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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nifft" data-source="post: 4998356" data-attributes="member: 6562">Summary:The winner of this match -- and this year's IronDM, by a unanimous vote -- is Iron Sky.In my opinion, Iron Sky, you took a very ambitious project -- the alien hell of the Far Realms -- and made it work. Your ambition paid off.InVinoVeritas, we all agreed about the fatal flaw in your scenario. Unfortunately, I don't see any easy fixes, except for one aspect: you could change the Stone Giants into Ogres, which would allow the PCs to at least cope with them by conventional combat while they figure out how to trick them into destroying their own mirror. (Or while someone runs back to fetch the Rod of Plot.)The other way you could go is to have Hell's Close fall, have the PCs escape, and then the campaign becomes: let's never allow that to happen again, first bringing the PCs into conflict with humanoid mafias, and finally at mid-to-late Paragon the PCs travel to the Aztec hell dimension and kill their demonic sun-god, or something.Iron Sky, in case you're interested, here's what I'd personally change about your scenario:- Mafia: just use Aboleths, that'll justify canals and piranhas, and they're known as masterminds already.- Mirrors: instead of making them useless, make them translucent. They don't reflect anything, but looking through one still allows you see invisible stuff -- but imposes a hefty penalty on every other use of vision, so load up on those Utility powers & magic items that give you non-visual navigation.These are just details, though.I agree with RG that too much of the Far City is not explained well to the PCs, but I figured that if I were to use it, I'd be dropping hints to the PCs fairly early: aboleth criminal masterminds would be behind several plots they foiled, there would be aberrant interlopers who hinted at the existence of the Far City, the PCs could buy rare items from certain beholder "fences" who might also supply the party with rumors, etc.- - -These were some very tough ingredients, and you both did truly good work integrating them into anything resembling coherence. But both entries are not merely coherent: they're vibrant, evocative, and even haunting.The fact that my current urge is to base a whole goddamn campaign around each one is telling.Thank you both.In fact, thank you to all contestants. It's been a pleasure and a privilege to judge this contest.</blockquote>

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