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@Fenris-77 and @GMMichael, my judgement for Round2, Match 2 has been posted.

Rune’s Judgement for IRON DM 2025 Round 2, Match 2: Fenris-77 vs GMMichael Overview With this match, we have two adventures that differ in setting, style, and even tone. GMMichael’s A Convenient Prophecy (“Prophecy”) is a fairly simple investigation into what ultimately turns out to be a hoax...

Apologies. We gave you a particularly challenging set of ingredients. Particularly challenging sets of ingredients require additional scrutiny. Additional scrutiny takes both extra time and extra effort, which in turn must be woven around the aforementioned real-life obligations as they...

I’m taking notes, but real life stuff going to keep interrupting. Probably won’t be the first one, this time. In the meantime, feel free to talk amongst yourselves. I’ll give you a topic: Humorous Tavern Names

The Ranger stood out as particularly odd to me. Who plays rangers with medium armor? I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in 5e that wasn’t dex-based.

If my math is correct, @GMMichael only has a few minutes to hit the first deadline. If you’re going to miss it, keep in mind the word-count limit reductions for late entries! Edit= Just beat me! Good on you!

No. If what you’re talking about is also the Iron GM that used to be done at GenCon, my past research into the matter indicates that was started in 2004 and had a different structure (it used 3 ingredients and then the contestants would actually run the adventures produced). Although I can’t say...

When I first got to college, there was a large Vampire LARP scene. Most of them were women (as near as I could tell as a non-participant) and almost certainly most were not gamers (video- or tabletop). Most of them probably were theatre kids, though. Admittedly, I am (and was) basing those...

Whatever that process is, I assure you we are not out to get any of you. Keep that in mind when your match begins. I offer you my sincerest apology for your upcoming headaches.

Favors. If an NPC owes you a favor, you have influence over them. Especially if they can expect repercussions for not following through when you call them in. But even if they don’t, that can be useful, too. At the very least, they will probably try to avoid you, and you will know that they...

I caught it (very) late in the process, but was unsure if it was intentional. Given that it further muddied the intent of the ingredient and didn’t really seem to be very impactful to the adventure, I opted not to rewrite my assessment. I’m glad you called it out, though, because it was clever.

I’m certain I’ve reused a few along the way and/or repeated ones other judges have used. I keep a running list throughout the year of potentially good ingredients as they occur to me (or phrases I come across in the wild) and add to it when and if I end up as a judge. But I don’t cross-reference...

I always liked the 3e setting. The book read like a textbook, but world felt like a powderkeg just waiting for a spark to set it all aflame. Never did get a chance to do much gaming in it, though.

@humble minion and @AustinHolm, my judgement for your match has been posted.

Rune’s Judgement for Round 2, Match 1: humble minion vs. AustinHolm Overview I kind of love it when two competing entries could dovetail together into a single adventure. This isn’t quite that. Despite using different systems, both entries so seamlessly fall into their shared genre that they...

Yes, assuming you don’t try to sneak in exposition.

Perhaps a simpler model is this: Who does something to whom?

That one requires a little restructuring: It may be of concern to him/her.

About the ingredient=a name thing: it’s about how essential it is. An ingredient that could be easily replaced with some other thing isn’t essential to the adventure. Generally, when an entry uses the ingredient as the name of a thing, the judges tend to view that as an indication that the...