The Unofficial Top 32 Guildhall with Golden Filigree

[Pedro Coelho]

Well, I'm still working on option 2. As soon as it's ready, I'll know which one to submit (I hope).

[Charlie Bell]

I had to cut like 150 words. That's 20%. That's HARD. I'm generally pretty concise already.

[Scott Fernandez]

I'm not worried about the word count and really once the 2nd round twist was shown I had a good guess the monster round would be similar. I'm leaving for Mardi Gras on saturday so I may not see everyone's monsters till wednesday. Thankfully my vacation fell on a voting week!

[Joseph Kellogg]

Yeah, the word count isn't an issue with me either. After 300 words for an item and 450 for an archetype, 600 for a monster (especially at such a low CR range) feels more than generous.

[Effie Schwartz-Craighill]

I felt the word count, but it mostly affected my ability to ramble in the description paragraph. I'm sitting just below 600 now, and I'm happy with that, even if I'm nervous about everything else pertaining to my entry...

[Fern Herold]

I wasn't super over word-count at first, but I did have to get very choosy with my adjectives to get it down to below 600.

[Kalervo Oikarinen]

I've been teetering on the edge for the past few days. Word count wise that is. :)

[Steven Helt]

Did we not get a GM volunteer for the archetype game yet? Can we make the alternates do it?

[Joseph Kellogg]

Were people actually serious about doing a PbP? It seems like it would be incredibly unwieldy with that many players. Besides, except for the PbP that I ran for a year, I've never had one make it past the first encounter or so.

[Steven Helt]

I dunno about actually having all 36 of us play. But one or two good GMs and a full table of good players and I bet it'd have legs. I'd be thrilled to do it for a good group of players....if I weren't so busy. I know that's the rub for a lot of people.

But hey, designers are frequently GMS, and we deserve a chance to play! Who wants 5-8 dedicated, awesome players for their Golarion game? Remember, the idea was that the Superstar contenders who play have to play their archetype from round two.

If the game had Top 16 players, it could probably be labeled "the alchemist game". :b

[Effie Schwartz-Craighill]

Quote:

the alchemist game

The title of my debut album

[Effie Schwartz-Craighill]

Ok guys I clicked a button.

[Scott Fernandez]

And we parked it... Whew. Glad that's over with. Now to pack for NOLA and laissez les bon temps rouler! Good luck gentlemen.

--Vrock the Vote!

[Pedro Coelho]

Just finished the monster. Now I'm gonna sleep on it and take another look in the morning, just to make sure everything is right.

[Maurice de Mare]

Buttons I've pushed:

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Submit

[Jeff Lee]

Steven Helt wrote:

Did we not get a GM volunteer for the archetype game yet? Can we make the alternates do it?

We've unionized. You'll have to show you can afford our rates and put down a deposit before you retain one of us for gamemastering.

[Pedro Coelho]

Aaaaaaaand it's in.

[Cheapy]

Oh come on Pedro. You're making this too easy.

[Kalervo Oikarinen]

Finally submitted. Now the not at all anxious wait for the judges comments and the voting to start.

[Steven Helt]

Jeff Lee wrote:

Steven Helt wrote:

Did we not get a GM volunteer for the archetype game yet? Can we make the alternates do it?

We've unionized. You'll have to show you can afford our rates and put down a deposit before you retain one of us for gamemastering.

Um...I can buy you a drink at Gen Con and/or save you some money on life insurance. Any one else wanna pitch in?

[Kalervo Oikarinen]

Might be interesting to someday go to Gen Con or PaizoCon. I've only been to Ropecon, our local convention.

[Joseph Kellogg]

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Sorry, just letting off some nervous energy. I just submitted. If only that meant I could stop obsessive over it.

[Clay Blankenship]

I'm in, and with 2.5 hours to spare! I'm pretty excited with my concept. Now just to wait and see...

[Matthew Duval]

And done. Disparity between MS word count and submission word count was driving me bonkers. Finally figured it out. :)

[Scott Fernandez]

You don't even want to see the Google Drive word count, lol!

--Vrock, Paper, Scissors

[Garrick Williams]

This is going to sound like a silly question, but what does it mean when someone says "This is going into my Keep Folder?" Does it just mean they like it or does it mean something more?

[Scott Fernandez]

In past years the judges would sort through ALL the round 1 Wondrous Item entries, as opposed to the top 89 we voted for this year. When they found items they liked they'd put them in the "Keep folder" to be viewed again later for consideration to make the Top 32.

--Vrock the Casbah

[Steven Helt]

So now...a keep folder is shorthand for "this one might or might not move on to the next level, but it's worth looking at to me."

So...with an hour to go, are we all in? I submitted after a staff meeting this morning, and now begins the phase where my confidence wanes every few hours until voting is over.

Yay, stress. I need play something.

[Pedro Coelho]

Hi Garrick,

It means it is not an outright reject, deserves further analysis and might be superstar material. This terminology comes from the so-called "judges' chamber". This year was a bit different because of the public boting (actually, sorting), but it usually goes like this:

1. Each judge takes a look at the item and says "Keep" or "Reject".

2. Items that have more "Keeps" than "Rejects" (or ties) go into the Keep folder for further discussion. I think the initial Keep folder usually has between 60-80 items (varies from year to year, of course).

3. The judges discuss the initial "Keep" folder trying to find the strongest submissions and choose the Top 32 and 4 alternates in a process known as "The Winnowing".

4. Items with unanimous or a clear majority of "Keeps" go straight to the Top 32; these itesm very rarely are enough to fill all the slots.

5. The number of remaining slots is divided among the judges. The result is the number o "Golden Tickets" each judge can use to advance an item of its liking, despite the other judges' opinions. Golden Tickets are spent in order of seniority among the judges.

6. The final Top 32 and 4 alternates are chosen from the initial Keep pile and announced to the public.

So when someone says it's going to the Keep pile, it means that even if your submission still has some problems, it might have a shot.

[EDIT] Ninja'd by Scott and Steve. [/EDIT]

[Charlie Bell]

wheeeeeooooooooeeeeeeeooooooo-BANG!

It's submitted! I am super nervous about this round. Past years' winners were incredibly inventive and this year's competitors are way strong in inventiveness.

I wound up coming up with 4 different monsters. I agonized for days over which one to submit. It's a good thing that I did, too, because I caught a lot of errors. Hope I picked the right one!

Good luck to my fellow 15 and may the best monsters advance!

[Pedro Coelho]

Cutting it close, huh, Charlie? Cheapy, here is the daredevil you were looking for! ;)

[Landon Cole]

Well, that was a damned close thing - delayed trains and stroppy computers! Anyway, my monster has been submitted. Here's hoping, and good luck to everyone else.

[Charlie Bell]

Now, I will go kill ninjas to blow off the steam.

Spoiler:

Night of Frozen Shadows.

[Anthony Adam]

War thunder is good for letting off steam - and its free

[Joseph Kellogg]

Well, I played some Fallout 3, cranked out some short story submissions, and now I'm getting ready to run a PFS game. That should keep me occupied for a few hours. How long until Tuesday again?

[Landon Cole]

Too long. I'm not sure which is worse - sitting there, repeatedly pressing the 'preview' button, or waiting for 22h on Tuesday.

[Kalervo Oikarinen]

And then there will be the wait for the results. At least there will be comments to read during that, and of course getting ready for the possible next round.

[Maurice de Mare]

I think it is likely that they will ask us to re-use round 3 monsters in the encounter's design.

Or maybe not.

[Steven Helt]

I am hopeful we get to use round three monsters and create our own location or lair. I am terrified of a round with rules as specific as last year. Yeesh.

[Steven Helt]

While you're waiting, if you haven't checked out epicrapbattlesof history, spend some time there. You will feel no stress watching those things.

Mr. Rogers OWNS Mr. T.

[Jeff Lee]

Steven Helt wrote:

Jeff Lee wrote:

Steven Helt wrote:

Did we not get a GM volunteer for the archetype game yet? Can we make the alternates do it?

We've unionized. You'll have to show you can afford our rates and put down a deposit before you retain one of us for gamemastering.

Um...I can buy you a drink at Gen Con and/or save you some money on life insurance. Any one else wanna pitch in?

With my current financial situation, you'd have to throw in tickets to Gen Con so I could get that drink. Still, not a bad offer. I'll take it under consideration.

[GreySector]

I submitted my monster an hour before the deadline, which as close as I've cut it so far. There was a lot of last-minute editing and I managed to get exactly 600 words.

In the first two rounds I came up with three ideas, the third of which I ended up submitting. This round I was only able to come up with two, and submitted the second. I wasn't super excited about my monster to start with, but the more I worked on it the more I warmed to it. Hopefully everybody else will like it. Regardless, I am honored to have advanced this far and wish everybody the best of luck in the next round.

Now, back to entering PFS tables for the last week that waited while I worked on my monster and prepping to run my PFS game tomorrow and continue running Eyes of the Ten next week.

[Effie Schwartz-Craighill]

Steven Helt wrote:

While you're waiting, if you haven't checked out epicrapbattlesof history, spend some time there. You will feel no stress watching those things.

Mr. Rogers OWNS Mr. T.

And the Easter Bunny takes Genghis Khan down quite handily.

[Fern Herold]

Is it Tuesday yet? No? How about now?

I do have things to keep me occupied, though. Running Shattered Star, grading papers, buying groceries...

How about now?

[Charlie Bell]

I didn't kill ninjas, but I killed a lot of vikings.

Nothing says HELLO! like a charge katana crit in the surprise round.

[Landon Cole]

I wonder if we have enough people online right now for an impromptu PFS game...

[Scott Fernandez]

Heads up gentlemen, Sean posted the round 4 rules!

[Fern Herold]

I really like the R4 rules. They're intricate but not nearly as constrictive as last year's.

[Pedro Coelho]

I think Maurice will LOVE the trap twist.

[Matthew Duval]

Nice to have something else to think about. My mind's already a-whirl. May as well use it productively. :)