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Message: <blockquote data-quote="InVinoVeritas" data-source="post: 5208249" data-attributes="member: 41485">Judgment, Round 1, Match 5: Wicht vs. Green Dice There’s a bit of discussion about specific vs. wide-open ingredients. Although I try to thread the needle, I know that my ingredients have fallen on the “specific” side. Still, there was enough leeway that we got two different adventures. In an ironic twist, however, both adventures feature a father searching for a lost daughter—something that wasn’t in the ingredients at all. On to the ingredients:Wicht’s The Birth of Fire vs. Green Dice’s Island of the Lotus Blossoms Fertile Illithid: I was curious to see how this one turned out. The “fertile” was a twist because reproduction isn’t typically considered with mind flayers, but since there’s so little on how mind flayers raise their young, exactly how they are fertile is wide open. In both cases, the fertility of the illithid is the source of action for the adventure, so good for both adventures there. Green Dice gives us a pregnancy, with the illithid preparing a farm of thralls for the unborn child. Simple, straightforward. Wicht gives us an illithid that is bearing the gestating soul of a deity—fertile in a completely different way (This gets to be a theme with Wicht’s use of the ingredients). Advantage to Wicht for originality. Dilapidated Stableyard: Green Dice’s stableyards are dilapidated because the father does not care anymore about them, looking for information about his daughter instead. Wicht’s stableyards have been abandoned, and are the site of a combat. Wicht’s are a rickety wooden tower where griffins were once raised, and Green Dice’s are ordinary stables. They are both scenes of action, but Wicht’s use makes the dilapidated nature a greater threat. Advantage to Wicht. Kindly Fishmonger: Wicht presents the father as a kindly fishmonger, but… it really doesn’t matter. He doesn’t really need to be kindly or a fishmonger for it to work. Green Dice’s kindly fishmonger uses fish as a defense against his illithid, and has the residents of the island use the same fish as well. This use is stronger, so Green Dice has the better ingredient use here. A Thousand Lotus Blossoms: Green Dice ties in the legend of the Island of the Lotus Eaters to the Thousand Lotus Blossoms, giving us a place of happiness that hides the terror. Wicht gives us an item that is merely called The Thousand Lotus Blossoms. They are a thousand in number… but they are petal-shaped, not blossom-shaped. Ultimately, Green Dice’s use is better. Interrogation Techniques: When there’s an illithid involved, this can get interesting. In Wicht’s adventure, Chuth Ruhli interrogates the daughter Kilm via tentacle implantation. The PCs don’t really get involved in that, but they do get involved with the fire elemental leaping from Kilm’s brain. That’s a good scene. Green Dice, though, invites the PCs to interrogate Jimmel. The techniques are up to the PCs, and Harold did some to begin with as well that the PCs don’t affect. Even though the fire elemental is cool, Green Dice gets the advantage for involving the PCs. The Solitary Flame at the Center of it All: I wanted something specific, but still nebulous, to see what directions people took with this. Green Dice gives us something physical, a magical flame at the center of the island that keeps everyone weak-willed. Wicht gives us something allegorical, a Lovecraftian being called the “Solitary Flame at the Center of it All.”  Yyng'sjg-Gothkni, by dwelling in the heart of the earth to be released later, makes for a very intriguing character, and a rather compelling way for the ingredient to be used. Wicht gets an edge here. All in all, the ingredient use was very different between the two competitors. Green Dice took a direct route, using the ingredients as presented, and weaving them together into a single story. Wicht however, was very subversive in ingredient use. The illithid was giving birth to a god, the stableyard was a tower, etc. This can be very risky. A good use of the ingredient makes sure that it is still identifiable as the ingredient in some way. It worked sometimes, but not all the time. Certainly simply naming an object the ingredient name isn’t by itself enough. Yet some of the uses were very clever, as mentioned above. Originality:Tying the birth of the god to delving into people’s brains was a very different, unique, and well-managed portion of The Birth of Fire. Similarly, I liked how the Island of the Lotus Blossoms took a well-known myth and turned it on its ear. I would ultimately say that The Birth of Fire was the more intriguing, off-kilter of the two, with a clear Lovecraftian feel throughout.  Playability:In both, we get a good idea of what happens and why. However, I was very impressed at how Green Dice took the time to walk us through the adventure, giving us ideas on how the adventure progresses depending on PC action. Definitely, if I plan on running either adventure, it’s abundantly clear that Island of the Lotus Blossoms makes the job much easier than The Birth of Fire, which seemed somewhat rushed (hey, yeah, Iron DM can do that, I know). All Together:The two adventures came off having very different feels. Wicht gives us a bare-bones idea of an adventure, plays with the ingredients in novel ways, and leaves us to fill in the blanks. I can see that the finding and rescuing of Kilm, followed by her fiery death, would be a tense and incredible scene… but that’s because I’m projecting additional thoughts into it. On the other hand, Green Dice’s adventure is more straightforward in its ingredient use. Many of the pieces have rather standard feelings to them. Yet it is also much clearer. The flow is established, the PCs are invited to play with the pieces, and, as a DM, I would feel much more comfortable running Island of the Lotus Blossoms. I like what’s being done in The Birth of Fire, but I find myself without much support as a DM. Combined with some rather severe twists in the meaning of some ingredients (the Thousand Lotus Blossoms in particular—although I like the quest for the prayer beads), I would say in the end, Green Dice gets the edge overall. Green Dice advances. </blockquote>

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