Holiday Iron DM!!!! {Final Judgment Posted!}
Quickbeam
Explorer
-- Congrats to Arwink and Wicht...great job both of you!!
-- Zappo: How is it that we BOTH had seven kazoos in our stories?!? That's just plain freaky!! Right off the bat, the kazoo ingredient screamed gnome bard to me. And I thought it would be funny to have this chap believe each one played in a different pitch (A-G) instead of it being the changes in his own voice bringing about the altered tones. I really liked your entry, and tip my cap regardless of what happens.
-- BTW, thanks again nemmerle for understanding and believing my sincere attempts to post on time. I would have accepted a disqualification (despite my frustrations) if that had been the ruling.
...now we wait...
-- Zappo: How is it that we BOTH had seven kazoos in our stories?!? That's just plain freaky!! Right off the bat, the kazoo ingredient screamed gnome bard to me. And I thought it would be funny to have this chap believe each one played in a different pitch (A-G) instead of it being the changes in his own voice bringing about the altered tones. I really liked your entry, and tip my cap regardless of what happens.
-- BTW, thanks again nemmerle for understanding and believing my sincere attempts to post on time. I would have accepted a disqualification (despite my frustrations) if that had been the ruling.
...now we wait...
el-remmen
Moderator Emeritus
Zappo vs. Quickbeam Results
Zappo vs. Quickbeam
Zappo's Entry: While I like the idea of artifact kazoos, the fact that they summon armies sets off my alarms right off the bat. It just doesn't seem to fit thematically - but that is just a minor detail - but sometimes a minor detail can give you an impression that the rest of the adventure reinforces.
As in the last round I judged, here we have an entry with an "old shool flavor". The party is retrieving a magical item from a larger "dungeon" complex - though I really like the fact that it is a giant halfling house - I can imagine a labyrinth of rooms - like Bag End as a mansion. But a bit more cohesion as to what could be found there and making it a more specific threat would have been a better choice than the vagueness of encounters like "One of the outer rooms is the lair of a pack of dire wolves"
The use of the wishing well ingredient - also had the old school adventure pool - like those pools with a variety of effects in the old those old B1-B3 adventures (if I remember correctly) - but what is it and what does it have to do with the plot of the adventure? And if it is just "dungeon-dressing" what does it have to do with the halfling that created this place?
And how does the hydra survive in there?
The final part of the adventure seems to want to shoehorn some court intrigue in there - or at least it seems like it has the opportunity to do this and fails - It seems like the action of the final part is too scripted - it assumes the orc will be killed - but if all these goblins on wolves suddenly appear - who is to say this will happen? And where has the real Riker been while he was being imitated? Would not the orc rogue made sure to get rid of him?
The halfling valkyries also seemed shoe-horned in.
Quickbeam's Entry: While Quickbeam's entry has some weaknesses - It is very creative in his use of magical toys to be the primary means the "villian" of the scenario takes action. While the idea of toys used to commit crimes can be found in several sources (including an episode of Batman: The Animated Series) there are a lot of good details in this entry to save it from the realm of the cliche - including the use of the "wishing well" ingredient as a means to leading to the passages used in the crimes and the assumption on the part of the townspeople that halflings must be behind the spree.
Also, the hydra being polymorphed into a toad is a neat idea - but would it not have been neater if there were some word that if spoken aloud would turn it back into a hydra! It could have been written among the notes -giving the PCs a chance to accidentall set the thing free (perhaps Grace wanted to trick the wizard into falling victim to his own hydra).
The best thing about this entry is the investigative nature of it - leaving lots of room for role-playing - but this is also its weakness - the addition of at least one combat encounter, even if it were tangental to the plot of the adventure might have been a better way to make it more rounded.
Quickbeam's incorporation of the ingredients give him the clear advantage in this round - and so, I have to give it to him.
Quickbeam vs. Zappo. Winner = Quickbeam
He will go on to face Arwink
Good effort, Zappo - I hope to see you compete again in the future.
Zappo vs. Quickbeam
Zappo's Entry: While I like the idea of artifact kazoos, the fact that they summon armies sets off my alarms right off the bat. It just doesn't seem to fit thematically - but that is just a minor detail - but sometimes a minor detail can give you an impression that the rest of the adventure reinforces.
As in the last round I judged, here we have an entry with an "old shool flavor". The party is retrieving a magical item from a larger "dungeon" complex - though I really like the fact that it is a giant halfling house - I can imagine a labyrinth of rooms - like Bag End as a mansion. But a bit more cohesion as to what could be found there and making it a more specific threat would have been a better choice than the vagueness of encounters like "One of the outer rooms is the lair of a pack of dire wolves"
The use of the wishing well ingredient - also had the old school adventure pool - like those pools with a variety of effects in the old those old B1-B3 adventures (if I remember correctly) - but what is it and what does it have to do with the plot of the adventure? And if it is just "dungeon-dressing" what does it have to do with the halfling that created this place?
And how does the hydra survive in there?
The final part of the adventure seems to want to shoehorn some court intrigue in there - or at least it seems like it has the opportunity to do this and fails - It seems like the action of the final part is too scripted - it assumes the orc will be killed - but if all these goblins on wolves suddenly appear - who is to say this will happen? And where has the real Riker been while he was being imitated? Would not the orc rogue made sure to get rid of him?
The halfling valkyries also seemed shoe-horned in.
Quickbeam's Entry: While Quickbeam's entry has some weaknesses - It is very creative in his use of magical toys to be the primary means the "villian" of the scenario takes action. While the idea of toys used to commit crimes can be found in several sources (including an episode of Batman: The Animated Series) there are a lot of good details in this entry to save it from the realm of the cliche - including the use of the "wishing well" ingredient as a means to leading to the passages used in the crimes and the assumption on the part of the townspeople that halflings must be behind the spree.
Also, the hydra being polymorphed into a toad is a neat idea - but would it not have been neater if there were some word that if spoken aloud would turn it back into a hydra! It could have been written among the notes -giving the PCs a chance to accidentall set the thing free (perhaps Grace wanted to trick the wizard into falling victim to his own hydra).
The best thing about this entry is the investigative nature of it - leaving lots of room for role-playing - but this is also its weakness - the addition of at least one combat encounter, even if it were tangental to the plot of the adventure might have been a better way to make it more rounded.
Quickbeam's incorporation of the ingredients give him the clear advantage in this round - and so, I have to give it to him.
Quickbeam vs. Zappo. Winner = Quickbeam
He will go on to face Arwink
Good effort, Zappo - I hope to see you compete again in the future.
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Quickbeam
Explorer
Wow...I won!! I can't believe it!! I really liked Zappo's entry, and especially the old school flavor mentioned in the judgment. Thank you very much for the fair and insightful critique, nemmerle. It didn't even occur to me, that inserting the command word for releasing the hydra into the nonsense papers would be very wicked and nasty!!
Question:
Am I playing Wicht or Arwink next? In your earlier post you indicated it would be Arwink, now it's Wicht. Just curious.
Question:
Am I playing Wicht or Arwink next? In your earlier post you indicated it would be Arwink, now it's Wicht. Just curious.
