Erg. I have exactly as many words as I need... to either have great flavor mechanics... or a different set of great flavor mechanics. Hm.
OooooooOOOOOOooooooohhh... armor of darkness isn't in the PRD. Whoops. >.>
CHOP
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OooooooOOOOOOooooooohhh... armor of darkness isn't in the PRD. Whoops. >.>
CHOP
No devilish healing, no devilish protections... I start to sense a pattern here... Is the prd biased against evil?
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Two... days. (And 1 hour!)
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Enter your monsters!!! I want to see them!
However...a helpful tip from one of the judges: if you create a variant of "puppy monkey baby," one of the judges will reject it.
/me deletes his entry...now you tell us. :( lol
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Enter your monsters!!! I want to see them!
However...a helpful tip from one of the judges: if you create a variant of "puppy monkey baby," one of the judges will reject it.
I, uh... I don't actually know what this is.
EDIT: Got it. Now I know. Cool. Cool. :)
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Enter your monsters!!! I want to see them!
However...a helpful tip from one of the judges: if you create a variant of "puppy monkey baby," one of the judges will reject it.
Now you tell us?! Can I get my submission back?
(not really)
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Monster submitted. :)
Not sure what made me do it, but I am exactly 66 words over.
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Monster submitted.
Not quite satisfied with it but I was starting to heavily second-guess myself, so it was time to let it go.
And of course I had this amazing concept for a Hell monster that popped in my mind just last night, but not enough time left to flesh it out properly :-/
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Monster submitted. Curaigh, are you at 666 words? Tell me your at 666 words?
Because, you know... the total word count is 610.
And now... the waiting game beings!
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Only 1 day left! Submit! He he he.
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Because, you know... the total word count is 610.
Yeah, all entries should be 590-610 words. We're probably not going to DQ anyone for being a few words over or under because different word processors count words in slightly different ways. Not sure if Curaigh was just joking, but in any case, being 60 words over the word limit is really not recommended.
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Curaigh was joking; his word count was in the proscribed limits.
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It is done...
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Monster submitted. Curaigh, are you at 666 words? Tell me your at 666 words?
Because, you know... the total word count is 610.
As Jacob said, I was joking. :) I thought more people would get the number reference, though I don't hear 'the devil made me do it' quite as often as I used to.
I have to say, I appreciate the min/max word count this open call used. It is a nice way to show the word law is _600_ give or take _10_ words. Though I assume word counts have some flexibility,it is nice to see exactly how flexible this publisher is.
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Monster submitted. Curaigh, are you at 666 words? Tell me your at 666 words?
Because, you know... the total word count is 610.
As Jacob said, I was joking. :) I thought more people would get the number reference, though I don't hear 'the devil made me do it' quite as often as I used to.
I have to say, I appreciate the min/max word count this open call used. It is a nice way to show the word law is _600_ give or take _10_ words. Though I assume word counts have some flexibility,it is nice to see exactly how flexible this publisher is.
I did get the reference, correctly presumed you were joking, and appreciated the humor. :) But in the off chance that someone who's less experienced in freelance writing or contests than you or me thinks 666 words is a way to earn bonus points, I wanted to be clear that it would indeed be a bad idea.
Anyways, the reason we chose 600 +- 10 words is that it makes them much easier to develop than just giving a max limit would; if someone submitted a 500-word monster, we'd have to add some padding. Of course, the "density" of words is different in the stat block and the other parts of the entry, so the layout requirements are different for monsters with short and long stat blocks.
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*Deep Breath*
Submitted just before the website went down, after a flurry of last-minute edits and changes.
Feeling sick. That could be nervousness, or it could be because I just caught a cold. Either way: NERVOUS.
I really don't know if my monster is good enough. Blaaaarrrrgggh.
I mean, er, I'm cool. I'm cool. Yeah. >.>
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As Mark Jefferson would say, it's extremely important for an artist to put their work out into the world. "Always take the shot".
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Hey guys, if you haven't submitted yet and you're still planning to, could you please send any attached files as .doc, not .docx? For whatever reason, the latter strips random spaces out when I open them. We're ignoring that (DON'T panic if you've already sent it in as a .docx file), but obviously would prefer to not have to.
(And again, we actually prefer the monster just be in the body of the email; usually it can be sent with the appropriate coding though we realize that's not always possible.)
Thanks!
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@Tacticslion: The way to stop being nervous when submitting work is to devote every waking moment to writing and submitting, forgetting every work as soon as you hit that "send" button, forever damning your work to electronic purgatory where it will be read and evaluated only once more by human eyes and then never considered again.
You grow numb to the chill grip of nervousness and the fiery sting of rejection; your mind never wanders, instead immediately returning to its cell of ever more writing, until one day you are pushed beyond your breaking point and you tell yourself you don't need anybody, and decide to write everything yourself, at which point you realize you also need to design, illustrate, lay out, publish, market, and deliver everything yourself. After weeks of fevered, mad work, you realize that you are just an interchangeable human in an ineffably vast machine, sitting alone in your office putting letters into different orders in a vain hope of achieving the creation of some kind of novelty, where millions of previous permutations of letters have failed. You die alone and unloved, having forsaken all friends and family for the company of the letters and your own opium dreams.
Or so I hear. Hope that helps!
In other news, just submitted. I'm cool. I'm fine.
@Tacticslion: The way to stop being nervous when submitting work is to devote every waking moment to writing and submitting, forgetting every work as soon as you hit that "send" button, forever damning your work to electronic purgatory where it will be read and evaluated only once more by human eyes and then never considered again.
You grow numb to the chill grip of nervousness and the fiery sting of rejection; your mind never wanders, instead immediately returning to its cell of ever more writing, until one day you are pushed beyond your breaking point and you tell yourself you don't need anybody, and decide to write everything yourself, at which point you realize you also need to design, illustrate, lay out, publish, market, and deliver everything yourself. After weeks of fevered, mad work, you realize that you are just an interchangeable human in an ineffably vast machine, sitting alone in your office putting letters into different orders in a vain hope of achieving the creation of some kind of novelty, where millions of previous permutations of letters have failed. You die alone and unloved, having forsaken all friends and family for the company of the letters and your own opium dreams.
Or so I hear. Hope that helps!
In other news, just submitted. I'm cool. I'm fine.
I'll show ya an electronic purgatory~!
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Tacticslion I am in the same boat, but the way I found that works for me to deal with it is to just fill my day with other stuff. If I am busy I get much less nervous.
Good luck man.
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And we're done, folks. Thanks to everyone who submitted!
Woo~! Good luck, everyone! Can't wait to see what awesome ideas you all came out with! :D
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And we're done, folks. Thanks to everyone who submitted!
Can you reveal how many entries you received? Just curious.
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Good luck everyone.
Now is beer time! Well Hard Orange Soda but whatever...
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I predict around 25 entries. I am interested in seeing how close or far that will be, to see how reliable my predictive method is.
TL, against stress and anxiety, I use my confidence.
Confidence that my creation is not good enough and will be rejected. Once you have abandoned hope and accepted the inevitability of failure, anxiety disappears ;-)
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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I'm sure they'll get to that in a couple days; probably they'll want to read the submissions first and decide what sort of metrics to publish.
Yep, we'll be sure to publish some statistics once we've had a chance to analyze the entries. I think there's one particularly interesting detail that's going to make 90% of contestants sweat.
As for the number of entries, I don't remember the exact number, but we got more than The Raven Black predicted (25), but fewer than last year (40).
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Made sure to submit, had some other stuff that I was working on so this got pushed back, but I put up my best and most attractive work, so I'm sure I'll do well. It was a fun design, I don't do monsters most of the time, but it was a nice break from my normal jazz.
What was that Raven about abandoning hope? I was too busy being hella hype extreme. Let's bust open some hell gates, yo!
TL, against stress and anxiety, I use my confidence.
Confidence that my creation is not good enough and will be rejected. Once you have abandoned hope and accepted the inevitability of failure, anxiety disappears ;-)
Hah!
... doesn't work, even though I'm already there. >.>
Also, I'm enjoying tweaking and making the other two creatures I started out with. I was able to chop a good 150-or-so words off of my original design for my first monster, though I'm still about 100 words over...
(Yes, that means originally, I was at 850+ words... oops.)
((For the record, this is a different creature than the one I submitted. That could be "Monster Number Three" while this is "Monster Number One" in terms of my ideas.))
EDIT: The weird part is that it functionally takes up the same, or even less space than my actual entry, despite the fact that my actual entry is nearly 87 words shorter...
EDIT 2: I've found a way to save a ton of words (51 words instead of 108) by comparing an ability to another one, but... ugh. It looks hideous and is very lacking in either flavor or description. :/
Tacticslion, I think we have the opposite problem. My first draft of my monster submission was about 100 words under the word count!
That's actually super-awesome!
... if there's one problem I don't have, however, it's a low word-count. Ever. >.>
EDIT 2: I've found a way to save a ton of words (51 words instead of 108) by comparing an ability to another one, but... ugh. It looks hideous and is very lacking in either flavor or description. :/
I mean, "It's like this, but <one>, <two>, <three>, <four>!" just seems kinda... wrong, you know? I'm wondering if there's a different way to do this sort of thing...
EDIT:
Ooh! By changing the ability entirely, I can get a similar result, do a similar <this except for these> and feel better about both myself and the ability as a result. Though it's pretty far from the original concept, it makes a lot of sense in several ways and for a few themes! I like it!
Ooh! By changing the ability entirely, I can get a similar result, do a similar <this except for these> and feel better about both myself and the ability as a result. Though it's pretty far from the original concept, it makes a lot of sense in several ways and for a few themes! I like it!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand just like that, due to the flavor changes introduced, I've reduced it from waaaaayyyy over the limit, to 620 - within spitting distance*!
* Terms and conditions apply. Please sign your soul __________ <- here, in order to be able to spit that far, within reason.
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And I second TRB's advice for keeping a sane mind.
AHAHAHAhahaahhHAhahaha HA.
Too little, too late.
Thanks to the Sword For Hire folks for running the contest. I had a lot of fun coming up with a hell beast.
Indeed, this was awesome!
And I second TRB's advice for keeping a sane mind.AHAHAHAhahaahhHAhahaha HA.
Too little, too late.
Indeed, it's awesome!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand just like that, due to the flavor changes introduced, I've reduced it from waaaaayyyy over the limit, to 620 - within spitting distance*!
* Terms and conditions apply. Please sign your soul __________ <- here, in order to be able to spit that far, within reason.
HAH! 609! Woo~! Now for "creature number two"!
(I've completed two and three, at present, of my initial slew of ideas.)
Welp! All three of my initial ideas are finished and within the 610 word limit, too! Weird! All it took was for the contest to be over!
(Hey, is it weird that all three have exactly 609 words?)
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If you win, you're totally set.
If you win, you're totally set.
Wait, what?
*Goes back and re-reads the winner thing.*
Oh! Holy carp! Uh... cool!
(I'm pretty sure that's not happening, though. I just thought it was a cool contest. Though the last two critters I made are linked, so that, at least, would be convenient.)
EDIT: Proooobably should have left ^ that part out. I'd appear more competent. Oh well! :D
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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If you win, you're totally set.
Possibly, but the publisher or developer may assign the winner to create specific kind of monsters. If, for instance, we happen to have a lot of devils in our top 6, the 2 extra creatures will very probably be something else.
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If you win, you're totally set.Possibly, but the publisher or developer may assign the winner to create specific kind of monsters. If, for instance, we happen to have a lot of devils in our top 6, the 2 extra creatures will very probably be something else.
Yeah, but if the winner already made a devil, it'd be cool to work on something else, as there's a lot of stuff in hell that isn't just looking through it's family tree for a link to Asmodeus.
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Yeah, I know, I'm just talking crap. In fact, smart money says that the winner will get a chance to write something longer than 610 words.
Still nice to daydream.
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OK, I'll give one little snippet of information before I leave town for warmer climes (though hopefully not so warm as Hell, at least this time of year):
Of the 13 creature types, five were represented. The second-most common one surprised us.
OK, I'll give one little snippet of information before I leave town for warmer climes (though hopefully not so warm as Hell, at least this time of year):
Of the 13 creature types, five were represented. The second-most common one surprised us.
D- dangit. Now I'm even more nervous!
Miiiiiichaaaaeeeeelllllssss~! *shakes fist*
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1st: Outsider...
Fey? Undead? Construct? Aberration?
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1st: Outsider...
Fey? Undead? Construct? Aberration?
Ooh! Ooh! Good guesses!
01 - Aberrations
02 - Animals
03 - Constructs
04 - Dragons
05 - Fey
06 - Humanoids
07 - Magical Beasts
08 - Monstrous Humanoids
09 - Oozes
10 - Outsiders
11 - Plants
12 - Undead
13 - Vermin
H'okay, so, you know, Outsiders is the obvious first choice. Devils, you know.
Animals: very unlikely. Very hard to have any actual animal attachment to an extraplanar anything, as it lacks any sort of magical affinity. I could see a kind of "hellish" beast that is respected by devil-worshipers for (real or imagined) reasons, but that's about it.
Constructs: solidly possible. It fits with Hell's "let's forge and build" kind of attitude, and could be plenty of horrific stuff there.
Dragons: solidly possible. It could easily fit with "fire breathing dragon" archetype and certain damsels and demands, greed and hordes, and so on.
Fey: possible. Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... huh. Fey are, traditionally, considered chaotic, wild, and weird. There are certainly things that could be done with this, ranging from intrigue in Unseelie courts to corruption of the natural world or specific creatures, but it seems like a darkhorse. But that makes it a strong contender for judge surprise!
Humanoids: not likely. I could guess there is a lot of possibilities here, but that just kind of makes it obvious, which makes me think it's unlikely. Of course, that could be where the surprise comes from!
Magical Beasts: strong likelihood. I wouldn't have thought of this, but I could definitely see stuff done with magical beasts. Way too many to zero in.
Monstrous Humanoids: strong likelihood. Much like magical beasts, it wasn't something I thought of, but there are so many possibilities that suddenly I can't pin down or even narrow the "angles" to go at it with these.
Oozes: not likely. It actually makes a lot of sense, and I'd sure be surprised, but as there are a few extraplanar oozes already (and even an "ooze-like" demon), I'm not sure there's too much design space... though an actual LE ooze would be different. I think most designers tend to ignore these monsters by default.
Plants: possible. Plants have such a broad array of possibilities, that it's exceptionally difficult to pin down how. Plants are so variable, and extraplanar plants are so rare, that it seems like this could be a solid shoe-in for possibilities. The reason I only put it as "possible" though, is because plants are also difficult to handle: usually (though not always) they're mindless and/or kind of goofy, even when otherwise horrifying. It tends to make them ignored by many designers, I think, though they get more love than oozes!
Undead: no duh. I mean, they're undead. Devils are lawful evil. Have soul contracts. I mean, c'mon. This just writes itself, and it writes a lot of different things. I doubt this is the second most common, though, based on judges surprise... which itself is a surprise, because a lot of great things could be done here.
Vermin: rather unlikely. Most of the issues with animals are found with vermin - either they'd become an outsider, magical beast, or an aberration - but they're a tad more likely than animals, as most folks go "icky!" when dealing with vermin, and thus push them to a higher likelihood in dealing with icky/evil things.
So, by ranking in my musings:
Undead: no duh.
Magical Beasts: strong likelihood.
Monstrous Humanoids: strong likelihood.
Constructs: solidly possible.
Dragons: solidly possible.
- based off of musings, ^ these five ^ -
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Aberrations: possible.
Fey: possible.
Plants: possible.
- based off of surprise, ^ these might ^ -
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Humanoids: not likely.
Oozes: not likely.
Vermin: rather unlikely.
Animals: very unlikely.
- I'm guessing ^ not these ^ -
EDIT: tag-fixing, and clarifying intent