Someone suggested a contest which would be building the best spellcasting PrC, and I'd like to suggest a contest for building the least powerful level <x> core character with base stats at 18, 18, 17, 17, 16, 15.
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Someone suggested a contest which would be building the best spellcasting PrC, and I'd like to suggest a contest for building the least powerful level <x> core character with base stats at 18, 18, 17, 17, 16, 15.
I think the Giant intends to do contests more along the lines of the PrC contest - that is, stuff that he can put on the site/that others can use in a game. However, an NPC creation contest might be cool.
Also, I'm assuming this board is for official contests/discussion of those contests, rather than a place for anyone to post a contest - and I mean that as a question to the Giant rather than a criticism to you, Invarial ;)
I think Invariel meant to make a suggestion as to what contest I could run next, GK. I agree that I would prefer no one run their own contest on the board, it just will get confusing.
Expect to see the next contest announced soon, but suggestions for future contests are welcomed.
I like the best spell idea I read earlier.
I think a PrC contest were the Giant supplies the name and we all make up a PrC to match it. That Could get a little repeatitive if the name is to percise.
Maybe the best spellcasting or warrior PrC would be better.
Oops, I wasn't very clear on my previous post. Sorry bout that. I understood that Invariel was simply making a suggestion, but I also wanted to ask my question, and ended up mxing my wording up rather interestingly.
Anyways, suggestions:
- Fighter Feat Chain - rather than just one feat, a chain of 4 or so fighter type feats, with awards going to such categories as "most inventive mechanic" and "most likely to be used by an actual fighter."
- NPC X - several different ways to do this - NPC of a certain level/CR, a main villian, a recurring adversary, or even giving us just a name to start with. Could do several contests with this.
- Magic Item
- Monster
- PC Race
I'm hesitant to suggest "Base Class" because I don't see much room for a good, general base class that could be used in any game/setting. A spontaneous divine caster, perhaps, but the Complete Divine has several already.
Best 1st Level Spell. Think about it! You'd be forced to create an interesting, fun to use spell that can't actually be that powerful.
Perhaps my reluctance towards the spell contests reflects the fact that i never play spellcastors, so I know very little regarding existing spells. I'd give it a shot, though.
I like the idea of a character creation contest...a new prestige class contest would be fun, but not for a whil, since the one just finished.
Trap contest. (Best trap, Most likely to TPK, least likly to TPK, Most convoluted,Most likly to be used in a campaign...etc)
Dungeon contest 1. [Giant describes a dungeon we have to make the last/first/any room in that dungeon as he specifies]
Dungeon Contest 2. [Puzzle room. Make the best puzzle for a single room you can.] (Most generic {able to be used by the most kind of dungeons}, Trickest, Easiest, Most likely to waste a full session, Most rewarding...etc)
Dungeon Contest 3[The full dungeon, we must create a dungeon. Wether their are limits are not is up to The Giant] (Most Detailed, Most Imaginative, Most likely to be used by a DM, Most logical {it feels as though the dungeon COULD exist}....etc.
Encounter contest. [The Giant describes a party of "PCs" in full detail as far as character sheets are concerned, and supplys a limited and/or complete background on each character. We must make a polanned encounter for the party] (Most fun, Most challanging, Most rewarding, Most likely to result in a TPK, Funniest, Best use of character background, Most thought out Plan, Best taking into account "PC" abilitys, most fitting encounter....etc)
Im trying to think of contests I could take a part of by limiting how much they require DnD knowledge. Hope what I have so far gives some good ideas.
::ADD:: I also like Gorbash's Ideas.
::ADD:: I suggest, that if you have a contest based off a challenge or otherwise something that "PCs" must overcome, you limit how difficult the entries may be. If an entry is deemed to difficult warn them before the end of the contest that they must tone it down, if its toned down to appropriate limit allow the entry, if not the entry doesnt count.
I.E. if a contest involving making a battle for a pack of lvl 7 adventures calls for them to battle a *looks in 3.0 monster manual* Tarrasque, and the party is a bunch of average lvl 7's (no ability to call in the help of a god or something along those lines), it would be deemed to hard and would be warned to be toned down. If then the contestant changes the entry to be a escape the city before the Tarrasque gets their, and it is deemed it is within the partys capabilities to escape in time, the entry would then be allowed and much merriment would be had by all...except the Hobbits because they always get drunk and bring attention to themselves and the magical artifact the have.
p.s. I dont mean that last add as any insult to your forsight, I just feel it is necessary to touch upon it to help any laid plans from going awry.
Most redicolous prestige class
Best Secret organization
Best City
Screen name spell contest
Best Intelligent Item Contest
Tarrasque-Schmasque - DM's Most Rediculously Powerful Monster contest (with CR caps)
Best Metamagic/Metapsionic Feat(s)
Silliest Applications for Spells
Just thought I'd share.
Silliest Application of a Spell - great idea AngelSword ;D
Ikki.
Food for thought regarding Monsters: Rather than 'pick a theme' like with spells, i think monsters should be set a theme by Giant if we do a monster contest. Monsters are so wide based that you'd wind up with dragons, undead, strange abberations, and divine/unholy creatures of a wide variety of power levels that woudl really be hard to judge against each other.
A one page campaign setting introduction :-/
I once played with a DM in a short game that he used to test some of his own homebrew races. It was a lot of fun to see how the players used these in backstories, roleplaying, and the like.
This is why I suggest a contest in which you create your own new race, complete with background, stats, favored class, and anything else that would be listed in the PHb.
I think a Wish spell based contest may be fun. How would you solve X problem with Wish. Or something. Would not be a large contest good for an inbetween two major contest contest.
BTW the votng system needs an overhaul.
1) Why do you think so?Quote:
Originally Posted by Gdrad
2) How would you suggest going about it?
3 way ties, because the number of votes was barly over the number of contestants is NEVER a good thing.
/shrug
maybe like you pick your top 3 favs per catagory. Each choice gets points in this fasion.
#1 choice: 3 points
#2 choice: 2 points
#3 choice: 1 point
may or may not make things more interesting. Fact is that its up the Giant to fiddle with a voting system. How simple does he want it? How much effort does he wanna take to tally up the points? Does he even think that there was a problem?
/shrug
Screen Name Deity contest: If you were a deity...
Hometown or Country Monster/Prestige Class/Spell/etc: A monster, prestige class, spell or something based of your hometown or country.
This is good info! :) I asked because I do a lot of troubleshooting type work with my job. It's always frustrating when somebody says, "It doesn't work" but never says why. So that's why I asked - and now that Rich knows why you think it has issues, he can look into a solution, including your good one of picking a top 3.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gdrad
I recall someone else suggsting picking top 3, I just suggest diffrent points for each place. and you make a good point, Ill try to keep why I think it doesn't work along with "it don't work".
uhh not sure what to call it, but a Contest where you take something from TV, movies, and video games, and make a DnD version of it. Like the car from knight rider as an enemy. Sora from KH. The monkeys from ape escape. ETC
WoO! I like. Reading/writing those would be all kinds of fun.Quote:
A one page campaign setting introduction
We would have to be clear on what constituted "one page", however; preferable with a max word count.
I also think that 'homebrew pantion' (consisting of 3 or more dieties, each written up like the gods in the phb) would be neet.
A contest for individual dieties might be neet, but I myself am more interested in how the dieties interact and collectively influence their world.
I like the pantheon idea. Now, granted, I'm still hammering out my pantheon, but by the time that contest rolls around, I should be finished.
On the subject of voting, perhaps instead of a "3 point, 2 point, 1 point" system, each category could be assigned an arbitrary number of points to be assigned. It solves the problem of, "This <x> and that <x> are really really good, so good, in fact, as to be equal. Now, which one deserves that extra one point?" as you can simply assign both <x>'s the same number.
Wouldn't work. Smart voters will just put all six points towards their favorite entry without picking a second or third, because their vote carries more weight that way. In which case everyone votes for one, and we're back where we started. But with bigger numbers. >_<
uhh couple things, since people seem to be taking my halfbutted idea and running with it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hydro
1: to hydro, who said you could do that?? The solution to that is obvously, you can only give an entry points once. Further you do not have to give an entry full points if you want. Like if the best entry still doesn't feel AMAZING just give no one 3, that entry 2, and whatever 1. In fact who said you even need to do later entrys. Just like one entry?? Bam give it 3 points and nothing to any other entry.
2: I was only making a suggestion and was not attempting very hard to make a perfect or great one. My only inention was to get the idea of what needs to be done across, and I hope that The Giant can see my suggestion on a conceptual level, take the concept, and run with it.
3: Giants forums, Giants contests, Giants rules.
4: Why a ninja pig? what on earth does that pig even do? All it does is get held by people and track people like a dog! It never does anything else. It doesn't even do any ninja things, it just hangs around ninja. Whats with that pig??
5: Fruit goes bad really fast, and unless there is alo of people to eat it, I do not think "fruit flower" gifts work when you give the person a HUGE thing of it.
6: roku
7: IM LUCKY!!! SOCKA SOCKA TOOIE!!!
Cool idea, but the problem is potential copyright issues - plus, a surprising amount of TV stuff already has stats published somewhere.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gdrad
Here's one. What about the most ridiculous weapon enhancement contest? Or, silliest magic item?
Ooh, or even, magical enhancement voted most likely to succeed in high school?
Invisibility, on a cloak. For sneaking... places...
In response to Gdrad:
1. Invariel. Check the post right above my last one. Making people pick a first, a second and a third would work fine. Giving them six points and letting them do as they like with them wouldn't, I'm afraid.
2. I know. But it was a good suggestion, which is why we're still monkeying around with it.
3. I know. But if he wasn't taking suggestions this thread wouldn't be here. ;)
4. Yea, what's with that? o.O
5. Tell me about it.
6. Huh?
7. Um . . . w00t!!(?)!!!!!
#4 was a refrence to NarutoQuote:
Originally Posted by Hydro
#5 was a refrence to a gift my family recently recieved...for reasons. (it was a Bouquet of fruit carved to look like flowers)
#6 is well l6 in Japanese
#7 is a refrence to a lucky sock my DM gave to his sister in the campaign he was running. Whenever she said Socka Socka tooie before a luck roll she got +1 to that luck roll. (It was a good thing.)
I did those cause I felt I mighta been coming off a bit abrasive so I decided to go into mindless blabbering.
That Ninja pig also oinks in Japanese. Ouaai. Ouaai.
yes....yes he does.Quote:
Originally Posted by Invariel
[Elan]
Where, where, where is our nifty new contest...
Wasting away here on the message board,
searching for the Giant's new contest thread,
some people claim there's an artist to blame,
but I know, its my own damn fault...
[/Elan]
So seriously, Giant, I thought it was a contest a month. Has this changed and how?
Inquiring minds want to know...--EvilE
[EDIT]
You know Big G, you might want to do the contests once every two months. Seems to me thats about how long it takes per contest anyway. One month for the contestants to, well, um, contest, and one month for the judgination...
Just a thought.
[/EDIT]
First post of the Spell Theme Winners thread, by the Giant,
"Next contest, I'm going to ask one of the Mods to run it so that I don't forget about it. Congratulations to all the winners!"
;)
Aaah, that would be why I never noticed. Not being interested in spell themes, I never read any of it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Invariel
Mea Culpa--EvilE
I think a NPC creation or a monster ecology contest would be cool...
So which of you moderators is going to step up?
how about
Best sceam useable by most players, I seriously pawned this one town once, any how it involved a potion of invunlerabilty deaths cloak and some ignite able liquid the mark of the gods popped up around them and they began to bow and worship my level four wizards who seroiusly pawned them, I don't even have to pay for stuff any more ;D.
... HUH? Scamming isn't game design; scamming is DM judgement calls. As such, the person with the most inexperienced/generous/laid-back DM wins. The rules handle all scams through Bluff checks, and that just comes down to trying to stack up all the skill ranks, +2 feats, snake familiar, and custom magical item bonuses you can and then hoping you roll a 20 when all's said and done.Quote:
Originally Posted by White Blade
I propose a Prestige Class contest. Just come up with a new PrC for DnD 3.5e, then everyone votes, a BAM. Another contest done.
There should be a starting level range... Let's call it levels 7-13. Theme? Eh... Let's not specify one of those. Leave it up to the creator to figure out which theme they want.
What do you guys think?
Edit:
Er.... Hm. Already been done. Multiple times, I imagine.
So much for that idea.
How 'bout a new race? Just make a PC race, have people vote on them, and boom. Another contest done.
Let's just hope that, upon further reading of the forums, I don't discover that THIS, TOO, has been done already.
How about best feat with only links to arcane or divine magic allowing for some intresting things.
How about a contest for least wanted reply - I would like to nominate my self :P
.. sry all :D
Posting to (I hope) change the date of the last post from sometime in 2017.
Ikki.
Both of what? Both the dieties and their stats?
A mixture of exalted humans and very powerful out siders.
Hold on. Would this be a contest to design a bunch of monsters with a religious theme, or a contest to design a group of deities as presented in the PHB? I'd prefer the latter over the former - it's more unique and inherently interesting, and requires a lot less work referencing Epic level rules and Deities and Demigods. (Rule #1 of contests - reduce to a bare minimum the amount of rulebooks needed to enter. Broadens your contestant pool.)
Regardless, I can create a rules thread and help run a contest, but I'm not a mod and so lack authority. Giant, xthemage, Baron, any interest in seeing this go forward? Or backing one of us up if we want to run this?
How about the second one.Although I see the fun in creating both.
Yes, phb-like diety entries are what I had in mind. Actualy, I like the format of the Forgotten Realms entries better, but format isn't that important.
It doesn't matter what the dieties actualy are: a diety could be a Ao-esque all-powerful overdiety or it could be a halfling mage demanding worship and tribute from a small pack of kobolds. The diety may not even exist: it could be a fabrication used to control a civilization or it could be a figment of that civilization's imagination. Or perhaps no one is sure whether it does or not. The only criteria is that all the fields and information given for dieties in the Player's Handbook must be covered, and that dieties (minimum 3, maximum 10?) must somehow interact and come together to form a coherant panthion.
Combat statistics shouldn't be required, though if the author wishes to include stats I see no reason to disalow them.
I would actually say to use the entries presented in Dieties and Demigods, sans stat blocks. That includes the god's dogma and expected clergy.
Well, that certainly sounds good. But how 'bout we impose a length requirement for each God/dess? Say, half again the average word count from the PHB. That's not too terribly long.
Also, it would be a good idea to have a higher minimum than three. Say, six or so. That shouldn't be too taxing on the minds of those here.
It's too easy to just create socially accepted gods that aren't actual beings. And too easy to fudge the word count higher with stats about the people who follow him/her. Let's set the requirements at... A mixture of both Exalted (former) Mortals and hideously powerful Outsiders. Have it required to have at least one of both, as well as meeting the minimum total of six.
Add believable personalities to them, too... For example, if you were creating the Christian god under these guidelines, he'd be rather bipolar. Y'know, with the whole "I love you all, but you'll suffer eternal torment if you don't worship me exclusively" thing. Eh, just tossing one out there. I'm not familiar enough with most of the polytheistic pantheons of the real world to come up with anything else. :-/ Like Olidammara's all fun-loving, and (supposedly) doesn't support thievery, as well as absolutely loving music and wine (Bard/Rogue/Cleric). And how Llolth's all whiney and vindictive.
I unno. Just throwing stuff out for y'all to chew on.
Try not to mention real world religions.
No religion that I know of sees the Jeudo-Christian God as bipolar. He simply represents infinite mercy and infinite justice at the same time. If you want mercy, you get mercy. If you don't want mercy, you get justice.
I don't believe in damnation myself*, I'm just explaining how even the most fundimentalist view of God can be seen as a "believable character". ;)
Righto, back to gaming..
I actually much prefer the Dieties & Demigods (or Faiths & Pantheons) descriptions to their phb counterparts. I also think that a good diety description should probably be longer than the phb entries (those are somewhat bare-bones), that divine beings with believable personalities and mortal flaws are simply fascinating in the way that they interact with each other and with real mortals, and that the dynamics of a panthion containing both native dieties and "risen" mortals can be interesting to say the least.
However, all of that is simply a matter of taste, and none of it should be required for every entry. Incomprehensible and alien beings can still make awesome gods, pantheons do not need to contain a wide range of 'god types' to be useful in a game and fun to read, and anyone who can sufficiently describe a god in less than two or three paragraphs is welcome to it (and if they can't suffieciently describe the god it will hurt their score).
You may prefer a panthion that fits the Forgotten Realms mold, but there's no reason to restrict all entries to that. Someone may decide to forsake polytheism it's self in favor of eastern anamism, and their "pantheon" may be three or four local nature spirits reveared by a small monistary in the mountains. I think that that would make an excillent entry.
The only thing which might reasonably be restricted is the number of dieties that constitute a minimum entry. I was of the mind that three is the bare minimum for a polytheistic panthion, any less and you realy have monotheism (such as that seen in many real-world religions) or ditheism (such as the Giant's own sun goddess and moon god). I can imagine how a trinity could constitute a panthion (the Triad from FR is a sort of mini-panthion for paladins), but at the same time it is a rather breif one.
Or, going in the opposite direction, might a ditheistic pair be considered a panthion? You would have to flesh both dieties out very well to get a solid entry, but it could work . . .
So, whatdya say folks? What's our minimum number of dieties?
* If anyone would like to discuss the real-world religous issue any further, feel free to contact me privately rather than eating up more of Mr. Burlew's bandwidth.
I think that six should be the minimum entry for a polytheistic pantheon.
I agree with Hydro that the entry requirements should be as broad as possible, simply because this way we might just get lucky and get in some good material which would be otherwise barred because it doesn't conform to certain requirements.
The way I see it, there shouldn't be a hard and unyielding lower limit - who's to say that one of us doesn't have a totally awesome pantheon of only five, or four gods? Similarly, there might be inidivual peculiarities in such matters as desccriptions of the gods' personalities - a rule saying that each god must have at least X lines written about it would put someone with a pantheon of 50 gods at a serious disadvantage as compared to those who'll make a pantheon of 8.
This is what I would suggest for the exact wording of the challenge:
Make a pantheon. Make it whole. Make it good.
That simple.
*has a totally awesome pantheon with 5 dieties*
^_^
That's generaly a pretty good philosophy for handling contests, Premier. It's very easy to just throw in arbitrary restrictions that you think will make the contest better without realizing just how great an entry not following those restrictions can be.
The only reason I suggested that we require that all the fields in the phb be filled is that I was also concerned with how useful our panthions are to dms. Many dms only run games using the rules as written. That means a cleric class and an alignment system, which in turn means that all dieties should be associated with a list of domains, a favored weapon and an alignment.
Not all dms require these feilds to make use of a panthion in their game, however. For example, Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed has no alignment system and does not include any phb classes (including the cleric), so an AU panthion doesn't need any of the above criteria. If I remember correctly, our Giant's own sun goddess and moon god don't have any of those things either, yet I think that they make an awesome panthion for a dnd game.
It's something to think about, at least.
One reason I'm wary of this whole "PHB format" thing is that I've never SEEN the 3rd edition PHB, and the 2nd ed. one doesn't HAVE any info on gods. Now, I'd definitely like to enter this competition, but it will be kinda hard to do if I don't KNOW the formal requirement, won't it?
Of course, with my current idea, chances are I would throw the format to the winds even if I knew it.
It's not that it has to be in a certian format, just that certain things have to be covered. What's the god's alignment? What is his favored weapon? What are his domains? Who worships him? What is his holy symbol? And, finaly, at least some text (and preferably a lot) describing what the diety is generaly like. If you had to, you could find info on 3.x alignments, domains and weapons in the srd.
If we don't require any of that (particularly the "crunch": favored weapon, domains and alignment) then it stops being a d&d writing contest and starts being more of a general fantasy writing contest. And as far as I'm concerned that would be cool too, but like I said it's something to think about.
Good point there: do we want a "Design a D&D pantheon" contest, or a "Design a fantasy pantheon" one?
My personal preference would be the second, for a number of reasons - but mind you, this is a matter of personal taste.
For one, the ultimate of any of these competitions is to create GOOD material. Sure, the "board's ideal solution" would be to create GOOD D&D material, but assuming we have to choose between the two qualities, I strongly believe that "good" should take precedence - better make some good fantasy material that's not D&D than something that's D&D but nothing to write home about. Think of this this way: which would be closer to your heart, Tolkien's Valar and Maiar (or, for that matter, the Greek or Celtic pantheon), or Generic D&D Pantheon FromCunningly Disguised Adventure ModuleOfficially Licensed D&D Novel #316? Yup, first one's the correct answer. Therefore, I suggest that our first and foremost goal should always be to make something original, consistent, enjoyable, and high-quality, with "actual D&D material with all the numbers and stats" only coming after the qualities above.
Also, I personally have found that it's easier - or perhaps "more fruitful" would be a better phrase - to create some quality fantasy material and adapt it for your gaming needs than to create something straigh-to-the-gaming-board and THEN worry about its creative quality. Or to put it in other words, if you concentrate on making your material good and consistent without any initial thought for actual gaming and game mechanics, later you'll always find it easy to use that material for RPing. On the other hand, if you start out making some material with your primary concern being that it should be written for Game System X, the strife for overall quality will all-too-easily get lost in the process, gradually sifted out as you make small concession after small concession on the the altar of Game Balance and Ease of Rules.
And for yet another approach, I think there's also the matter of originality. Hydro's just raised a couple of typical "gameplay consideration" question: What's the deity's alignment? What's their preferred weapon? What's their symbol?
Well, what if these deities DON'T HAVE ONE? What if a god doesn't give a damn about what weapons their so-called faithful are bashing each other to death with? What if a god has about as many direct or related symbols as, say, the Judeo-Christian God? What if there's a deity whose personality or activities (like pretty much all REAL humans's) are too complex to simply cram into one of nine oversimplified categories? In other words, what if a pantheon (which might be an extremely playable one, BTW) is just TOO ORIGINAL for the clichés of official D&D pantheons?
Sure, the obvious answer is "Then it's not a D&D pantheon." Exactly. It's not a D&D pantheon, because it's too good to be a D&D pantheon. Shall we throw it out because of that?
That's the way I see the question.
Well, on the grounds of "Nobody seems to agree, so I'll get the ball rolling myself", I've started a thread for the Unofficial Pantheon Design Contest.
Rules there are nonspecific and not based on Deities and Demigods with the goal of enabling as many people to participate. The fact that I don't actually own a copy of Deities and Demigods myself has NO impact on this decision, and I am shocked, SHOCKED to discover that anyone would suggest such a thing! ;D Using a Deities and Demigods format (or rules material) is okay, but keep in mind that a large portion of the readership won't grok it.
Please note that this thread is completely unofficial and not sponsored by the Giant. I'm judging the contest based solely on squatter's rights. As such, the rules of this contest (or judging rights) may end up being changed if someone with real authority says otherwise.
With that said, anyone who wants to start writing can check the thread I posted above to participate. Looking forward to see what comes out of this!
Cool. I can already see which of your rules will I be chucking out the window with overwhelming gusto and nochalant bravado. ;D