Five Things I'm Noticing With This Year's Submissions


RPG Superstar™ General Discussion

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Marathon Voter Season 9

Dang it Rick Rolled again :(

Marathon Voter Season 9

So, word is every year has a "theme" for items—I heard that coins, for instance, were pretty big one time, and last year there were a bunch of earthbreaky items. So what do we think this year's "item bloat" will come from?

Me, I'm guessing plant-based items, or maybe magnety things. No, I don't know why. Just a hunch.

Dedicated Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 9

I remember all of the Harnesses and coins years ago.

Anyway, so then. My predictions are, we'll see lots of occulty things that don't actually reference any of the occult things since that would get you DQ'd. Candelabras of Capable Dancing... *writes that one down for later*. Maybe some that interact in interesting ways with haunts. Or even some Pseudo-scaling ones.

Why would one hold a Candelabra while dancing anyway? That's down right dangerous, especially if an Ogre is chasing you. Maybe we'll see some wondrous items that can be used as improvised weapons? A Candelabra of Capable Dancing and Kiting, if you will. Or would that be a specific weapon, I honestly don't know. But now I feel like writing up that candelabra for fun.

RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka RainyDayNinja

Neil, out of curiosity, can you tell us how long it took for the first entry to be submitted? What about the first entry that wasn't DQ'd?

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16 , Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8 aka Cyrad

Following directions is vital. If your employer wants a sword, armor, or a shield within 300 words, and you give them a 400 word ring, they're not going to hire you again.

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

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Thank you Neil, for raising JUST enough paranoia that I am now curious if I DQ'd myself over some slightly missed little detail.

Also Thank you for telling us how we can improve. :-) As an amateur, I really appreciate it.

RPG Superstar 2009, Contributor

RainyDayNinja wrote:
Neil, out of curiosity, can you tell us how long it took for the first entry to be submitted? What about the first entry that wasn't DQ'd?

Oh, I don't recall the exact first entry, but it certainly came in Day One. The first DQ was also Day One, but it may or may not have been the first submission.

RPG Superstar 2009, Contributor

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Garrick Williams wrote:
Following directions is vital. If your employer wants a sword, armor, or a shield within 300 words, and you give them a 400 word ring, they're not going to hire you again.

Those parts of the submission requirements are meant to test that exact thing. So, if anyone gets DQ'D at that stage...and for those reasons...it's for the best. To be a potential Superstar designer, you've got to pass that first hurdle or you might as well not even run the race. A publisher always needs a freelancer to give them what the assignment calls for. Meet the spec or you're out. That's just the way it goes.

RPG Superstar 2009, Contributor

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Tothric wrote:
Thank you Neil, for raising JUST enough paranoia that I am now curious if I DQ'd myself over some slightly missed little detail. Also Thank you for telling us how we can improve. :-) As an amateur, I really appreciate it.

I do what I can. Both in stirring up paranoia and in telling others how to improve. ;)

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 , Dedicated Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9

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Totally unrelated to the subject of this thread, but Neil, I'm glad you're back. :)

Dedicated Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9

Uh oh, I submitted 137ben's Super Corrupting Ring of Doom that Also Blocks Attacks from Sean K Reynold's Sword of Killing Hitler! Did I get DQ'd?

Neil Spicer wrote:


Those parts of the submission requirements are meant to test that exact thing. So, if anyone gets DQ'D at that stage...and for those reasons...it's for the best. To be a potential Superstar designer, you've got to pass that first hurdle or you might as well not even run the race. A publisher always needs a freelancer to give them what the assignment calls for. Meet the spec or you're out. That's just the way it goes.

And it's not just publishers who will care: customers will care too. If I buy a supplement called 101 magic rings, and half of the word-count is filled with an elaborate backstory for a single artifact magic weapon, I'm likely to be annoyed at the misleading advertising. Annoying and decieving your potential customers is not a good way to get continued patronage (and is likely to annoy the publisher as well).


Neil Spicer wrote:


3) Ill-Advised Risk-Taking - There are also a lot of submissions which ignore the excellent advice Sean has given over the past several years. People still love their backstories. People still struggle with avoiding Spell-in-a-Can design. There are still items which I'd consider "joke" items. Good naming is still a challenge. There are items that are way overpriced, and there are items which clearly abandoned the defined rules for pricing in favor of ballparking it. While that may work out sometimes for wondrous items, I'd say not so much for the weapons and armor/shields category.

Now I´m a little nervous. *Crosses fingers*

RPG Superstar 2014 Top 32 , Star Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka Ixxix

Way to close to identifying your item Alfredo.


Neil Spicer wrote:

So, I've made an initial pass through every item submission so far. For those following along, here are a few general observations and conclusions I've made:

There are still items which I'd consider "joke" items.

I hope you're aren't disqualifying items just because you think they're funny!

But if you do, It would be nice to see this year's collection of items that are too funny to win.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka theheadkase

Clay is right, please everyone be careful of what you mention about your item on a public forum. DQ's happen all the time because of this.

Neil, thanks for the post and being so dutiful as to read through everything!

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Keep in mind that this contest is not just about what you can submit, but whether or not you can muster the professional discipline to give someone like Paizo who hires freelancers, the commission they ask for in the way they ask for it to be done.

In other words, can you meet professional standards in doing work for hire?

Marathon Voter Season 9

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Oh, geez, I don't want to give anything away, but my item is designed around a well-known 1940s German dictator. I hope that's valid.

Okay, no more joke items. To the votebox!

*Stares at inactive box*

Star Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9

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::tents fingers:: Soon, yes, SOON the deadly voting shall begin!

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka GM_Solspiral

Please don't disqualify my 1500 word +5 Shield against Korean Spam...

Marathon Voter Season 9

Yeah, we need one of those.

Star Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9

I was thinking +5 Spammerbane greatsword of Silencing personally


Clay Clouser wrote:
Way to close to identifying your item Alfredo.

Oh snaps, you're right. *Edited*

Star Voter Season 9

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MOGG GREEN-TOOTH wrote:
Please don't disqualify my 1500 word +5 Shield against Korean Spam...

Bush league. I crafted an entire history in 3700 words on the origin of my masterwork dagger.

RPG Superstar 2014 Top 32 , Star Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka Ixxix

That would technically classify it as a unique weapon

Shadow Lodge Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
Jeff Harris 982 wrote:
I was thinking +5 Spammerbane greatsword of Silencing personally

No good -- around here, the anti-spammers tend to wield hammers. I think they're all Dwarves with the Foespammer archetype.


I feel like the rules could have been slightly clearer for those of us not as familiar with Pathfinder. I caught the restrictions on intelligent items and artifacts. However, I mistakenly believed rings to be part of the "wondrous items" category. There are some unofficial sources that list them as such.

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8 , Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8

PolyamoryPrince wrote:
I feel like the rules could have been slightly clearer for those of us not as familiar with Pathfinder. I caught the restrictions on intelligent items and artifacts. However, I mistakenly believed rings to be part of the "wondrous items" category. There are some unofficial sources that list them as such.

I can understand your frustration, but I guess it doesn't seem to me like a bad thing if a contest for Pathfinder game designers sorts out people who don't know the Pathfinder ruleset well. The point of the contest is to find people who can freelance for them, and people who don't know the game probably aren't good bets.

Community & Digital Content Director

Removed a post. Don't talk about your item, folks!


Ummm...I was being silly. That wasn't a real thing.


Sorry for the confusion on that! I honestly thought it was silly enough to be obviously fake. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut I also work in retail so I also can understand why it had to be taken seriously, sadly.


I do find it slightly humorous that staves aren't weapons. As a martial artist for over 20 years, I can attest that staves are indeed weapons, but then again this is not real life lol.

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8 , Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8

Staves *are* weapons. If you submit a magical quarterstaff that's made via Craft Magic Arms and Armor, no problem. It's magical staves that are made using Craft Staff that are DQ material. They're different design spaces.

Shadow Lodge Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
Scott LaBarge wrote:
Staves *are* weapons. If you submit a magical quarterstaff that's made via Craft Magic Arms and Armor, no problem. It's magical staves that are made using Craft Staff that are DQ material. They're different design spaces.

Exactly.

Quarterstaff of Vaulting? Yes. Staff of Curing? No.


Makes sense, to a degree, thanks for the clarification though. :)

Star Voter Season 9

Covent wrote:
He has already begun the Dance of Ruin!

I've been Rick-Rolled... roflmao!!! Guess what though, I watched it until the end and sang along, too!

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16 , Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka Hodge Podge

You know, even the less-mojotastic items are doing pretty well with the template. Overall, the items are really interesting this year!

Also, the sorting algorithm is already making good match-ups. I've been having trouble choosing at all levels of mojo, so that's fun. :)

Star Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 9

Rulebreaker vs. toy/joke item...


It seems like blood and copper tubes are a theme this year. Lots of steam punk vampire stuff.

Star Voter Season 9

It seems like an inordinate number of joke items this year. And one joke item completely discarded the template and even seemed to do so purposely...

Dedicated Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 9

I'm seeing lots of items with a roll-your-own-effect theme.


Lots of undead affecting and items utilizing necromancy too.


I notice that I seem to be locked into a small subset of the items when I vote kind of like the program is using me to test about 10 items that keep coming up over and over against the rest.

Dedicated Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 9

I've noticed that too actually. Still none of them are my item though...

Star Voter Season 9

The rules weren't that hard. Really.

So... Maybe I shouldn't be - but I'm honestly flabbergasted by how many people completely missed the template thing. And the don't make artifacts rule. And the... *facepalm*

I haven't seen any over the word limit yet - but I've seen references to those that were a bit too verbose on the forums.

I imagine mine won't make it through the first cull - too much backstory, too little item. But a girl can dream, eh?

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