Add your ranks to new Knowledge here...

[Anthony Adam]

So, we are fast approaching that time between Superstar's where normality intrudes on our lives, so I thought it might be nice to open up a thread along the lines of "What did I learn the most from this year?"

So for fun, take the following knowledge skills;

Knowledge (Wondrous Item Creation)
Knowledge (Monster Creation)
Knowledge (Encounter Creation)
Knowledge (Pitching for Publication)

Now, score your increase in this years "level up" for each and state what you learnt the most this year to qualify that increase...

I'll start the ball rolling...

Knowledge (Wondrous Item Creation) +2 - I believe I now rank as a Class (Designer) Skill ;)
In public voting, the visual grab outweighs the game balance. I need to work on the cinematic, I need to come up with ways of making people cote for my item, I must avoid the single class trap in addition to the auto reject rules.

Knowledge (Monster Creation) +1 - still cross class for me
Monsters need to be simple and fun to run, not overly complex and yet again provide both the visuals and cinematics expected of a monster coupled with interesting and clever twists on abilities and how they play, and at the same time, challenge the players to think of new plays at the game table.

Knowledge (Encounter Creation) +3 - new cross class skill gained this year
Never forget the environment, use monsters/traps in unique and interesting ways. Combat is not always the encounter option. Rewards need to be both suitable to level but interesting in ways that open further role play opportunities, not just another plus or buff.

Knowledge (Pitching for Publication) +3 - new cross class skill gains this year
Look for the gaps in the publishers world set, look to their schedules of up coming product. Look for the least used and at the same time most demanded of both the publisher and the public at large. Make the pitch clear and concise, able to be read at various levels within the target company as well as showing an example of your writing ability at its most accurate, to the point, conciseness yet inspirational style.

Summary of my year this year
Negative: Fell into the single class trap. I seem to be a grand master at finding the new "auto reject" introduced each year >.<
Positive: I can do rules tight and I can do game balance.
Need to Do: I need to do wow factor.
Action to be taken : I have a lot of work to do for next time, the hardest graft of all, learning to wow the public at large - I'd better start right now because that is one big hill to climb! :)

[Jeff Lee]

Anthony Adam wrote:

So, we are fast approaching that time between Superstar's where normality intrudes on our lives...

Every time you pluralize a word with an apostrophe s, Jesus curb-stomps a kitten. :(

Not sure about my ranks, but it doesn't matter at this point. I took 20 on next year's wondrous item, so it's sitting on my computer waiting for next year. As I level up in the interim, I'll be sure to take ranks in the others. I've probably already got a rank or two in monster creation though.

[Kiel Howell]

Mine will be more since I was level 0 to begin with! Also, I'm adding Knowledge (Archetype Design).

Knowledge (Wondrous Item Creation) + 3
Balance, Creativity, and Flash (aka "it"). The third thing is the hardest, but I feel like this year the competition has taught me that if you find your "it" the rest more or less comes into where it should be. Then you fine tune.

Knowledge (Archetype Design) + 5
I took the time to finally complete every single archetype posted in the thread, after critiquing each R2 archetype first. I learned so many things, the most important of which is that if I want to be successful then I have to do a better job divorcing my personal love(s) from the project at hand when going over it with a fine tooth comb.

Knowledge (Monster Creation) + 1
I didn't take as many ranks in this. Mainly because I need time to digest everything I saw and I fully expect to need the entire Blazing 9 to fully comprehend what Superstar design is in this and the rest from here.

Knowledge (Encounter Creation) + 1
I generally already used terrain and traps in my homebrews. Now I learned about what makes a cartographer happy in terms of maps drawn AND what's written.

Knowledge (Pitching for Publication) + 0
I didn't level up in this because as I mentioned in the Monster Creation Knowledge, I need to digest all this and see who wins, then compare and contrast.

Summary of my year this year
Negative: I fell into the blanding to death trap. Sure, the Intellectual's Clay Pipe is near and dear to me, but it wasn't Superstar.

Positive: I learned more this year than I thought was possible. Critiquing and watching critiques taught me so much. Meeting (online of course, not in person) people like Anthony and the Jacobs and all the other fantastic RPGSSers on these boards have really stepped up my game at home and I hope in future competitions.

Action Needed: Flashy yet grounded. Applying the knowledge I've gained this year to next year's competition. Participation in the Blazing 9.

[Curaigh]

Knowledge (Wondrous Item Creation)
I learned that maxing this skill is of no use if you roll poorly. :) Also public voting is different than judges voting, but 'awesome' is still the necessary ingredient.

Knowledge (Archetype Design)
multiple drafts & play testing a definate help.

Knowledge (Monster Creation)
Practice this more. At my current skill level just getting things into the proper format can take a full day (and only three offered).

theheadkase wrote:

...Participation in the Blazing 9....

for those interested I will start the thread AFTER the logo goes away. Gotta give Pedro Steven Scott Matt his due. :)

[Scott Fernandez]

Well the biggest thing I learned from my first RPGSS run was have your ideas ready before the next round starts. So I guess that would be more Craft (rpg) or Profession (game designer).

Even with potential twists it helps to have a couple of ideas already through a good amount of brainstorming. Assume you're going to make the next round! Format your concepts the weekend before and it won't seem like you only have three days to come up with the whole idea. You'll have three days to double check and refine your idea. It will lessen your stress exponentially.

Granted this didn't hold true for me in the final round... but honestly every round up until the last is far more structured.

--Vrocket Science

[Jacob W. Michaels]

I think that's definitely true, Scott. I have no memory of how I put together an organization last year (I actually had a second one that I didn't go with, as well as a third that I didn't have time/energy to write up in those three days). Doing your homework ahead of time is critical. I think that's why you see a lot of guys who've been in a previous year advance to Top 8.

I'd like to think I got +1 or 2 ranks in Knowledge (encounter creation). I feel like I learned a lot from that. I probably got a good couple ranks in archetype design, which I'd never done before, but I think that must function off my key attribute, as I really liked my efforts at it (including a couple I never got around to posting).

Sadly, I still feel like Knowledge (monster creation) must belong to my dump stat, as it continues to make me break out in cold hives. That's just never going to be my strength as a designer, I fear.

[Steven Helt]

I agree with Scott that planning ahead every round is a vital discipline. But in more ways than just having a jump on the time crunch. For every single round of Superstar, I had to can my first several ideas - some of which got significant work (and will be pitched to Paizo or another publisher pretty quickly).

I had three cool monster options before I learned I was capped at CR 5. I had one awesome archetype, one pretty good archetype, and one meh archetype in development before we found out about the River Kingdoms theme. My first RK archetype felt cool but sucked mechanically. Then the floodwalker materialized. I had a fully fleshed out encounter, called Goblin Chum, using yellowtongue hulks and a cool few traps before I got really sick and decided to start over instead of finish it. I tried 3D treetop combat with the monkeys and scrapped it. And with a fever drew a map for Ssel Asha and wrote it starting Wednesday evening. The final round submission (abandoned at 2600 words) was killed by the APL 5 twist. The next adventure turned out to have a lot of similarities with Skinsaw Murders after Googling. Adventure three felt great until I saw Paizo's late 2013 release schedule, and one very sexy idea will be pitched, but can't fit in a CR of 5. Tears at Bitter Manor was my 5th idea, and was written on the plane to India, more or less.

My point is that there are a lot of advantages to Scott's advice. I have developed material to shop elsewhere. During the contest, I had ideas to compare to one another so the Iron sharpened pretty nicely. And I was constantly in a state if design, so switching from one idea to another was less painful than I'd expected. Except round 4. That week was just nasty.

I hope in your designs you just pull an idea that survives a twist. But stay in a state of constant design. For me, it's how good ideas rise to the top, and tomorrow's ideas get a rough outline for later.

[Scott Fernandez]

I knew right off I wanted to do an alchemist from Uringen but I went through two or three different sets of abilities before I grokked to Summon Paradox. In round 3 I knew the RK theme would stick around considering the amount of content Paizo might be able to mine for both the MMO and the Emerald Spire superdungeon so that twist wasn't a surprise for me. I did however have a underground magical beast fleshed out that I might yet see the light of day. I so wanted to make R4 about the Bloodroot Vine and a Vrock... but the disparity in CR was too much to make the Vine the star of the encounter.

Finally that left R5 where my original concept was for 9th level PCs and absolutely included Eodrakk Tomehoarder as a BBEG. Bringing it back to 5th made me scramble to rescale which forced me to change the focus and direction of the adventure enough that I lost the core of it. I had to cut so much as each part was over 1700 words apiece.

My other idea was a mashup of Michael Bay's the Island and the Rock set in Hermea but that was also far too ambitious for 5th level!

--Welcome to the Vrock

[Steven Helt]

I'd be very interested in seeing the Hermea idea. That sounds like a great time!

[Jacob W. Michaels]

I would definitely be thinking Hermea if I ever got a chance to pitch for Round 5.

Don't know for sure I'd go in that direction -- there are certainly a few other places I've got ideas for -- but I think it's really surprising no one's tried anything with it yet that I'm aware of, even as a PFS scenario. I think it's a popular spot though certainly would have some of the same problems with level and not knowing everything Paizo wants to do with the area as we saw in a couple of this year's R5 submissions.

[Scott Fernandez]

Hermea is a gold mine, but its one that's rigged to fall in on you. I mean you get to work against a Gold Dragon! How often does that happen? But do you really make the PCs fight Mengkare? If they defeat the dragon you change a big chunk of continuity that hasn't been developed yet.

[Jacob W. Michaels]

Yeah, it's definitely a tricky area to play. You don't want to totally avoid Mengkare -- because then what's the point? -- but chances are he's way too powerful to be involved.

You also have to resist the temptation to go with any sort of "All that glitters is not gold" reference, when it's practically crying out for said cliche ...

[Kiel Howell]

I'd be sorely tempted to do a fools gold type of reference. I would probably want to do something leading up to a fake Mengkare...might even make it a new type of dragon...Pyrite type :)

[frank gori]

Fun thread Anthony.

Knowledge (Wondrous Item Creation)+5
Reviewing 208 items teaches you about what makes an appealing item. I'd be shocked if I didn't make the equivalent of the top 89 next year. Top 32? We'll see.

Knowledge (Archetype Design)+2
This is a tough category, I have good ideas execution needs work. I will be focusing on this as much as items in the blazing 9. I may even take on critiquing that whole thread.

Knowledge (Monster Creation)+4
I learned a bunch this year from the process, Meepo's awesome thread, and I designed a monster for wayfinder 9. I'll be doing more and more monsters, this may be my favorite element of design.

Knowledge (Encounter Creation)+3
This is just translating what hoembrew DMs do everyday into a more professional format. The challenge is to make it suitable to the assumptions pathfinder makes (15pt buy, 4 characters.)

Knowledge (Pitching for Publication)+4
I've learned how to get started, now I just need to sharpen my writing. I will use Wayfinder, these forums and Wolfgang's baby Kobold Press to get where I need to be. As of today there's this. My first bite from a publisher. More to come :)

[Curaigh]

Congrats GMSolSpiral, nice article. :)

[Garrick Williams]

Design
The key to the design process is to brainstorm a solid core concept and iterate on it until either completion or it appears the idea won't pan out.

Design (Wondrous Item) +4
It's very dangerous to mess with the action economy. Thankfully, it was a lesson I learned before I finished Mantle of a Thousand Hands. Clear mechanics are a must.

Design (Archetype) +3
I learned a lot from reviewing other archetypes. However, I learned from the finalists that having a theme isn't as important as fun mechanics. In the end, the Having a theme and executing it is good. But if your archetype isn't fun, it doesn't mean anything. Many tried to make archetypes that conveyed all of the river freedoms and seldom translated into a fun archetype. I suppose you should have both a mechanical and flavor theme for the best results?

Design (Monster) +1
Coming up with an exotic mechanic and centering a monster around it can be pretty good way to design a monster.

Design (Encounter) +0
Good combination of terrain and enemies make for compelling encounters. However, I already knew that. I need to look over the entries more carefully.

Profession (Game Designer) +1
This was a great experience for my development as a game designer. I can't wait until next year's competition.