The Official Unofficial Top 32 Guildhall

[James Casey]

Anthony Adam wrote:

Yeah, for fun, i will Pm all Top 32 on Saturday with my creature. Those then wanting to take part in, I think possibly, the first ever competition within competition in the guild hall can PM me back with as many problems you identified.

I'll score the results, pick a winner and let you know who it is. Not sure yet about a prize, I will have a think on that, but the winner will have some guild hall bragging rights ;)

I can't wait Anthony! Please send me a PM.

[Sam Harris]

Nicholas Herold wrote:

Round 3, on the other hand, I was quite sanguine about.

As well you should have been. The Caliban was a masterpiece, and my greatest regret from last year's competition was not getting the chance to submit an encounter featuring this creature.

[Sam Harris]

Evil Paul wrote:

In terms of novels, just re-reading The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson which is just... the best thing ever. I cannot recommend it enough.

Cool. I'll have to check it out. I read Snow Crash last year and really enjoyed it.

[James Casey]

Anybody enjoy Patrick Rothfus?

[Andrew Marlowe]

James R. Casey wrote:

Anybody enjoy Patrick Rothfus?

I very much liked "The Name of the Wind" haven't had a chance to read "The Wise Man's Fear" yet.

[Mike Kimmel]

I like The Name of the Wind and about the first two thirds of Wise Man's Fear. Greatly looking forward to book 3!

[Christopher Wasko]

Andrew Marlowe wrote:

James R. Casey wrote:

Anybody enjoy Patrick Rothfus?

I very much liked "The Name of the Wind" haven't had a chance to read "The Wise Man's Fear" yet.

That's on my to-read list too!

[Victoria Jaczko]

James R. Casey wrote:

Anybody enjoy Patrick Rothfus?

The Name of the Wind is sitting on my bookshelf. I got it for Christmas a couple years ago and hadn't heard of it. Am hearing increasingly more fuss about it, so starting to think I should stop letting the thing collect dust.

[Brian Duckwitz]

Rothfus is wonderful. Highly recommended.

[Kalervo Oikarinen]

Yeah, I like Rothfuss and his books as well. The TableTop episode with him as a guest was pretty awesome. Also, owlbears.

[James Casey]

Name of the wind was fantastic! Wise man's fear was good. I am eagerly awaiting book three! Any stephen Brust fans?

[Jacob W. Michaels]

I read Brust years ago. Didn't stick with me that much, though, I have to admit (though I totally had a dispel magic chain for one character, which I think I lifted from him -- totally spell in a can, but it was a very early magic item I'd made).

I'm still a big Jim Butcher fan (more Furies of Calderon than Dresden Files) and also enjoy Michelle West (though her earlier books a bit more than her recent ones).

[James Casey]

Jacob W. Michaels wrote:

I read Brust years ago. Didn't stick with me that much, though, I have to admit (though I totally had a dispel magic chain for one character, which I think I lifted from him -- totally spell in a can, but it was a very early magic item I'd made).

I'm still a big Jim Butcher fan (more Furies of Calderon than Dresden Files) and also enjoy Michelle West (though her earlier books a bit more than her recent ones).

Lol I too am a Butcher fan but the opposite of you which doesn't surprise me, because Vlad Taltos and Harry Dresden have similar personalities. I am a huge Dresden fan. Those of you who like that series because of Harry should give Stephen Brust a try. Start with Jhereg.

[Andrew Marlowe]

I'm also a big fan of Butcher. Love Dresden and while it took me some time to get into the Furies series, I'm really disappointed it was over so soon.

[gmpathfinder]

I enjoyed the Dresden Files series, but it looks like I'm going to have to take up the recommendations here to read Butcher's other series.

[Andrew Marlowe]

gmpathfinder wrote:

I enjoyed the Dresden Files series, but it looks like I'm going to have to take up the recommendations here to read Butcher's other series.

It's a big departure so it might take some getting used to (did for me) but it was so very worth it.

[Brian Lefebvre]

Anyone read the Riyria Revelations by Michael J Sullivan? He self-published 5/6 books before Orbits signed him. Now he is going back and flushing out the origin stories with the Riyria Chronicles.

[Tripp Elliott]

Anthony Adam wrote:

Yeah, for fun, i will Pm all Top 32 on Saturday with my creature. Those then wanting to take part in, I think possibly, the first ever competition within competition in the guild hall can PM me back with as many problems you identified.

I'll score the results, pick a winner and let you know who it is. Not sure yet about a prize, I will have a think on that, but the winner will have some guild hall bragging rights ;)

I'll play, uh I might send you version 1.9, as I don't have 2.0 on this iPad.

[Jacob W. Michaels]

Congrats to Andrew Marlowe!

[Andrew Marlowe]

Jacob W. Michaels wrote:

Congrats to Andrew Marlowe!

Thanks Jacob!

[Jacob W. Michaels]

Figured I'd bring this over to the Guildhall, since it seems more appropriate than in the Encounter Round thread. :)

Zahir ibn Mahmoud ibn Jothan wrote:

Jacob W. Michaels wrote:

I am. Bethlehem.

My mother is a Nazareth area native. Technically a little place called Stockertown. Blink and you miss it.

Sure, I know Stockertown, and Nazareth has a great Brazilian barbecue place. Small world.

[Steven Helt]

Sam Harris wrote:

Nicholas Herold wrote:

Round 3, on the other hand, I was quite sanguine about.

As well you should have been. The Caliban was a masterpiece, and my greatest regret from last year's competition was not getting the chance to submit an encounter featuring this creature.

On the upside, they may be included in a certain 64-page adventure released in March....

[James Casey]

Steven Helt wrote:

Sam Harris wrote:

Nicholas Herold wrote:

Round 3, on the other hand, I was quite sanguine about.

As well you should have been. The Caliban was a masterpiece, and my greatest regret from last year's competition was not getting the chance to submit an encounter featuring this creature.

On the upside, they may be included in a certain 64-page adventure released in March....

You tease you!

[Emmanuel Greene]

Andrew Marlowe wrote:

gmpathfinder wrote:

I enjoyed the Dresden Files series, but it looks like I'm going to have to take up the recommendations here to read Butcher's other series.

It's a big departure so it might take some getting used to (did for me) but it was so very worth it.

The nice thing about it is that it's a lot shorter than Dresden. That means it has a much more defined arc, and it doesn't drag on the way Dresden can sometimes.

It's still a sizeable series at six books, though, so it has the time to do some nice character stuff. I'd recommend them both very highly.

[Fern Herold]

Sam Harris wrote:

Nicholas Herold wrote:

Round 3, on the other hand, I was quite sanguine about.

As well you should have been. The Caliban was a masterpiece, and my greatest regret from last year's competition was not getting the chance to submit an encounter featuring this creature.

Thank you!

As for books I'm reading, currently I'm finishing up Animal Earth, a book about animal diversity. Has all sorts of beautiful photos and info of weird and obscure life... perfect fodder for monster-making.

[Jacob Trier]

James R. Casey wrote:

Anybody enjoy Patrick Rothfus?

*raises hand*

I'm re-hearing it again on audiobook, and I have Wise Mans Fear lined up for when I finish.

[Anthony Adam]

Ok, no rd 3 rules, so booting up the old gal and Pms will be incoming shortly.

It should be easy to find some issues but also a tricky one or two to find.

Enjoy.

[Anthony Adam]

All Sent.

p.s. Paizo, Casey Clements name link on the main superstar page doesn't work.

[Maurice de Mare]

Sam Harris wrote:

Evil Paul wrote:

In terms of novels, just re-reading The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson which is just... the best thing ever. I cannot recommend it enough.

Cool. I'll have to check it out. I read Snow Crash last year and really enjoyed it.

Snow Crash rocks!

[Kalervo Oikarinen]

Yesterday I was quite nervous but today I'm relaxed though eagerly awaiting the reveal.

That being said, I'm sure I'll have a knot in my stomach right before the reveal.

[Andrew Shumate]

I've been reading House of Leaves lately. It's a lot of fun, if a bit hard to read.

I've also been playing lots of Dungeon Defenders. Great game, if you've never heard of it. It's sort of like an RPG puzzle game, in which you have to select which of your opponents to defeat and which parts of the dungeon to explore in the correct order to make sure you don't run out of resources too early.

[Sam Harris]

Nicholas Herold wrote:

As for books I'm reading, currently I'm finishing up Animal Earth, a book about animal diversity. Has all sorts of beautiful photos and info of weird and obscure life... perfect fodder for monster-making.

When I was about 12 years old and just getting into D&D, I had this 3-ring binder called the "Wildlife Fact File" with brochure-type pages on all kinds of different animals. The immediate result was that my animal companion was never just a wolf, it was a Tasmanian wolf, and my familiar may have had the stats of a raven, but to me it was a Great-Tailed Grackle.

[Joseph Kellogg]

Well, I just had to cancel my PFS game due to snow. Now I have an afternoon with nothing to do but obsess over Round 2! Hurray!

[Andrew Umphrey]

'Soon I Will Be Invincible' by Austin Grossman was a good one.

And if any of you gave up on the Wheel of Time series, the final 3 books are quite good.

[Jesse Southwick]

I loved the Wheel of Time. It gets some knocks, and drags in the middle, but there are so many cool concepts/scenes.

[Andrew Marlowe]

Andrew Umphrey wrote:

And if any of you gave up on the Wheel of Time series, the final 3 books are quite good.

Sanderson's conclusion is excellent. Those three books are probably among the strongest in the series. (I always feel a little shame in saying that.)

[Anthony Adam]

I like looking at the parallels, especially to the legends of king arthur in that series of books. Must re read them again soon.

And, shamed though I am, I still adore R A Salvatore books.

[Andrew Marlowe]

If you like Arthurian legend I can't recommend Bernard Cornwell's Warlord trilogy highly enough: "The Winter King", "Enemy of God" and "Excalibur."

[James Casey]

Totally unrelated to favorite books, I thought top 32 received the Inner Sea Guide in PDF as a way to help contestants in the future rounds. Am I incorrect? It's ok if we don't, I just thought I read that somewhere and was curious.

[Victoria Jaczko]

Last year I know the Top 32 got the River Kingdoms guide for help with their archetypes. I have no idea about the Inner Sea Guide. I went and bought it once I saw I'd made the cut.

[Garrett Guillotte]

James R. Casey wrote:

Totally unrelated to favorite books, I thought top 32 received the Inner Sea Guide in PDF as a way to help contestants in the future rounds. Am I incorrect? It's ok if we don't, I just thought I read that somewhere and was curious.

The Top 32 got it in 2012 because of the Organizations round.

[Kalervo Oikarinen]

I made some short remarks on the items that I remembered from the voting.

I might the do rest as well if I have time, but they must be awesome as well for making it to the top 32. :)

[James Casey]

Garrett Guillotte wrote:

James R. Casey wrote:

Totally unrelated to favorite books, I thought top 32 received the Inner Sea Guide in PDF as a way to help contestants in the future rounds. Am I incorrect? It's ok if we don't, I just thought I read that somewhere and was curious.

The Top 32 got it in 2012 because of the Organizations round.

Ahhhhh that makes sense! Thank you for the response.

[Tripp Elliott]

I'd prefer to pick a book, I have most of them already. How about Mythic, or the desert one?

[Anthony Adam]

Hi all, Just popping in to let you know item reviews will continue from Monday, I got a surprise family visit this weekend which threw all my plans out the window, this included my "Auntie" (one of those friends of the family aunties from when I was a little tyke) from Scotland who I hadn't seen for some 20 odd years!

Normal Template Fu reviews will resume soon. Sorry for the delay.

For those of you taking part in my spot the mistake monster competition, you are all doing very, very well, I don't think a single person missed the technical trip ups, it's my devious ones that are catching you out.

I will post the monster broken down with italic inserts explaining all the miss-steps for everyone, a bit like my item worked example thread, but will only post this once round 2 is done and dusted.

[Tripp Elliott]

It occurs to me there are 32 monsters this year, when there were only 16 last year, so considerably more work for the monster reviewing judges to do!

[Robert Brookes]

I think that's why they're also lower CR monsters. There is considerably less to take into account on a low CR creature than there is for something of CR 7 (last year's CR range.)

I'm surprised there were so few CR 1 monsters. I had presumed most people would go that route, and decided to go outside towards a higher CR. My original concept involved a low CR creature that could have become a familiar for a wizard with Improved Familiar.

[Iain Reid]

Robert Brookes wrote:

I think that's why they're also lower CR monsters. There is considerably less to take into account on a low CR creature than there is for something of CR 7 (last year's CR range.)

I'm surprised there were so few CR 1 monsters. I had presumed most people would go that route, and decided to go outside towards a higher CR. My original concept involved a low CR creature that could have become a familiar for a wizard with Improved Familiar.

Sorry, have I missed something? How do you know there are few CR1 monsters?

[Jesse Southwick]

Evil Paul wrote:

Robert Brookes wrote:

I think that's why they're also lower CR monsters. There is considerably less to take into account on a low CR creature than there is for something of CR 7 (last year's CR range.)

I'm surprised there were so few CR 1 monsters. I had presumed most people would go that route, and decided to go outside towards a higher CR. My original concept involved a low CR creature that could have become a familiar for a wizard with Improved Familiar.

Sorry, have I missed something? How do you know there are few CR1 monsters?

Adam Daigle said as much in another thread.

[Tripp Elliott]

devilfluff wrote:

Evil Paul wrote:

Robert Brookes wrote:

I think that's why they're also lower CR monsters. There is considerably less to take into account on a low CR creature than there is for something of CR 7 (last year's CR range.)

I'm surprised there were so few CR 1 monsters. I had presumed most people would go that route, and decided to go outside towards a higher CR. My original concept involved a low CR creature that could have become a familiar for a wizard with Improved Familiar.

Sorry, have I missed something? How do you know there are few CR1 monsters?

Adam Daigle said as much in another thread.

He said like 3 or 4