DeathQuaker RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8 |
9 people marked this as a favorite. |
I am... intrigued by this. I would be willing to provide assistance if I am capable and if it's desired.
Some probably disjointed and random thoughts:
There is to me two very different pieces of Superstar.
-- First is the community around it who built this huge machine of community critique to help each other become better designers. It was really the critique and the community offering it that was the driver of this; Superstar was just there as general motivation. I think a lot of people super-duper excited about Superstar and things like it were actively part of this (and have the time to be) but the competition was really just the background to the community, and they were the folks who were key to making that feedback run a fun thing to be.
-- Second is the actual competition. Which is a whole other flurry of insanity. And this further splits into the observers/voters actively keeping tabs on the competition, where more community is built, and into those actually competing, who by the nature of the competition have to be extremely careful about speaking aloud about almost anything during the competition, so they become quite separate from the community. At least, I felt like I was once I became a contestant--I know I could still engage and did, but still felt quite separate and had to watch myself very carefully.
- So what aspects do you really want to play up, and how? Is it you really want a driver/excuse for the community show, or you want to focus on the competition itself.
==
I feel the need to say this, with understanding that it is 1) probably, if not unique to me, not common among former participants; 2) a bit of a downer. I write this with the hope contest runners bear this in mind as a "grain of salt" bit of advice--again acknowledging that I am only speaking for myself. This is something to take what is useful to you and leave and disregard the rest.
And yet at the same time, anyone who wants to post that what I feel is abstractly wrong or I am wrong for feeling things can preemptively go f&!* right off.
As a contestant, RPG Superstar was one of the most stressful things that I have ever been involved in that didn't involve severe physical trauma, or family member death. Stress-level wise, it might be almost on par with when I tried to buy a house (and failed). I think I actually went into a clinically manic state, which was exhausting. The blinding of topics (limiting your ability to prepare) and the insanely strict deadlines, on top of being in a (feels like) massively public view the entire time while you can't say a damned thing. I think it's especially the public aspect of it, and the way people can talk s!*% about you and your work and know they can get away with it because you can't say anything, that was a major stressor for me, a mildly socially anxious introvert.
And I remember having to deal with stuff like having to go to jury duty AND actually be a juror on a trial during the week we were supposed to submit a monster. You either have to plug through or drop out.
Judges have always said the contest was to mimic the stresses of freelance life which is the biggest motherf%!#ing load of b!~@~&$% I ever read on this website. I've been a freelance writer in other areas, I've been a freelance editor most of my adult life, and the (little) freelance game design I have worked on---none of that is like Superstar. You're not handed stupidly restrictive deadlines (at least in my experience--you are certainly handed strict deadlines, but not unfair ones, and if waaaaay up front you say, "Hey I have jury duty, can I get this to you first thing day x instead of close of business day y, would that be okay?" your clients usually say "sure" (if they say no, you suck it up or turn the job down without feeling like you've disappointed an audience)). You're not in a public eye with hundreds of total strangers commenting on works that are at best rough drafts, given the nature of the competition. It's you and the person who's asking you to do the work (and if they say "this is s+*+" you can at least have a conversation with them about concrete ways you can improve it within the time constraints of the publication). (And you also don't have the motivation of "getting paid" at the end of each round.)
It also takes up a huge chunk of your life--like, if you get in the contest, 1-3 months. Depending on what you do in your life--if you have a full time job, a family, etc--this can be difficult to manage (whereas ironically the joys of actual freelancing is you can work it around the rest of your life's schedule).
That truly awesome community that everyone loves about Superstar, as I mentioned, I also feel separated from, so the one thing that I think draws people to Superstar becomes something you are, in a sense, denied.
So all of this is to say is, think carefully about how the contest is structured and ensure the contestants have what they need to not just stay in the game but feel encouraged to keep working on game design rather than, perhaps, the opposite. What deadlines will you set? How many rounds? How much time are you asking of judges, vote collectors, participants? Are subjects blinded?
I WILL note I very much appreciated how Superstar forced me to challenge myself and put myself out there, which is not something I am good at doing--I am the kind of person who writes a million things prepared for publication and then at the last minute wimps out before submission--so I am not trying to suggest it was a bad thing entirely or anything like that. There was a lot of value to it, in being challenged and in getting a lot of great feedback and trying things I'd never tried before. I tried to stick with Superstar as long as I could and truly do my best because I knew it was a unique opportunity not worth phoning in (even if I was clearly running out of juice by the end).
But I also know there are a lot of people who LOVE SUPERSTAR who never experienced it as a contestant, and maybe need to know how it sometimes can feel as one (and even if you were a contestant and just rode the thrill of it for weeks and were totally happy, it's still a very different experience). For them it's a very different ballgame than the actual competition itself so I think those different perspectives need to be borne in mind.
I do think it's very cool you want to capture what was fun and exciting about the competition, if in a smaller way--and I expect that "smaller way" will make it even better. Again I am willing to offer assistance if it's needed or desired, and wish you the best of luck.
Christopher Wasko RPG Superstar 2015 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16 |
DeathQuaker RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8 |
primemover003 RPG Superstar 2013 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2011 Top 16 |
3 people marked this as a favorite. |
It just hasn't felt like the holidays since RPGSS has been gone. I think Wayfinder running a contest would VROCK! Count me in for whatever support you guys need. I'm down for shouting it out across the multiverse with a Stunning Screech. I sympathize with DQs take on the stress of the competition, it definitely consumed all of your attention. I loved it!
--So you wanna be a Vrock superstar
Anguish |
I'd like to see something like RPGSS only where (some of) the content is "cleaned up", compiled, and sold.
To me.
What I mean is... in the case of RPGSS's first task for wondrous items, I'm certain that of the submissions, many of them were pretty decent. Maybe not best-of-the-best, but cool as inspiration.
So what if the top... half or so got a little bit of editorial love, and were published as a PDF? I'd buy it under the understanding that some of the mechanics might need some tweaking, and that the pricing might not be perfect, and so on.
What I'm saying is that a crowd-sourced compilation of decent-but-imperfect ideas for many things RPG (from items to spells to encounters to domains to feats) could be useful to a DM. And I'd be willing to buy such an item. I'm kind of imagining each published "thing" - be it a map or an item or a class or a monster - would have its overall score included, along with its creator's name.
Just a thought.
Kate Baker Contributor |
DeathQuaker RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8 |
I'd like to see something like RPGSS only where (some of) the content is "cleaned up", compiled, and sold.
To me.
What I mean is... in the case of RPGSS's first task for wondrous items, I'm certain that of the submissions, many of them were pretty decent. Maybe not best-of-the-best, but cool as inspiration.
So what if the top... half or so got a little bit of editorial love, and were published as a PDF? I'd buy it under the understanding that some of the mechanics might need some tweaking, and that the pricing might not be perfect, and so on.
What I'm saying is that a crowd-sourced compilation of decent-but-imperfect ideas for many things RPG (from items to spells to encounters to domains to feats) could be useful to a DM. And I'd be willing to buy such an item. I'm kind of imagining each published "thing" - be it a map or an item or a class or a monster - would have its overall score included, along with its creator's name.
Just a thought.
This leads to a more serious question when setting up this contest--to whom will contest submission entries belong?
Contestants in RPGSS agreed to let Paizo own all submitted entries (those entries that weren't published in the winning module could always be published at Paizo at some point... though not necessarily).
Will Wayfinder own the contest entries? Swords for Hire? Will copyright be retained by the author? (And thus if .pdfs with all entries in it get sold how are royalties (small as I'd imagine they'd be, no offense intended) managed?)
Curaigh |
While much of this is still in the dream-phase, it has been already stated as using the Community Use Guidelines. This means that Wayfinder/Sword for Hire/Golorian's Top Designer "cannot sell or otherwise charge" for the work.
I am not sure what that means for who owns the copyright. I've been meaning to ask Tim et al. about copyright since PaizoCon.
EDIT: email sent :)
Timitius Wayfinder, PaizoCon Founder |
3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Anguish wrote:I'd like to see something like RPGSS only where (some of) the content is "cleaned up", compiled, and sold.
To me.
What I mean is... in the case of RPGSS's first task for wondrous items, I'm certain that of the submissions, many of them were pretty decent. Maybe not best-of-the-best, but cool as inspiration.
So what if the top... half or so got a little bit of editorial love, and were published as a PDF? I'd buy it under the understanding that some of the mechanics might need some tweaking, and that the pricing might not be perfect, and so on.
What I'm saying is that a crowd-sourced compilation of decent-but-imperfect ideas for many things RPG (from items to spells to encounters to domains to feats) could be useful to a DM. And I'd be willing to buy such an item. I'm kind of imagining each published "thing" - be it a map or an item or a class or a monster - would have its overall score included, along with its creator's name.
Just a thought.
This leads to a more serious question when setting up this contest--to whom will contest submission entries belong?
Contestants in RPGSS agreed to let Paizo own all submitted entries (those entries that weren't published in the winning module could always be published at Paizo at some point... though not necessarily).
Will Wayfinder own the contest entries? Swords for Hire? Will copyright be retained by the author? (And thus if .pdfs with all entries in it get sold how are royalties (small as I'd imagine they'd be, no offense intended) managed?)
First of all, no. Wayfinder won't be producing a separate product with contest entries for sale. We...uh...can't. Community Use Policy. We COULD, however, take the best magic items of the past 17 issues and make a PDF of that...for free. But, there's no plans at all for that right now. After doing the Wayfinder Bestiary, and getting almost no feedback or even much acknowledgement from the fanbase, we will be sticking to the one themed issue per year.
As for the issue of who owns the entries? YOU DO. Just like we do it in Wayfinder, authors and artists retain the rights to their work. BUT, to be published in Wayfinder, you also must also agree (in "writing"/email) to give Wayfinder the right to use your work for Wayfinder products and promotions and advertising. So, we can't take away your work, but you (or anyone you sell the work to in the future) can't tell Wayfinder that it cannot use that work anymore.
However, keep in mind that if you want to sell your work, yes, you can...as long as you strip out all of Paizo's IP content (i.e., anything from the campaign setting, or Golarion specific names or descriptions).
Keep in mind, the agreement only comes into play if your contest entry makes it into Wayfinder. This can happen by either winning the contest, or by taking your losing entry and resubmitting the it in the Open Call after the contest (allowing you to incorporate the feedback you get from judges in the contest round to improve it). We will consider it for the issue along with the rest of the submissions.
NightTrace |
I somehow missed this entirely, so I am glad this was brought up on Know Direction!
I would love to see this move forward and would be thrilled to participate :D
Petty Alchemy RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16 |
Jacob W. Michaels |
Going to be a bit before we start soliciting entries, but we'll be sure to try to make that announcement as public as we can ...
That said, Petty Alchemy's comment raises a point we're discussing now: Does Pathfinder 2e change anyone's thoughts about this? Based on timing, we would still be working in 1e and we're curious if this deters anyone's interest.
Jacob W. Michaels |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Agreed. We'll definitely be using the published 1e rules for this contest; we just want to make sure people will still be interested in it when they may also be testing the new rules at the same time.
(Speaking just for myself, I think the experience and feedback will be useful for designers regardless of system. Some of the rules may change, but the creativity behind design work will be the same.)
DeathQuaker RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8 |
When a new edition comes out, there's usually a period overlap where you see people using and playing both. And a lot of folks stick with the old edition for awhile at least because as the "more mature" system it has lots of extra supplementary material to work with, which scratches some folks' itches.
Further, if someone says, "Here, have a free product in this system," which is the end result of this contest, I don't think that's a big deal.
On the flip side of things, you'll get more entrants for 1e--because people are more familiar with the system--than 2e, which people would still be just learning.
All of this is to say, I doubt 2e will massively reduce interest for this, and you're good to go.
Curaigh |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Remember that the first two RPGSSs were done with 3.5 rules. It was the hint of sorcerer bloodlines that got some of the judge's attentions and looking for new design areas became 'good design choice.'
I would also like to see a design contest to focus on several systems. Even if PF, PF2 & SF are all d20 OGL, they are different enough to stretch a designer's skill set.
Andrew Mullen Contributor |
Timitius Wayfinder, PaizoCon Founder |
6 people marked this as a favorite. |
Given the recent reveal for the 2E playtest, we (Wayfinder) have had to reconsider this idea. The timing for a 1E contest is not going to work out for Wayfinder 19. By this August, everyone's attention is going to be focused on the 2E playtest. Considering that the winning sidetrek adventure would have to be using 1E rules, that would commit Wayfinder 19 to be a 1E issue. In 2019. Less than 3 months from the launch of 2E. At a PaizoCon that will be heavily focused on 2E and Starfinder. Um....no thanks.
So, what we thought was a brilliant idea (and we still do, in concept) really won't work right now. Instead, we have other ideas for Wayfinder 19, which we will be announcing in April 2018. Stay tuned!
Jacob W. Michaels |
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I'm happy to announce the first DesignFinder talent search competition is now live!
I hope everyone will check it out!
Timitius Wayfinder, PaizoCon Founder |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'm happy to announce the first DesignFinder talent search competition is now live!
I hope everyone will check it out!
I'm glad you kept on the pursuit! I hope this is very successful!