No Top 8 This Year?

[James Raine]

Was just reviewing the rounds this year, wondering why it seemed shorter than normal, then I noticed there was no Top 8 round. Out of curiosity, was there a particular reason there isn't one this year, or is it just for SCIENCE! purposes?

[Bobson]

Sean talks about this a bit on his interview in the Know Direction podcast. Basically, it's to make the contest shorter, and because archetype design is different from monster/encounter design, so testing the ability to do one doesn't necessarily say much about your ability to do the other.

[Sean K Reynolds]

More info here from me, and this post from Liz. :)

[James Raine]

I was suspecting something like that. Thanks for confirming my suspicions!

[Aaron Miller 335]

I second my vote for the "Create a new organization" round.

[Thomas LeBlanc]

Aaron Miller 335 wrote:

I second my vote for the "Create a new organization" round.

Nooooooo!

[Monica Marlowe]

Aaron Miller 335 wrote:

I second my vote for the "Create a new organization" round.

Not all modules require an organization. While it was a really good time as a gamer widow during that portion of the event when Andrew was creating one, it really doesn't impart a lot of information that cannot be gathered through other aspects of the contest about the contestants.

[Cthulhudrew]

I always liked the "Design a Villain" portion of early RPGS, but I can see where doing that and a Design a Bestiary Entry might be a little bit repetitive inasfar as being two "statblocks" (albeit that they are cretively different challenges).

[Aaron Miller 335]

I found it drew a clear line between contestants, both in creativity and grasp of the Golarion world.

[Monica Marlowe]

Aaron Miller 335 wrote:

I found it drew a clear line between contestants, both in creativity and grasp of the Golarion world.

Which is not something everyone who enters has a firm grasp of but does preclude them from being SuperStar material.

[Sean McGowan]

Cthulhudrew wrote:

I always liked the "Design a Villain" portion of early RPGS, but I can see where doing that and a Design a Bestiary Entry might be a little bit repetitive inasfar as being two "statblocks" (albeit that they are cretively different challenges).

The villain design rounds were always my favorites as well. For a while it seemed to alternate with the monster round from year to year, so I was hoping we'd be seeing it again in 2014. Maybe next year.

[Jacob W. Michaels]

I liked both organization and villain.

I thought the organization round was a little less crunch-heavy, which made it a bit more fun to read for voters than the archetypes, plus short enough to be able to go through all 32 more quickly.

While I understand why they've decided to go with monsters over villains, I do think the latter are just as important. Can someone come up with a compelling NPC. I think that's part of why Steven won last year -- he had great NPCs.

I know SKR said they didn't feel organizations provided enough new info, but I actually thought it gave some insight into NPC creation and worked nicely to then let the stat block round be monsters.

[Eric Morton]

Aaron Miller 335 wrote:

I second my vote for the "Create a new organization" round.

They can do another organization round after I win the competition, and not a moment before then. I don't want to touch a Golarion-specific organization assignment with a ten-foot pole, even if it pays real money.