
benjamin wilkins RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 8 aka Angry Wiggles |

Trust me, you better be learning as you go through the contest, or you're not going to have the opportunity to win.
I've been practicing making maps and monsters since I submitted my item, but with relatively few people critiquing them, I'm uncertain of where I'm weakest. It's a dilemma, to be certain. I'm hoping that all of the advice blogs and supplements on those topics will help, but there's no guarantee.

Heroic bartender |

I'm very happy about my item, although I doubt it will make it to top 32.
Why? Because it's non-standard and not that flashy.
With it, a very cool but totally inferior (bordering "useless") kind of fighting character suddenly becomes viable.
I like my item right for that and I did submit it as an experiment hoping to be proven wrong in my pessimism: what I think is that more standard-awesome items, with flashy although less disruptive mechanics are going to win the contest.
p.s. I like flashy and standard-awesome too, don't get me wrong. I just think that I'm usually happy about things that don't reflect what most people are happy about. E.g. I care nothing about formatting, whilst someone is almost obsessed by that trivial thing, and I care more about mechanics - applied to some combat/rp/adventuring scenarios - than about descriptions.
Thus I think that most items I'd deem worth the top-32 (including mine) won't make it up there :P

mplindustries Marathon Voter Season 8 |

I'm very happy about my item, although I doubt it will make it to top 32.
Why? Because it's non-standard and not that flashy.
With it, a very cool but totally inferior (bordering "useless") kind of fighting character suddenly becomes viable.
Wow, I was coming to say almost the same thing. I am concerned that my item is too subtle, that voters won't see what niche it's filling, what inferior fighting style it makes viable. I tried too hard to be concise and it seems like people prefer it when you use as many of the 300 allowed words as possible.
If I don't make it, I am probably better suited for next year's contest anyway, as I am truly excited for Occult Adventures and like every single Occult Class better than the current classes (except maybe Bard).

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Well just remember guys- my item from last year was not flashy at all and really helped out on the RPing front for those players that have trouble acting out their social encounters.
Last year was my first year and after voting I didn't think I had a chance because my item wasn't really flashy. It ended up making it because it was good enough for the top 100 items. Once it got there, the judges had control. So don't count yourselves out! You never know how many voters out there vote just like you.
As for my item this year, I was very pleased when I submitted it. I haven't seen anything like it yet, but we'll see if it has enough flash for the voters.

Heroic bartender |

Wow, I was coming to say almost the same thing. I am concerned that my item is too subtle, that voters won't see what niche it's filling, what inferior fighting style it makes viable. I tried too hard to be concise and it seems like people prefer it when you use as many of the 300 allowed words as possible.
Glad to see I'm not alone (hoped so :D), and I bid you good luck!
Probably the "critique my item thread" will be the pit in which we'll be able see if our worries were right or if our items also had some fatal flaw, despite the good mechanics twist.

Jarrett Sigler RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 , Dedicated Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 aka Tothric |

Well just remember guys- my item from last year was not flashy at all and really helped out on the RPing front for those players that have trouble acting out their social encounters.
Last year was my first year and after voting I didn't think I had a chance because my item wasn't really flashy. It ended up making it because it was good enough for the top 100 items. Once it got there, the judges had control. So don't count yourselves out! You never know how many voters out there vote just like you.
As for my item this year, I was very pleased when I submitted it. I haven't seen anything like it yet, but we'll see if it has enough flash for the voters.
SO MANY kind and supportive folks. :). RPG gamer vets have a motto, " the plot lasts unrolled the players meet it". You never ever know what someone has grand designs for. :)

Josh Colon Dedicated Voter Season 8 |
I'd be happier with my item if i hadn't made a stupid stupid mistake in the crafting rules. Totally made it so it won't make it to the 32. That's what I get for working on it when I only found out about the contest an hour before the deadline!
Creativity-wise, I think my item is clever. I can tell that it'll be divisive though, many players will like it, but many DM's may think its too much, hah!

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Jacob W. Michaels RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 aka motteditor |

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I'm already thinking that next year I'll do a suit of full plate armor that grants an extra 20' of base movement for anyone in light or no armor.
That made me laugh. I'm not sure why...
What really gets me is the way I come up with ways to dramatically improve my item after it's been submitted.