everyone has the same question and you could answer it with a single word. That's because if you write an organization and it gets published, the book doesn't include a little copy of you to answer questions or offer suggestions, so you need to make sure your submission is clear on its own. Just grin and bear it—you'll be able to say as much as you want about it once voting is closed on February 6. In fact, you may just want to copy this safe-to-post statement: Thank you for your support and please vote for my item! If you have questions, I'll be happy to answer them once voting for this round is closed.

From what I've seen it's best to -- as suggested -- literally copy and paste those last couple sentences in and then just bite your tongue and fingers until the voting ends.

[Will Cooper]

Heh, ninja'd by taig. In fact... Maybe that's the twist? We all have to develop our version of a honey badger with ninja levels.

[Will Cooper]

Yeah, the no answering questions is a biggy, and should affect your design. It has to stand on it's own. The other thing is to really carefully read the instructions. They mean it about those disqualifying errors.

[James Raine]

Jacob W. Michaels wrote:

James did just make me paranoid enough, though, that I forwarded a copy to my work email in case I would have to submit from there.

Paranoia: not just an RPG.

[Will Cooper]

Phew. Done, submitted, gone, complete and out of my hands. Now for a night away from the computer!

Good luck, those of you still working.

[Greg Monk]

Hey, all. Just hit the "submit" button, which oddly enough was anti-climactic after several carefully and fearfully pressed "preview" buttons, to do the last-minute tweaking. Note to the wise (or at least the forewarned, if you haven’t already submitted): my entry was 6 words longer here, according to the preview header, than it was in Word. Go figure. Even if the name was counted twice here(once in the header, once in the body), that didn't quite account for it. So, if like me, you are treading the line closely to 400 words, might want to leave a little cushion.

Good to know about the proofreader o.k. - I did have someone read through mine, before - turns out I made no real changes after that, but it was nice to have that feedback from a friend. I thought I remember a post in a previous year giving us that o.k. - so long as it wasn't posted publically here before submission, or something to that effect.

And I LOVE the Paranoia RPG; can't say I'm as fond of paranoia while WRITING for an RPG...

[Greg Monk]

Hmmm... perhaps the twist will involve entries from a previous year? Or a future entry, like we have to design a monster that, if advanced, must be prominently featured in our 3rd submission...?

[Chris Shaeffer]

Ah, I finally made a decision on which organization I'd submit. Took me long enough, but I'm feeling comfortable. I hope people like it better than my first round showing. :p

[Bob Drouin]

REdownloading it seems to have worked. Thx for the tip! Now if it would just scroll faster in my Nitro Reader when I'm reading it! ;)

===Bob D.

[Greg Monk]

Jacob W. Michaels wrote:

Edward, welcome aboard. I think the biggest thing I've picked up to know is you can NOT lobby for votes or try to explain anything about your entry once it's posted for the voting public.

A slight correction - to a limited degree, I guess you are, in fact allowed to lobby for votes - but like Jacob said, you just can't do so by in any way trying to talk about your item while it's being voted on or give feedback to comments made regarding it.

I agree entirely with Jacob, in that the safest plan is to just grab the pre-approved text and paste it when any mention of an item being voted on comes up. Good luck, Edward - and to all of you!

[Jacob Trier]

There! After an agonizing evening of stone cold creativity last night, I finally have a draft I feel is suitable for submission - once I have applied a LOT of polish and tweaking to it.

I'm writing this on my iPad in a bus taking me on a field trip with the school i work at. We will return this afternoon, leaving me a few brief hours VERY close to the submission deadline to finish the entry. Pressure. NOT. AT. ALL. *Gah!*

[Daniel Rust]

Well done everyone who is done and submitted. That's seriously impressive.

I'm having a stupidly busy week and am well behind where I'd like to be. On the train to work now, but I don't anticipate getting much actual work done today. Don't tell my boss!

[Daniel Rust]

Jacob Trier wrote:

There! After an agonizing evening of stone cold creativity last night, I finally have a draft I feel is suitable for submission - once I have applied a LOT of polish and tweaking to it.

I'm writing this on my iPad in a bus taking me on a field trip with the school i work at. We will return this afternoon, leaving me a few brief hours VERY close to the submission deadline to finish the entry. Pressure. NOT. AT. ALL. *Gah!*

I know exactly how you feel. Good luck with it. At least we have what feels like an extra evening here in Europe. A 10pm deadline is a much better prospect than 2pm.

[Jacob Trier]

*solidaric brofist of superstress to Daniel*

[Will Cooper]

The deadline is 11am tomorrow morning for me (here in New Zealand), so I decided to just push through today or sleep would've been impossible. Good luck Daniel and Jacob :)

[Chad Bartlett]

Yay! I'm done. I'll give it one last reading in the morning (with fresh eyes) and then sumbit it. What a relief! :)

Good luck, everybody!

[Eric Morton]

Good luck, everyone. Hopefully you're all as stoked as I am at the moment. I, for one, can't wait to see all the awesome that everyone brings to the table this round. :)

As for the monster twist, I'm going to join a lot of you in speculating that it involves designing a monster to match an existing illustration. Or maybe a monster that has to fit within a particular adventure plot.

EDIT: Or adding class levels to an existing monster, like a monster round and an NPC round rolled into one. How cool would that be? Or... Well, let's just say that whatever it is, I totally want to be there for it. :P

[Andrew Newton]

Submit and.... relax.

I have to confess, that was a lot of fun! It took a while to find a name that passed the Google test and didn't sound like I created it when I was 14, but I finally found something I liked more than the working title, so it was worth it.

[Chris Shaeffer]

So after 12 hours of sitting bleary-eyed at my desk, I actually finished. It's 7:30 AM. :(

Most of that time was spent reading up on lore, double-checking facts, writing a few words and then deleting them frustratedly, and zoning out for 30 minutes at a time.

Not submitting it yet though. I need to sit on it for a while, maybe have someone read through it...

[Mikko Kallio]

Can't wait to see your round 2 entries! Ooooh it's going to be a long weekend...

I really enjoyed writing my organization, and I'm very much looking forward to the monster round, whether I make the cut or not!

[Mike Welham]

So did anyone else worry about accidentally hitting the "Submit Post" button instead of the "Preview" button? I had a near-final draft that I wanted to check for formatting and word count, and it made me nervous pressing that "Preview" button. :)

[Andrew Marlowe]

Bob Drouin wrote:

REdownloading it seems to have worked. Thx for the tip! Now if it would just scroll faster in my Nitro Reader when I'm reading it! ;)

===Bob D.

No Problem. I can't help with the scrolling though ;D