So, we had threads where people analyzed trends of the past and predicted what might be popular this year. I'd like to see what your impressions of the actual contest are so far - of course without revealing or naming any individual entry.
I had a massive load of helmets so far. Also several items with a table of ascending/varying effects, which suprised me a bit, but it's my first year so what do I know :)
Come on over to the rambling thread! Lots of trend info there. :-)
It's a bit crowded and random over there. Maybe we can collect the more serious observations in here, because I'd love to hear from the veteran voters what they think of this year so far.
I've seen a surprising amount of torcs this year, which is the only real trend I've noticed as far as item slot choices goes.
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Also, items that require the wearer's death to fully function
It's a bit crowded and random over there. Maybe we can collect the more serious observations in here, because I'd love to hear from the veteran voters what they think of this year so far.
I've been voting a couple hours now and I can say that formatting is much improved over last year. A definite upturn in submission quality.
Whether I still think that in a couple more hours time will tell, but for now, I think there is marked improvements.
Shackles/manacles and items using shapechaning spells in increasing number...
Scabbards, whips and things manipulating time i've seen a lot of. Oh. Also dental themed items.
I blame the abundance of bite attack options seen on the messageboards lately for the dental theme.
I've seen quite a few blood related items thus far.
Cauldrons begin to pile up... interesting.
I agree with Monocles...seen four different ones so far. Lots of I want to be/look/act/or make you be/look/act undead (which coincides with the lots of bones and corpses comment from Andrew Marlowe). As always lots of gloves/bracers. Seen some shadow stuff, but not as much as last year so far. Joke Items...honestly I never saw any last year but this year I have bumped into a few and one that really made me laugh and one that really made me groan. Someone mentioned lots of items that require a thesaurus to understand...I have seen a lot of items using rare words in the name, but in most cases I know the word, or the description makes it clear and I think this is an attempt by the designer to stand out so I appreciate the effort even when it might have been to much.
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I definitely noticed a fair number of torcs and cauldrons.
I saw two items that turned the wearer into a centaur, although they were fairly different mechanically.
Lots of cloaks. I've seen more gloves than cloaks at this point, but initially it seemed like everyone made some sort of shoulder wear. A lot of the cloaks (and gloves) have been pretty cool, though.
Fewer mythic items than I expected.
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While I have only seen two Disable Device items, ie. auto unlocks, I was kind of surprised. I want to ask "Does your Rogue suck? You should replace them, because they have Sneak Attack."
Also, I have seen several items that allow you a Last Hurray, ie. you die but get to keep fighting. I want to ask those people "Does your DM suck? You should replace them, because this item sucks too."
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I'm keeping track of everything I'm seeing, and so will be able to give some good numbers on the actual trends in a few days.
I'm keeping track of everything I'm seeing, and so will be able to give some good numbers on the actual trends in a few days.
Sounds great, looking forward to that.
Seems now I'm getting some of the cloaks people have been talking about. So many cloaks... but very cool ones.
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I try not to knock the fact there are lots of cloaks, gloves, gauntlets, boots, helms and such....these are staples in the game and many are done well. I know its hard to look at tons of them in the voting round, but the classics are classics and if done well should get the UP vote.
Also seeing a few items inspired by the recent rush of Fairy Tale movies and TV shows.
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I personally give bonus points to gloves, boots, bracers and cloaks. If you do a good item that I like in that design space, you're competing with some really strong existing items.
Why do I want to take your boots of rocket feet over my boots of Speed? Why should I take your gloves of door unlocking when I could have gloves of dueling?
Slotless items are easy, item slots that don't have a standard item are easier, why? Because you're not trying to get someone to make a different choice than the one that seems likely.
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I've noticed a surprising number of cooking-based items, and a large number of shadow-based items.
Am looking forward to seeing the fusion item that lets you cook and eat your own shadow.
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The biggest trend I'm seeing so far is people that do not proofread or preview their submissions, but I doubt that's the purpose of this thread. =P
I've seen a fair number of "Wow, that's a cool idea. I could SO use that as a plot hook" and an abysmal amount of "Not in my world!" even a couple "there's no way you could buy that for..." Although that is also not what the thread is about.
But what the heck is up with the Runes and Sigils this year???
Not sure I'd call it a trend but one thing I have noticed are a few items that require you to have other magic items before they will function.
I'm seeing a ton of "steal the bad guy's magic/special ability and store it up to use against them later".
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Not sure I'd call it a trend but one thing I have noticed are a few items that require you to have other magic items before they will function.
Thankfully haven't seen those things yet, but when I do, it's a no go for me.
I have seen three so far that specifically reference things or even memes in the modern world: one of which keeps getting paired up with spell in a can AND Swiss Army knife type items.
I did see one that will probably get killed from one of SKR's insta-death rules, even though it skirts the rule brilliantly.
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Hydraulic push appears to be a popular prerequisite for items this year.
Also, rogues apparently suck, because there's a glut of items invented to replace them.
Jeff, the easy reason to say rogues are being pushed by magic items out is because they've always had it rough competing with wizards. I built a rogue/wizard once, and realized that my 10 levels of rogue were made almost worthless compared to a wand of knock. ;)
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Anyone else think there are a lot of items that let you store/share/swap core statistics like Skills, Saves, Abilities
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Con Damage.
Why do we always have to balance with Con Damage?!
I've only just started voting, and I've already seen a number of mist-themed items.
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one trend I am seeing, which is not good, is the tendency to overwrite the item... to create a very good or great item and then spoil it by adding one last paragraph that goes too far, or adds an extra arbitrary and unrelated ability, turning a great items into a 'meh' item.
I'm seeing a ton of "steal the bad guy's magic/special ability and store it up to use against them later".
I've seen a ton of those, too. So far, only one of them looked any good. Almost all of them are horrendously underpriced and overpowered.
Many competitors seem to not understand that being able stop an effect and divert it to its attacker is an insanely powerful ability. This is why spell turning is a 7th level spell and counterspelling requires heavy action economy investment. Most of these items don't even require a roll to negate the effect. That in itself is really broken.
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I'm seeing a ton of "steal the bad guy's magic/special ability and store it up to use against them later".I've seen a ton of those, too. So far, only one of them looked any good. Almost all of them are horrendously underpriced and overpowered.
Many competitors seem to not understand that being able stop an effect and divert it to its attacker is an insanely powerful ability. This is why spell turning is a 7th level spell and counterspelling requires heavy action economy investment. Most of these items don't even require a roll to negate the effect. That in itself is really broken.
I believe I saw two items that lets you do the "turn it back on them" once per round with no investment. Which is...a bit much, especially if the price is low.
I'm seeing a ton of "steal the bad guy's magic/special ability and store it up to use against them later".I've seen a ton of those, too. So far, only one of them looked any good. Almost all of them are horrendously underpriced and overpowered.
Many competitors seem to not understand that being able stop an effect and divert it to its attacker is an insanely powerful ability. This is why spell turning is a 7th level spell and counterspelling requires heavy action economy investment. Most of these items don't even require a roll to negate the effect. That in itself is really broken.
I think I just saw the one you didn't hate. It was expensive, took effort to use, and didn't magnify the energy into something massive (aka, friendly wizard hits you with burning hands so you can fling meteor swarms at the enemies).
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Hydraulic push appears to be a popular prerequisite for items this year.
I'm also seeing draconic resevoir used fairly often.
I've seen a few trends and I've literally been doing voting all day...
"Time" Themed items
"Weapons" Turning wondrous into weaponous.. lol
"Shadows" several different iterations on this.
"Left overs" food related items
"The Eyes have it" Vision based advancement items
"Horse of course" Saddles every 10th item or so or other animal based.
"Ring around the Collar" Torc's are abundant
"Rehashers" Items that are basically already magical items we just have a few new things added to give it some kick (boots especially). (Pun intended)
Not saying anything about good/bad just what I'm noticing.
I just don't see any darn Waffle Makers.. (sigh)
Lots of "Make Wizards Better" items this year.
Lots of "Make Wizards Better" items this year.
Including some "Make Wizards Insanely Better" items.
Almost forgot.. a ton of folks using character or peoples names in the title.. *tisk tisk..
I really wanted to see a Waffle Maker.. what a let down.
The real sad thing is seeing folks using +10 bonuses.. I believe Pathfinder generally does +5 as a base max unless there is something outrageous.. Example would be Boots of Elvenkind. Back in the day your butt just didn't get heard wearing these! 3.5 D&D it was an auto pass for Move Silently just about. In Pathfinder those Boots offer you a +5 bonus. That's all.. just saying that is an example to module at. Even Cloak of Elvenkind is another example.
No vehicles that look like ghost riders bike? shesh~
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one trend I am seeing, which is not good, is the tendency to overwrite the item... to create a very good or great item and then spoil it by adding one last paragraph that goes too far, or adds an extra arbitrary and unrelated ability, turning a great items into a 'meh' item.
I think this is a case of trying to make it superstar and not knowing when to let go. Designers looking for a way to push themselves above the rest of the competition. Sometimes Less is More. Sometimes I go ahead and vote for these items because the concept and theme of the item was good, and sometimes I pass on it because they just made a decent item into a SAK.
one trend I am seeing, which is not good, is the tendency to overwrite the item... to create a very good or great item and then spoil it by adding one last paragraph that goes too far, or adds an extra arbitrary and unrelated ability, turning a great items into a 'meh' item.I think this is a case of trying to make it superstar and not knowing when to let go. Designers looking for a way to push themselves above the rest of the competition. Sometimes Less is More. Sometimes I go ahead and vote for these items because the concept and theme of the item was good, and sometimes I pass on it because they just made a decent item into a SAK.
I know I've fallen victim to this in years past.
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From a first time participant, voter, and Pathfinder noob:
I've seen many entries that seem like what they really are: items conceived by a player to get around some extremely specific situation or limitation that was once frustrating to them.
There are some keepers for sure, but many times I'm choosing between a rock and a hard place.
I won't mount a high-horse, since I know my submission has its flaws, though "it's" isn't one of them. My own formatting errors bug me as much as the others I see, and it's difficult to overlook them when judging. I'm trying my best to assign greater weight to creativity and mechanics, and less weight to formatting and presentation. However, terrible presentation jumps in front and eclipses all else.
Voting is entertaining, difficult, discouraging and inspiring all at once.
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I'm noting more and more items that suck and/or blow. No, not like that, get your mind out of the gutter. I'm also not talking about the items that do so through lack of quality either.
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one trend I am seeing, which is not good, is the tendency to overwrite the item... to create a very good or great item and then spoil it by adding one last paragraph that goes too far, or adds an extra arbitrary and unrelated ability, turning a great items into a 'meh' item.
Agreed. I keep finding myself saying, "I would've voted for you if you could have shut it down a paragraph earlier."
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From a first time participant, voter, and Pathfinder noob:
I've seen many entries that seem like what they really are: items conceived by a player to get around some extremely specific situation or limitation that was once frustrating to them.
You just nailed what many many many designers need to figure out. Just because you want it for your character...doesn't mean it is a good idea to make it into a magical item/spell/feat that alters the game. A game without obstacles or challenges is not interesting so designers when deciding what an item should do need to ask, "will this just make the game easy?" Good design is not about eliminating the difficulties of the game.