Contributor, RPG Superstar 2012
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Star Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 9
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Make sure you don't discuss anything that can potentially sway the voters.To clarify: is this only referring to comments discussing our organizations, or are we also prohibited from (for example) "Vote Jacob 2012!" and similar?
My understanding is that you can do that.
Thanks, Neil - good to be reminded. I didn't realize until being in this position how easy it would to be to screw that up; I've already thought of a couple of posts I didn't type ("innocent" on their surface, like answering a question posed about writing styles, comparison to someone else's submission, etc.), because, in thinking about them, I could see the potential for swaying later on, once someone tied that to a submission I might make.
Will save vs. Foolish & potentially disqualifying commentary, DC 20:
Yup - keeping muh mouth shut, Yassir.
its amazing how unproductive i can be at work when the reveal is less than an hour away... (t-minus 32 minutes...)
ps- where will the organizations and feedback be posted? (right on the superstar front page where the items have been?)
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We few, we happy few
** spoiler omitted **
Very good, Jacob.
To game, or not to game: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of Ryan Dancey,
Or to take arms against a Top 32,
And by opposing end them?
Ffffuuuuuuu-
Oh. Can the public see this thread, by the way? I've been assuming no. In either case, should we not discuss/vent about our organizations in any form on here once the entries are made public?
PS. I have some free time now, so I'll be able to review the last 20+ items I never got around to. Sorry about the delay guys. It'll distract me from the inevitable scathing criticisms for a few hours, at least.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2012
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Star Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 9
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Ffffuuuuuuu-
Oh. Can the public see this thread, by the way? I've been assuming no. In either case, should we not discuss/vent about our organizations in any form on here once the entries are made public?
PS. I have some free time now, so I'll be able to review the last 20+ items I never got around to. Sorry about the delay guys. It'll distract me from the inevitable scathing criticisms for a few hours, at least.
Everyone can see this thread. So, if you make fun of Sebastian the Wonder Pony, he'll know, and it will be bad. Also, discussing your organization here would be against the rules.
12 minutes (or so)...
4 minutes!
i think the DC for the will save to avoid staring at the message boards is up to 30 now...
NOOOOOO!!!
I noticed this board the last week of last year and suddenly was like "I could have been spying on them this entire time!"
Will save: (damn!)
Oh! I forgot to add my +3 to my reflex save for my 2 levels of Barista! So my initiative was actually 7! :D
Hey, now I know where you people are!
I just realized that once again there's a number of people from my city again this year, or in neighboring cities. The whole NC thing is getting downright creepy. :)
Just browsed the judge votes for all of them and can I say, ouch!
edit for ninjas
Neil, we can weigh in on everyone else's organizations, right?
I know that's been allowed in the past. And I believe it's still permissible this year. But even then, you're constrained into not talking about or comparing your own work. Essentially, from here on out, every word you post will be seen by the voters. If any of it relates to swaying their vote (other than just a generic, "Please vote for me!"), that'll constitute grounds for disqualification.
Think of it in these terms. The entries you turned in are now all sitting as RPG products on a shelf in a local game store. You're behind a soundproof, one-way mirrored glass. You can observe what people do and say with regards to your product. But, you can't walk out and start up a conversation with them about it. You can't elaborate on it. You can't explain anything...even if they draw the wrong conclusions about something you wrote. Basically, your work needs to stand on its own.
In terms of the other competitors, you can browse their work and offer encouraging comments, if you want. You can even rake them over the coals and play super-critic. But that's pretty much guaranteed to make you appear like a much less attractive candidate to the voting community. So, recognize that everything you say and do right now is building up a cult of personality about you. Behave like a jerk...or even unintentionally say or do something that gives that impression...and you risk building up a negative perception about yourself in everyone's eyes.
So, the best rule of thumb is to sit this whole thing out. If you have nothing good to say, say nothing. If you have something good to say, make sure your comments don't refer back to your own work. And, if you need something to keep you busy, get started on the next assignment or brainstorm some ideas for later rounds. I'd recommend that all of you start forming at least a small stable of ideas for a potential adventure proposal. And, you might want to do some research on how folks have approached similar rounds in prior years. There's stuff you can do right now to occupy yourselves rather than live and die by everyone else's comments on your stuff.
My two cents,
--Neil
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2012
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Star Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 9
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Thanks, Neil! I won't have anything critical to say about the organizations, but I will wait until next week to make sure I don't goof up.
Monster building/encounter (and map planning)/adventure proposal seeds will be my focus. :)
I'll also tell you something else. This is the hardest part of the competition...i.e., that moment when your work gets revealed, you have to be quiet about it, and everyone else is talking about it. This too simulates a few real-life situations which freelancers have to go through. For instance...
1) Non-Disclosure Agreements - You're almost always under an NDA when writing for a publisher. How well you can keep your mouth shut about products that are still in the production pipeline, but haven't released yet is tested in this part of the challenge. Yes, you're actually tested and challenged even at times when you aren't writing something in this competition.
2) Negative Reviews - Even if you go on to eventually write as a freelancer, you have to understand that negative reviews are going to come. You can't please all the people all the time. You never will be able to do that. There'll always be people who pan your stuff because it doesn't fit their campaign, their play-style, or whatever. Sometimes, they're right about some perceived error or misstep in your work. Other times, they don't have a clue what they're talking about. But you've got to learn what to take from each one of them...i.e., whether to apply some lesson they've provide...or not. Whether to let their commentary bust your ego down to zero...or not.
3) Developer's Feedback - At this stage of the game, you can consider the judges to be your developers right now. When we offer criticism or commentary, it's meant as constructively as we can make it. If we pan your work, you've got to determine for yourself how you handle it. To a man, there's not a single one of us who doesn't want to see you guys succeed...to see you do awesome things. You may or may not have hit it out of the park in any given round. What matters the most is how you handle either of those outcomes. One can swell your head. The other can wreck your self-esteem. But only you can control how you respond. This game tests your ability to handle the high's and the low's. And we'll be kind of assessing that, too, as you move forward.
Good luck in the voting everybody,
--Neil
Contributor
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Dedicated Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
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The total number of "I DO NOT recommend" comments the 32 of us received reminds me of last year, only now I'm actually in the top 32 and so I have something to lose. And right now everything looks uncertain. A very humbling experience, but I hope to learn from this once I recover from the shock.
Good luck everyone!
Ah, sweet relief. I was expecting much worse.
I'm liking what I'm seeing so far guys, great job! Now I'm left wondering if I should finish my item critiques first or just dive straight into the organizations.
To the judges, it worked out this year that I'm the only contestant thay submitted a second round entry that wasn't posted, but I would still love to get feedback on what I came up with for next year. Did the four of you also do a review of mine? If so, would it be possible to get that feedback outside of the contest itself?
Thanks for the oppurtunity to compete and get better for next year.
Remember guys, they only hurt us because they love us - if only they didn't love us quite as much, though.
All right...enough for one night. Lookmforward to reading everything in greater detail, and most of all to get crackin' on some monsters.
When do the round 3 rules go live?
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
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Star Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8
aka FaxCelestis
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Wow. Three negative reactions and one judge on the fence are enough to put me in the middle of the pack, not dead last? This round is going to be a bloodbath.
I read the reviews on mine and my initial reaction was "craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap".
Then I read everyone else's entries and I relaxed a little, because the immediate reaction I got was "everyone but like two people screwed this stage up, the judges have their kid gloves off, and the real important part is connecting with voters, not the judges." In fact, the first thought I had after reading a few entries was "This round is a bloodbath."
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Contributor
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Dedicated Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
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Did the four of you also do a review of mine? If so, would it be possible to get that feedback outside of the contest itself?
Last year when I was an alternate, Ross sent me the judges' round 2 comments in email. I can't remember when, though, it might have been after the voting closed.
Good luck next year, Sommers! :) (By the way, in the off chance that someone gets DQ'd, it might be a good idea to not talk about your organization just yet.)
Did the four of you also do a review of mine? If so, would it be possible to get that feedback outside of the contest itself?
Last year when I was an alternate, Ross sent me the judges' round 2 comments in email. I can't remember when, though, it might have been after the voting closed.
Good luck next year, Sommers! :) (By the way, in the off chance that someone gets DQ'd, it might be a good idea to not talk about your organization just yet.)
Thanks for letting me know, I'll keep an eye out. At this point I'm thinking my chances are just about done, but I'll hold off until its official. Of course, if anyone else in the Top 32 wants to fall on their sword, I wouldn't mind :-)
This really is the hardest round of the competition. We had to get over getting in, learn the rules for the round, create something that there aren't any particular rules or guidelines for, and make sure that it fits with the campaign setting that many of us weren't familiar with in three days.
Even the monster round coming up next, I've never created a monster from scratch, but I've run them and read thousands of stat blocks. Even if I had a organization in a game, I wouldn't write it out in this format, so this way of creating is a bit alien.
I'm reading over the submissions now and the judges comments (rapidly, I might be missing some things). This round is a lot like the first round where the goal is to just make something awesome, but without the comfort of making something that you have a firm grasp on.
-X
I just realized that once again there's a number of people from my city again this year, or in neighboring cities. The whole NC thing is getting downright creepy. :)
Aparently James Olchak is from Raleigh, too. You guys should join us for some Pathfinder Society soon.
North Carolina huh? Neil must have a 100-mile radius on his inspire competence class ability.
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RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Marathon Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8
aka Jiggy
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Wow. Three negative reactions and one judge on the fence are enough to put me in the middle of the pack, not dead last? This round is going to be a bloodbath.I read the reviews on mine and my initial reaction was "craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap".
Then I read everyone else's entries and I relaxed a little, because the immediate reaction I got was "everyone but like two people screwed this stage up, the judges have their kid gloves off, and the real important part is connecting with voters, not the judges." In fact, the first thought I had after reading a few entries was "This round is a bloodbath."
+1
Also, call me a super-nerd, but if it hasn't been done yet I intend to compile a list of all entries with the Y/N/Maybe judge tally for each one and list them in order.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2012
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Star Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 9
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Wow. Three negative reactions and one judge on the fence are enough to put me in the middle of the pack, not dead last? This round is going to be a bloodbath.I read the reviews on mine and my initial reaction was "craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap".
Then I read everyone else's entries and I relaxed a little, because the immediate reaction I got was "everyone but like two people screwed this stage up, the judges have their kid gloves off, and the real important part is connecting with voters, not the judges." In fact, the first thought I had after reading a few entries was "This round is a bloodbath."
+1
Also, call me a super-nerd, but if it hasn't been done yet I intend to compile a list of all entries with the Y/N/Maybe judge tally for each one and list them in order.
Super-nerd!
You said I could...
@Jacob K. I'll race you to it!
Also I think we need to form a 'The judges didn't like my submission club' for those of us that got no votes this round.
Jacob K., those types of lists definitely fall in my wheelhouse. Heck, that's why I ended up (badly) collating the top 5 votes from Round 1. I say go for it.
Man, it's brutal out there! *Chad comes into the Top 32 Guildhall to lie down on the floor in the fetal position*
LOL! I'm trying to remain positive. Anything can still happen! :)
Man, it's brutal out there! *Chad comes into the Top 32 Guildhall to lie down on the floor in the fetal position*
LOL! I'm trying to remain positive. Anything can still happen! :)
*Gets Chad a blanket and a cup of chicken noodle soup.*
There there. Just focus on the rounds ahead, digest people's feedback, and be the all-around cool guy you've been so far.
Man, it's brutal out there! *Chad comes into the Top 32 Guildhall to lie down on the floor in the fetal position*
LOL! I'm trying to remain positive. Anything can still happen! :)
I feel your pain, buddy. I'm eternally grateful just to have ONE judge recommend me for advancement. I think the worst part is, that half of us won't get the chance to prove that we can take the feedback given and learn from it.
That, and the paralyzing fear of disqualification every time I'm about to make a post.
But as Chris says - focus on the monsters.
*Pops in to read own advice again*
Focus on monsters, focus on monsters, focus on monsters....don't just refresh the Superstar forums every 5 minutes hoping for more comments or show of support.
My friends, don't let the judges' negative comments get you down ... and don't let the positive ones give you too much hope. ;-)
Remember that everything is in the hands of the voters. I've seen entries that were universally panned by the judges make it to the next round, and I've seen entries the judges unanimously adored not receive any voting love at all.
You all earned your place here! Try to enjoy the ride!
Yes sir, enjoying the ride, sir...
By the way, I'm keenly aware of my last name right now. I can't quite shake the feeling that being in the bottom of the alphabet is just a little bit of a handicap. It is probably just "comment envy" and the effects of a lackluster organization name, but if I make it to the next round, finding a name that just screams "READ ME!!" at people is a very high priority.
where do i sign up for the blankets and chicken soup?
i'm not sure what the DC was to avoid this demoralize effect, but clearly i failed that save...
*hands Edward blanket and passes the soup*
where do i sign up for the blankets and chicken soup?
Seconded. I've been avoiding the forums to keep my nerves from jangling too much, but I can't keep myself from peeking in every now and again. This whole segment is absolutely nerve-wracking.