RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
aka CalebTGordan
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May I refer to spells, items, or class abilities printed in either the Player Companion or Pathfinder Campaign Setting product lines? Do we need to only use Core books?
For example, could I use the spell accursed glare from the Player Companion book, "Blood of the Moon" as a spell requirement in an item?
I just checked the FAQ and the rules and couldn't find a quote, but in all previous years, you can refer any officially released Paizo product but not 3PP products in your item.
So if it's an official Paizo product (not beta or alpha), you should be golden.
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Something worth bearing in mind is whether or not you think voters and judges are going to take that into account when voting.
Some people balk at the idea of requiring a non-core book in order to use a given item (PRD availability aside), and may therefore rate your item lower than they would otherwise.
Of course, the opposite is also true - some people will look at more exotic requirements and feel it adds to the item's uniqueness.
So, although this advice is completely unhelpful in that it doesn't recommend one way or the other, my intention is just to give you something else to consider :)
I have no idea if this is a good idea or not, but the general rule of thumb I go by is it's okay to use it if it's in the official PRD; i.e., the RPG line books, but not the setting stuff. Not all the judges in the first round are from Paizo and may not be familiar with Golarion-based materials. While there are free fan resources they can reference if they are aware of them, I'd rather make it easier on the judges that since they're in Paizo's system looking at the entries, they can most easily reference the PRD.
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If you're confident in your BBC coding, you could also link to the rule/spell as part of your template (just don't miss also italicizing, etc.).
I know there was some disagreement last year between judges whether that was useful, but with the crowd-sourced judging of Round 1, I figure it can only help. People are presumably going to be going through a lot of items again so making it easy for them to find a specific detail could help you, especially if it's not something more commonly known/used.
For items that aren't a part of the PRD, it'd be more difficult to link to them...though, I suppose you could to someplace like D20PFSRD if they've had time to post it up.
In my experience as an RPG Superstar judge, I don't think I ever saw but maybe one or two items that used a non-core/non-PRD resource in their wondrous item design. Our typical reaction as judges is to question the origin of such unknown spells, because our initial fear is they may have drawn a spell from a third-party or older edition of D&D. In almost every circumstance, I'd cross-check it against D20PFSRD if I couldn't find it in the PRD. Then, I'd look up the spell in the non-core Paizo supplement and repost it (or a synopsis) for the other judges to examine and consider when evaluating such items.
So, bottom line, it creates an extra bit of legwork for most people to determine the source inspiration for the wondrous item's design. In prior years, the judges could more easily handle that. But, with the crowd-sourced voting this year and last year, I think it might be a tougher sell, because you've essentially got a LOT more people judging the items during the initial sorting phase. How many of them will take the time to pause and look up the non-core spell to see how it compares and inspires the item? Probably not that many. So, in the long run, it might not be your best bet to reach for those sources. Then again, if it's a fairly well-known or popular spell reference...and you use it in an amazingly awesome Superstar way...then yeah, that bit of inclusion just might earn you more votes.
Thus: Swim at your own risk.
My two cents,
--Neil