Iron DM 2009 - FINAL MATCH - it's over!

[humble minion]

http://www.enworld.org/forum/plots-places/266192-iron-dm-2009-round-1-all-matches-2.html#post4968074

Mine's up. Tough group of ingredients, but I think I got something mostly functional. My main concern is that it's really looooong....

 

[phoamslinger]

judgement for Rechan vs Atras is done (and has a longer word count than either).

edit: without reading the last dozen posts since Atras' FAIL request. and now, having just read them, I'm really curious what you all think...

 

[Atras]

judgement for Rechan vs Atras is done (and has a longer word count than either).

Thank you for the judgment, and for forgiving my use of 4E , I'm glad to know that it didn't disqualify me. I felt that I really mis-used the River Delta, and when I re-read my adventure I noticed that I left out a few of the details that I had in mind that would have gone a long way to explaining some of the connections.

I saw the Bard as a Pied Piper archetype, so I wanted him to demand a harsh payment for his service. As soon as I went down that path, I forgot to leave the hints that he was the one to plant the Troll in the first place. Keeping the foot handy would let him drop it off in another town and collect more victims. Keeping the Troll handy would let him send the Troll back or re-seed if some pesky heroes came along and took care of the situation without him. I mostly focused on the singing part of a Bardic repertoire to tie in with the Pied Piper, but I gave him some story telling attack powers, and should have put something in about him using acrobatics to avoid his traps when fighting.

I had hoped to make the Skill Challenge a more important part of the adventure, but I just didn't have the time to do much more with it than I did. This is something that I will work on if I make this into a Living Forgotten Realms adventure for my local players.

It was fun, round 2, I'm sure, will be much harder. Thanks for the competition, Rechan.

 

[phoamslinger]

Regarding edition stuff... there is an ioun stone in the 4e PHB, several others in 4e supplements, and they've been in D&D (in basically the same form) since 1e.

actually, I've been house ruling them almost all the way back to 1e. when you find or buy them, they are gemstones, but when you put them in orbit they become little sparks of colored light, orbiting your head. they become gems again and fall to the ground when you die. or the wearer can voluntarily take them off.

otherwise it would logically be too easy a sleight of hand check or Dex/ Reflex check to do a disarm against them. or so I've always figured.

plus having colored magical lights orbiting your head and granting bonuses is a cool visual.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

It seems to me that participlants should refrain from thinking this way and even more from commenting this way.

Definitely want to avoid getting entangled in this kind of argument. Even if you just want to bark at the judges, this sort of criticism has a way of taking root and before you know it, you're way off in the weeds. Take Wicht's advice and just leaf it alone.

 

[Wicht]

and now, ... I'm really curious what you all think...

I like Rechan's better. I though Atras's adventure was a fairly straightforward monster hunt without much to differentiate it from other "kidnapped maiden" stories. I don't do 4e but I am left wondering how a bard becomes a powerful necromancer in order to have undead attacking on his behalf. The troll seemed very tacked on to me and hardly integral to the adventure.

Rechans had some weaknesses. I'm used to trolls being semi-animilistic monsters so their agreement with the village is a bit contrived for me and I do wonder why the cleric couldn't heal the third troll. I didn't know who Ioun was but assumed it was some sort of saint or diety. I thought the Ioun stone was really Rechan's weakest ingredient.

But if I ran both of these, I am pretty sure the adventure that would be remember 6 months later by the players would be Rechans, not Atras'.

More criticism than I would normally volunteer but the judge did ask for it.

 

[Wicht]

Definitely want to avoid getting entangled in this kind of argument. Even if you just want to bark at the judges, this sort of criticism has a way of taking root and before you know it, you're way off in the weeds. Take Wicht's advice and just leaf it alone.

Heh.

 

[Helena Real]

Sorry for not having posted anything about the matches so far, but I hadn't had enough time to read them all thoroughly.

I have a question, when is my round supposed to begin? According to a calendar that I can't find now, I was supposed to receive my ingredients today Oct. 19, but it seems that we're still on the previous match.

Best regards,

Felipe.

 

[CleverNickName]

I've been maintaining an unofficial schedule over on Page 4 of this thread (link.) There was some scheduling difficulties last week, but I think we got them all Iron'd (ahem) out.

Looks like you are up for tomorrow's match. But like I said, this is an unofficial schedule. Nifft is the event coordinator.

 

[phoamslinger]

I like Rechan's better. I though Atras's adventure was a fairly straightforward monster hunt without much to differentiate it from other "kidnapped maiden" stories. I don't do 4e but I am left wondering how a bard becomes a powerful necromancer in order to have undead attacking on his behalf. The troll seemed very tacked on to me and hardly integral to the adventure.

Rechans had some weaknesses. I'm used to trolls being semi-animilistic monsters so their agreement with the village is a bit contrived for me and I do wonder why the cleric couldn't heal the third troll. I didn't know who Ioun was but assumed it was some sort of saint or diety. I thought the Ioun stone was really Rechan's weakest ingredient.

But if I ran both of these, I am pretty sure the adventure that would be remember 6 months later by the players would be Rechans, not Atras'.

More criticism than I would normally volunteer but the judge did ask for it.

I felt that with both entries:

[sblock]the River Deltas were just there.
both Bedridden Trolls were weak or very replacable, once the acid add-on keeping them in bed was eliminated.
Rechan had a stronger Bard, but Atras evoked a more Monstrous response; but still a slight edge went to Rechan there.

but Rechan's Slayings, while frightening in the 21st century today, wouldn't be that impressive in a D&D world as opposed to the idea of one irritated high level adventurer massacring an entire town.
and Atras' Feet (regardless of how or where they came from; I wouldn't double tap a negative into Severed Feet from a bad use of Bard - maybe a cross class Necro feat would have been appropriate?) were much more integral to the entire story as were his Stones.
Rechan's Stone was the weakest of all in either entrly and hit his adventure almost as negative points since it could have been completely eliminated and the story would have remained totally unchanged (with the Abbot simply recommending the players' course of action). so just counting on a item by item basis, as well as my overall feelings at the end, I felt Atras did the better job...[/sblock]

...but there was room for lots of improvement on both of them. I would recommend in the future that you NOT skimp on word count if it's necessary to fully convey the story you're trying to tell. single spaced typed, Rechan's was three pages, Atras' was four. my judgement of the two ran five pages, plus.