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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Radiating Gnome" data-source="post: 5218512" data-attributes="member: 150">In this match, a relatively tame set of ingredients creates the potential for a cloase match as quarterfinalist DMs try to produce a winning entry. We've got Alpha Centauri (AC) by Iron Sky, and Storms Upon the Waste (SUW), by ender wiggins.Lets take a look at those ingredients!Centaur HunterIn SUW, Farad is a professional hunter of centaurs, a credible use of the ingredient . . . but the implementation seems a little troubled to me.  Yes, he's a hunter of centaurs, but as far as the real story of the adventure is concerned, it could have been anything Farad hunts for a living -- Anhkegs or whatever.  I liked the idea of centaurs as the nomadic raiders in this world, and I thought that was very well placed, but still . . . those early encounters with centaurs don't really connect with the whole story very well, they feel like they're there to justify Farad being a centaur hunter, and not perfectly integrated.  It's good, just not great.  In AC, the whole adventure revolves around centaurs who are hunters -- Equus and Eurytion are two hunters vying for control over Equus's herd.  Because the centaur-ness pervades the whole adventure, I find this use more complete and compelling.  So, advantage AC. Ancestral GrottoAC presents the Barrow of Song, a pretty solid use of the ingredient.  SUW, on the other hand, gives us the Vault, which works just about as well.  No advantage here. Secretive MatronAgain, I really like the use of secretive matrons in both adventures.  No advantages here. Torc of FortuneThis, from a pure stickler's point of view, is a misstep for SUW.  It's a little one, but these competitors are pretty close, so small missteps may end up making big differences.  In AC, the Torc is a neckpiece once worn by an ancestor centaur, one that has a dramnatically powerful power to ensure good fortune.  Pretty solid stuff.  In SUW, though, the Torc somehow becomes a bracer or armband of some sort. It's also named Centaur Hunter (a fairly ineffective attempt to double-cover the other ingredient -- just because I name my dog Obama doesn't make him president). I think it would have been better, for the sake of including the ingredients, to not transform the torc into another type of item.  I suspect it seemed like a reasonable change to make, given that "torc" is an unusual word, but I don't think we would be satisfied with an entry that converted an ingredient that was "songbow" into "songsword" just because it makes more sense for the overall story for it to be a sword rather than a bow.  Anyway, advantage AC here.    PolygamyI got confused, in a couple of places, with the way relationships, procration, and the basic herd polygamy works in AC.  I get the basics -- a herd has an alpha hunter.  He's the stallion, and by implication the other males that might travel with the herd don't mate with the females.  I didn't find this explicitly stated, but implied.  Also, the adventure states that the circle of matrons forbids the offspring of the chief hunter to replace him as chief . . . but if that's the case, why is it such a big concern that he may not be fertile?  I think the first detail, probably -- if that were the case, then no chief would come from within his own herd, but would always be an outsider -- right? That confuses me.  But, still, the polygamy is present, so it works. In SUW, Polygamy exists as a sort of background element, but that's as far as it seems to go.  Khalilah is the sanctum owner's "oldest and only surviving wife" -- so that polygamy is only a backdrop, and is not an important part of the story.  So, even with it's minor confusion, the polygamy is more important and significant in AC, so it gets another advantage here.  Bone NeedleSUW uses the bone needle well, in an important way.  Totally credible.  But ... AC uses a bull's penis bone to make a needle that's used as a ritual focus for fertility rituals . . . and that's the one ingredient in the whole match that I've though was excellent and cool. So, one more advantage to AC. So . . . overall, the ingredients are leaning towards AC pretty significantly.  PlayabilityI worry a bit about the playability of AC.  Early on in the adventure, as the PCs are guided through all of the stuff that is already decided -- three of the 5 trials, etc . . . it's feels like the PCs are being pushed through a lot of exposition there.  We finally get to the two tasks that they need to complete, but my sense is that the players need to have a way to connect to the other trials, or it's just more filler background that doesn't quite matter.  I think it could have been much stronger if the players were a part of the whole trial, especailly those events they have no chance of winning.SUW has less problem there -- the adventure is simpler, a murder investigation of sorts.  The players get to play through most of the story, with the exception of the actual murder (which you have to have off screen for it to be a murder mystery . . .).  Another area where SUW has an advantage here is in it's flexibility.  AC has one path for the PCs to follow -- they're going to go do their two things to help with the trials, and that's about it.  But in SUW, the players have to make ambiguous plot decisions, and there is no right answer.  Do they give the Torc to Farad, to restore his family's relic?  Do they trade it to the monastery?  Do they just keep it?  In the end, for the players, gaming is about decisions, and the more levels we can give them decisions to make, the more interesting the game is for them. The decisions the players get to make in SUW are much more interesting than the ones they get to make in AC. There's a strong edge here for SUW.Creativity. One thing I didn't address much in the discussion of the ingredients is the way they all work together in the final creation.  And that, I think, is what sets AC apart in the creativity department.  AC weaves the ingredients together well -- the bone needle is tied to the polygamy, for example, through the ritual used to promote fertility in Equus.  I didn't find the same level of integration in SUW -- there the ingredients seem to exist for their own sake, and without such strong connections to the other ingredients.  For example, there's the bone needle.  Both adventures use the bone needle well.  SUW even connects the bone needle to the secretive matron, but SUW threads the needle and the matron together, and then threads them into the polygamy by means of the ritual to promote fertility.  They're both doing this, to some extent, but AC is doing it better. I don't want to come down hard on either entry here -- there are things that I really liked about both entries -- I like the bedouin-centaur connection, something I wasn't expecting and it really made me sit up and notice.  I was not expecting the polygamy-centaur connection, although it's a natural fit. I like a lot of the small details in both entries. But I think AC edges out SUW in this area. Conclusion. I liked both adventures.  I'm one of the goobers who's pretty excited about the coming Dark Sun books, so I expected that SUW would have an advantage, at first glance, just based on that affinity.  And AC is not without flaws -- as I said above, there were details of succession and breeding among the centaurs that was confusing to me, and I thought the adventure would be stronger if the PC were engaged in all five of the trials, instead of pushed along to the last two.SUW has superior playability, which makes this a close decision. In the end, I think the stronger use of ingredients and an edge in creativity, Alpha Centauri is this round's winner, so Iron Sky advances.  -rg</blockquote>

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