What is the schedule for culls?

[PathlessBeth]

So, last year there was one cull during the open call round. What is the schedule for item culls this year? What portion of the items will be removed each cull?

[Rabbitball]

From what has been said before, the culls will be less draconian (only about 10-15% each time) but more frequent. The more votes that take place, the faster the culls will happen, as they want a representative sample each time so as not to remove something that didn't get a fair shake.

[chaoseffect]

A related question: Will you be informed on the RPG Superstar page if your item gets culled?

[Tripp Elliott]

chaoseffect wrote:

A related question: Will you be informed on the RPG Superstar page if your item gets culled?

No

[Rabbitball]

Nope. There is a thread where people are tracking the names of items seen and the last time they appeared. If we get notice of when the culls take place, we can deduce what got culled when with enough data.

[Robert Thomson]

I'd be good with a first cull of all the items reported for DQ. That's probably more than 10% right there. I know I have another big list I need to email in again.

I'd love to see at least a 25% cull just to make me feel like my votes matter. Right now, I keep trying to figure out which item is the lesser of two evils on too many votes.

[xn0o0cl3]

How do you report an item for DQ, and is there anywhere that lists the circumstances for disqualification? I didn't know you could flag items, so I've just been downvoting even the most egregious ones, assuming they would just get culled.

[Logan Ehntholt]

xn0o0cl3 wrote:

How do you report an item for DQ, and is there anywhere that lists the circumstances for disqualification? I didn't know you could flag items, so I've just been downvoting even the most egregious ones, assuming they would just get culled.

From the voting page:

Quote:

If you find an item during voting that breaks any of the contest rules, please contact [e-mail].

I think this is mostly to rid out any of the bad formatted ones and such items that could have made it through the cracks.

[Ambrosia Slaad]

Rules for Round One/Open Call wrote:

...Design a compelling magic item for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, using the Item Creation guidelines on page 548 of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. The item must be a wondrous item, magic armor, or magic weapon. Magic armor and weapons should be presented as a specific armor or specific weapon, not stand-alone special abilities (such as keen or bashing). Only use the Item Creation guidelines for armor, weapons, and wondrous items. Do not make your item a siege weapon, intelligent item, cursed item, artifact, minor artifact, or device that requires rules from Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Technology Guide. Do not reference any rules not available in the Pathfinder Reference Document....

Disqualification
Submissions may be disqualified for the following reasons:

• Submission is not a specific armor, specific weapon, or wondrous item, or involves rules elements specifically disallowed (intelligent items, cursed items, and so on).
  
• Submission is not anonymous.
  
• Submission exceeds 300 words.
  
• Submission does not conform to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
  
• Submission is copied from a previously published source.
  
• Submission uses rules, monsters, or copyrighted material from publishers other than Paizo.

Rule elements not found in the Paizo.com PRD include the Vigilante playtest, Occult Adventures, the various Adventure Path issues, etc.

[xn0o0cl3]

Awesome, thanks.

[Robert Thomson]

It's too bad on Occult. Had to submit a pretty good Occult based item for DQ.

[Chris Lambertz]

The first cull has just happened! The inbox of reported entries has also been sifted through and is currently empty. More culls to occur periodically until voting closes :)

[Isaac Volynskiy]

Thanks for confirming the cull, Chris!

[Johannes Gutenberg]

Cull the pig
Slit its throat
Drink its blood!

[Frumple]

Johannes Gutenberg wrote:

Cull the pig

Slit its throat
Drink its blood!

Give that man the conch.

[fuzzydice82]

Wow. That first cull was quick. Though I do appreciate it. It seems that there are a lot less formatting errors now.

[Thomas LeBlanc]

Chris Lambertz wrote:

The first cull has just happened! The inbox of reported entries has also been sifted through and is currently empty. More culls to occur periodically until voting closes :)

More sent!

[Ambrosia Slaad]

Frumple wrote:

Johannes Gutenberg wrote:

Cull the pig

Slit its throat
Drink its blood!

Give that man the conch.

NO! He's just going to make some kind of wondrous Piggy's conch of blood for next year!

[Johannes Gutenberg]

Ambrosia Slaad wrote:

Frumple wrote:

Johannes Gutenberg wrote:

Cull the pig

Slit its throat
Drink its blood!

Give that man the conch.

NO! He's just going to make some kind of wondrous Piggy's conch of blood for next year!

WHAT?!

How gruesome.
I'll have you know I submit a printing machine, or typewriter, or other apparatus every year, fresh off the press!

[omicloudd]

Any idea when the next cull is going to be?

[Donald Robinson]

Probably two days from last night's cull. My Guess: Friday night (if enough votes) and maybe another one Monday.

[pH unbalanced]

No one knows.

But I'd bet on late Friday or early Monday.

EDIT: If you want an earlier cull, you have to *vote more* because that's what decides when they happen.

[Robert Thomson]

I suspect the next cull won't be quite so noticeable. Even with the last one, DQ's probably made more difference than the actual cull, but items were definitely higher quality after the cull than when we started.

[Cthulhu_DMs]

Oh with this blood offering I summon thee second cull...I call you to rise from the depths and eliminate 10 to 20 percent of thine competition so mote it be!

[omicloudd]

If only it was that easy.

[Chris Lambertz]

Second cull just finished :)

[Wszebor Uriev]

Oboy!

[Cthulhu_DMs]

omicloudd wrote:

If only it was that easy.

You were saying!

[omicloudd]

Good job when are you going to do the next blood offering ?

[Isaac Volynskiy]

Perhaps he needs volunteers.

[Cthulhu_DMs]

omicloudd wrote:

Good job when are you going to do the next blood offering ?

Probably on Monday...it takes time gathering up 32 virgins you know.

[PathlessBeth]

Cthulhu_DMs wrote:

omicloudd wrote:

Good job when are you going to do the next blood offering ?

Probably on Monday...it takes time gathering up 32 virgins you know.

I'm pretty sure I've see some magic items that could help with virgin gathering.

[JPSTOD]

virgins ???

Never heard of them. Are they FEY Creatures?
You will have better luck catching a Unicorn or a Dragon

[Cthulhu_DMs]

My point exaclty... I have a backyard full of Dragons eating Unicorns, it's precious

[Curaigh]

Chris Lambertz wrote:

Second cull just finished :)

Cool, I saw 7 new-to-me items in 10 votes :)

[Tripp Elliott]

Boy the quality of items is excellent now.

I don't mean that to disrespect those that were culled, they have my respect for submitting and trying, but really what I am seeing now is much better templates, much better concepts. Really nice!

[frank gori]

Agreed this was more noticeable then the first.

[Robert Thomson]

Second cull seems to have been much deeper than I expected. That's a good thing at this point in the competition, as a lot of the DQ error items now seem to be out.

[CripDyke]

I'm still seeing a lot of bad-template ones...but they aren't a MAJORITY anymore.

I'm expecting a cull on monday, based on what's been happening so far and that they are unlikely to be working over the weekend, but casual voters will vote more over the weekend.

I calculated earlier that we were down from 693 to 44X (I can't remember) which turned out to be a little over 35% culled.

By tuesday afternoon, latest, I expect another cull to take us to about 50% culled, 50% remaining.

There's still time for a couple culls after that, though, and we might be down to 150-250 items a week from now (saturday the 29th) as we vote the final order that will determine the 32 (+4, we presume) that make it through. [though I think that there's a very good chance the 3rd cull will simply be the last and we'll have 300 or so items vying

While you still only have a 1 in 6 shot with 200 items remaining (assuming yours is one of them), it seems to me that the time to get your map on is Monday/Tuesday night, even though you'll probably be competing against 300+ and have only a 1 in 10 chance.

With 50% of items gone, if yours has survived, your basic design skills are good enough that at that point voters' idiosyncratic tastes will go a long way to deciding who ends up in the top 32. Too many fire items this year? Your fire item might go down in flames, sure. But on the other hand, maybe that's because it's the year for fire items and you'll nova your way to the round of 32.

There's no telling.

So after this next cull when the weekend is done, it's time for those who have items in the competition to think seriously about what comes next.

[Thunderfrog]

Very well put.

[Wrathgar_The_Warlord]

I'm still in the running so at least I did not totally mess up.

[Jacob W. Michaels]

I'm just waiting for someone to get culled and react like Hitler...

{Kudos, as every year, to Kevin Mickelson for this piece of hilarity.)

[AM CULL THE CONQUERER]

AM COMING... SOON-ISH... PROBABLY

[Thomas LeBlanc]

Does anyone else hear the cullacopters? Are they hovering overhead?

[Brigg]

Thomas LeBlanc wrote:

Does anyone else hear the cullacopters? Are they hovering overhead?

Another thread degenerating into endless puns?

AHHHHH!!!

*Runs*

[Loradin]

Degenerating or improving?

[Thomas LeBlanc]

I just want the judges to cut to the point and slice off the fat...

Better?

[Sara Marie]

So, if we give y'all a schedule of the culls, then there's a high chance that a bunch of people will stop voting until after the culls. But if people do that, we won't have enough votes to properly cull the entries. So, the more people we have voting and the more votes cast the more timely and accurate we can be with paring the entries down. Go tell your friends to come and vote!

[Thomas LeBlanc]

I don't care to have the schedule posted. But I already feel voting goes down after the first 2-3 days after a cull, until the next cull happens. Or when they see their item. Or their item is posted to the tracking sheet.

[enderxenocide0]

For me, provided I have the time, I vote rather obsessively for the first 24 hours after a cull. After that, I don't stop, but I get voting fatigue and just leave the window open in my browser and switch back to it every so often while I'm doing something else.

I actually prefer not knowing when a cull is coming because I suspect it would make me a little lazy and slow my votes even more.