 |
Main Menu |
 Home Community Members options
|
Latest Releases |
|
Premier Customer |
Become one of Dreamscarred Press's Premier Customers, which gives you 10% off all products at the Dreamscarred Press PDF store!
|
Additional Links |
Use these links to shop at other sites and support Dreamscarred Press!
|
Social Media Links |
|
Blogs
| Main |
On Contest Judging ( 1472 reads) |
Friday, February 18, 2011 (20:26:11) |
| |
When Andreas proposed the idea for a Bestiary contest, I thought it sounded like a really good idea. Other publishers have done similar things in a very successful fashion, such as the very prominent Paizo RPG Superstar contest. And since Andreas and I have already bit off a fair bit of design work with Psionics Expanded and the update of the Third Dawn Campaign Setting, it seemed like a great way to find some new talent to create new psionic monsters, something that we as a publisher have not done much.
Boy, I had no idea how much work it was actually going to be! While I'm not going to get into specific numbers, the number of entries we got was higher than I had expected. And to make sure the judging was fair, I did a comprehensive review of every monster submitted.
Now, to be fair, every monster submitted had some form of feedback / constructive criticism about it. Outside of fairly generic monsters, I don't think it's possible to create a monster otherwise - once you start adding in special abilities, descriptions, background, and combat tactics, there's enough material that there's going to be disagreements or insights that a single pair of eyes might not see.
But, I was impressed at just how many cool concepts, cool mechanics, or both we received. Taking the time to really read every single monster, the creativity in both concepts and abilities was astounding. From off the wall monster ideas, to innovative mechanics, I have to admit, I've never had so much fun reading monster stat blocks.
The hours of reviewing those monsters really didn't feel so much like work. I can definitely see doing this contest again. Even with as much time as it takes to get through, it's fun, it offers unpublished writers the chance to get published, and it gives us an opportunity to give out prizes. We do like to give out prizes - and we have plans for some additional ways to do that not related to monsters.
And for any of our contestants who would like feedback on your entries, send me a private message or email and I'll be happy to send back my thoughts on your monster (or monsters). |
| Comments |
Jeremy,
Thanks for the great insight regarding DSP's first ever design contest. I feel very blessed and fortunate to have you and Andreas as mentors within this industry.
I'm already learning a lot from you, and I can only learn more and grow as a writer and designer.
Thank You.
~Dean |
| Posted by Chiondaru | Saturday, February 19, 2011 (04:48:59) |
|
| Leave a Comment |
| We're sorry, but you must be a registered user to post comments on this entry |
|
Like Us On Facebook!
Follow Us On Twitter!