Here Are the Rules for IRON DM - Edited for this Tournament
1) Twelve contestants will be chosen for this tournament. Two slots being reserved, the first 10 people to post after 12:30 pm in this thread saying they want to play.
2) Alternates are only used if a contestant is not available at the agreed time of post the ingredients (see below) and no other arrangement has been made with the contestant in question ahead of time. The judge reserves the right to choose an alternate if a chosen contestant’s schedule becomes too inconvenient to work around. Note: Alternates should not get their hopes up. I have seen an alternate used perhaps 3 times in all the IRON DM tournaments I have run, participated in or observed.
3) The judge determines who gets paired with who based on availability of the contestants and based on whatever factors he deems appropriate to use.
4) The ingredients consist of six items. Typically (but not limited to), one or two monsters (like bugbear and bulette), one or two persons (a mayor or a blind bard), a place (a grain mill or a haunted marsh), one or two things (like a wand of magic missiles or a sharpened spoon), and an abstract concept or event (fear or a birthday party).
5) The ingredients are then used to design an overview of an adventure. You should try to either give the items equal importance in the adventure, or ingenious and pertinent ways to incorporate into the adventure. You are free to add and create any other elements of the adventure, but the use of too much filler to bring unrelated objects together will likely lead a judgment against you.
6) The length of an entry varies. Anything from a detailed side-trek to outline for a longer adventure is allowed. However, being too long and too specific can work against you as if you bore the judge you are likely to lose. Try to keep it below 2500 words. Do not worry about stat blocks. However, being too short and too vague can work against you as well, as leaving too many pertinent questions unanswered is a sign of a weak adventure. Note: Due to the extra number of match-ups in this tournament, I will be a lot stricter about length - You stand warned. The 2500 limit does no include the inclusion as a list/summary of the ingredients and how they were used as a postscript to your entry.
7) The judge reserves the right to disqualify any entry due to poor formatting or atrocious spelling and/or grammar, which makes reading the entry too difficult to be worth it. You have to be pretty bad for this to happen, but you stand warned.
8) Contestants have 24 hours (based on the posting time) from when the ingredients are posted to post their entry. To be safe, you should simultaneously email the entry to the judge in question.
9) Once your entry is posted you may not edit it. Any editing is grounds for an immediate disqualification. If something is so terrible that is has to be fixed PM the judge about it. Remember to list your ingredients and who you are competing against at the top of your entry.
10) Obviously, one of the two contestants has to post first. We go by the honor system that the latter contestant will NOT read his competitor’s entry until AFTER he has posted his own.
11) Comments and questions are welcome from the peanut gallery, however, PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT ON THE INGREDIENTS or give any kinds of suggestions until after both entries are posted and do not comment on the entries in any specific way until after judgment is posted.
12) An entry posted even one minute past the deadline is disqualified, unless the poster’s competitor is willing to let it slide, or the judge sees a reason for an extension to be called (boards going down, for example).
13) All judgments are final. Judgments are direct and honest and can often come off as harsh. Your scenario will be picked apart. Deal with it. It is part of the fun. If you do good you will also get gushing praise, but a poorly used ingredient will be pointed out like a gigantic glistening yellowed zit on your nose in home economics class.
14) Each round is single elimination, except the final round, where the three finalists will each get two matches (one against each of the other two) to determine the finalist. The finalists will be provided with a single "special tie-breaking ingredient" which they may use in either their first or second match (but not both). In the case of a three-way tie, how this specific ingredient was handled will determine the winner.
15) In the final round, the judge may include up to 10 “bonus ingredients” in the ingredient list. The contestants may use as few or as many of these ingredients are they like. However, their use is only counted in the case of a needed tie-breaker (when the level of competition is very good or very bad ties are not all that uncommon). Please do note, that the use of a bonus ingredient can still be counted AGAINST you if you use it poorly even if there is not a tie-breaker situation, so choose carefully.
16) The winner of the third and final round is crowned “Iron DM” and he (or she) will be guaranteed a seat in the next IRON DM tournament.
