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IRON DM 2014 Tournament
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<blockquote data-quote="Radiating Gnome" data-source="post: 6494740" data-attributes="member: 150"><p><strong>Iron DM round 1 match 2: Waylander the Slayer vs Deuce Traveler</strong></p><p></p><p>Well, Damn it, I'm starting off with a tough one. Two masters going at the ingredients hammer and tongs. So, rather than goof around with too much preamble, lets get down to brass tacks and try to pick a winner.</p><p></p><p>Okay, I lied, one preamble (since this is my first judgement this year): I make an effort to refer to the entry, not the DM: IMO it's important to be clear that I'm evaluating the entry, not the person who wrote it. So, this is a match between The Void Plague (VP) and The Happy, Hapless Honoraries' Horrific Happenstance (Hx5). </p><p></p><p><strong>First Stop, Ingredients. </strong></p><p></p><p><u>Obsessive-Compulsive Otyugh</u> - In VP, the Otyugh is given a name, and a special role -- it roams the countryside infecting villages and somehow seeding a religion for otyughs in the process. Murtag is a lot of fun, and I like him better than the wailing otyugh that appears in Hx5 in a very minor way. So +1 for VP</p><p></p><p><u>Endless Quest</u> - In VP, this is Murtag's compulsion to infect the countryside. I find this use weak -- he's not questing for something specific, not trying to infect a specific town, he's roaming and spreading the worms as a compulsion, but does that make it a quest? I don't quite think so. At the same time, the endless quest of the void-trapped villagers isn't really any better. They're both gestures in the right direction, but I don't think either quite works. </p><p></p><p><u>Dicey Situation</u> - in VP, the PCs have to cut people up to remove the worms -- this feels like an ingredient is being slapped on something that it doesn't quite fit. In Hx5, the void monsters cut people up with a nightmare machine (going to give me nightmares, for sure). Hx5 is a little better on this one, I think. +1 for Hx5</p><p></p><p><u>Void</u> - Both used this fairly well. I chewed on the VP voids a bit - I have to remind myself that the "voids" in that case are small v voids -- cavities -- not the extraplanar big V Voids.It’s also usually a warning sign when an entry comes up with multiple uses for an ingredient — usually that means they’ve come close several times but not really done it well once, but in this case it was serviceable. Hx5 uses the void as the sort of macro setting -- it's not really as integral to the story as the VP voids, but at least I don't have to stew about them. Call it a wash. </p><p></p><p><u>Suspiciously Nice Village</u> - Again, both played well with this one. </p><p></p><p><u>Wolf in Sheep's Clothing</u> - While I'm disappointed no one tried to use the actual WiSC monster, both used this one fairly well as a concept. So, again, no advantages. </p><p></p><p>SO, awesome. Ingredients are no help at all. </p><p></p><p><strong>Playability</strong></p><p></p><p>So, some of the good stuff here is that while both adventures rely on some backstory, neither relies on it a ton to include the ingredients, and there's plenty of action in both for the players to engage in. </p><p></p><p>Both put the PCs at unusual risk -- the idea that a PC might become infected, then cured in VP is interesting (and terrifying). They would both be interesting, and perhaps frightening to play. </p><p></p><p><strong>Creativity and Rat Bastardy</strong></p><p></p><p>In VP, the players wander into the plague zone, perhaps get infected, meet the stepford people who are left behind cured, get on the trail of Murtag and wind up ... finding a spelljammer, jaunting off into the void to fight the Gith? There's a sudden tone shift in the adventure, where it goes from a very grounded, spooky plague story in town squares and all of a sudden you're sailing off into the ether on a completely conveniently parked ship. That bothers me a bit.</p><p></p><p>I also struggle a little with how Murtag is spreading the disease — clearly, if he’s the carrier, it must not be spread by touch — so it must be airborne. He roams through the warrens spreading the disease to the villages above them — how does that work? Wouldn’t he need to get closer? </p><p></p><p>At the same time, the idea of the pursuit seems really interesting. PCs get on the trail of the nice people, get to the kid “healing” them; once they get ahead of the kid on the trail they can start to follow in the path of the plague. They probably track it above ground until they get the idea that the carrier might be traveling underground, then they have to take on the pursuit underground, fighting past a readguard of religiously-inspired otyughs? Could be a great time.</p><p></p><p>Hx5 feels a little less colorful, a little less concrete to me, but at least the tone seems to be consistent through the whole adventure -- even if the players must discover the horrible truth of the place, at least that truth doesn't feel like a complete left turn. Don’t get me wrong — Hx5 could be a lot of fun to play — the sinister carnival atmosphere, and the hints of Something Wicked This Way Comes, etc. But why 750 pounds of "human material”? What’s special about that number? Why is it determined by weight? </p><p></p><p>There’s a lot to like about Hx5. Beedlebottom will be an interesting villain, and the scenes of entertainment and debauchery could also be a lot of fun to play out. Another thing I like about it is the very thematic horror feel of the game — the PCs don’t necessarily have to kill everything there — the important thing is to figure out what’s going on and survive until morning so they can escape. </p><p></p><p>The alliteration of the name is cute, but feels out of place to the tone of the rest of the piece, but that's a petty complaint. </p><p></p><p><strong>Final Judgement</strong></p><p></p><p>So, yeah. This is a tight one. Both entries are really strong. Both could seriously win this round and move on to the next, but only one can. So, how do I try to make a distinction? </p><p></p><p>For that, I’m going to go back to….</p><p></p><p>[sblock]</p><p></p><p>…..major personalities. In VP, the two major personalities are Alloric and Murtag, and each one is an ingredient in the challenge. Alloric is the wolf, Murtag is the OCD Otyugh. They come directly out of the ingredients in the challenge. The dilemma of having to figure out what to do with an apparently innocent 6 year old who is causing a lot of harm could be a fun challenge for a group that digs into good RP. </p><p></p><p>In Hx5, the major personalities are Beedlebottom and the unnamed merchants, and the army of destrachans, Beedlebottom is the Wolf, but the other characters don’t really tie to ingredients as well — the destrachans are perhaps creatures of the void, but that’s at best a weak tie to an ingredient. The merchant and his crew are just hapless victims, not ingredients. So, in a very important way, Hx5 is a little weaker than VP — it has used important elements that are not as well tied to ingredients than VP did. </p><p></p><p>So, I’ll award this nail-biter decision to <strong><u>Waylander the Slayer</u></strong>. Thank you both for such terrific entries. </p><p></p><p>[/sblock]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Radiating Gnome, post: 6494740, member: 150"] [b]Iron DM round 1 match 2: Waylander the Slayer vs Deuce Traveler[/b] Well, Damn it, I'm starting off with a tough one. Two masters going at the ingredients hammer and tongs. So, rather than goof around with too much preamble, lets get down to brass tacks and try to pick a winner. Okay, I lied, one preamble (since this is my first judgement this year): I make an effort to refer to the entry, not the DM: IMO it's important to be clear that I'm evaluating the entry, not the person who wrote it. So, this is a match between The Void Plague (VP) and The Happy, Hapless Honoraries' Horrific Happenstance (Hx5). [B]First Stop, Ingredients. [/B] [U]Obsessive-Compulsive Otyugh[/U] - In VP, the Otyugh is given a name, and a special role -- it roams the countryside infecting villages and somehow seeding a religion for otyughs in the process. Murtag is a lot of fun, and I like him better than the wailing otyugh that appears in Hx5 in a very minor way. So +1 for VP [U]Endless Quest[/U] - In VP, this is Murtag's compulsion to infect the countryside. I find this use weak -- he's not questing for something specific, not trying to infect a specific town, he's roaming and spreading the worms as a compulsion, but does that make it a quest? I don't quite think so. At the same time, the endless quest of the void-trapped villagers isn't really any better. They're both gestures in the right direction, but I don't think either quite works. [U]Dicey Situation[/U] - in VP, the PCs have to cut people up to remove the worms -- this feels like an ingredient is being slapped on something that it doesn't quite fit. In Hx5, the void monsters cut people up with a nightmare machine (going to give me nightmares, for sure). Hx5 is a little better on this one, I think. +1 for Hx5 [U]Void[/U] - Both used this fairly well. I chewed on the VP voids a bit - I have to remind myself that the "voids" in that case are small v voids -- cavities -- not the extraplanar big V Voids.It’s also usually a warning sign when an entry comes up with multiple uses for an ingredient — usually that means they’ve come close several times but not really done it well once, but in this case it was serviceable. Hx5 uses the void as the sort of macro setting -- it's not really as integral to the story as the VP voids, but at least I don't have to stew about them. Call it a wash. [U]Suspiciously Nice Village[/U] - Again, both played well with this one. [U]Wolf in Sheep's Clothing[/U] - While I'm disappointed no one tried to use the actual WiSC monster, both used this one fairly well as a concept. So, again, no advantages. SO, awesome. Ingredients are no help at all. [B]Playability[/B] So, some of the good stuff here is that while both adventures rely on some backstory, neither relies on it a ton to include the ingredients, and there's plenty of action in both for the players to engage in. Both put the PCs at unusual risk -- the idea that a PC might become infected, then cured in VP is interesting (and terrifying). They would both be interesting, and perhaps frightening to play. [B]Creativity and Rat Bastardy[/B] In VP, the players wander into the plague zone, perhaps get infected, meet the stepford people who are left behind cured, get on the trail of Murtag and wind up ... finding a spelljammer, jaunting off into the void to fight the Gith? There's a sudden tone shift in the adventure, where it goes from a very grounded, spooky plague story in town squares and all of a sudden you're sailing off into the ether on a completely conveniently parked ship. That bothers me a bit. I also struggle a little with how Murtag is spreading the disease — clearly, if he’s the carrier, it must not be spread by touch — so it must be airborne. He roams through the warrens spreading the disease to the villages above them — how does that work? Wouldn’t he need to get closer? At the same time, the idea of the pursuit seems really interesting. PCs get on the trail of the nice people, get to the kid “healing” them; once they get ahead of the kid on the trail they can start to follow in the path of the plague. They probably track it above ground until they get the idea that the carrier might be traveling underground, then they have to take on the pursuit underground, fighting past a readguard of religiously-inspired otyughs? Could be a great time. Hx5 feels a little less colorful, a little less concrete to me, but at least the tone seems to be consistent through the whole adventure -- even if the players must discover the horrible truth of the place, at least that truth doesn't feel like a complete left turn. Don’t get me wrong — Hx5 could be a lot of fun to play — the sinister carnival atmosphere, and the hints of Something Wicked This Way Comes, etc. But why 750 pounds of "human material”? What’s special about that number? Why is it determined by weight? There’s a lot to like about Hx5. Beedlebottom will be an interesting villain, and the scenes of entertainment and debauchery could also be a lot of fun to play out. Another thing I like about it is the very thematic horror feel of the game — the PCs don’t necessarily have to kill everything there — the important thing is to figure out what’s going on and survive until morning so they can escape. The alliteration of the name is cute, but feels out of place to the tone of the rest of the piece, but that's a petty complaint. [B]Final Judgement[/B] So, yeah. This is a tight one. Both entries are really strong. Both could seriously win this round and move on to the next, but only one can. So, how do I try to make a distinction? For that, I’m going to go back to…. [sblock] …..major personalities. In VP, the two major personalities are Alloric and Murtag, and each one is an ingredient in the challenge. Alloric is the wolf, Murtag is the OCD Otyugh. They come directly out of the ingredients in the challenge. The dilemma of having to figure out what to do with an apparently innocent 6 year old who is causing a lot of harm could be a fun challenge for a group that digs into good RP. In Hx5, the major personalities are Beedlebottom and the unnamed merchants, and the army of destrachans, Beedlebottom is the Wolf, but the other characters don’t really tie to ingredients as well — the destrachans are perhaps creatures of the void, but that’s at best a weak tie to an ingredient. The merchant and his crew are just hapless victims, not ingredients. So, in a very important way, Hx5 is a little weaker than VP — it has used important elements that are not as well tied to ingredients than VP did. So, I’ll award this nail-biter decision to [B][U]Waylander the Slayer[/U][/B]. Thank you both for such terrific entries. [/sblock] [/QUOTE]
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