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2019 IRON DM Tournament
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<blockquote data-quote="Iron Sky" data-source="post: 7864730" data-attributes="member: 60965"><p>Finally, a patch of post-Thanksgiving free time! Man, it's been a long time since I won one of these. According to my notes, this is the 7th tournament I've competed in in the last 11-odd years, between missing a few and judging a couple.</p><p></p><p>For Rune's final entry, I started off a bit confused with the immediate leap to the NPCs, but ended up impressed at all the different personalities, motivations, knowledge, and secrets. Like what I tried to do with my faction leaders, but successful. The descent to the minotaur's maze not to be hunted, but to hunt for steak was awesome as was the demon-possessed froghemoth battle. Cool stuff. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>As I hit "Reply" on my final entry, I initially felt certain it was one of my best. Re-reading it a day later, however, I found a ton of criticisms that I would have picked out (and did in similar entries when I was a judge): initiating with a long backstory instead of my more functional and interesting discover-as-it's-relevant mode, spreading faction information in two or three places instead of putting it all together for comprehension, and my stubborn refusal to look over the ingredients again once I'd set my mind to what the adventure "was about" to tighten them up lest they distort my plan. I did like each of the faction personalities (whether I conveyed them successfully is another matter) and plan to reuse the intertwined agenda "fronts" - as Rune pointed out.</p><p></p><p>I think my success at this tournament - as razor-thin the margins on my last two matches were - came down to my priorities this time around: weave the ingredients together as tightly as possible and focus on making the coolest adventure I could. If ingredients were individually weak, I hoped they would grow stronger in the weave and if I didn't win I was at least going to put out an adventure I'd want to run or play in.</p><p></p><p>I skimmed through old entries and can tell just from the reading what a different person I was then and how my GMing/writing style has changed. That and my reactions, especially to losing. Funny how certain I was each entry was awesome and the judges were wrong when they just didn't get it, yet now I wince to read parts of them.</p><p></p><p>[SPOILER="Summary of old entries"]Here's a one-sentence summary of <em>all</em> of my entries to date to illustrate the diversity of material this contest spawns:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A comet brings a plague of undeath to the world, culminating in building a giant lightning-powered robot to fight Death on the comet (also 15 pages long...)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A trip to the dreaming lands at the border of the Feywild with the PCs trapped in a Groundhog's-Day-esque dream sequence, the "correct" replaying of which breaks the curse.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A modern-fantasy pursuit of an ancient mythological shapeshifter to find a magic cello and break into the tombs beneath the Vatican.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A delve into Centaur election ceremonies, undergoing a series of trials to help elect the rightful Chief Hunter against the wishes of a prejudiced Matriarchy.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A wacky gladiator contest full of terrible puns and barely concealed sexual innuendo featuring crazy games and battles against "Jason and the Aaargonauts", an infinitely self-replicating sheep named Dolly, and the kobold pun-pun.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A tragic Star Wars adventure enlisting the PCs to recover artifacts of "the Prophet" to enact a miracle for a father's dying daughter.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">An off-beat military-esque mission into the Underdark featuring electric, undead-packed fungal forests culminating in breaching a lightning fort inside a flying whale to fight a Wight with delusions of grandeur.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A bizarre (and ill-fated) D&D hunt for the psychotic White Rabbit, a (poorly executed) through-the-looking-glass mashup of the Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, and the Little Mermaid.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A grim, campaign-arc worth of material focused on combating a steampunk Far Realm "Aberrancy" in the midst of committing centaur genocide.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">An epic-level trip to the Far City at the border of the Far Realms to fight a plane-spanning mafia, featuring flying god-fed piranhas, a cross-city upside-down parkour scene at "night" when gravity reverses, and fighting a Wyld Dragon whose breath weapon bends reality.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A Warhammer Fantasy jaunt to a forbidden, forgotten city to fight the Skaven and Horned Rat breeding and brooding within.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">An X-Files/Twin Peaks investigation to a small town full of strange, quirky characters that culminate in a fun-house battle against little gray aliens (or PCs going to federal prison for mass-murder).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A journey amid a multi-planar war to save reality by infiltrating two warring gods domains, babysitting a petulant demigod, and a final riddle involving the intentional distortion of space-time.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A shipwrecked discovery of a small town plagued by hags disguised as the town's guardian dragon while a shadow rift raises the town's dead.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A post-Ragnarok, multi-continent investigation, hired by a cursed sphinx to find the missing God of Love.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A multi-faction fantasy Western placing the PCs between desperados, a witch doctor, xenophobic elves, a giant carnivorous snail, and a demon-guarded, imprisoned ancient storm elemental.</li> </ul><p>[/SPOILER]</p><p></p><p>If anyone somehow managed to read all the way down here, this is why I take at least partial credit for the imposition of word limits a few tournaments back. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite7" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue :p" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":p" /></p><p></p><p>[SPOILER="LFG!"]Also, I've left my IRL gaming group. I was delegated to "backup GM" when the main GM was out of town, but as much as I enjoy playing, GMing's my jam. After the holiday season (early January most likely) I'm hoping to start running a bi-weekly game on Roll20 after starting a local meatsuit game seems to be a bust. I'm not exactly sure what I'll run but I usually default to Blades in the Dark or Dungeon World if I haven't found a shiny new system to try out.</p><p></p><p>If anyone thinks they might want to play one of my games - see my bulleted list above for a vague idea of what you might expect - shoot me a message! My games are player-focused, faction-driven, gritty, cinematic affairs and I generally view my campaigns as seasons of a mini-series with the players as the lead actors. We'd probably play every week or two, either Sundays or perhaps the occasional weekday morning.[/SPOILER]</p><p></p><p>Lastly, thank you to the judges for putting this on. Having sat in those hard-backed, uncomfortable chairs of yours, I know now how difficult judging can be and how much time you set aside to read, re-read, analyze, and finally write the judgments.</p><p></p><p>Props to all my fellow competitors and GMs who stepped up to throw your creations at the mercy of the internet. It's not easy, but I, at least, have learned with every win and loss and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I have. It might sound melodramatic or corny, but I'm a better writer, GM, and person thanks to this contest and look forward to coming back next year to do it again!</p><p></p><p>Edit: Spoilers to allow ramble bypass.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Iron Sky, post: 7864730, member: 60965"] Finally, a patch of post-Thanksgiving free time! Man, it's been a long time since I won one of these. According to my notes, this is the 7th tournament I've competed in in the last 11-odd years, between missing a few and judging a couple. For Rune's final entry, I started off a bit confused with the immediate leap to the NPCs, but ended up impressed at all the different personalities, motivations, knowledge, and secrets. Like what I tried to do with my faction leaders, but successful. The descent to the minotaur's maze not to be hunted, but to hunt for steak was awesome as was the demon-possessed froghemoth battle. Cool stuff. :) As I hit "Reply" on my final entry, I initially felt certain it was one of my best. Re-reading it a day later, however, I found a ton of criticisms that I would have picked out (and did in similar entries when I was a judge): initiating with a long backstory instead of my more functional and interesting discover-as-it's-relevant mode, spreading faction information in two or three places instead of putting it all together for comprehension, and my stubborn refusal to look over the ingredients again once I'd set my mind to what the adventure "was about" to tighten them up lest they distort my plan. I did like each of the faction personalities (whether I conveyed them successfully is another matter) and plan to reuse the intertwined agenda "fronts" - as Rune pointed out. I think my success at this tournament - as razor-thin the margins on my last two matches were - came down to my priorities this time around: weave the ingredients together as tightly as possible and focus on making the coolest adventure I could. If ingredients were individually weak, I hoped they would grow stronger in the weave and if I didn't win I was at least going to put out an adventure I'd want to run or play in. I skimmed through old entries and can tell just from the reading what a different person I was then and how my GMing/writing style has changed. That and my reactions, especially to losing. Funny how certain I was each entry was awesome and the judges were wrong when they just didn't get it, yet now I wince to read parts of them. [SPOILER="Summary of old entries"]Here's a one-sentence summary of [I]all[/I] of my entries to date to illustrate the diversity of material this contest spawns: [LIST] [*]A comet brings a plague of undeath to the world, culminating in building a giant lightning-powered robot to fight Death on the comet (also 15 pages long...) [*]A trip to the dreaming lands at the border of the Feywild with the PCs trapped in a Groundhog's-Day-esque dream sequence, the "correct" replaying of which breaks the curse. [*]A modern-fantasy pursuit of an ancient mythological shapeshifter to find a magic cello and break into the tombs beneath the Vatican. [*]A delve into Centaur election ceremonies, undergoing a series of trials to help elect the rightful Chief Hunter against the wishes of a prejudiced Matriarchy. [*]A wacky gladiator contest full of terrible puns and barely concealed sexual innuendo featuring crazy games and battles against "Jason and the Aaargonauts", an infinitely self-replicating sheep named Dolly, and the kobold pun-pun. [*]A tragic Star Wars adventure enlisting the PCs to recover artifacts of "the Prophet" to enact a miracle for a father's dying daughter. [*]An off-beat military-esque mission into the Underdark featuring electric, undead-packed fungal forests culminating in breaching a lightning fort inside a flying whale to fight a Wight with delusions of grandeur. [*]A bizarre (and ill-fated) D&D hunt for the psychotic White Rabbit, a (poorly executed) through-the-looking-glass mashup of the Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, and the Little Mermaid. [*]A grim, campaign-arc worth of material focused on combating a steampunk Far Realm "Aberrancy" in the midst of committing centaur genocide. [*]An epic-level trip to the Far City at the border of the Far Realms to fight a plane-spanning mafia, featuring flying god-fed piranhas, a cross-city upside-down parkour scene at "night" when gravity reverses, and fighting a Wyld Dragon whose breath weapon bends reality. [*]A Warhammer Fantasy jaunt to a forbidden, forgotten city to fight the Skaven and Horned Rat breeding and brooding within. [*]An X-Files/Twin Peaks investigation to a small town full of strange, quirky characters that culminate in a fun-house battle against little gray aliens (or PCs going to federal prison for mass-murder). [*]A journey amid a multi-planar war to save reality by infiltrating two warring gods domains, babysitting a petulant demigod, and a final riddle involving the intentional distortion of space-time. [*]A shipwrecked discovery of a small town plagued by hags disguised as the town's guardian dragon while a shadow rift raises the town's dead. [*]A post-Ragnarok, multi-continent investigation, hired by a cursed sphinx to find the missing God of Love. [*]A multi-faction fantasy Western placing the PCs between desperados, a witch doctor, xenophobic elves, a giant carnivorous snail, and a demon-guarded, imprisoned ancient storm elemental. [/LIST] [/SPOILER] If anyone somehow managed to read all the way down here, this is why I take at least partial credit for the imposition of word limits a few tournaments back. :p [SPOILER="LFG!"]Also, I've left my IRL gaming group. I was delegated to "backup GM" when the main GM was out of town, but as much as I enjoy playing, GMing's my jam. After the holiday season (early January most likely) I'm hoping to start running a bi-weekly game on Roll20 after starting a local meatsuit game seems to be a bust. I'm not exactly sure what I'll run but I usually default to Blades in the Dark or Dungeon World if I haven't found a shiny new system to try out. If anyone thinks they might want to play one of my games - see my bulleted list above for a vague idea of what you might expect - shoot me a message! My games are player-focused, faction-driven, gritty, cinematic affairs and I generally view my campaigns as seasons of a mini-series with the players as the lead actors. We'd probably play every week or two, either Sundays or perhaps the occasional weekday morning.[/SPOILER] Lastly, thank you to the judges for putting this on. Having sat in those hard-backed, uncomfortable chairs of yours, I know now how difficult judging can be and how much time you set aside to read, re-read, analyze, and finally write the judgments. Props to all my fellow competitors and GMs who stepped up to throw your creations at the mercy of the internet. It's not easy, but I, at least, have learned with every win and loss and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I have. It might sound melodramatic or corny, but I'm a better writer, GM, and person thanks to this contest and look forward to coming back next year to do it again! Edit: Spoilers to allow ramble bypass. [/QUOTE]
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