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
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
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: 5860558" data-attributes="member: 92511"><p>Round I: Match 5</p><p>maxfieldjadenfox's <em>Let Sleeping Gods Lie</em></p><p>vs.</p><p>UselessTriviaMan's <em>The Caretaker's Gift</em></p><p></p><p>Let's to it, shall we?</p><p></p><p>1) Writing Skill & Style: You guys are good. Seriously, very good. In the face of two beautifully crafted settings, thoroughly enjoyable characters, and fantastically engaging plots, what is there to judge here? Typos? Not that I noticed. Spelling, grammar...nothing I can really readily see. </p><p></p><p>The telling of <em>Caretaker's</em> tale through the eyes of a street urchin and the relatively short but thoroughly evocative descriptions of his and Digger's day-to-day life in the streets was brilliantly done. The wonder and awe of a large fantasy city was, for me, brought to life. Every character, even the barely seen gnome (I'm going to assume) "artificer" of some sort and the kindly Brahmin priest feel like complete three dimensional character with barely a sentence or two devoted to them. The great black cloaked and antlered helmeted Huntsmen who would as soon skewer you with their spears as look at you, who from a child's point of view seem to me like giants. <em>I </em>don't want to meet them! Just wonderful. Everything wrapped around the (presumably) ongoing battle between servants of conflicted gods. </p><p></p><p><em>Sleeping God</em>'s story is equally evocative. Again we are served up with an ancient battle between deities...this time in our own world. The characters are equally solid, the use of the mythology intriguing. The actual battle between Pashupati and Ravana was again wonderfully evocative while maintaining a well written conservation of word. I loved the Rakashas bursting out of the statues. I thought the introduction of Gupta and Hiran was a bit clunky. Rather, maybe, it was the scene change and the necessity thereof that bothered me a little. There was nothing wrong with Gupta or Hiran themselves. The whole bit about the railroad workers and finding the stone and Charles Masson was a cute tidbit and creative way to tie in the location (though I had to google him to find out what the reference was or was meant for) but I don't think it much helped to further the story, really, and feels kinda unnecessary.</p><p></p><p>All in all, however, if that is the only thing I can really say about the style/skill portion, that's really not a lot. Let's see if things diverge a bit more in the other categories.</p><p></p><p>2) Picture Use: Again, difficult difficult difficult. Use of the temple site for both stories work well as pivotal locations in each.</p><p></p><p>That contraption/astrolabe/armillary-wutzit was also used well if somewhat literally in <em>Sleeping Gods</em>. The same image in <em>Caretaker </em>offers us, not only some magical containment device, but uses the figure beside it in a most creative way, altering the dimensions of our perceptions to have him be the sphere's gnome creator. Nicely done.</p><p></p><p><em>Caretaker </em>also delivers with the old man, as I originally took him, in passing, as a colorful but ultimately inconsequential "NPC" only to find, it's actually all about him! The use of the old man in <em>Sleeping Gods</em> was weak, I thought. Using him as astrologer/summoner was fine, but again, the description is of literal picture because he was "put and stuck" there in just that position by the god seemed very forced, very "just [literally] stick it here", to me.</p><p></p><p>The antlered lady, I have to say when I saw that pic I couldn't really think of what to expect from each. Both stories used her to great effect, one as the foil, one as the savior. Nicely done by you both. In retrospect, the priestess of the Hunt and the (demi-?) goddess of another antlered mythological figure equally seem so obvious to me. But you guys thought of them and I didn't. So, well done to you both there. </p><p></p><p>I think <em>Caretaker</em>'s getting an edge here for consistently strong and a couple of more creative uses.</p><p></p><p>3) Personal Enjoyment: Both read well. Both used the pictures well. Both plots pulled me in and had me eager to read "what's next." What's a judge to do?</p><p></p><p>This is not great reasoning, but this is the "Personal Enjoyment" portion after all. Simply put, I'm more of a sucker for some "fantasy world" fantasy than "supernatural stuff in the real world" kind of fantasy. Not a good reason but there it is, personal taste. I just plain enjoyed <em>The Caretaker</em> tale better. </p><p></p><p>I'ma say it again, "You guys are good." Both stories are very well done and writings you should both be very proud of.</p><p></p><p>I am almost ashamed to say, based on my own personal preference moreso than anything else, Steel Dragons' vote for winner of Round I: Match 5 goes to...</p><p><strong>UselessTrivaMan</strong></p><p></p><p>All of you guys gotta start submitting some sloppy, spelling and grammar error riddled, poorly thought out characters with disjointed plots. This is just getting too hard!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="steeldragons, post: 5860558, member: 92511"] Round I: Match 5 maxfieldjadenfox's [I]Let Sleeping Gods Lie[/I] vs. UselessTriviaMan's [I]The Caretaker's Gift[/I] Let's to it, shall we? 1) Writing Skill & Style: You guys are good. Seriously, very good. In the face of two beautifully crafted settings, thoroughly enjoyable characters, and fantastically engaging plots, what is there to judge here? Typos? Not that I noticed. Spelling, grammar...nothing I can really readily see. The telling of [I]Caretaker's[/I] tale through the eyes of a street urchin and the relatively short but thoroughly evocative descriptions of his and Digger's day-to-day life in the streets was brilliantly done. The wonder and awe of a large fantasy city was, for me, brought to life. Every character, even the barely seen gnome (I'm going to assume) "artificer" of some sort and the kindly Brahmin priest feel like complete three dimensional character with barely a sentence or two devoted to them. The great black cloaked and antlered helmeted Huntsmen who would as soon skewer you with their spears as look at you, who from a child's point of view seem to me like giants. [I]I [/I]don't want to meet them! Just wonderful. Everything wrapped around the (presumably) ongoing battle between servants of conflicted gods. [I]Sleeping God[/I]'s story is equally evocative. Again we are served up with an ancient battle between deities...this time in our own world. The characters are equally solid, the use of the mythology intriguing. The actual battle between Pashupati and Ravana was again wonderfully evocative while maintaining a well written conservation of word. I loved the Rakashas bursting out of the statues. I thought the introduction of Gupta and Hiran was a bit clunky. Rather, maybe, it was the scene change and the necessity thereof that bothered me a little. There was nothing wrong with Gupta or Hiran themselves. The whole bit about the railroad workers and finding the stone and Charles Masson was a cute tidbit and creative way to tie in the location (though I had to google him to find out what the reference was or was meant for) but I don't think it much helped to further the story, really, and feels kinda unnecessary. All in all, however, if that is the only thing I can really say about the style/skill portion, that's really not a lot. Let's see if things diverge a bit more in the other categories. 2) Picture Use: Again, difficult difficult difficult. Use of the temple site for both stories work well as pivotal locations in each. That contraption/astrolabe/armillary-wutzit was also used well if somewhat literally in [I]Sleeping Gods[/I]. The same image in [I]Caretaker [/I]offers us, not only some magical containment device, but uses the figure beside it in a most creative way, altering the dimensions of our perceptions to have him be the sphere's gnome creator. Nicely done. [I]Caretaker [/I]also delivers with the old man, as I originally took him, in passing, as a colorful but ultimately inconsequential "NPC" only to find, it's actually all about him! The use of the old man in [I]Sleeping Gods[/I] was weak, I thought. Using him as astrologer/summoner was fine, but again, the description is of literal picture because he was "put and stuck" there in just that position by the god seemed very forced, very "just [literally] stick it here", to me. The antlered lady, I have to say when I saw that pic I couldn't really think of what to expect from each. Both stories used her to great effect, one as the foil, one as the savior. Nicely done by you both. In retrospect, the priestess of the Hunt and the (demi-?) goddess of another antlered mythological figure equally seem so obvious to me. But you guys thought of them and I didn't. So, well done to you both there. I think [I]Caretaker[/I]'s getting an edge here for consistently strong and a couple of more creative uses. 3) Personal Enjoyment: Both read well. Both used the pictures well. Both plots pulled me in and had me eager to read "what's next." What's a judge to do? This is not great reasoning, but this is the "Personal Enjoyment" portion after all. Simply put, I'm more of a sucker for some "fantasy world" fantasy than "supernatural stuff in the real world" kind of fantasy. Not a good reason but there it is, personal taste. I just plain enjoyed [I]The Caretaker[/I] tale better. I'ma say it again, "You guys are good." Both stories are very well done and writings you should both be very proud of. I am almost ashamed to say, based on my own personal preference moreso than anything else, Steel Dragons' vote for winner of Round I: Match 5 goes to... [B]UselessTrivaMan[/B] All of you guys gotta start submitting some sloppy, spelling and grammar error riddled, poorly thought out characters with disjointed plots. This is just getting too hard! [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
CERAMIC DM March 2012
Top