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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rune" data-source="post: 8068106" data-attributes="member: 67">It has been a crazy year. This has been a long time coming, but here we go:[spoiler=Thoughts on my final entry of the tournament]Probably the first question that comes to mind when speaking of this entry is, why write this for such an obscure system? I didn’t really intend to at first. In fact, I was searching very hard for a way to sidestep doing a western at all. But the ingredients sometimes tell you how they want to fit together and, in particular, the “wandslinger’s disgrace” and “beef” (and, to a lesser extent, “doctor’s orders” and “wicked valley”) kept driving me back toward the genre. Then I stumbled across my copy of Owl Hoot Trail and I just kinda had to. Flipping through the bestiary, I came across the hell hound entry and read that they roved in packs and served the Adversary. I was sold.The truth is, I didn’t even really use the system at all. It was pretty much a system-neutral entry disguised as an Owl Hoot Trail adventure. But that doesn’t mean that the decision to package the entry with the trappings of an obscure system wasn’t still a barrier to entry. So...risky start.To counter that, I did a couple of things that were intended to help ease the reader into the piece. One was successful, I think. The other...probably backfired.First, I wanted to make sure that I made the town of Decadence as much an NPC as any of the other characters, while also efficiently layering in as much necessary GM information as possible. While also doing it with as few NPCs as possible.I ended up with the two NPCs important to the adventure and two meant to stand in for all of the rest of the townsfolk. Ruby and Ugly Bonnie were meant to deliver rumors, clues, and context for the PCs. In fact, Ruby pretty much tells the PCs what’s going on in town right at the start, although she doesn’t know what it means (and they probably won’t, either!). I think I did pretty well with that.The other thing I tried didn’t work so well. Or, if it did, it didn’t do so universally. I tried to deliver the piece in a colliqual tone. While, at the same time, not overdoing it.Deuce called out a misspelling early on that, I think, illustrates the kinds of risks I was taking thoughout. “Besideswhich” may well have been a mistake on my part, but it was a deliberate decision. I actually agonized over dividing the made-up word into its two real-word components, hyphenating it, or combining them into one word. The Sam Elliot-esque voice narrating in my head insisted that the two should be one. Still does.But, that’s the thing. In the absence of any communication on my part that the reader should be Sam Elliot, I had to rely on subtlety to carry the intent. Clearly, it didn’t work for at least the one judge. Worse, making up a word combination that looks like a typo or misspelling calls attention to itself and further removes the reader from immersion into the piece! The fact that I intentionally made a decision that had that outcome speaks more to me about which skills I need to hone than any actually significant flaws that the entry has.And there certainly is one of those. Not the plot hole that Deuce called out. I don’t view that as a plot hole, at all. If the PCs wonder why the townsfolk aren’t too bothered by the routine disappearance of drifters, that’s a good thing: it points the PCs toward the fact that the townsfolk are complicit and that their ignorance is largely willful! Which is a necessary ingredient for the Demon’s possession to work, incidentally, as I do point out in the piece.So. Not a plot hole. But it does point to a fairly significant structural weakness in the adventure: the fundamentally unnecessary excursion into the labyrinth to hunt a minotaur. The players can skip this entirely without changing the future events of the adventure a single bit. It’s purpose is to help clue the PCs in to what’s going on. However, if the PCs skip it, they might get shuttled toward the climax without actually understanding what the stakes of the adventure are. And, on top of that, they won’t really have done much adventuring before they get there!In hindsight, I might, at the very least, seed an extra hook in by having one of the townsfolk’s children adventure into the labyrinth and need rescuing or somesuch. Oh well.[/spoiler][spoiler=Thoughts on Iron Sky’s winning entry]Now, frankly, Iron Sky’s entry started out looking kind of rough. A huge preface filled with exposition and background is generally a daunting way to begin these things. But then something magical happened.With the stage set, the PCs enter and, all of a sudden, the reader is presented with hyper-efficient, easily consumable sets of information that present multiple factions, clear stakes, and tons for the PCs to do. In fact, if it were to be played through repeatedly, it would probably play out very differently each time. It is a solid adventure, and an excellent one.I liked the adventure presented in my entry. It had some pretty good elements in it and I think it would be pretty fun to run or play in. But Iron Sky’s adventure is masterfully presented and is worthy of the title that it claimed. Congratulations, sir.[/spoiler]With all of that said, I want to belatedly thank Deuce Traveler, Radiating Gnome, and Gradine for putting in the effort to judge this tourney. It’s hard to understand from the outside how much of a commitment of time and energy it takes to be a judge for one of these tournaments, so I want to make sure to be vocal with my praise.On that note, I want to take a step further and point out that (from my outside point of view), Gradine did a fantastic job of organizing this tournament and keeping it rolling along. Having done that a fair few times myself, I know that it is an extra layer of challenge beyond the judging of entries. I wouldn’t bring something like this up, normally, but, since this was also Gradine’s debut as an IRON DM judge, I feel it is important to make sure that goes noticed, too.So, again, thanks, y’all. Let’s see what this year’s tourney brings!</blockquote>

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