Is it a good idea to tie all your submissions together with a sort of theme?
If not a "good" idea, is it a bad idea or a totally inconsequential idea?
As an example:
A wondrous item that works well for "class x"
An archetype that focuses on the skill the item enhances/deals with.
A monster that directly counters this archetype's skills, or a monster with class levels using the archetype.
An encounter map using that monster
etc.
Does this come across as lazy?
Read through last year's finalists for each round and you will notice that one of the contestants was very, very water themed every round - even to the point of pitching the adventure off the back of the encounter round.
They did quite well in the early rounds due to the strength of their submissions but towards the end of the competition, the comments increased more and more about not exhibiting sufficient versatility as a designer.
So, to really do well, you should be looking to be original and not "pegged" to a theme. The more versatility you can show, the more you are likely to break into freelance work I feel.
Thank you for the advice.
That said, while I was one of the people who commented on the theme in Steve's Round 4 entry, I don't think that's what sank* his final proposal. I think rather people felt he didn't address the criticisms he received enough in the prior rounds.
I think using a theme -- and especially building off prior rounds -- might make any mistakes even more glaring. I also wonder if you did address problems that arise in a previous round, would people feel your proposal is crowd sourced and ding you for that? I'm not sure, but I'd probably be wary of it.
* Hehe. I pun.
So sticking with my theme for round 1 and 2 and then judging feedback may be the best course of action.
I feel those are the two strongest ideas I had for the theme anyway, so that works well.
Glad to be of help :)