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It's like a walk down memory lane for me.
It's so nice to see old friends. Ones I haven't seen in a while, at least since last year. And this year we really have ALL the old crew back together.
I've seen them all.
The modern item poorly ported into a fantasy world. Check!
The artifact. Good to see you again!
The story disguised as an entry. There you are old buddy!
The over word count item. Hey, welcome back! There's no one I love more than you. I could go on and on and on, but you've already done that for me. Awesome to see you!
The home campaign item. Dude! Yes that mechanic sounds cool but you are the only one who knows how that works! But so good to see you!
The camping item. High five, man! High freaking five!
The coin item. Seriously, long time no see. Its been, what, since year one?
The not a wondrous item item. Oh yeah, baby, you are looking great! You are still a staff or a potion, but hey, you look great!
The random effects item. I don't even know what to say to you, maybe I should roll for it!?!
The joke item. I've missed you. I say I hate you, but secretly...yeah, it's love.
The item stolen from a videogame item. Sweet, dude, I love Skyrim too!
The horribly edited/spell-checked/proof-read item. Great to see...hey, wait, and did you bring ALL CAPS with you, too? Oh, you guys are the best! Welcome back!
The pretends to have a drawback but really doesn't item. Oh you! You sneaky stinker, you! Good to see you! Now go get us those 12 beers, just remember on the 24th beer within 24 hours you get a -5 to all skills, but don't worry we'll never actually get to 24 'cause we can just stop at 23!
Modern name item, Swiss army knife, spell in a can You three always seem to run around together! Go get your basketball of endlessly useful items and spells and let's get a game on!
It's just like old times being around old friends.
Old friends one finds in the Reject bin, that is.
Speaking of memories: good to have you back as a judge, Clark. No one can embody snark quite like you can. Ahh. :-)
CEO
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Clark:
That was the funniest thing I have read in an RPG Superstar thread since that Hitler rejection video that Kevin Mickelson put together when he saw the comments on his wondrous item. That video is priceless! I still laugh until it hurts.
Glad to have you back on board Clark. It just isn't RPG Superstar without you! :)
-Lisa
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So how do all of the noobs in the room who submitted an item thinking it was to be a fun and creative process find out if and how they were auto rejected? By the way as you rant harshly at a bunch of kids having fun, tell them to read guideline 27. Follow that statement by telling that guideline to go #%@& itself because that will just land them in the bin with all your old friends. I do of coarse say that with the upmost respect and admiration. I like the guidelines and rules provided by the judges on the forum and the insight on how you think and what you look at during the screening process. I also understand that this is more than a game for you as it is a career. To the rest of us who by the rules have never been published and never been involved with the industry this is a hobby that brings joy as a creative outlet. That being said it would seem that the harsh posts that don’t exactly dance around calling people morons might be uncalled for.
Let's give the man some slack. These "auto-reject" guidelines have been plastered all over the RPG Superstar forums for 5+ years now. Even a cursory glance at any number of threads from previous years should be enough to inform aspiring superstars of what NOT to do, even if they are new to the contest. And yet the same mistakes are repeated, year after year.
It's asinine.
Clark has been slogging through such mess for years now, despite his pleading with the RPG Superstar community to heed this basic advice. It's no wonder he's a bit frustrated by it. This is his way to vent, in a humorous (if slightly sarcastic) manner. He doesn't delight in people's failures, he just can't believe so many contest hopefuls would throw their chances away by not following simple directions.
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This thread is why the public voting on all submissions scares the heck out of me.
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I had to try something new.
Sean, Neil, me, others, have all posted an ENDLESS amount of helpful threads telling people what to do and what to avoid. Not to mention the time honored "critique my item" threads. Heck, Neil even hosted a live seminar at PaizoCon where we actually made an item for everyone and showed how to do it. (And by "we" I mean all the actual RPG Superstar judges)
It is abundantly clear that every year there are people who simply don't read a darn thing, including the rules or any of helpful advice.
Please don't think this thread is snarky or calling anyone a moron. To call someone a moron, they have to hear you, which isn't going to happen. The proof is in the pudding. If the people who made the above mistakes couldn't find our prior helpful threads telling them not to make those exact mistakes then there is no chance they are reading this thread. So please don't worry for them. They are fine.
And if there is anyone who thinks I am anything but eternally supportive and rah rah for this contest, I'm sure someone can link you to 50+ threads of me doing just that.
So I took a different approach this time.
Good to have you back Clark!
Thanks Lisa. I'd forgotten all about that downfall video, and now I'm laughing all over again. Kevin, good luck this time mate!
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I do of coarse say that with the upmost respect and admiration.
Thanks! I was worried about that there for a minute.
This isn't actually a career for me, it is in fact just a game. One I happen to love. For Lisa and Vic and Wolfgang and others it is a career.
Will, I appreciate you being the guy this year. Every year there is a person who posts something like this (though it's usually after the first round) that leads us to discuss what this is all about. This is fun. Yes. It is awesome. But what it really is, it is a job interview. The winner (and now the top couple of contestants) actually get to write for Paizo. So please keep in mind that while it is all incredibly fun, we expect the contestants (or the successful ones, anyway) to approach it that way.
The submissions I am referring to are the equivalent of people showing up to job interviews without shoes or shirts on asking the interviewer "Now, what company is this again?" That's how they look to us.
I'm not picking on you. I'm glad you voiced your concern. I say keep at it!
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Dedicated Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
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Old friends one finds in the Reject bin, that is.
But these kinds of items don't go straight to the Reject bin, do they? (Items with word count over the limit and items that are not wondrous items being an exception, of course.) I mean, I understood that the voters get to choose the 64 items, so there's really no way to prevent "old friends" from showing up again at a later stage. ;-) If a lot of contestants don't read the jugdes' recommendations, we can only assume that a lot of voters don't either.
Or is there a screening process prior to the voting phase?
Old friends one finds in the Reject bin, that is.But these kinds of items don't go straight to the Reject bin, do they? (Items with word count over the limit and items that are not wondrous items being an exception, of course.) I mean, I understood that the voters get to choose the 64 items, so there's really no way to prevent "old friends" from showing up again at a later stage. ;-) If a lot of contestants don't read the jugdes' recommendations, we can only assume that a lot of voters don't either.
Or is there a screening process prior to the voting phase?
This is an interesting question and you raise a valid point about the expectations of the voting public as opposed to the judges - whereas the judges keep an eagle eye on theme AND mechanics, and more subjective things like creative elan and freelancer panache, the voting public is likely split amongst all of those parts, sometimes between items - i might like one item's cool factor but not the mechanics so much and yet still vote for it, while a humdrum but excellently and concisely executed item might also earn a vote.
I'm sure the judges (and Paizo) would urge voters who can discern or distinguish faulty mechanics to keep that heavily in mind before voting for something, but people being people will vote for what they want to see (and this could mean either a particular item or the future work in later rounds and beyond from a particular author) as much as for what they think is good for the competition or the game at large.
I only really caught RPG Superstar for the first time in 2012, so this change to public voting in round 1 seems very fresh and exciting, though I can see it is somewhat daunting for some. As an affirmed haunter of the Suggestions/Homebrew threads I can safely say this is no different to posting stuff on the messageboards any day of the week - the opportunity and restrictions notwithstanding - it's still a very public proving ground. Have at it!
Having said all that, and before an "official" reply - there is definitely one screening process - an extremely hard, uncompromising and unforgiving one. It's name is WORDLIMIT. All in caps, just to remind folks. All gibes and snark aside, blowing the wordlimit is an extremely simple "darwinian" filter. You blow the word limit you shouldn't BE in the competition, let alone a freelancer. It is all about the word limit. Be as creative as you want. Within the word limit. Go crazy inventing new mechanics. Within the word limit. Enter the competition and submit an item. Just make sure. It. Is. Within. The. Word limit.
... there is definitely one screening process - an extremely hard, uncompromising and unforgiving one. It's name is WORDLIMIT.
Another part of the screening process is following the wondrous item template. You'd be surprised at how often the template gets ignored.
One of the often overlooked aspects of a good freelancer is the freelancer's ability to make life easier on the Paizo designer, who's job is to take the freelancer's turnover and make awesomesauce out of it. Following the wondrous item template is a good way to prove that you can follow simple instructions.
Another part of the screening process is following the wondrous item template. You'd be surprised at how often the template gets ignored.
Yes, but you don't get DQ'd for that. You can get into the voting - and hypothetically, do extremely well there - even if you mess up the template quite badly.
I'm kind of worried what we save the judges in judging the flood of initial entries, we're going to pay them back in conniptions when they get the Top 64 in their hands. Really common mistakes - e.g., all the auto-reject categories, and template problems big and small - will be reflected in voting, not just in submission.
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Star Voter Season 6
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It may not get you DQed, but it doesn't help.
One thing to remember about this contest (and one thing from Reality Shows that is actually true). Every year the bar gets higher.
Donna loved "So you Think You Can Dance." (I didn't complain much, athletic females in various states of undress or skintight outfits? I'm a Hermit, not a corpse.) One thing I often caught from the judges is that someone who was just on the edge the year before fell off the edge because the caliber of contestant was so much higher.
Now that didn't keep the new talent from coming in, but if you flub the Template, you're already shooting yourself in the foot. Do you really want the heartbreak of just missing the keep bin because you don't have the template, and then not having 'it' next year?
This is an interesting question and you raise a valid point about the expectations of the voting public as opposed to the judges - whereas the judges keep an eagle eye on theme AND mechanics, and more subjective things like creative elan and freelancer panache, the voting public is likely split amongst all of those parts, sometimes between items - i might like one item's cool factor but not the mechanics so much and yet still vote for it, while a humdrum but excellently and concisely executed item might also earn a vote.
I'm keenly away of this, and how the public voting impacts on the contest and what makes a good submission. The comments on my sunrise shawl show that a lot of people, including most of the judges, liked the design and mechanical choices I had made - while function of the item and the name was perceived as a bit dull. Several people commented how they liked it better after coming back to it again. So I'm a bit concerned that the subtle mechanical choices might be missed in a public voting round, especially if the general concept isn't exciting enough to immediately impact with a lot of people.
I guess this only means that you have to work even harder, to make absolutely sure that your item is awesome AND mechanically tight at the same time. And that can only raise the quality of submissions.
That, and I have to have faith that the community will pick tight, well-balanced items over over-powered gonzo crap.
I guess this only means that you have to work even harder, to make absolutely sure that your item is awesome AND mechanically tight at the same time. And that can only raise the quality of submissions.
I think this is true - opening this up, and making it more publically and thus broadly critiqued/voted upon. I guess it's the difference between a handful of professionals and the sum total of the boards...
That, and I have to have faith that the community will pick tight, well-balanced items over over-powered gonzo crap.
Yep. I'm more interested to see the success or not of the not-quite-perfectly parsed but flavorful items, or nicely written but subtly unforseen game breakers. OPGonzoCrap will signal its own failure every time... The judges have voted in sub-optimally parsed items if they otherwise showed enough "design chops" and excited them enough to want to see more from that particular author.
Marathon Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7
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Old friends one finds in the Reject bin, that is.But these kinds of items don't go straight to the Reject bin, do they? (Items with word count over the limit and items that are not wondrous items being an exception, of course.) I mean, I understood that the voters get to choose the 64 items, so there's really no way to prevent "old friends" from showing up again at a later stage. ;-) If a lot of contestants don't read the jugdes' recommendations, we can only assume that a lot of voters don't either.
Or is there a screening process prior to the voting phase?
Heck, with the judges screening, about a third of Clark's "old friends" made it into the top 32 in most of the previous years. Maybe with public screening we may see less of them this year. Probably not, though.
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Old friends one finds in the Reject bin, that is.But these kinds of items don't go straight to the Reject bin, do they? (Items with word count over the limit and items that are not wondrous items being an exception, of course.) I mean, I understood that the voters get to choose the 64 items, so there's really no way to prevent "old friends" from showing up again at a later stage. ;-) If a lot of contestants don't read the jugdes' recommendations, we can only assume that a lot of voters don't either.
Or is there a screening process prior to the voting phase?
This is an interesting question and you raise a valid point about the expectations of the voting public as opposed to the judges - whereas the judges keep an eagle eye on theme AND mechanics, and more subjective things like creative elan and freelancer panache, the voting public is likely split amongst all of those parts, sometimes between items - i might like one item's cool factor but not the mechanics so much and yet still vote for it, while a humdrum but excellently and concisely executed item might also earn a vote.
I'm sure the judges (and Paizo) would urge voters who can discern or distinguish faulty mechanics to keep that heavily in mind before voting for something, but people being people will vote for what they want to see (and this could mean either a particular item or the future work in later rounds and beyond from a particular author) as much as for what they think is good for the competition or the game at large.
I only really caught RPG Superstar for the first time in 2012, so this change to public voting in round 1 seems very fresh and exciting, though I can see it is somewhat daunting for some. As an affirmed haunter of the Suggestions/Homebrew threads I can safely say this is no different to posting stuff on the messageboards any day of the week - the opportunity and restrictions notwithstanding - it's still a very public proving ground. Have at it!...
To be honest, I’m not so sure this is a real concern.
I’ve read every top 32 item (not lately, but I have), and every rounds entry for every year of the competition.
There are a few items every year that didn’t follow the template exactly, or weren’t mechanically sound (i.e. migrus locker), but still made the judge’s list of 32. But by and large, you’ll see the voting public pick out the better objects, I think. Will a couple that are crap but on the surface “look” really cool? Sure. But that’s what the judges winnowing from 64 to 32 is for, to make sure that crap items that woo’d the voters don’t make it any further.
I think everyone will be pleasantly surprised at how discerning the voting public actually will be.
Having said all that, and before an "official" reply - there is definitely one screening process - an extremely hard, uncompromising and unforgiving one. It's name is WORDLIMIT.
Ah, but wordlimit is actually but one of the mighty horsemen of the disqualification-pocalypse. The judges have revealed that before the public sees an item it first must not be disqualified. The most common way that happens is word limit, yes, but also:
non-wondrous itemsprofanity
IP violations
and more.
However, if the item isn't disqualified, then it will get through, no matter if it's mispelled, ALL CAPS, or a basketball of endless useful items and spells.
On a related focus to how will the public vote compared to the judges? I'm going to gamble on 'it'll balance out', especially because the judges get the last call anyways.
Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press, RPG Superstar Judge
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I think everyone will be pleasantly surprised at how discerning the voting public actually will be.
Having done a ton of design with voting input over at Kobold Press, I agree with this. Gamers generally have good taste and good instincts for flavor, mechanics, playability, and utility.
Sure, a funny joke item might get in, but it won't win.
Yeah, I am vain. I thought this thread was about me.
It's like a walk down memory lane for me.
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The item stolen from a videogame item.
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Modern name item, Swiss army knife, spell in a can
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basketball of ...*
...It's just like old times being around old friends.
Old friends one finds in the Reject bin [my emphasis], that is.
Hey it is about me! I have been to the RB 4 out of 5 times, so it is about me! Welcome back Y'all! :)
[*really?!? I got caught on tape for this one?!? *ack*]Especially welcome back to Wolfgang for whom I really thought this thread was about. :)
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Chief Technical Officer
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...I understood that the voters get to choose the 64 items, so there's really no way to prevent "old friends" from showing up again at a later stage. ;-)
The statement about the judges selecting 32 of the Top 64 was an error, and has been removed. The judges will go from the highest-ranked entry down until they have 32 solid entries. If it takes more or less than the top 64 entries to do that, so be it.
@Curaigh
I think theres a Carly Simon son about you too ;p
...I understood that the voters get to choose the 64 items, so there's really no way to prevent "old friends" from showing up again at a later stage. ;-)The statement about the judges selecting 32 of the Top 64 was an error, and has been removed. The judges will go from the highest-ranked entry down until they have 32 solid entries. If it takes more or less than the top 64 entries to do that, so be it.
I like this system better. Essentially, the voting is just a way to ensure your submission gets seen by the judges earlier than someone else's.
What do you mean by the camping item? Maybe I'm slower than normal today but I can't make sense of that one. Thanks for being a judge again!
Item useful for camping safely like a mist tent from 2nd ed
Camping items make camping safe - see also here for more explanation.
Item useful for camping safely like a mist tent from 2nd ed
Ohhhhh, I get it now. Completely forgot about that tent!
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RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Dedicated Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
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I like this system better. Essentially, the voting is just a way to ensure your submission gets seen by the judges earlier than someone else's....I understood that the voters get to choose the 64 items, so there's really no way to prevent "old friends" from showing up again at a later stage. ;-)The statement about the judges selecting 32 of the Top 64 was an error, and has been removed. The judges will go from the highest-ranked entry down until they have 32 solid entries. If it takes more or less than the top 64 entries to do that, so be it.
I totally agree, this is a far better system. It makes it impossible for an individual to completely ruin the contest by creating 64 accounts with fake IP addresses (so they can't easily be proven to be sock puppet accounts), submit 64 crappy items and then let a tireless auto-clicking program vote 24/7 for the crappy items whenever their names show up, and vote randomly when they don't.
I don't think anyone would do that, but since it's doable (and not even very hard, as far as I know), it's a good idea to design the contest rules (and perhaps the voting tool as well) with that in mind, just in case. Maybe a timer to prevent insta-clicks...
Anyway, I do think we -- the voters -- are discerning and the most popular items will be good items, but they'll be good in a slightly different way. I'm guessing the item's utility for a wide range of PCs and players and how the text grabs your attention will be far more important than before.
I, for example, will probably vote by gut feeling a lot of the time, so I might miss something brilliant but subtle. (Yet usually brilliant & subtle items are my favorites when I read through the top 32 items of RPG Superstar! But the context is different so I read them in a different way.) Also, I might vote against items like the last year's vardo just because I've never played in a campaign where I'd really need one. I know it's a brilliant item and deserved to be in the top 32, but I might not "get it" if I had to assess it with a quick glance.
I also might, if I found an item so good it terrified me, vote against it simply because I don't want to see it in the top 32. :D (Ok, maybe I was joking about that one..)
So yeah I think the top 32 will look different, but I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing.
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This is my first time to submit and after reading numerous threads and listening to the corset creation class I probably still missed something. I know despite my eager early entrée, I gave my best effort, and know with time and practice I will improve.
Good Luck GM Hudson.
Good Luck GM Hudson.
Thank you.
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Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge
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While you wait, Valhalla is calling with another contest for possible publication of a Pathfinder RPG adventure.
I'll just be over here with the flood of wondrous item entries.