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dislekcia
02-12-2009, 08:50 PM
Ok. I admit that I'd never heard of Paizo until this link found its way into my twitterstream, but I know about them now. Basically: They're awesome and publish RPGs... So:


RPG Superstar? 2010 Open Call for New Design Talent
Competition Starts December 4, 2009 on paizo.com

Paizo Publishing, LLC? is proud to announce RPG Superstar 2010, the third season of its popular RPG design contest. The search for the newest talent in RPG design begins in early December on paizo.com.

"I couldn?t be more pleased at the success of RPG Superstar since its launch two years ago," said Lisa Stevens, CEO of Paizo Publishing, "Not only do we have thousands of fans eagerly awaiting the launch of this year?s RPG Superstar, but we have managed to find a number of key contributors for our products and even hired Rob McCreary, one of 2008?s Top 4 contestants. This year?s contest could find next year?s most talked about author?I can?t wait!"

Fans selected Neil Spicer as 2009?s RPG Superstar, voting his creations through five rounds of intensive competition to ultimately select his adventure proposal as the best submission in a contest that started with hundreds of aspiring designers. Spicer?s winning adventure, Realm of the Fellnight Queen, releases in January as a full-color printed Pathfinder Module.

Starting at 2 PM Pacific Time on December 4, 2009, contestants will be able to submit their RPG Superstar entry at paizo.com/rpgsuperstar. For the first round, that entry will be a wondrous item designed for use with Paizo's Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Each entry must be 300 words or less, and must include all of the proper mechanics and flavor. Contestants must submit their entry by January 1, 2010. Judges will select the top 32 entries to be announced on January 19, 2010; those 32 contestants will be assigned a new design task and their entries will be posted on paizo.com for the public to read, critique, and vote on. The designers garnering the most votes in each round will continue on to subsequent rounds, and the ultimate winner will earn a paid commission to write one of Paizo's upcoming Pathfinder Modules!

http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/rpgSuperstar

Fengol
03-12-2009, 09:32 AM
I miss most of my pen & paper roleplaying days :( But I feel the 3.5 D20 ruleset (even if revised) is very clunky and although I haven't played with it; I LOVE D&D4E rules

xcal
03-12-2009, 10:05 AM
I also miss the freedom of pen and paper, however, I feel that the 3.5 ruleset was by far the greatest attraction to that game! It had so much more depth thatn the 4E rules and it REALLY allowed freedom!

Man I wish I could play some of those campaigns again... I wonder if we'll ever see a videogame with campaign creation on the fly using a graphics engine only to do the representation. DnD, a dungeon master's toolbox... I know The Vampire games had something akin to this, but not nearly as flexible as I'd like it to be. Wow... I think I need to find a gaming group again...

Fengol
03-12-2009, 12:00 PM
Neverwinter Nights? There are still persistent games online...

dislekcia
03-12-2009, 01:01 PM
Seconded on NWN, it allowed you to set up a ton of scenario stuff. I know some DMs that used NWN's mapping tool to create environments and then simply handled combat on paper.

Personally, I like the "free-er" rulesets. Some of the craziest stuff in RP has happened with Alternity or Abberant rulesets, which practically let you do whatever you want as long as you can justify it to the GM. D&D has always felt shallow and limited by the numbers by comparison.

So, liek, go write your own systems! :)

dislekcia
03-12-2009, 01:01 PM
Seconded on NWN, it allowed you to set up a ton of scenario stuff. I know some DMs that used NWN's mapping tool to create environments and then simply handled combat on paper.

Personally, I like the "free-er" rulesets. Some of the craziest stuff in RP has happened with Alternity or Abberant rulesets, which practically let you do whatever you want as long as you can justify it to the GM. D&D has always felt shallow and limited by the numbers by comparison.

So, liek, go write your own systems! :)

xcal
03-12-2009, 07:43 PM
I never found D&D limiting OR shallow. We did anything we wanted, where ever there weren't rules available we made our own or adjusted the rules to be more fun.

I never really played NWN multiplayer, but does all the dialog, design etc have be done before the time? ie. Set up a linear campaign?

I'd like a tool that makes town creation on the fly possible, and then can store it for example. All dialog is done at play time. The game is really just a tool to illustrate the DM's ideas. Always thought NWN was very binding in it's ways... Although, as I say, never played the MP.

I just think using digital tools to enhance the pen and paper environment would be awesome. A 3d true-scale battle-ground or a randomly generated 3d town that can be stored...

I wonder if a system like this would qualify for the comp, and also what sort of demand there would be?

Fengol
04-12-2009, 06:31 AM
er... the comp is to write a 32-page adventure for Paizo Publishing's Pathfinder Modules line; starting with creating the wondrous item that's the reward for the players playing the module.

As for an online battlefield, I think there's a quiet but demanding need for one. I've personally been looking for one so I can organise my group that's spread across Pretoria and Johannesburg and even some in Cape Town. Most of them are Java "I couldn't be bothered to work on the interface" broken apps and the rest have gone too far and added clutter with notes, animated dice rolls, online characters and preloaded inventories all tightly coupled to a rule system.

What I want is a shared view grid between players with tokens that can be placed on it and moved around by anyone, and block highlighting to designate walls and scenery. I don't feel you need to restrict which tokens can be moved by which players because players already know not to move the DM's figures. And only once that's working well (that I can start up the game quickly and my players can easily join and we can battle) should the app maybe look at the DM having a view which he progressively exposes to the players.