IRON DM 2011--Rules, Entries, Judgements, & Commentary

[Pour]

Haha I think it was pretty obvious time was my enemy on this one. Like Rune pointed out, though, and especially given the championship atmosphere, putting up anything was better than putting up nothing. I've had the great fortune of having more or less unlimited time to work on prior entries, but this last adventure coincided with the responsibilities of the upcoming school year and I admittedly crumbled. Even still, it was kind of exhilarating to be working down to the wire, and I mean within 5 minutes of the entry being due. I'm very happy with second place, and feel like I am a legitimate contender for future competitions. I've previously never made it beyond the first round, so count me thrilled.

I'm not sure I should even try defending Blood for Blood, but might as well. Before time and word count had me in a vice, it was my intention to make the Devilish Smile/Wax Poetic much more grizzly, and I'm not sure making it red helped any given the very comical preconceived notions of wax lips. I was thinking more of a hot, melting, off-yellow smear Baa would painfully apply, that gave the appearance of something infernal. It was meant to ultimately be an important clue leading to the Chandlery, in conjunction with Julius' testimony and the unmentioned fact it was poisoned (by Arsanthor). From there PCs might have gone to the Flayers and met the Sisters of the Leash, or else gone to the candleworks, and from there the Temple of the Illuminators. Revelations about Arsanthor would have been discovered and bam. If I only had another day... hehe, they all must say that.

The burial shroud was supposed to be the party favor from Lanista Karzes to Lanista Maxas, planted by Baa at Arsanthor's behest, only underlined by the desecration of Magar Maxas' corpse in the yard, thus ensuring blood feud. And the ship at sea, the elven ship which brought Nilanthus to Kypra, was meant to have a little more weight, maybe even been featured. 2000 words is a brutal mistress, though, hehe.

Paving Stones of Good Intentions was definitely too metaphorical, being Nilanthus' actions and the results of such folly throughout the adventure. Ah well, I just couldn't bring myself to have PCs hopping stones or anything.

All in all, what a great experience, and I am proud of the work I've done and my competitors have done. I learned alot from this go at the title. I feel I've solidified my style of entry, and enjoyed experimenting with cultural themes and this last go optional companion characters along the way... There are juicy bits of every entry worth stealing, and I plan on fleshing my entries into more complete adventures for review on ENWorld in the future.

Congrats Waylander for your perseverance throughout the competition and ultimate win! And thank you judges for being so damned cool.

 

[Waylander the Slayer]

Thanks all! Thanks Judges, for doing an underappreciated task; your criticisms and analysis show that you are awesome and it was interesting to note the very different POV [RG on one end, Wicht the other, and Rune somewhere in the middle].

Pour, you are incredibly creative, and a evocative writer to boot; i considered you the favorite after reading all the first round entries. In fact, The Proposal remains one of my favorite entries of all time (better than any of my entries). I am a little disappointed that you didnt get the time to finish or polish your entry; I think the judgement would have been a tad different if you had (i noted an entire encounter missing from your entry-the drug dealers). I loved the concept for your final entry, it reminded me a lot of Spartacus, and the dominatrix was an awesome and audacious touch.

As for the final round entry- i had the hardest time incorporating the Devilish Smile and the Pavestones of Good Intentions; the latter since they were paving stones- i did think of the road to hell route, but the specific nature of the paving stones ruled it out, though it might have been worth considering, after further thought.

I do hate the liniarity of my adventure; my orginal design had it more like a flow chart, with each action changing future tiles with multiple options of what each of the futures were, but space constraints made me trim down the entry to its bare bones and toss out the full "spread" of my concept. I'd recommend anyone considering running it to get rid of the tile concept and make it more active and in the present, i.e, with the PCs attending the wedding and make it more Othelloesque with the PC interaction saving the relations or causing the vendetta.

Overall, i really enjoyed the process; it has helped me be more creative and has improved my GMing as well. What more could i ask, in the end?

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Congrats to everyone. I suspected I might be the minority opinion; that's all part of the process.

I think we got to some really cool stuff by the end of the competition -- it's cool to see the evolution as the rounds ground on.

-j

 

[Rune]

Even still, it was kind of exhilarating to be working down to the wire, and I mean within 5 minutes of the entry being due.

What a rush, right? Maybe next time, we'll go back to a 24 hour time limit...

I'm very happy with second place, and feel like I am a legitimate contender for future competitions. I've previously never made it beyond the first round, so count me thrilled.

I agree. You'll definitely be one to watch out for.

All in all, what a great experience, and I am proud of the work I've done and my competitors have done. I learned alot from this go at the title. I feel I've solidified my style of entry, and enjoyed experimenting with cultural themes and this last go optional companion characters along the way... There are juicy bits of every entry worth stealing, and I plan on fleshing my entries into more complete adventures for review on ENWorld in the future.

Excellent!

...And thank you judges for being so damned cool.

That's what we're here for!

Thanks all! Thanks Judges, for doing an underappreciated task; your criticisms and analysis show that you are awesome and it was interesting to note the very different POV [RG on one end, Wicht the other, and Rune somewhere in the middle].

Funny you should mention it. There were times that I felt like the outlier.

Overall, i really enjoyed the process; it has helped me be more creative and has improved my GMing as well. What more could i ask, in the end?

Amazing, isn't it? For those who have never participated in an Iron DM Tournament, it is difficult to imagine just how much the process teaches about yourself, especially as you advance through the rounds. Each round gets exponentially more difficult as physical exhaustion and mental fatigue accumulate, but the contestants emerge honed from the process.

I think we got to some really cool stuff by the end of the competition -- it's cool to see the evolution as the rounds ground on.

-j

As you and I know first-hand! As I recall, we both learned a great deal climbing through the ranks of our first Tournament!

 

[Waylander the Slayer]

I think 24 hours might make it more interesting, and would also consider increasing entry length by 200-300 words.