Iron DM 2010 Discussion Thread

[Iron Sky]

 

[CleverNickName]

I sent him a private message yesterday, but I haven't heard back from him. It's your call, judge.

 

[humble minion]

Phew, that's possibly the most brutal set of ingredients I'd ever seen in all the time I've been reading (and participating in) Iron DM competitions! Really, really, really nasty, whoever dreamed that lot up.

I try to make a habit of mentally planning out what I'd do with a set of ingredients (it's good practice!), and this one was really rough.

[sblock]
The tough bit I've always found in these things is making everything directly relevant - it's very easy to have the items just be McGuffins and the NPC/creatures be disposable enemies. Why is it important that the ingredient is a songbow rather than a flaming sword? Why is the 'chronometerness' of the broken chronometer significant? Why a weretiger, rather than an ogre, hag or doppleganger? This is made doubly hard when so many ingredients are double-barrelled. Both songness and bowness need to be important, both aerialness and swampness, both humanness and slaverness. Like I said, this was one of the tougher ingredient set I've ever seen.

If I was judge (and I'm not!) I'd probably give it to MortalPlague. His chronometer and songbow are his weaker ingredients, but he's integrated his weretiger and universal suffrage together really nicely, and the crusty old scholarly noble running a retreat for lycanthropes from his hoary old mountain manor is a memorable character in a memorable setting. I think both players had a bit of trouble with the human slaver - MP's renegade son doesn't do much slaving, while it doesn't seem to be important that ender's repellent robber baroness is human. Those double-barrelled ingredients are very tough. ender's gas-belching swamp floating over a grubby industrialising city is wonderfully pulp-Victorian/Eberronian, but I'm not sure that the universal suffrage inherent in the setting is particularly central to what the PCs actually do.
[/sblock]

Excellent effort first up though. I was originally scheduled for this ingredient set, and I have to admit I was very glad indeed that my match had been shifted once I saw the ingredients...

 

[InVinoVeritas]

I'll allow 24 hours for this first round, as the contestants get used to the format, then the ingredients appear tonight at 9 PM EDT no matter what.

 

[Pbartender]

I have to admit I was very glad indeed that my match had been shifted once I saw the ingredients...

I wouldn't be.



Sanzuo, humle minion: This is your only warning. My ingredients will be posted at 9:19 am CST tomorrow morning. From then, you will have 24 hours to complete your submissions.

And let me just say that I'm glad I know neither of you personally.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

I've posted my first round judgement for Mortal Plague and Ender Wiggin's match. Now it's time to get caught up on THIS thread.

-rg

 

[humble minion]

I wouldn't be.

Sanzuo, humle minion: This is your only warning. My ingredients will be posted at 9:19 am CST tomorrow morning. From then, you will have 24 hours to complete your submissions.

And let me just say that I'm glad I know neither of you personally.

*gulp*

Ok, bring it on.

 

[CleverNickName]

I wouldn't be.

Sanzuo, humle minion: This is your only warning. My ingredients will be posted at 9:19 am CST tomorrow morning. From then, you will have 24 hours to complete your submissions.

And let me just say that I'm glad I know neither of you personally.

Oh, snap.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

I'm glad I didn't let myself look at this thread until I'd written my response!

A chronometer is a device that measures time...it could be a sundial, an hourglass, a grandfather clock, a waterclock, whatever. It had such potential...but both contestants dropped it. Radiating Gnome ain't gonna like this...he hates McGuffins.

In "WCGtD," the broken chronometer could have been replaced with nearly any broken object...two pieces of a broken sword, two halves of a friendship bracelet, etc., and the story wouldn't notice. And in "GiG," the chronometer isn't a chronometer at all, but a sextant or compass or something more suited to measuring distance or location, not time. And even so, it could have been replaced quite easily with a map. Time, or the need to measure it, isn't a significant part of either story.

Just FWIW, A chronometer was an important part of a navigator's toolkit -- the sextant is used to determine latitude, and to help determine the exact moment of solar noon. Once you have solar noon, you can check your chronometer to determine noon at Greenwich, and use the difference between the two to determine your longitude. And, reliable time was also incredibly important for ships when they need information about the tides -- which is how the chronometer is used in this case in GG. I found it very well used in that case, actually.

 

[CleverNickName]

I'm glad I didn't let myself look at this thread until I'd written my response!

That's why I double-bagged it in SBLOCKs.

Just FWIW, A chronometer was an important part of a navigator's toolkit -- the sextant is used to determine latitude, and to help determine the exact moment of solar noon. Once you have solar noon, you can check your chronometer to determine noon at Greenwich, and use the difference between the two to determine your longitude. And, reliable time was also incredibly important for ships when they need information about the tides -- which is how the chronometer is used in this case in GG. I found it very well used in that case, actually.

Holy crap, you are absolutely right. I totally forgot about solar or tidal navigation, and I had no idea you could find Lon that way. Apologies, ender! (And thanks for not calling me out for my ignorance in your reply. XP for you!)