Let the discussions begin! Please comment on each individual pitch's thread and start throwing around ideas to flesh out the sets. The next challenge will be posted in a few days.
Thanks to everyone who submitted a pitch. All of us at Goblin Artisans are very grateful for your work. Of course, we couldn't pick all of them to promote, but I sincerely hope you'll all continue to apply your design talents to this project.
NB: The people who submitted these pitches are not eligible to submit the round two challenge for their own sets. That means you -- yes, you! -- are the ones who should be figuring out what direction to take the sets in.
I'm going to assume that since pitch writers can't work on their set (and I see multiple commenters going "what I want to see from you is so and so" à la GDS2), if other people don't... err pitch in, a pitch kinda self-eliminates?
ReplyDeleteYeah. I'm gonna add a reminder that they should be fixing it themselves and not just giving you feedback, since you are no longer the lead designer!
DeleteMost of those are really impressive, I like this challenge a lot.
ReplyDeleteIt bears saying that the submissions that didn't make top 8 also had some interesting ideas and that no one should feel bad if they're idea didn't make the cut. While we agreed on the final 8, each of us would have gone with a different selection left to our own devices.
ReplyDeleteThere was a set named AEthersnare that had a mechanic I liked named Signature Spell which was a kickable cantrip effect. Atrophia and Dunesday has drought / desert world themes which had some potential but basically just got trumped by the Egyptian theme. Diplomacy's End proposed a set focused on multiplayer which I thought was a good idea for a single-set 'block' but would have simply been impossible for us to playtest online. Fatewar had a monocolor focus which I could see being used eventually. Frostmere was an intriguing new look at Snow, but there were concerns about the linearity of that mechanic. Lockstep's darkness vs light conflict is compelling, but we weren't sure we could do the theme much more justice than Jon Loucks did in the GDS2. Mind of Eran was set in a mental/dreamspace that was a touch too far out for some of us, but included a pretty cool spell-copying mechanic, Psychomancy. Prehistorica got wrapped up into Muraganda, Seas of Nayiad got wrapped up into Seas of Higaro and Wasteland had some nice designs but felt like the third block in the Mirrodin trilogy, which we're just not ready for.
It's also worth mentioning that one of the hardest but most important lessons a designer needs to learn is that you must not assign too much weight to any idea. One great idea does not make a designer good, nor does a string of terrible ideas make a designer bad. The ability to continue to produce ideas and to recognize the bad ones and make better ones is what makes a designer. Divorcing your own sense of worth from that of your ideas is a difficult but important step in this direction.
In other words, pick one of the 8 worlds and make it better.
Jay, I love that you're being reassuring to those that had submitted pitches that didn't make. With great power comes great responsibility, after all. You're being a compassionate judge and teacher, and there are folks, if this is not the case for every participant, that needs you to be this.
DeleteIn other words: you're a great individual.
This is a hard lesson to learn.
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