I must say I stressed over this part of my submission.
First pass, made a solid item... read great, mechanically perfect (at least I think) I let it sit a few days came back and read it and was like. Well it is good, but it's not "sexy" it does not pop.
So I added some flare, again read great, mechanically pretty good. I let it sit a few days then came back and read it and was like. Well it is sexy but man some of this is just does not make sense, oh crap its a SAK. (delete)
Anybody else see that line as a stumbling block? To go super sexy which may lead you into an auto-reject category, or be solid but not interesting enough to catch the judges attention.
Maybe it is the RPG Superstar paradox!
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Welcome to the designer balancing act!
You are now with the rest of us on a high wire suspended between keep and reject poles, but, below and to your left is a strange little goblin called Clark, dual wielding two steam driven buzz saws to ease your pain should you fall that way.
To your right, is a little gnome called Sean, turning the wheel on a mincing machine, making pies out of all those who fall that way, down and into the meat hopper conveniently placed to catch all fallees.
Ah, did I also mention 26 Kobold munchkins parallel to your path the to keep pile, each armed with various miscellany of missile weaponry to cause you to fall.
Ah yeah, one last thing, the rope you are standing on. It's about to be set on fire by a ravening horde of voting salamanders.
I think many of the past Top 32's tread the edges of this fine line between superstar and over-the-top, with examples of both extremes just making it by what seems the narrowest of margins. I don't think we will ever be able to say for sure where that line goes.
In fact, and this is said with the utmost respect for the experience, opinions, and hard work of all the judges through the years, I believe that "crowdsourcing" round 1 may help in "leveling out" certain subjective and circumstantial biases that might otherwise creep in as the judges review item no. 3,302 while suffering from sleep deprivation and a natural tendency to be fed up with all the rubbish they must have read at that point.
Allowing the judges to focus only on the averaged cream of the crop must, imho, allow for much more thorough and unbiased judgement, as far as this goes. We are all human, after all. Apart from Mr. Spicer, who seems to be part typewriter ;-)
Marathon Voter Season 6
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This is where I fell down last year (my 2nd time entering). Tightly written, sexy package, three thematically linked mechanics (SAK) but when you spend so long attached to an idea, you tend to blind yourself to its flaws. And likewise, I could not shake the feeling that it wasn't quite Superstar. At it's core the mechanics were good but they weren't great. It didn't have that zing of something that you really wanted your character or NPC to have. You need that spark I think. By it's nature, SAK design dilutes and distracts.
The bar I set myself this year was: at it's core without the perfect presentation, without the sexy package, does the plain, unadorned wondrous item still make you want to use it? Really want to use it? If so, it's got that required spark that you can then go and present and package it in. I'm hoping this year I've done that but who knows? I'm sure there's something else that's maybe not right but again, I'm too close to the design to tell.
Best Regards
Herremann the Wise
Welcome to the designer balancing act!
You are now with the rest of us on a high wire suspended between keep and reject poles, but, below and to your left is a strange little goblin called Clark, dual wielding two steam driven buzz saws to ease your pain should you fall that way.
To your right, is a little gnome called Sean, turning the wheel on a mincing machine, making pies out of all those who fall that way, down and into the meat hopper conveniently placed to catch all fallees.
Ah, did I also mention 26 Kobold munchkins parallel to your path the to keep pile, each armed with various miscellany of missile weaponry to cause you to fall.
Ah yeah, one last thing, the rope you are standing on. It's about to be set on fire by a ravening horde of voting salamanders.
Bravo!!! Bravo!!!
One of the best visuals I have ever read of what submitters feel like as they hit that send button and take their fate filled walk.
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It is an evocative image. But remember - Sean, Clark and Wolfgang really really really want you to succeed. They want to see amazing awesome items that blow them away. They're hoping to see the greatest archetype, the coolest creature, and an adventure pitch that makes them want to publish it imediately - that makes them want to play it immediately.
They don't have the knives out. They're cheering you on to be the best freelancer they've ever seen. And offering advice where you, merely mortal, inevitably fall short of that goal.
Well, I thought of the song "Too Much" by Dave Matthews Band, but that's not nearly as famous. :P
I'm sexy in an understated sort of way.
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I have to be honest, I did not think of a song at all. My brain correlating the Wondrous Item competition to the word sexy, did make me think of the episode where The Doctor called the TARDIS "Sexy".
I guess that's just how I roll, lol.
I'm just sexy.
I'm too sexy for this shirt, these shoes, this place.
As a man raised on a steady diet of all things grim-dark, I have a similar issue more along the lines of "grim vs too much".
For instance, the "no vomit" rule feels like it was written specifically for me.
Yup, it's a tough balance.
You know you've made it if you're certain your item is sexy, and yet you're also sure it contains no mistakes. So if you've struck the balance, you'll pretty much know it!
As for how to walk the line to begin with... Here's the advice that I've learned: keep it SMALL. Reign in your scope; keep it modest and solid.
A lot of items fall down because they try to do something really cool - so cool, it's just about impossible to describe with existing game mechanics. These are your "homebrew" items - items that you personally would love to have in your game, and that you'd probably have an awesome time GMing, but just can't be nailed down to mechanics. Typically, these are items which use vague hand-wave-y descriptions ("The spellcaster gets to cast his most powerful spell twice, the second time at only 30% of its full power!), or they make GMing harder ("When the helm of the homeland defender is activated, every participant in the combat gets a circumstance bonus or penalty to his AC based on geographical proximity to their town of origin!"). These concepts might be cool and flavorful, but implementing them "well" is really, really tough.
In contrast, what works really really well is focusing on something very, very small and well-defined. Game-twisting concepts like the arcane anvil are mega-cool, but they're also a huge gamble. Whereas look at the near-unequaled responses the judges gave the key of closed doors: Judd took a really straightforward yet extremely cool effect, and that made his design work relatively easy. It's easy to stat up; easy to describe; easy to adjudicate during the game play. I can point to other items which were extremely cool, but so compact they could be described plainly and simply - like Eric Hindley's shadow falconer's glove, or the original immovable rod.
Judd may pop in here to set me straight, but my guess is: with a concept like this, he didn't need to do a balancing act. Because he had a great idea which didn't need delicate balance. And those are the best ideas of all.
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You know you've made it if you're certain your item is sexy, and yet you're also sure it contains no mistakes. So if you've struck the balance, you'll pretty much know it!For what it's worth, I never seem to know I've struck the balance until I playtest it. I'll pound the playtest drum until it caves in.
It's too easy to fall into research and calculations. They're necessary, but sometimes a sound idea falls flat or an exploit shows itself when you actually put it on the board.
Hey, that's not fair! You're talking like an actual game designer!