Voters' Incessant Praise

[Wicht]

GM_Solspiral wrote:

@Mikko you touched on the most important point, the need to show us that you can write. A 100 word item can be a winner, but it's a huge risk as you left room to doubt you can fill out a word count requirement.

I would urge contestants to realize that the 300 words is neither a requirement nor a quota. And if your item is 300 words long you should normally, imho, consider how you might consolidate your verbiage. Sometimes you can't, but most of the 250-300 word items I have seen could have been vastly improved through more concise language and less prose.

I can understand thinking an item missed an obvious power. But I have not yet seen any I thought were really hurt by being shorter rather than longer. If it happens, I would have to think that it's an exception, not a rule.

[Wicht]

And in the original spirit of the thread, I confess I have found several good items that I would yoink for a game or even a published adventure if they were OGL and I thought I could get away with it.

[frank gori]

Really digging on some of the theme items particularly the monster themed items.

[frank gori]

For all the rambling on it one of the grillz is actually a very solid item. I feel it will suffer from being confused with the other one which isn't bad just not superstar. The writing and mechanical balance is very very solid.

[pH unbalanced]

GM_Solspiral wrote:

For all the rambling on it one of the grillz is actually a very solid item. I feel it will suffer from being confused with the other one which isn't bad just not superstar. The writing and mechanical balance is very very solid.

I agree with that. It was actually the very first item I voted for, and I was surprised at the criticism the concept was getting.

Then two days later I started seeing the other items.

[frank gori]

Cool eye themed item, you got hosed by other eye themed items but that was the same last year. I hope you overcome that voter bias, your writing is tight and evocative.

[Lightminder]

okay in the right ensemble from what i have seen in the last three pairings you could be swirling and surrounded with squirrels, crows, ravens, butterflies and stags. look out I cant get a good shot at snow white she is triple protected by critters covering different roles! oh my satchel...those darned squirrels! i imagine a druid getting this expensive outfit for his teenaged daughter. great ideas!

[Shadders]

I found a well written spell altering item I just copied into my keep file. It's not overpowered, like some of the items out there, but would still be handy for spell casters and has a consistent theme.

[Thomas LeBlanc]

Very nice holy symbol item that gives an overt nod to the campaign setting.

[Garrick Williams]

I'm not crazy about meta items, but that item actually looks pretty well written.

[Victoria Jaczko]

I despise divination-type items. But you? You I like. Well done on creating useful divination that won't make the GM suicidal.

[Eric Hindley]

I've seen a cloak item that I really love and haven't been able to resist voting against, even with some stiff competition. Well done, mystery designer.

[Aaron Miller 335]

GM_Solspiral wrote:

@Mikko you touched on the most important point, the need to show us that you can write. A 100 word item can be a winner, but it's a huge risk as you left room to doubt you can fill out a word count requirement.

I added about two dozen words to my description in an attempt to make it a bit longer and memorable, I don't know if it helped but my mechanics had been so streamlined it left my word count low.

[frank gori]

OK a robe that somehow manages to out do the Quicksand cloak from last year, I'm officially nervous about a pairing.

[Eric Hindley]

And I just upvoted (again) an item that is getting a lot of flack in that other thread. Who cares about that tiny formatting flaw, it's a cool item.

[Garrick Williams]

There does seem to be many decent consumable items this year.

[cwslyclgh]

and a couple of them are even consumable (in the non-game sense).

[Garrick Williams]

I frequently had to vote against this item because its tone does not fit Pathfinder at all. However, I find it absolutely hilarious and would totally want this if it existed in any non-fantasy game.

[pH unbalanced]

Just saw a really nice deck of cards item.

[Monica Marlowe]

I love the Beardforge's wife/husband/SO!

[Paul Brown]

I voted up a great consumable item that was cheap, useful, and not overpowered. The formatting was bad, but I'd vote it up again.

[michael patrick]

Overall I am seeing a higher quality of items over last year.

I am not being wowed by most of them, but the number of those that make me slap my face is way lower.

[James Raine]

DAT SEWING ITEM

oh man

You had better be top 32 or I'll eat something that's not my hat because I already promised I'd eat my hat for something else.

[Andrew Marlowe]

James Raine wrote:

DAT SEWING ITEM

oh man

You had better be top 32 or I'll eat something that's not my hat because I already promised I'd eat my hat for something else.

Any more promises of pictures?

[Heroic bartender]

I always try to imagine my party finding an Item.

There is a kind of magic-ordinary Items that are not to interfere with the mechanics as they provide plain bonuses, abilities or such. Even a great description or some little twist cannot add much to those items because the party'd be always like "ok, we loot them".

The second kind are the items changing some adventuring mechanics or - as I did read before - expanding options.

And among them, the ones I like the most are those adding use to things that would be trivial (saw one making use of corpses part ^^) and those presenting pros and cons to be analysed and which could even create role-playing moments between characters. The party would say totally: "cool, how can we use this Item? We must remember we got this!"

I had very few of these items in the handful I voted for, hope to find more!

Ofc I'm a submitter too, so I'd also like to thank everyone for the useful feedback you're already providing! :D

[Feros]

They may not be Superstar, but many of the plot devices, camping gear, and gardening equipment actually would work very well in a campaign that uses the downtime rules from Ultimate Campaign. I know the gardening stuff was mentioned as going with that elsewhere on the thread, but I think that it applies to all the above.

Taken in that light, a lot of it is downright cool.

[Nickolas Floyd]

I just saw a pairing of two quality items that combined had total word count of 210.

And then my next pairing had a combined total of 234 words.

[James Raine]

Andrew Marlowe wrote:

James Raine wrote:

DAT SEWING ITEM

oh man

You had better be top 32 or I'll eat something that's not my hat because I already promised I'd eat my hat for something else.

Any more promises of pictures?

Sure, I'll take pictures…if I have to, I mean. Hopefully I don't.

[Eric Hindley]

There's a part of me that hopes you wear a nacho every day... Even if you don't yet, when (if) you eat your old hat, you should switch.

[Magical_Beast]

Ewwwwwwwww...but in a good way.

[Kiel Howell]

Praise that after a few hours of not checking...the Praise thread had 4x as many new posts as the Ramble thread.

[Matt Morris]

Incredibly flexible consumable, that I love. So tricky.

[Eric Morton]

Yeah, I think the voters have gotten most of the vitriol out of their system. The Ramble thread's really starting to slow down, and the posts that do show up there aren't nearly as cantankerous as they once were.

[James Raine]

Was not expecting to get heart stolen by 52 word item.

[Eric Morton]

James Raine wrote:

Was not expecting to get heart stolen by 52 word item.

I'm pretty sure you're talking about an item that's in my Keep folder.

[Adam Daigle]

Dear random item,

Although you're simple, you're fun, concise, and super tight. I hope you are in the Top 32.

[Andrew Marlowe]

Two wholly new items paired off. One good, one very good.

Where have you two been? Well don't be strangers, I'd like to up vote you both in the future.

[Ignotus Advenium]

I hit Marathon Voter status this afternoon, and am still seeing new items occasionally. When a new one comes up, it re-engages me, but I'm trying to self-censor any positive bias introduced due to novelty.

There's a balancing factor to that potential bias, anyway. Some of you may have noticed that one benefit of voting frequently is that certain items seem to "grow on you" as they reappear. There's a germination period whereby one may regard an item more highly after several impressions and additional rumination. It's also true that a few may "wear on you", but the overall trend is upward.

By the way, for those of you curious as to when you might see your own items: I've seen my own item three times—twice before reaching Dedicated status and once after reaching Marathon status.

[TimsterMon]

I'm the lucky guy, I've seen mine thrice and have voted about 650 times (one around 400, one around 500, and the other around 600)

[Mikko Kallio]

Aaron Miller 335 wrote:

GM_Solspiral wrote:

@Mikko you touched on the most important point, the need to show us that you can write. A 100 word item can be a winner, but it's a huge risk as you left room to doubt you can fill out a word count requirement.

I added about two dozen words to my description in an attempt to make it a bit longer and memorable, I don't know if it helped but my mechanics had been so streamlined it left my word count low.

Flavor and description are very important to me, personally. One of my favorite items this year has really compelling flavor but really sparse mechanics, and I'll probably be upvoting it if our paths cross again. That said, I think you only need a handful of flavor words to make the item memorable and evocative if you're using them right. :) Despite my earlier comment, I think a short item can do well in this competition. Each item has a sweet spot for its word count, and it is a skill in itself to be able to stop when you think your item is finished.

I think a good way to test the effectiveness of the flavor is to have a friend read your item and then ask them to describe it to another friend in their own words. If their hands start waving around when they're describing it, you've managed to create evocative imagery.

[Andrew Marlowe]

Mikko Kallio wrote:

I think a good way to test the effectiveness of the flavor is to have a friend read your item and then ask them to describe it to another friend in their own words. If their hands start waving around when they're describing it, you've managed to create evocative imagery.

Wow, now I want to try this. Thanks!

[Eric Morton]

Ignotus Advenium wrote:

Some of you may have noticed that one benefit of voting frequently is that certain items seem to "grow on you" as they reappear. There's a germination period whereby one may regard an item more highly after several impressions and additional rumination.

There are definitely a few items that have grown on me after two or three votes. There are a handful of items I had to think about for a few extra minutes before I really started to appreciate what they do.

(Just in case someone reading this post is starting to think an even longer timer delay is necessary, let me add: a few extra minutes spent re-reading most items just leads me to the conclusion that my initial impression was, indeed, correct.)

[Eric Hindley]

Eric Morton wrote:

Ignotus Advenium wrote:

Some of you may have noticed that one benefit of voting frequently is that certain items seem to "grow on you" as they reappear. There's a germination period whereby one may regard an item more highly after several impressions and additional rumination.

There are definitely a few items that have grown on me after two or three votes. There are a handful of items I had to think about for a few extra minutes before I really started to appreciate what they do.

(Just in case someone reading this post is starting to think an even longer timer delay is necessary, let me add: a few extra minutes spent re-reading most items just leads me to the conclusion that my initial impression was, indeed, correct.)

I've had some of those too, though it's usually the ones I really liked, but hit a great item that grow on me. You know, when you have to pick the great item, but that good item really starts to grow on you. Those are definitely the ones to watch.

[Curaigh]

just saw one that is already in my keep pile twice. It still wins :)

[Jacob W. Michaels]

Hello, new consumable. I think I like you. Don't think you picked the best spell for your ability, but I'll upvote you anyway (even if the other item's not really making that all that hard of a choice).

Moved, because it somehow ended up in the wrong thread...

[Cheapy]

You all make me happy :)

[Jesse Southwick]

That helm is growing on me...

[Jeff Lee]

Just saw a new item. Alliterative name, but not in an annoying way, and an interesting item. At its base, it's still a monster-in-a-can, but the mechanics of it put it in the keep file.

[Mikko Kallio]

Just saw a kind of metamagic item I sort of like a lot. Seems very clear to use, but may have some unexpected consequences because it's rather open-ended. But still, very well written, it got my vote. :)

[Antariuk]

To all the authors who created variable items or items in several variations (minor, lesser, or +1, +2, ...): I applaud you. Making your wondrous item fit into more than one chapter of character advancement is something I understand from a writer's POV and agree with from a player's POV.

I know it's hard to pull this off without using your whole wordcount or suffering from wall-of-text syndrome, but the fact that you tried is cool and praiseworthy. Even if I don't think of your item as one of the Top 32, I respect the effort you put into your item.