(I’m going to make this quick, so Wulf can see the judgment this morning)
This round was not easy to judge, for different reasons than previous rounds. One contestant excelled in one area of the contest, while the other contestant’s strength was in the other area. Ultimately, I had to decide what I value most in an entry; had I weighed it differently, I would’ve judged differently.
Some overall comments:
Open Seas: neither of you railroaded PCs into a particular plotline.
Characters: There were four major characters between the two entries; three of them were your basic boilerplate characters, while the fourth was underdeveloped. Wulf’s Greta is a fairly standard femme fatale; Stan Zigler is everyone’s favorite annoying reporter. The fiendish vampire has little to recommend him over any other Ancient Dark Lord Who Will Rise Again to Terrify The Populace. Only Trafican (whom I inexplicably pictured with a bad toupee and running for congress from prison) was a deviation from central casting – and I had a little trouble understanding his motives. What exactly did he hope to gain from bring Slarcyx back? Greta and Stan, however, were tremendously fun PCs, and while they’re standard for their genre, they’re unusual for roleplaying games.
Mood: Wicht created a decent mood, of impending doom and prophecy, through his adventure. Wulf’s LA Confidential meets the Thing, however, was fantastic, at turns funny and terrifying – and terrifying through simple things like hysterical laughter.
Scenes: Wicht’s scenes – the falling stars, the taunting in the ruins of the old city, the attacks by chaos beasts amidst the fragmented prison – worked well for me, but ended up feeling like they didn’t break any new ground. Wulf’s scenes were unusual and grotesque, and appealed to me a lot more.
Overall, Wulf was a lot stronger on characters, mood, and scene. On specific ingredients, however, we’ll see something else:
Oubliette: This was Wulf’s worst ingredient. A factory where you dump bodies is a far cry from an actual oubliette, which should be a dungeon, not a grave. It was far enough from the ingredient that I considered disqualification. However, structurally it looked the same, and by stretching oubliette to mean a place where you put people so they’ll be forgotten (regardless of whether they’re alive), I can allow it. Wicht’s oubliette, OTOH, was pretty cool.
Vampiric Bard: Wulf’s strongest ingredient, despite no vampiric bard appearing in the adventure: it’s a good red herring. Wicht’s bard didn’t really need to be a bard; a loremaster would’ve made more sense to me.
Chaos Beast: Neither of you used it spectacularly well. Wicht’s chaos beasts do indeed seem like extraworldly creatures, but they could’ve just as easily been any sort of demon or aberration. Wulf’s chaos beast never appeared in the adventure at all; however, its influence was strongly felt, and suggested a cool game mechanic (of allowing a character who survives the chaos beast’s disease to gain both limited shapeshifting and insanity).
Falling Stars: Used well by both. I wondered if someone would find a way to make falling stars refer to celebrities; Wulf did that and had the ingredient do double-duty as the perfume jar. Wicht’s falling stars serve to divide the adventure into discrete scenes and to lend a sense of urgency to the adventure, both good uses.
Olfactory clue: Interesting that rotten bodies served as an olfactory clue in each. Again, Wulf’s OF did double-duty (triple with the old-factory clue – cute!), and the perfume as a clue was a much subtler use, the kind of thing a player feels all smart for picking up on.
Hysteria: Wicht’s mass hysteria was a stronger use: mobs are always fun to deal with. Greta’s hysteria more confused me than added to the adventure, I thought: although it makes sense on a third reading, it ultimately felt a little forced to me.
In the end, I though Wicht’s adventure was the more solid of the two: the adventure flowed more smoothly, and events held together better, and I think he used the ingredients, on balance, better than Wulf. Wulf’s adventure was a little ragged around the edges for me, and used two ingredients in ways I wasn’t very happy with. However, it took more risks, both in terms of setting (not so important a risk) and feel (a lot bigger a risk); its scenes and characters and mood were superior.
Which is more important to me: polish and ingredient use, or evocative story pieces? This is arbitrary on my part. Since I’m the arbiter, that’s okay. As a DM, cool elements in a slightly messy adventure is more useful to me than a solid adventure that doesn’t break that much new ground.
It’s a very tough call, but this round goes to Wulf. Congratulations, and Wicht, I wish yours had been up against a weaker entry so that the decision could’ve been easier. Both were very strong.
Daniel
