What's Your Top 5 Favorite Wondrous Item Submissions?

[james knowles]

1st off congrats to all 32. the judges saw something in either your item, or your design mojo to keep you, so good job. now for my picks.

Feywhisper Crown: 1) the name ROCKS!. after reading all 32 yesterday, this is the only one that i remembered the name of this morning. 2) I can actually picture this being used in my campaign - both by the BBEG & the players if they manage kill him for it.

(side note: Tom was one of my favorites the last 2 years so i'm looking forward to seeing more of his work.)

All Other 31: none of the rest strike me as particularly cool, useful, or desirable. I'd like to have a hit of whatever they were smoking in the judges chambers when they picked these, maybe then i could see their mojo. I'm not saying the mojo isn't there, just that i personally don't see it.

[Eric Morton]

First, I'd like to thank everyone who put the boots of the phantom staircase on their lists. I designed the boots to appeal to the Superstar judges in particular, not the wider public, so I'm flattered that some folks outside the judges' chambers also enjoyed them.

Second, I'd like to make a promise to the voting public: starting now, I'm bringing the real mojo. Last round, I was writing for an audience of four. From here on out, the entire voting public is my audience, and I'll do my best to give you something awesome to vote on each and every round.

Going into Round 2, I'm swinging for the fences, and I'm guessing the other finalists are, too. So get ready; this next round is going to be awesome! You ain't seen nothing yet, because the mojo's just getting started!

[Thomas LeBlanc]

Curaigh wrote:

Finally finished reading all 32!

I have pegged two for the platinum, four for the gold and two silvers that might be gold...

Dustings of Darkness: countering glitterdust, portable dark, good rules-fu.
Gloves of Reconnaissance: strictly the imagery I think, 'cause in so many ways I should NOT want one, but I do.
Elixer of Resurgent Flame: tightly written, combining holy/flame damage, wonderful imagery
Boots of the Phantom Staircase: cinematic ability, tightly written, good flavor
Sunrise Shawl: every party will benefit, cool recharge.
Feywhisper Crown: nice imagery, memory mod reminiscent of 13 sleeping dwarves... :)

I added up 8 items you said you nominated for medals, but you only list 6 Wondrous Items. What are the other 2? Thank goodness this isn't a Math Superstar contest...

[Alexander Bennett]

james knowles wrote:

All Other 31: none of the rest strike me as particularly cool, useful, or desirable. I'd like to have a hit of whatever they were smoking in the judges chambers when they picked these, maybe then i could see their mojo. I'm not saying the mojo isn't there, just that i personally don't see it.

They sat in the night monarch vardo smoking a mixture of sunblossom, bottled time, liquid sunlight, and dustings of darkness while drinking resurgent flame (out of Cayden's cup) and watching a silhouette of the phantasmagoria duke it out with a shadow box. They plane shifted when they thought the cops show up, but it was probably just a teenager with a vexing spirit lamp.

-Xander

[Curaigh]

Sorry for the confusion. I was only listing five (per the thread title. :) Except two items tied for my fifth place. The two tied for sixth (7th/8th?) are Clockwork Conscience and Spellbreaker Gauntlets. If it helps your saddle was the first I read because of the cool name. I pegged it for silver, it is not a ranking so much as the level of Superstarness. :)

[james knowles]

Alexander Bennett wrote:

james knowles wrote:

All Other 31: none of the rest strike me as particularly cool, useful, or desirable. I'd like to have a hit of whatever they were smoking in the judges chambers when they picked these, maybe then i could see their mojo. I'm not saying the mojo isn't there, just that i personally don't see it.

They sat in the night monarch vardo smoking a mixture of sunblossom, bottled time, liquid sunlight, and dustings of darkness while drinking resurgent flame (out of Cayden's cup) and watching a silhouette of the phantasmagoria duke it out with a shadow box. They plane shifted when they thought the cops show up, but it was probably just a teenager with a vexing spirit lamp.

-Xander

LOL

[Jacob W. Michaels]

I remember last year someone keeping a tally of votes of people who revealed them, which I thought was neat (though it did make the results of the last round somewhat anti-climactic).

So here's the tally for this round. Everything that people put in their top 5 (or six or seven; I wasn't been too picky) gets one vote; I'm not worrying about whether they were ranked, since I don't know if people were listing them in random order or not. Keep in mind the chalice of fire was a late add...

(I also only used Pedro's top 5 and didn't include Anthony's list since he said he'd only looked at a third of the items. I added one to Xander's count, since he said he didn't rank his item, but not one to Chris' because he said he didn't think he'd vote for himself. : )

Rajah's silhouette: 14
Feywhisper crown: 12
Spellbreaker gauntlets: 11
Gloves, charlatan: 10

Sticky Pugfoot: 9
Clockwork conscience: 8

Basilisk's Eye Sight: 6
Cayden's cup: 6
Cloak of the Swashbuckler: 6
Haunting glass: 6
Vexing spirit lamp: 6

Boots of the phantom staircase: 4
Dustings of darkness: 4
Night Monarch Vardo: 4
Sunrise Shawl: 4

Claws of the Crawling Spell: 3
Flask of liquid sunlight: 3
Ghostvision Gloves: 3
Shadow Box: 3
Spellbreaker gauntlets: 3

Bottled time: 2
Chimaeric mantle: 2
Metamorphosis saddle: 2
Silhouette of the phantasmagoria: 2

Elixer of resurgent flame: 2
Gloves of reconnaissance: 1
Moonlight flute of the ghost hunter: 1
Raptoring Gloves: 1
Scent of the savored sting: 1
Spellblight Cage: 1

[James Raine]

You have my item (spellbreaker gauntlets) on your list twice. :\

[Jacob Kellogg]

Jacob W. Michaels wrote:

I remember last year someone keeping a tally of votes of people who revealed them, which I thought was neat (though it did make the results of the last round somewhat anti-climactic).

So here's the tally for this round. Everything that people put in their top 5 (or six or seven; I wasn't been too picky) gets one vote; I'm not worrying about whether they were ranked, since I don't know if people were listing them in random order or not. Keep in mind the chalice of fire was a late add...

(I also only used Pedro's top 5 and didn't include Anthony's list since he said he'd only looked at a third of the items. I added one to Xander's count, since he said he didn't rank his item, but not one to Chris' because he said he didn't think he'd vote for himself. : )

Rajah's silhouette: 14
Feywhisper crown: 12
Spellbreaker gauntlets: 11
Gloves, charlatan: 10

Sticky Pugfoot: 9
Clockwork conscience: 8

Basilisk's Eye Sight: 6
Cayden's cup: 6
Cloak of the Swashbuckler: 6
Haunting glass: 6
Vexing spirit lamp: 6

Boots of the phantom staircase: 4
Dustings of darkness: 4
Night Monarch Vardo: 4
Sunrise Shawl: 4

Claws of the Crawling Spell: 3
Flask of liquid sunlight: 3
Ghostvision Gloves: 3
Shadow Box: 3
Spellbreaker gauntlets: 3

Bottled time: 2
Chimaeric mantle: 2
Metamorphosis saddle: 2
Silhouette of the phantasmagoria: 2

Elixer of resurgent flame: 2
Gloves of reconnaissance: 1
Moonlight flute of the ghost hunter: 1
Raptoring Gloves: 1
Scent of the savored sting: 1
Spellblight Cage: 1

I don't even get listed in the tally. :(

[Bob Drouin]

Me, either.
But I confess I was writing for the judges more then the audience. I believe my Figurine of Familiar Power could easily be included into the gaming lexicon as an easy low level item. It's not that powerful, but it is useful for the kind of player that would take a shine to it.

Let's see if my organization is enough for the logic I built it on!

==Bob D.

[Chad Bartlett]

Thanks to Curaigh for putting my item on his list! :) I realize my wondrous item wasn't widely regarded as one of the best. In fact, reading the judges' comments, I'm honestly surprised I got in. Golden ticket perhaps?

Obviously, the judges saw something in my woundrous item that they liked. All I can say is that I like my Round 2 submission a lot better. Hopefully the judges and you guys will agree! *crosses fingers*

[Mikko Kallio]

It's a tie for the seventh place, but if we also count Anthony's votes, the seventh place is mine! That's a lot better than I expected, considering that I only got two Keeps from the judges (Ryan and Clark).

That shows how it's good to remember who you are writing for. From round 2 onwards, we're writing primarily for the members of the audience. Of course, the judges' comments affect the votes somewhat, but they no longer can decide who advances. I know I have to broaden my appeal; it seems that some people really loved my item while others didn't get it at all.

Anyway, BIG THANKS to everyone who listed my lamp in their top 5 and/or commented on it!

[Eric Morton]

Based on the Round 1 entries, I'd say that my Top 5 Competitors to Beat are:

1) Tom Phillips and his feywhisper crown
2) James Raine and his spellbreaker gauntlets
3) David Ross and his clockwork conscience
4) James Olchak and his rajah's silhouette
5) Daniel Rust and his elixer of resurgent flame

But I wouldn't be surprised to see any of the Top 32 step it up in Round 2.

[Anthony Adam]

My top 5 having now read them all (having the flu has really slowed me down, Im reading through streaming eyes, fun it is not)

Also note that my scoring was for technical execution in the main, when I offset that by what I would be making immediate use fo in my games, lol, the vexing lamp got bumped to 6th, it was hard choosing between dark and light :P but I think my drow assault squad will be more effective with the dark - evil grin.

Spellbreaker Gauntlets
Sticky Pugfoot
Basilisk's Eye Sight
Cloak of the Swashbuckler
Dustings of Darkness

[Jacob Trier]

Anthony Adam wrote:

My top 5 having now read them all (having the flu has really slowed me down, Im reading through streaming eyes, fun it is not)

Also note that my scoring was for technical execution in the main, when I offset that by what I would be making immediate use fo in my games, lol, the vexing lamp got bumped to 6th, it was hard choosing between dark and light :P but I think my drow assault squad will be more effective with the dark - evil grin.

Hi Anthony,

I hope you haven't given up on your reviews of all the items. I'm waiting very patiently for you to reach the Sunrise Shawl. Your posts about the round 1 template and the general advice have been very insightful, and I look forward to seeing what you have to say about my item.

P.S. Feel better!

[Jacob W. Michaels]

Sorry, James. On the bright side, that means your item is actually tied for No. 1! (True confession: I got a call from my girlfriend about halfway through, so started rushing a bit to finish up and obviously didn't proof that carefully.)

Mikko, absolutely. I definitely kept audience in mind when I made my choice of what organization to submit -- I just don't know if I know the audience well enough.

[Chad Bartlett]

All right, I like six, so sue me! ;p

Cayden's Cup
Spellbreaker Gauntlets
Clockwork Conscience
Flask of Liquid Sunlight
Binder of Unbound Forms
Bottled Time

It's sad that the designers of two of my favorites here have dropped out of the competition. :(

I always love going through the RPG Superstar submissions. There are so many great free ideas to take and incorporate into your game! Booyah! Well done, everybody! :)

[Crysknife]

Thomas LeBlanc wrote:

1. Claw of the Crawling spell - Phenomenal item, the description could be clearer but man, this is the kind of item that should really make it into a book. I mean, it has flavor, it has unconventional mechanics, it's useful and really make a difference when it comes into play but does seem gamebreaking. I love this item, I give the creator my most sincere congratulations.

2. Spellbreaker Gauntlets - Just unbelievably cool. The wording could be better IMHO, but OMG how cool it is to imagine the warrior bursting through the wall of force and to stop fireballs with his hand.

3. Figurine of Familiar Power - Cool, this one would be the dream of everyone who love having a familiar, which I do. I'm not entirely sure about the on hour duration for the transformation, but I would be unsure about a full time one too. Anyway, I love this item.

4. Sunblossom - The item have too much stuff in it. And I love it, I just love items that do a lot of stuff but still manage to keep focused. It's the kind of item that you can give to a character with the right focus and see the player'e eyes shining, all without breaking the game. I could actually rate it higher, I don't because there is a lot of stuff in it and none are spectacularly new, but I don't mean this as a critic: the simple fact that I can't stop writing about how much I love this item (which is useless for my current characters, so no immediate drool is involved) is proof of how much I like it. As said in the relevant topic, the only concern it's that it's really easy to break, I would have gone as far as to make it regenerate (maybe if exposed to sunlight at dawn) if broken.
Again, I really love this item.

5. Feywhisper Crown - Nice item, I like it's focus, I think this should be higher on my list if not for the crown thing. I really can't imagine an adventurer going around with a crown. That aside, I feel that the mechanics are well done but a bit too weak: I can't stand how useless the power of most magic items are when you can get your hands on it, DC 16 for a high level spellcaster is laughable.

Other items I really liked are Clockwork Conscience, Cayden's Cup, Silhouette of the Phantasmagoria, Ghost vision Gloves (really neat, the closest to the top five), Cloak of the Swashbuckler, Basilisk's Eye Sight and Rajah's Silhouette.
Special mention I make for the Charlatan Gloves: aside for some flaws in the design (bonus and pricing) they are more fun that 95% of what you find on any published manual AND of the other entries of the RPG superstar (the figure could be higher for the first instance and lower for the second, but I really mean it, this stuff is GOLD).

Congratulation of every one of the winners and specifically to the creator of the items above, this is really the kind of stuff that I would love to see published in the future.

[Anthony Adam]

Jacob Trier wrote:

Anthony Adam wrote:

My top 5 having now read them all (having the flu has really slowed me down, Im reading through streaming eyes, fun it is not)

Also note that my scoring was for technical execution in the main, when I offset that by what I would be making immediate use fo in my games, lol, the vexing lamp got bumped to 6th, it was hard choosing between dark and light :P but I think my drow assault squad will be more effective with the dark - evil grin.

Hi Anthony,

I hope you haven't given up on your reviews of all the items. I'm waiting very patiently for you to reach the Sunrise Shawl. Your posts about the round 1 template and the general advice have been very insightful, and I look forward to seeing what you have to say about my item.

P.S. Feel better!

Please be patient, I do intend to finish, but dont want to distract from the organisations at the moment.

I have rough pencil scratching on the remaining items but again, I want to write up when my heads a bit clearer. I hate the flu, it's grotty.

[Kradlum]

Being new to the game, buying the BB box only a couple of weeks ago and still reading through it I looked at the RPGSS thread just out of interest as to what it was about. After reading a couple of entries I decided I had to read all the entries. Now I'm at the point of thinking "why is time going so slowly? I want to see the entries for the new round!"

I only have 3 favourites. They are all ones that I could understand easily as a newbie:

Cayden's Cup - A nice little item that I can use with a BB box adventure. Had me looking through the BB box and wondering why purify food and drink wasn't in there.

Elixir of Resurgent Flame - A simple mechanic and a good description which got me looking into the PRD to understand Words of Power. Another one that could easily be slotted into a BB adventure to introduce players to wider concepts in the game.

Stinky Pugfoot - Ok, I know it is sticky, but it will always be stinky to me. A simple but innovative mechanic that requires some thought on behalf of the players as to how they will use it. It could be a lot of fun, or just cause chaos.

[Jacob Trier]

Kradlum wrote:

Being new to the game, buying the BB box only a couple of weeks ago and still reading through it I looked at the RPGSS thread just out of interest as to what it was about. After reading a couple of entries I decided I had to read all the entries. Now I'm at the point of thinking "why is time going so slowly? I want to see the entries for the new round!"

I only have 3 favourites. They are all ones that I could understand easily as a newbie:

Cayden's Cup - A nice little item that I can use with a BB box adventure. Had me looking through the BB box and wondering why purify food and drink wasn't in there.

Elixir of Resurgent Flame - A simple mechanic and a good description which got me looking into the PRD to understand Words of Power. Another one that could easily be slotted into a BB adventure to introduce players to wider concepts in the game.

Stinky Pugfoot - Ok, I know it is sticky, but it will always be stinky to me. A simple but innovative mechanic that requires some thought on behalf of the players as to how they will use it. It could be a lot of fun, or just cause chaos.

Thanks for your evaluation Kradlum. It is always interesting to hear the view of someone new to the game, especially since most of us have gamed so long many of these concepts are second nature.

[Jacob W. Michaels]

I agree with my fellow Jacob, Kradlum. That's great that you're discovering and getting into this contest after only a couple weeks with Pathfinder. And if it's any consolation, trust me when I saw we REALLY want to see the new round (and judges' feedback)...

[Lakesidefantasy]

Rajah's silhouette
Boots of the phantom staircase
Claws of the Crawling Spell
Spellbreaker gauntlets
Flask of liquid sunlight

[Curaigh]

Welcome to the boards Kradlum!
Your welcome, Chad. I was trying to look at the designer as much as the item and I have high hopes for you. :)
I now have all 32 items broken into 4 categories for my own RPGSSFantasy. Guess that means I am finally ready for round 2! Bring on the organizations.

[Deidre Tiriel]

Chimaeric Mantle
Figurine of Familiar Power
Ghostvision Gloves
Metamorphosis Saddle
Dustings of Darkness

My "honorable mention" would be the Basilisk Eye Sight. I thought it was an awesome item, despite me not liking guns (in game or IRL).

[David Ludwig]

I'm here very late, but I wanted to add my favorites to this thread as well. They are, in order;

1. Cloak of the Swashbuckler for raw panache and because there should be magic to support the build that would do those things anyway.
2. Charlatan Gloves because that’s fun, flavorful and useful magic all neatly packaged.
3. Spell Breaker Gauntlets. Punching spells? Yes please. I want it for so many of my frontline characters.
4. Feywhisper Crown for tight execution of a theme with flat awesome psychedelic mists.
5. Scent of the Savored Sting because I like the tight theme and have to admit a soft spot for magic perfume.

Though others like the Clockwork Conscience, Vexing Spirit Lamp, and of course my own Basilisk's Eye Sight are close.