Thank you for judging Radiating Gnome! Looking back I agree with both of your main criticisms, in fact, I was half-expecting those to be talked about.
Polygamy - Several times I was on the verge of adding in details about the functions of non-alpha males in the Herds, their important status as warriors and hunters, with embellishments to the Chief Hunter granting them one-time breeding rights as rewards to maintain his power, with further discussions about a "normal" Trial of Challenge being from these "lesser" males rather than outsiders, thus making Eurytion's challenge seem more predatory.
All that was going through my head as I did my final edit, but I was sitting at 8 pages already I wasn't sure whether extra detail would obscure the main-line of the adventure or enhance it. I seem to have erred on my choice.
Playability - In initial conceptual draft, I had the players involved in all the trials in some manner, but I decided to "narratize" the three trials that seemed the least essential in tying together ingredients.
They would go on the hunt with Equus, talk to his wife-mares to collect testimony about his excellent husbandary(husbandry?) qualities, coach him for the Trial of Wisdom... Those three seemed less important than the two I chose and, if the party had done well enough (say, helped Equus win the first three trials), I decided the last two trials would have been rendered dramatically less interesting than the "he has to win both these trials or he loses!" scenario I set up.
I thought about it all again in the final edit, but ever since my first entry last year that ran nearly 13 pages, I've been hesitant to approach the 10 page mark that I would have easily hit or exceeded had I included all of the above.
It also didn't help that all the ingredients came together in my head within 15 minutes of looking at them, just clicked in a way that somehow took away most of the creative energy and excitement I get from trying to weave the ingredients together in these challenges. I had almost no inspiration for the first hour or two after that I worked on it since it was just typing up what I'd already figured out. I got a bit more into it later (the MT Dew probably helped), but I definitely felt uninspired to start.
Time-wise, this was probably the fastest entry I've done yet. I'd estimate it at about 15-20 minutes of brainstorming, 3-4 hours of writing, and an hour-and-a-half of editing/revising.
Ender, I really dug your entry, especially the initial description - when I finished reading it, I stopped and thought, "uh oh". The adventure as a whole reminds me of a cross between Fallout and Dark Sun that I really dig. Great entry, I really had no idea who was going to win this one until I read the judgment.
Anyway, looking forward to the next round!
