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[IRON DM] Winter '04 Tournament (IRON DM ANNOUNCED!)
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<blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 1365115" data-attributes="member: 11"><p><span style="font-size: 15px">Round One – Third Match-Up: Quickbeam vs. Cstyle</span></p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Blah-blah-blabbity-blah-blah</em>. Quickbeam, learn to cut down on the friggin’ exposition. When you have the IRON DM judge thinking “<em>when is something that concerns the PCs gonna happen?</em>” you know its bad news, and that is exactly how I felt when I was reading that long-winded backstory just to learn about a healing device that accidentally gave folks lycanthropy, and about how the gnomes hid the device but then made sure to create a way so that other people could find it – just so that adventurers would have something to do. . . I mean, just so. . .wait… why exactly again? And to learn a roadside inn is not <em>really</em> haunted but the secret headquarters of this line of guardian gnomes who makes the place seem haunted to keep people away (I kept expecting Scooby-Doo to show up) so he can guard what exactly? The lake? Well, he should have been guarding the weathervanes – too bad he couldn’t just destroy the weathervanes that were put on the castle’s spires among the humans because they were need for… wait…what again exactly? </p><p></p><p>I could stand 1500 words of background and set-up (1500 freakin’ words!) if I didn’t feel like the set-up was just folly from the beginning.</p><p></p><p>And it is not that the silver arrow/weather vanes are not a brilliant idea, because they certainly are – but heck, the characters never get to interact with them. And that is never good when it comes to IRON DM. </p><p></p><p>But what about Cstyle’s entry?</p><p></p><p>Well, at least he did not bore me with 1500 frikkin’ words of intro. He gave me BOOM! BOOM! Concise paragraphs explaining the background and the NPCs involved in the story right from the beginning and explained about the original Ritual of Ascension (watch third season of Buffy much? <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />) and while I am leery of great cosmic rituals (as much as I am sometimes forced to fall back on them in my own IRON DM entries) at least it was to the point.</p><p></p><p>But the flow of the adventure is ruined by Cstyle’s ‘roadside inn’ scene. It just seems a little too convenient that the inn the PCs will happen to pass by on their way to see the rival king will be that that the evil wizard banished the good dwarven spirit to, and he knows the whole story as well. Superfluous and obvious, Cstyle. He needs to do better than that if he wants to be an IRON DM. Heck, even Quickbeam’s Scooby-Doo inn is better than Cstyle’s, and that is saying something.</p><p></p><p>But, that is just a blot on an otherwise good adventure. The magical silver arrows while not as cleverly included as Quickbeam’s more than make up for it in texture and context of the kingdom the adventure takes places in, and it lends it those neat detailed cultural touches that makes a place come alive in the minds of the players. In addition, since the PCs actually are the bearers of the arrows, and need to impress a prickly, suspicious, ambitious and greedy rival king in order to gain his audience at the other king’s court, it is far superior a use of an ingredient than QB’s.</p><p></p><p>And that can be said for the use of most of these ingredients. It is interesting that both contestants’ <em>Kidnapped Princess</em> were not really kidnapped at all, or at least left the palace under false pretenses, which is a nice diversion – but the folly of Sabik’s flight with the charmed princess he loves and wants to protect is much more the actions of a man who wants to do the right think but lacks the confidence to do so in a brave and straight forward manner is much better use of the <em>lack of confidence</em> ingredient, and links up much better with both the kidnapped princess and the intimidating and powerful evil wizard, than the wizard turned royal guard who wears armor(?) because he lacks confidence…? Am I allowed to say, huh?</p><p></p><p>Both Cstyle and Quickbeam’s <em>Mysterious Stranger</em> left a lot to be desired, though again I prefer the former’s, as the Princess herself becomes the Mysterious Stranger – but the PCs don’t really get to interact with the mysterious stranger, and as things stand in the adventure will probably figure out who it was rather quickly, so that really weakens the ingredient use a great deal. Quickbeam’s is only slightly better in that the witnesses who saw his mysterious stranger (in this case the gnome guardian) can have their stories tied to the fictional caravan of gnome and create a red herring to be followed.</p><p></p><p>In the end the conflict and subterfuge of Cstyle’s scenario is great. The battle in the woods with the evil wizard, the possible race back to he castle to stop the ritual when the wizard teleports away and the body-switcheroo make for what would be not only a great adventure, but the consequences for the various possible outcomes would make for great campaign material. Heck, if it were my game, I would hope the evil wizard succeeded and became a great nemesis and thorn in the PCs side as he adds the power of nation to his arsenal of spells and knowledge. </p><p></p><p>Quickbeam’s possible endgames could have lot of interesting consequences as well. In fact, my own current campaign features a political situation and misunderstandings on both sides between a human kingdom and a community of gnomes. But while the wizard/warrior is an interesting character, as is the self-absorbed princess, I think the set-up itself and what leads to the possible war people the gnomes and humans is too weak to give the adventure any sort of urgency despite the ultimatum.</p><p></p><p>So yeah, [spoiler]<span style="font-size: 15px"><strong>Cstyle</strong></span> wins this match, hands down. He gets the upset over Quickbeam the former Holiday Iron DM of 2002 and a finalist in the ENWorld IRON DM Winter Tournament 2003, who was favored to win. Quickbeam better luck next time. I think you should enter more often to keep your skills up, ya slackin’, my friend.[/spoiler]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="el-remmen, post: 1365115, member: 11"] [size=4]Round One – Third Match-Up: Quickbeam vs. Cstyle[/size] [I]Blah-blah-blabbity-blah-blah[/I]. Quickbeam, learn to cut down on the friggin’ exposition. When you have the IRON DM judge thinking “[I]when is something that concerns the PCs gonna happen?[/I]” you know its bad news, and that is exactly how I felt when I was reading that long-winded backstory just to learn about a healing device that accidentally gave folks lycanthropy, and about how the gnomes hid the device but then made sure to create a way so that other people could find it – just so that adventurers would have something to do. . . I mean, just so. . .wait… why exactly again? And to learn a roadside inn is not [I]really[/I] haunted but the secret headquarters of this line of guardian gnomes who makes the place seem haunted to keep people away (I kept expecting Scooby-Doo to show up) so he can guard what exactly? The lake? Well, he should have been guarding the weathervanes – too bad he couldn’t just destroy the weathervanes that were put on the castle’s spires among the humans because they were need for… wait…what again exactly? I could stand 1500 words of background and set-up (1500 freakin’ words!) if I didn’t feel like the set-up was just folly from the beginning. And it is not that the silver arrow/weather vanes are not a brilliant idea, because they certainly are – but heck, the characters never get to interact with them. And that is never good when it comes to IRON DM. But what about Cstyle’s entry? Well, at least he did not bore me with 1500 frikkin’ words of intro. He gave me BOOM! BOOM! Concise paragraphs explaining the background and the NPCs involved in the story right from the beginning and explained about the original Ritual of Ascension (watch third season of Buffy much? ;)) and while I am leery of great cosmic rituals (as much as I am sometimes forced to fall back on them in my own IRON DM entries) at least it was to the point. But the flow of the adventure is ruined by Cstyle’s ‘roadside inn’ scene. It just seems a little too convenient that the inn the PCs will happen to pass by on their way to see the rival king will be that that the evil wizard banished the good dwarven spirit to, and he knows the whole story as well. Superfluous and obvious, Cstyle. He needs to do better than that if he wants to be an IRON DM. Heck, even Quickbeam’s Scooby-Doo inn is better than Cstyle’s, and that is saying something. But, that is just a blot on an otherwise good adventure. The magical silver arrows while not as cleverly included as Quickbeam’s more than make up for it in texture and context of the kingdom the adventure takes places in, and it lends it those neat detailed cultural touches that makes a place come alive in the minds of the players. In addition, since the PCs actually are the bearers of the arrows, and need to impress a prickly, suspicious, ambitious and greedy rival king in order to gain his audience at the other king’s court, it is far superior a use of an ingredient than QB’s. And that can be said for the use of most of these ingredients. It is interesting that both contestants’ [I]Kidnapped Princess[/I] were not really kidnapped at all, or at least left the palace under false pretenses, which is a nice diversion – but the folly of Sabik’s flight with the charmed princess he loves and wants to protect is much more the actions of a man who wants to do the right think but lacks the confidence to do so in a brave and straight forward manner is much better use of the [I]lack of confidence[/I] ingredient, and links up much better with both the kidnapped princess and the intimidating and powerful evil wizard, than the wizard turned royal guard who wears armor(?) because he lacks confidence…? Am I allowed to say, huh? Both Cstyle and Quickbeam’s [I]Mysterious Stranger[/I] left a lot to be desired, though again I prefer the former’s, as the Princess herself becomes the Mysterious Stranger – but the PCs don’t really get to interact with the mysterious stranger, and as things stand in the adventure will probably figure out who it was rather quickly, so that really weakens the ingredient use a great deal. Quickbeam’s is only slightly better in that the witnesses who saw his mysterious stranger (in this case the gnome guardian) can have their stories tied to the fictional caravan of gnome and create a red herring to be followed. In the end the conflict and subterfuge of Cstyle’s scenario is great. The battle in the woods with the evil wizard, the possible race back to he castle to stop the ritual when the wizard teleports away and the body-switcheroo make for what would be not only a great adventure, but the consequences for the various possible outcomes would make for great campaign material. Heck, if it were my game, I would hope the evil wizard succeeded and became a great nemesis and thorn in the PCs side as he adds the power of nation to his arsenal of spells and knowledge. Quickbeam’s possible endgames could have lot of interesting consequences as well. In fact, my own current campaign features a political situation and misunderstandings on both sides between a human kingdom and a community of gnomes. But while the wizard/warrior is an interesting character, as is the self-absorbed princess, I think the set-up itself and what leads to the possible war people the gnomes and humans is too weak to give the adventure any sort of urgency despite the ultimatum. So yeah, [spoiler][size=4][b]Cstyle[/b][/size] wins this match, hands down. He gets the upset over Quickbeam the former Holiday Iron DM of 2002 and a finalist in the ENWorld IRON DM Winter Tournament 2003, who was favored to win. Quickbeam better luck next time. I think you should enter more often to keep your skills up, ya slackin’, my friend.[/spoiler] [/QUOTE]
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