Fall '03 Iron DM Tournament -- Wulf Ratbane is Iron DM!

[Wulf Ratbane]

We're ready for the second round! Proceeding onwards, we have:

Nemmerle
Wicht
Rune
Wulf Ratbane

Are any of you ready for the next round? Please post your availability, and we'll get started as soon as we can.

I am ready now. I am travelling on business all day Monday so a deadline of Sunday or Tuesday works for me.

There's going to be a new rule going into the next round, however: enough with the effin' curses. Some of the ingredients I introduced may have encouraged this, but it seems like about three-quarters of the entries so far have involved some sort of curse or another, used with varying degrees of success. No more curses!

Enough with the negative waves, then! If the ingredients are laced with negative conditionals, the authors have to explain them somehow.

One of my least favorites ever was "Diseased Paladin." The peanut gallery (you know who you are) had the nerve to claim that neither entry had properly used the ingredient. There's no such damn thing as a diseased paladin! Somethings got to give: either he's not a paladin, or it's not a real disease, innit?

 

[Dave Turner]

I must confess that I'm a bit puzzled by the latest judgment, Pie.

You criticize Mythago for (apparently unintentionally) relying on the events and content of a published novel, but you fail to mention Wulf's clear reliance on the archetypal Call of Cthulhu story? I'm quite familiar with CoC and the similarities are numerous and impossible to overlook, right down to use of an "alien word" from the original Lovecraft story ("fhtagn") to references of the "sleeping (and tentacled) god under the waves" and the PCs visit to a slime-covered location that has risen out of the waves.

I can appreciate that Wulf was under peculiar time constraints and jumped into the competition as an alternate. I also think that Wulf does incorporate some twists that keep his entry relatively fresh (the "reincarnated heroes" angle, the city being on the back of a dragon turtle). But then I read something like this:

I was disappointed by Mythago's entry: half of it felt to me like it was lifted from the pages of an (admittedly excellent) novel, and the stuff he added onto it felt like he was having trouble getting it to fit.

This criticism could just as equally be applied to Wulf's entry. I understand that judging is a subjective thing and the ruling of a judge is final. I just detect a bias in criticizing Mythago for "borrowing" while Wulf is subtly praised for it.

With all that said, I know that judging the entries and coming up with explanations for your decisions isn't the easiest thing to do. I'm simply raising some thoughts that came to mind as I read the judgement.

 

[el-remmen]

Judgment posted for Mythago vs. Wulf Ratbane.

We're ready for the second round! Proceeding onwards, we have:

Nemmerle
Wicht
Rune
Wulf Ratbane

I can't believe this competition! Usually one ofthe "big names" chokes in the first round and you get an upset making his way to the second.

Yikes!

I sure hope you figure out who goes against who randomly (please not wicht, please not wicht ) - but I likely won't have the time to devote until Wednesday. But if something changes before then I will post as much.

 

[el-remmen]

One of my least favorites ever was "Diseased Paladin." The peanut gallery (you know who you are) had the nerve to claim that neither entry had properly used the ingredient. There's no such damn thing as a diseased paladin! Somethings got to give: either he's not a paladin, or it's not a real disease, innit?

Survey says. . . . .. {buzzer sound}

Diseased Paladin was the best ingredient I ever used in one my entries, if I do say so myself.

I am a firm believer that the ruels can be bent and broken for the story as long as they serve the story in a strong way.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

This criticism could just as equally be applied to Wulf's entry. I understand that judging is a subjective thing and the ruling of a judge is final. I just detect a bias in criticizing Mythago for "borrowing" while Wulf is subtly praised for it.

That's a fair criticism. But I'll defend it anyway...

I think the simple combination of Destiny + Aboleth (and again, the nature of my writing at the moment) paired them up for a naturally cthulhuesque feel.

In addition, as it was an "experiment" in showing the DM how to handle Destiny, I felt that doing so with an gaming cliches would help. It's more than just the word "ftagn," that's actually the whole verse-- I just snipped Cthulhu's name out of it. The city on the back of the "leviathan" is cliche. I tried to make the descriptions of the former heroes cliches as well. The whole point was to make it easy for the DM to see examples and easy for the players to "connect" with the feel of an epic destiny.

I'm not going to put words in Daniel's mouth, and I am definitely NOT saying this is what happened in mythago's case, but there is a big difference between "lifting" a concept as a paean to a classic that all gamers should recognize, and lifting a concept from a source that few will recognize. I don't think there was any danger in my entry that folks would not realize I was deliberately calling on Cthulhu for the underpinnings of the fluff.

Lastly, I will say this: if the entry hadn't had so many sea-themed and Cthulhu themed ingredients (destiny, aboleth, dragon turtle, and forgotten tongue), I still would have pulled my "example adventure" from a different myth that was just as easy for the DM and players to connect to.

Wulf

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Diseased Paladin was the best ingredient I ever used in one my entries, if I do say so myself.

So was he no longer a paladin, or was it not really a disease? I don't recall your entry 100%-- wasn't your diseased paladin really more cursed than diseased?

I am a firm believer that the ruels can be bent and broken for the story as long as they serve the story in a strong way.

No, you misunderstood me. I completely agree with you, there. But I don't think the judge (and the peanut gallery) can fault the authors for having to do contortions with ingredients like that.

And, I think I'm trying to say, you can explain an awful lot with "an ancient curse." That's a major DM crutch, the ol' ancient curse. It's a wild card; by definition, curses often supercede the rules and the DM is under no obligation to explain them.

[EDIT] Which, I guess, is an excellent reason for our current judge to ban them from further entries. Perhaps someday when I judge, a curse is an automatic forfeiture.

Wulf

 

[Wicht]

If Wulf is ready to go now, I can wiggle room into my day to do the contest.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

If Wulf is ready to go now, I can wiggle room into my day to do the contest.

We know for certain from his prior posts that Rune won't be checking in today, right? So nemm may be out of luck.

I'll defer to nemm if he needs to get his round out of the way this weekend, but then I will need a Tuesday deadline.

That said, I suppose I am ready.


Wulf

 

[el-remmen]

Go ahead, Today, tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday are all bad for me. . .

As for the diseased paladin, she was an NPC who had fallen from favor from her god for emphasizing the justice side of her role over the compassionate side (not helping the sick and weak) - so she contracted a disease. I guess you could see that as a "curse" - but I thought of it more along the lines of a paladin having lost favor and trying to get it back and the PCs ended up inadvertantly in the way of that happening.

 

[mythago]

Wicht--it was an atoll, rather than an island. I pictured a shallowish lagoon in the middle, sort of a giant gated sea-elf community. As to how they were conquered, well, you know...pirates.