Wulf Ratbane
Adventurer
First, just a couple of quick comments on my ingredients. I was not at all surprised to see both entrants use the Devil in the Details as an actual devil, as expected and almost intended. The ingredient list was starkly devoid of “monsters” or other antagonists. I was a little surprised that neither entrant tried a similar play on words with the Mind’s Eye—I was so hoping to see an illeth/beholder combination!
Neither entrant really stepped up to the plate on the grim and gritty bonus challenge. Nemmerle, in fact, seemed to take it in the complete opposite direction. After reading in the first paragraph that nemm intended this to be a humorous adventure, I just sort of sat there shell-shocked for a second. I didn’t know if he was deliberately sticking his finger in my eye, I just knew that I wasn’t going to let it count against him at all. Because—and I don’t want to ascribe motivations to nemm, but because I am the judge, I will—it seemed more and more like nemm was just phoning this one in. I have all sorts of theories in my mind as to why, many of which seem absurd or silly, but I can’t shake the feeling.
At any rate, as I said, I am determined to judge this one on the merits. So let’s take a look at nemm’s entry.
To be sure, these were difficult ingredients. But nemm’s ingredient use seems to lack a single theme—that is, unless you accept “These are all the failed experiments of a mad wizard…” as a unifying theme. What is the connection between the Mind’s Eye, the Iron Warriors, and the Defeated Champion? Well… They’re all failed experiments of a mad wizard.
Now, in any other format, I can accept, even embrace, that kind of old-school dungeon design: lots of different creatures thrown together in a single dungeon. Nemm himself gives a specific nod to this kind of dungeon design. But in the context of Iron DM, this just seems to be a huge cop-out; it’s like he decided to “drop back and punt.”
I mean, really, what combination of six ingredients couldn’t be explained away with this kind of theme?
I mentioned at the outset how important it was to tie the ingredients together; “building bridges,” I termed it in an earlier judgment. When I contrast nemm’s entry with Zappo’s—well, it’s a very stark contrast.
Individually, there’s nothing overtly wrong about nemm’s ingredient use. He’s strong on the ingredients where strength was expected, and weak where weakness was expected (the Shoe Horn and the Oversight, mainly).
The main problem is simply the lack of a satisfying theme—satisfying, as laid out by the judge when we started. The ingredients have to be used together in a cohesive way, and with a verisimilitude that is believable to the players.
Were it not for the fact that I have seen nemmerle deftly handle difficult ingredients before, I wouldn’t be sitting here now, so damned consternated at his entry, and trying to figure out why it’s so… well, disappointing. I know that he is capable of better. Honestly, I ended up spending more time worrying about nemm’s possible motivations (the most worrying of which was, “Wulf’s itching to rule against me anyway so why bother?” which ran a close second to “It wouldn’t be seemly for the Iron DM creator to win, so I’ll just throw this one…”).
But let’s set all that aside, because I don’t want to detract at all from Zappo’s entry. Zappo’s first entry in this tourney was unremarkable but I think, at this point of the game, he’s got the swing of things. This is a good entry by any measure.
Like any entry, Zappo has some weak ingredient use, and some very strong ingredient use. That’s usually what happens when the entrant tries to find a unifying theme: you’ll have one or two ingredients that you use very strongly, very vividly, and a couple of ingredients that you have to downplay a little bit to make the strong ingredients work just that much better.
Zappo had some very clever ingredient use; and in cases where he was weak, he tried to “double up.” His Mind’s Eye artifact, at least superficially, was the same as nemm’s, merely a modus for detect thoughts; but Zappo goes a step further: The user can see his own mind, if he knows the proper command; the failure to discover and use this ability is an unforgivable oversight that could have prevented a lot of misery.
Nemm’s Devil in the Details was a bit of a clever pun, but when you stand it up next to Zappo’s architectural infernal summoning circle, it doesn’t really compete. It’s a bit of an interesting parallel that Zappo’s devil also spends his time with an overarching, nefarious plan. I greatly enjoyed the thought of the devil with a tweak here and there over literally centuries leading up to this grand schism in the faith and his opportunity to manifest in this world.
The Shoe Horn is Zappo’s weakest ingredient use; weak both times he tried to (you guessed it) shoe-horn it into the entry. I don’t buy the shoe-horn in terms of Karlith’s command, but the wife’s ivory shoe horn, while indisputably useless, was a sweet touch. Sweet, but weak.
Still, I didn’t expect anything spectacular out of this ingredient; in fact I cut it and replaced it several times before I decided to go with it. I knew it would be a very difficult ingredient to work into the entry. Although the overall use was weak, I think Zappo used it in a way that justified his backstory and his stronger ingredients and preserved verisimilitude. It certainly worked better for me than nemm’s gnomish cobblers.
A close runner up for weak use are Zappo’s Iron Warriors; not what I would consider an improper use of an ingredient, but nevertheless unremarkable.
Even so, Zappo’s entry, and his ingredient use, is remarkably cohesive for such a disparate and difficult set of ingredients. I seems that he did what nemmerle could not—or for whatever reason, would not—do: bind together a single theme around the individual ingredients. If you look back at my original criteria for judging, this judgment is pretty clear-cut.
I certainly hope this judgment doesn’t qualify as a bloodbath; and I hope for some explanation from nemm on what I consider a sub-par entry from a championship caliber competitor—even if that explanation is, “Well, your ingredients were too friggin hard, ya prick!” If I offend in my assessment, it is only because I have come to expect so much better.
But it’s clear to me that Zappo really stepped up to the plate on this one. While it’s not the home-run that I think his semi-final entry was, I think it’s clear he didn’t go for the bunt, either.
I award this round, and the title of IRON DM SPRING 2004 CHAMPION, to Zappo.
Neither entrant really stepped up to the plate on the grim and gritty bonus challenge. Nemmerle, in fact, seemed to take it in the complete opposite direction. After reading in the first paragraph that nemm intended this to be a humorous adventure, I just sort of sat there shell-shocked for a second. I didn’t know if he was deliberately sticking his finger in my eye, I just knew that I wasn’t going to let it count against him at all. Because—and I don’t want to ascribe motivations to nemm, but because I am the judge, I will—it seemed more and more like nemm was just phoning this one in. I have all sorts of theories in my mind as to why, many of which seem absurd or silly, but I can’t shake the feeling.
At any rate, as I said, I am determined to judge this one on the merits. So let’s take a look at nemm’s entry.
To be sure, these were difficult ingredients. But nemm’s ingredient use seems to lack a single theme—that is, unless you accept “These are all the failed experiments of a mad wizard…” as a unifying theme. What is the connection between the Mind’s Eye, the Iron Warriors, and the Defeated Champion? Well… They’re all failed experiments of a mad wizard.
Now, in any other format, I can accept, even embrace, that kind of old-school dungeon design: lots of different creatures thrown together in a single dungeon. Nemm himself gives a specific nod to this kind of dungeon design. But in the context of Iron DM, this just seems to be a huge cop-out; it’s like he decided to “drop back and punt.”
I mean, really, what combination of six ingredients couldn’t be explained away with this kind of theme?
I mentioned at the outset how important it was to tie the ingredients together; “building bridges,” I termed it in an earlier judgment. When I contrast nemm’s entry with Zappo’s—well, it’s a very stark contrast.
Individually, there’s nothing overtly wrong about nemm’s ingredient use. He’s strong on the ingredients where strength was expected, and weak where weakness was expected (the Shoe Horn and the Oversight, mainly).
The main problem is simply the lack of a satisfying theme—satisfying, as laid out by the judge when we started. The ingredients have to be used together in a cohesive way, and with a verisimilitude that is believable to the players.
Were it not for the fact that I have seen nemmerle deftly handle difficult ingredients before, I wouldn’t be sitting here now, so damned consternated at his entry, and trying to figure out why it’s so… well, disappointing. I know that he is capable of better. Honestly, I ended up spending more time worrying about nemm’s possible motivations (the most worrying of which was, “Wulf’s itching to rule against me anyway so why bother?” which ran a close second to “It wouldn’t be seemly for the Iron DM creator to win, so I’ll just throw this one…”).
But let’s set all that aside, because I don’t want to detract at all from Zappo’s entry. Zappo’s first entry in this tourney was unremarkable but I think, at this point of the game, he’s got the swing of things. This is a good entry by any measure.
Like any entry, Zappo has some weak ingredient use, and some very strong ingredient use. That’s usually what happens when the entrant tries to find a unifying theme: you’ll have one or two ingredients that you use very strongly, very vividly, and a couple of ingredients that you have to downplay a little bit to make the strong ingredients work just that much better.
Zappo had some very clever ingredient use; and in cases where he was weak, he tried to “double up.” His Mind’s Eye artifact, at least superficially, was the same as nemm’s, merely a modus for detect thoughts; but Zappo goes a step further: The user can see his own mind, if he knows the proper command; the failure to discover and use this ability is an unforgivable oversight that could have prevented a lot of misery.
Nemm’s Devil in the Details was a bit of a clever pun, but when you stand it up next to Zappo’s architectural infernal summoning circle, it doesn’t really compete. It’s a bit of an interesting parallel that Zappo’s devil also spends his time with an overarching, nefarious plan. I greatly enjoyed the thought of the devil with a tweak here and there over literally centuries leading up to this grand schism in the faith and his opportunity to manifest in this world.
The Shoe Horn is Zappo’s weakest ingredient use; weak both times he tried to (you guessed it) shoe-horn it into the entry. I don’t buy the shoe-horn in terms of Karlith’s command, but the wife’s ivory shoe horn, while indisputably useless, was a sweet touch. Sweet, but weak.
Still, I didn’t expect anything spectacular out of this ingredient; in fact I cut it and replaced it several times before I decided to go with it. I knew it would be a very difficult ingredient to work into the entry. Although the overall use was weak, I think Zappo used it in a way that justified his backstory and his stronger ingredients and preserved verisimilitude. It certainly worked better for me than nemm’s gnomish cobblers.
A close runner up for weak use are Zappo’s Iron Warriors; not what I would consider an improper use of an ingredient, but nevertheless unremarkable.
Even so, Zappo’s entry, and his ingredient use, is remarkably cohesive for such a disparate and difficult set of ingredients. I seems that he did what nemmerle could not—or for whatever reason, would not—do: bind together a single theme around the individual ingredients. If you look back at my original criteria for judging, this judgment is pretty clear-cut.
I certainly hope this judgment doesn’t qualify as a bloodbath; and I hope for some explanation from nemm on what I consider a sub-par entry from a championship caliber competitor—even if that explanation is, “Well, your ingredients were too friggin hard, ya prick!” If I offend in my assessment, it is only because I have come to expect so much better.
But it’s clear to me that Zappo really stepped up to the plate on this one. While it’s not the home-run that I think his semi-final entry was, I think it’s clear he didn’t go for the bunt, either.
I award this round, and the title of IRON DM SPRING 2004 CHAMPION, to Zappo.
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