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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nifft" data-source="post: 4991814" data-attributes="member: 6562">[sblock]You both have crafted solid scenarios. You both have a pair of stand-out excellent ingredient uses. Let's look at those first:Underdark Jungle: Iron Sky gets a point here. Very evocative, brings the exotic location to life. Wik, your jungle is more plausible, but less usable: in my experience, only a minority of groups are interested in the challenges of wilderness survival, let alone supply-train logistics and disease among the troops. Still, the sulphur-charged deluges atop the warm pools covered by fungal matter... also very cool.Lightning Fort: Iron Sky gets his second point. Wik, I like the idea of a fort turned electric by the strong presence of the kuo-toa -- but if it's so full of them already, why don't they already have the Trident?Evil Healer: Wik wins this one. Ebon Grai is a work of evil genius. I don't hate the Paladin "healing evil", but it's not as great, and not nearly as central. Ebon Grai is just plain awesome: "Be brave. This will only hurt until you die."Military Draft: Wik edges out a point here. Frankly, I love both. Wik, the idea that the PCs are on the "recruiting end" is going to be a (hopefully welcome) novelty to the players, who are usually the ones being talked down to by some jerk with a crown. Iron Sky, your crowned jerks are so well done that they absolutely buck the cliche, but your use of "draft" is less central -- in Wik's scenario, the draftees are the responsibility of the PCs, and the Evil Healer is able to be Evil precisely because the PCs care about the NPCs they drafted. Iron Sky, your (hilarious) military commanders could be dark cloaked figures who meet the PCs in a bar. Great military flavor, insufficient centrality of "draft".Purple Wights: Both are okay. I like Wik's wights, but I also like the "royal purple" of Iron Sky's wight. If we took away Iron Sky's military commanders who spell stuff out, his purple-painted wights could be a great survival clue to the PCs. Point to Wik for deeply creepy flavor.Trident of Fish Control: Wik, your Trident is basically a plot-point, but it's a good one, and it sets up a massive battle climax of PCs + their previous foes vs. their previous ally + the troops they drafted, which is a nice twist. However, the idea of using flying planar fish to breach an underdark lightning fort is awesome. I have no idea how I'm going to steal that, but mark my words, I will.... and that would leave us tied. Feh.Evocative flavor: both got this in spades. The jungles are both nice, and both sets of shepherd NPCs are also surprisingly cool. Of those, Ebon Grai is a fairly good tie for the Sparkrift Jungle, so again... feh.On to usability: large time investment for Wik's scenario (all those draftees), but quite the payoff, and good DM advice smoothes that complexity significantly. Iron Sky, I wish you'd given a good justification for why Bellows isn't willing join the PCs. Not that I want the shepherd NPC to join them, but I want a plausible reason for why he's staying behind. That said, his plan of attack is great. Once more... feh.Since both of you did really great work, it comes down to who dropped the ball the most times in terms of plot holes. Wik, I don't like how the reasoning behind the Lightning Fort negates the reasoning behind the Trident remaining unclaimed. Iron Sky, I feel that your Military Draft was weak to the point of being contrived, even if the military flavor was great. If your jungle vegetation wasn't hinted at by the purple wights, that would have been another point against you, but their coloration is central enough, given its tie to the other ingredient.Kudos to both of you. My vote goes to Iron Sky... barely.[/sblock]Summary & links later, I gotta go drink.Both of you: damn good work. It makes the judge's job hard, but in a very good way.Thanks, -- N</blockquote>

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