CERAMIC D.M. the final judgement is in!

alsih2o · Jan 21, 2003

mirthcard vs shadoes lady

pic 2

alsih2o · Jan 21, 2003

mirthcard vs shadoes lady

pic 3

alsih2o · Jan 21, 2003

mirthcard vs shadoes lady

pic 4 (2 bonus pics this round

)

alsih2o · Jan 21, 2003

mirthcard vs shadoes lady

bonus pic 1

alsih2o · Jan 21, 2003

mirthcard vs shadoes lady

bonus pic 2

48 hours kiddies, good luck

Speaker · Jan 21, 2003

A good call, judges. I would have said the same myself.

I was trying for a completely different voice, and I know that I didn't carry it with the right tone. Furthermore, I didn't set it aside for editing in the morning... when I think I would have just rewritten most of it!

Even if I had waited, however, Mirthcard wrote well enough that I would have still came up short in several areas... so perhaps that wasn't all that much of a factor. We will never know now

Congrats Mirthcard and Shadoe's Lady. Enjoy the challange the finals present!

Alsih2o, I hope you will allow me the opportunity to compete in the next round when it begins. It would be an honour to give the Ceramic DM title another shot.

Cheers,
Speaker

alsih2o · Jan 21, 2003

it was good to have you speaker, you did well.

i hope to have another one of these going in late feb- early march. hope to se you there

Sniktch · Jan 21, 2003

OK, now I expect at least one of you to work the dung-beetle in!

Good luck, you too

Maldur · Jan 21, 2003

Good luck both of you!!

he: now it works again

dang computer!

Mirth · Jan 21, 2003

Thanks fellas.

And thanks to Speaker for a well-played round. Yours was such a strong story in the first round, that I gave up my tried-and-true tactic of only writing scenarios in hopes of netting a win. It worked, but just barely. Whew. Kudos to you, Speaker.

Now for some commentary / exposition:

originally posted by alsih2o
mirthcard- gives us a nearly uncatergorable tale (is that a word?) from the introduction with the fiend who inveted wicker thru to our fiend being sentenced to being a gnome (playing to a judge?) i found this story rollicking fun. the turtle is an interesting handle, and the pinochio buit got to me too. this story is far from anythign i expected from a ceramic d.m. contest, but i loved it anyway.

my vote has to go to mirthcard on this one

Honestly, I wasn't even thinking about playing to you on this one, Mark. I was just trying to figure out how to fit that picture in which seemed to contrast so vividly with the rest of them. As always, I did some research based on the text found at the bottom two of the pics that you posted. The turtle painting info in my story is accurate and can be found here. The setting picture info is also drawn from the internet and can be found here. As for Pinocchio, I was thinking about legendary or mythical figures that wouldn't have skeletons and that just came to me. Truly, I was worried that trying fiction in the contest would kill me, but Speaker's work in the first round was so intimidating that I had to give it a try. Glad you liked it.

originally posted by Maldur
mirthcard:
I just finish my coffe otherwise I would heve been cleaning my monitor. That is one funny story! Im a bit disturbed by the using gnomes as the ultimate punishment. But its very funny!! Well done!

Im a bit stumped because of outside influences, so Ill do a more indepth analysis of my judging tomorrow. But the Mirthcard story cheered me up, thx!

My vote goes to Mirthcard

Aren't gnomes always the ultimate punishment? Well, there are mimes. So would that make gnomes the penultimate punishment?

Glad you liked it. I needed a laugh myself after this crazy weekend with my son, so I wrote it for me too. Heh.

originally posted by arwink
Mirthcard.
One thing I like about Mirthcard's entry is the overtone of the Pratchett/Gaiman collaboration Good Omens, an old favorite of mine. The tale is stylishly told, with a controlled voice that does the story credit, but in the end it's its similarity to other tales in this style that is its greatest drawback. It's a sub-genre I end up reading a lot of at work for some reason, and although Mirthcard handles it better than most, it does suffer a little in my eyes. The litany of evil/annoyance the Fiend has accomplished was amusing, but at the same time was a tad.cheap. At times it seems as though he's taking an easy shot at pop culture, picking on obvious targets (although I agree on the evils of wicker). When it brings up something interesting, such as the points where it incorporates the giant turtle, it truly shines and the ending is nice (and, I admit, I have to agree once more with the evils of garden gnomes as well).

Picking between these two stories is particularly tough, probably the hardest of all I've come across so far. On the whole, Mirthcard's is the slightly more controlled of the two - it shows a more sparing use of language that gives it a slight edge over Speakers tale. On the other hand, Speakers piece holds more surprises for me, it's prose showing a strong control of genre conventions and a well-paced and well-detailed plot. I've swung backwards and forwards a dozen times here - both pieces are very strong and their authors should be pleased with their work. In the end though, I end up leaning towards Speakers piece because it does the two things that I love in fantasy fiction - it kept me entertained and gave me things to steal for my games.

winner is mirthcard in a split decision.

Owning a book & music store, I suppose I feel entitled to take cheap shots at pop culture

As was said in the story, The Fiend is failing at his job because the evil he creates isn't really evil, it's just annoying. Are you telling me that Kenny G isn't annoying (or evil)?

Pat Metheny might disagree with you.

All in all, I'm pleased with the story. I have to say again that I was worried about my decision to try fiction and I'm glad it worked out.

Unsheath thy blade, Lady of Shadows! It is time to dance!