Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
CERAMIC DM March 2012
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="steeldragons" data-source="post: 5856462" data-attributes="member: 92511"><p>Sorry for the delay. </p><p></p><p>Have a great time PC, we'll see you when you return (hopefully we will be able to have Round 2 started, at least, by then! lol.</p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Round I: Match 4</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">SteelDraco's Untitled <span style="font-size: 10px">(which I'll refer to here, for simplicity's sake as "<em>Alchemist</em>")</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">vs.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Wild Gazebo's <em>Summer Spark O Magic</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p>This match brings us two tales of two houses. Each containing, in very different moods and ways, secrets all their own. Let's get right to it...</p><p> </p><p>1)Writing Style & Skill: This becomes more and more difficult with the diverging of the types of story. <em>Alchemist's </em>dark and sinister undertones of a pulpy kind of story versus <em>Spark's </em>lighthearted and sincerely strange romp into a folktalesy fairy realm in the "new world." Both do a wonderful job with description and evoking the mood of their respective piece.</p><p></p><p>Characterization in both is decent though I, for one, would have liked a bit more of Patricia fleshed out and the oddness of the Whimsies, while clearly conveyed, had a few moments that left me wondering/confused about their exact nature...but this lent to the overall "unbelievable" realm, itself. But all in all, well done to you both.</p><p></p><p>The settings of both pieces are thoroughly described, no small feat when trying to explain the unexplainable world of the Whimsies. There were several moments that my mind immediately went to a Tim Burton-esque stop-action animated story...which I do love.</p><p></p><p>That said, there are several mistakes (however unintentional) in <em>Spark.</em> "Might" where "mite" should be, "There" instead of "Their", etc. I notice Gregor mentioned one that had escaped m y notice. I've had it happen to me more times than I can count. But they are not unavoidable.</p><p></p><p><em>[Steel Dragon's note/aside to all contestants: Spell Check is NOT the writer's best friend. You have to personally edit these things, preferably more than once, to catch these kinds of context-driven errors. They are real words so Spell Check is not gonna help you out with these kinds of, inadvertent I'm sure, mistakes.]</em> </p><p></p><p>Also, accents are <strong>hard!</strong> One needs a very clear idea of how the person sounds to attempt to tell an entire tale believably in an accented voice. There are times when the accent slips, both in description and speaking parts of <em>Spark.</em> I got lost a few times trying to discern if we were in the rural South of the U.S., or this was some undereducated black man telling the story. At one point, I thought it slipped into, what read as, Jamaican. While I admire the attempt, each of these moments gave me, as the reader, pause as I was drawn out of the story to try and figure out what/how exactly I was supposed to be reading the lines instead of being immersed/swept away in the story.</p><p></p><p>Also, as relates to accent, I believe (but don't quote me on this), that all of those uses of "a verbing" should be written as "a'verbing" or "a-verbing". Again, the lack of the punctuation contributed, somewhat, to my getting lost, mid-sentence, in the accent. For me, as a reader, this detracted from an otherwise solid "whimsical" American tall tale.</p><p></p><p>SteelDraco receives a more-than-marginal edge here.</p><p></p><p>2)Picture Use: Both stories did a wonderful job of utilizing them. The ant as a pivotal character in Spark was thoroughly enjoyable, along with the "strict by the book" attitude it is easy to imagine an ant would have. Use of the chess piece was similarly good.</p><p></p><p>The chess piece falls short in being "seen" other than the cursory mention of the game of chess, but then using it as an image the ants can grab and impress on Patricia's mind to make her understand was rather brilliant. Use of the faces beneath the sea as Dr. Heinrich's dumping ground was equally literal but completely engaging.</p><p></p><p>I am giving no one an edge here as both were equally good and creative with different images.</p><p></p><p>3) Personal Enjoyment: Again, the choice for the judges becomes more and more difficult. Alchemist's dark mood of the ever-young doctor who is very aware of the predicament of his work and addiction, his guilt, the rather dusty gloominess of the house all made the story congeal into a wonderful dark-ish pulp story.</p><p></p><p><em>Spark's</em>, again, whimsy and fantasy of the world of Whimsies beneath the house, his transformation/falling into it and subsequent "trouble" when he arrives are all enjoyably reminiscent of an Alice in Wonderland kind of story and reads well as an actual American "tall tale" versus a strictly European flavored"fairy tale."</p><p></p><p>All in all, this would be a significantly more difficult choice for me if not for the interruptions of the accent in <em>Spark</em>.</p><p></p><p>I am left with little choice than to give the "Enjoyment" edge to SteelDraco as well. </p><p>Steel Dragon's vote for winner of Round I: Match 4 is...</p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>SteelDraco</strong></span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="steeldragons, post: 5856462, member: 92511"] Sorry for the delay. Have a great time PC, we'll see you when you return (hopefully we will be able to have Round 2 started, at least, by then! lol. [SIZE=3] Round I: Match 4 SteelDraco's Untitled [SIZE=2](which I'll refer to here, for simplicity's sake as "[I]Alchemist[/I]")[/SIZE] vs. Wild Gazebo's [I]Summer Spark O Magic[/I] [/SIZE] This match brings us two tales of two houses. Each containing, in very different moods and ways, secrets all their own. Let's get right to it... 1)Writing Style & Skill: This becomes more and more difficult with the diverging of the types of story. [I]Alchemist's [/I]dark and sinister undertones of a pulpy kind of story versus [I]Spark's [/I]lighthearted and sincerely strange romp into a folktalesy fairy realm in the "new world." Both do a wonderful job with description and evoking the mood of their respective piece. Characterization in both is decent though I, for one, would have liked a bit more of Patricia fleshed out and the oddness of the Whimsies, while clearly conveyed, had a few moments that left me wondering/confused about their exact nature...but this lent to the overall "unbelievable" realm, itself. But all in all, well done to you both. The settings of both pieces are thoroughly described, no small feat when trying to explain the unexplainable world of the Whimsies. There were several moments that my mind immediately went to a Tim Burton-esque stop-action animated story...which I do love. That said, there are several mistakes (however unintentional) in [I]Spark.[/I] "Might" where "mite" should be, "There" instead of "Their", etc. I notice Gregor mentioned one that had escaped m y notice. I've had it happen to me more times than I can count. But they are not unavoidable. [I][Steel Dragon's note/aside to all contestants: Spell Check is NOT the writer's best friend. You have to personally edit these things, preferably more than once, to catch these kinds of context-driven errors. They are real words so Spell Check is not gonna help you out with these kinds of, inadvertent I'm sure, mistakes.][/I] Also, accents are [B]hard![/B] One needs a very clear idea of how the person sounds to attempt to tell an entire tale believably in an accented voice. There are times when the accent slips, both in description and speaking parts of [I]Spark.[/I] I got lost a few times trying to discern if we were in the rural South of the U.S., or this was some undereducated black man telling the story. At one point, I thought it slipped into, what read as, Jamaican. While I admire the attempt, each of these moments gave me, as the reader, pause as I was drawn out of the story to try and figure out what/how exactly I was supposed to be reading the lines instead of being immersed/swept away in the story. Also, as relates to accent, I believe (but don't quote me on this), that all of those uses of "a verbing" should be written as "a'verbing" or "a-verbing". Again, the lack of the punctuation contributed, somewhat, to my getting lost, mid-sentence, in the accent. For me, as a reader, this detracted from an otherwise solid "whimsical" American tall tale. SteelDraco receives a more-than-marginal edge here. 2)Picture Use: Both stories did a wonderful job of utilizing them. The ant as a pivotal character in Spark was thoroughly enjoyable, along with the "strict by the book" attitude it is easy to imagine an ant would have. Use of the chess piece was similarly good. The chess piece falls short in being "seen" other than the cursory mention of the game of chess, but then using it as an image the ants can grab and impress on Patricia's mind to make her understand was rather brilliant. Use of the faces beneath the sea as Dr. Heinrich's dumping ground was equally literal but completely engaging. I am giving no one an edge here as both were equally good and creative with different images. 3) Personal Enjoyment: Again, the choice for the judges becomes more and more difficult. Alchemist's dark mood of the ever-young doctor who is very aware of the predicament of his work and addiction, his guilt, the rather dusty gloominess of the house all made the story congeal into a wonderful dark-ish pulp story. [I]Spark's[/I], again, whimsy and fantasy of the world of Whimsies beneath the house, his transformation/falling into it and subsequent "trouble" when he arrives are all enjoyably reminiscent of an Alice in Wonderland kind of story and reads well as an actual American "tall tale" versus a strictly European flavored"fairy tale." All in all, this would be a significantly more difficult choice for me if not for the interruptions of the accent in [I]Spark[/I]. I am left with little choice than to give the "Enjoyment" edge to SteelDraco as well. Steel Dragon's vote for winner of Round I: Match 4 is... [SIZE=3][B]SteelDraco[/B][/SIZE] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
CERAMIC DM March 2012
Top