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...are the ones that actually start with a novel and well presented idea only to deteriorate because of a single badly thought out aspect near the end (most often by being horridly OPed or wholly unusable).
I now had my third item of this sort in over 10 hours of voting and it drives me nuts every time.
I feel that my item could perhaps into this category. I've started out with a good idea (If I do say so myself), but have had insane balance issues. I had exactly zero frame of reference.
Even after a few playtests with my friends there was no consensus on how exactly it should be done. But I've done my best to make it fully playable.
Yeah, I've encountered several items where I found myself yelling, "Perfect. Now stop writing. Stop writing. Stop writing!" (Okay, I didn't actually yell it, but I did think it really hard.)
I did actually yell it at one point, prompting my wife to rush into the room and ask me what was wrong....
Yeah, knowing when stop is one thing, knowing that a, say, +7 Bonus to AC is OPed for like 10k gold is another.
Marathon Voter Season 6
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It's a shame when you come across those items: you're smiling as you go to copy it into your keep folder only to read something near the end that makes you uncertain - but then you still think, "but the idea's still cool enough to make my keep folder". And then you realise some logical discrepancy that forces you to paste it to the reject pile.
All these items need are an edit; for the designer to surface for air long enough to realise what parts they could easily improve. I suppose this is the classic litmus test of whether a designer is ready for the competition. Good designers can repeatedly come up with good ideas; but it is the capacity to hone these ideas and present them to their sharpest design that separates the few from the many.
So many items could have been polished into the keep folder and even the top 32.
Best Regards
Herremann the Wise
Yes, just had another of these. Totally keep, up until the last paragraph when everything was ruined by a really really poor design decision.
I think this is exactly the trick that makes you a superstar:
1. have an awesome idea
2. make it work
The posts I referred to cover point one totally and point two alllllmost but not quite and it is this allllllmost that makes me sad. Missing point two entirely is what I am used to because I happen to be in that square quite often.
The vast majority of items I saw doesn't cover even one of the two points.
I've read a few that match this description, and after my initial groan, I usually vote for them anyway (unless the paired item clearly beats it). Nobody creates in a vacuum, and the small flaws would likely get massaged out as it gets discussed by editors, co-writers and proofreaders. So if an item is superstar except for a tiny mistake, I'll excuse it.
Looking back at previous years, very few entries got unanimous, 100% approval from the judges.
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I think this is where Creativity comes into play. I'd rather vote for an item with spark, that an editor can say, " are you sure about that last part?" than for a simplistic item without the pizaz.
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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Dedicated Voter Season 6
aka Mattrex
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I've run into this a few times. I feel I can safely point it out since I've seen an unusual number of items fall into the exact same trap: they come up with some novel, interesting, and even useful trick, and then ruin it by making it usable ten to fifteen times a day, or more. Literally.
The vast majority of daily-use magic items are usable one to three times per day. It's kind of boggling that so many people who are otherwise astute enough to craft something compelling end up so wildly inflating their items' uses per day.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
aka JoelF847
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I've been pleasantly surprised a few times actually by items that do the opposite. Pretty good idea, but as I'm reading them I think of a way it could be abused, and I expect that the loophole will stay, and then the last sentence addresses the problem and fixes it. Makes me happy when I see that the author thought through the issue.
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Whenever I see an item like the OP described, I ask myself "could this be easily fixed?" and "do I want to see more from this designer?" As the judges have said many many times, it's a lot harder to teach someone to be creative than to fix minor issues. So I always vote for items with excelent ideas even if the other item is impossible to abuse (but less creative).