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IRON DM 2014 Tournament
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<blockquote data-quote="MortalPlague" data-source="post: 6522133" data-attributes="member: 62721"><p>I think it would have, yes. Hah.</p><p></p><p>So, how did I come up with Queen Under The Stars?</p><p></p><p>I saw several versions of the adventure evolve and be tweaked or discarded. Early on, I decided the astronomer would be a demigoddess, who would use her ring to grant immortality to whoever became her husband. That element changed very little through the adventure. Bouncing ideas off one of my players, we spun yarn about a Discworld-style nation who determined who would wed the Astronomer Queen through a series of banal competitions aboard an airship (athletic airship, in this case, meaning an airship devoted to athletics). There would be frogs, because the prophecies had been written down by a prophet who was hard of hearing and had badly mistranslated things as he wrote. The chapel of wings would have housed the prophecy.</p><p></p><p>In the end, I decided it would end up too silly, and the tacked-on nature of the elements wouldn't earn me many points. I kept the Astronomer Queen, and shifted things to a more serious competition of courtship. I had the PCs as the 'support team' for one of the candidates; basically, they'd flit about beneath the notice of really powerful NPCs and sabotage things or tweak things in their favor. Still aboard the airship, still doing banal competitions. I could never quite reconcile how the PCs would become involved in such an affair, though. Why would they be the first choice for an epic level NPC?</p><p></p><p>I don't remember exactly when it occurred to me to shift the PC into the role of 'husband-candidate', but that's when things started to fall together. The PCs get a hold of a letter (which they really aren't the intended recipients of), and so they slip on board the airship and participate in a fey revel. The other big shift was a switch from 'demigods' to 'fey', which brought things down to the point where PCs could easily be involved without being epic level. It also made the elements fit together better, and made it easier to use the frogs.</p><p></p><p>The other thing that went through several iterations was the finale. In my earliest drafts, I didn't have a villain. It was the PCs versus other NPCs competing for the same prize. But when I shifted things to the fey court, the idea of a 'Lord of the Frogs' came up, and I realized he could be using the icy toxin to put Feleira into a sleep from which she would never awake. And it would only happen at the climax of the dance when she took off the ring to give it to her chosen suitor! Perfect! I had him touch a frog to her cheek, and the toxic skin would induce the torpor. But the idea played out as too visible; he wouldn't get away with it. So instead he used a blowgun with the frog toxin, and unleashed several frogs on the populace. I was gleeful when I realized that the frogs could also paralyze the airship; I thought I was being quite clever. That would make it very important that the airship was 'athletic', and not merely a regular airship. Also, it tied the ice frogs to the airship element.</p><p></p><p>Overall, these elements were tough. I was looking up frogs on wikipedia for inspiration, trying to find something unique to frogs where they couldn't be swapped for another monster (hence the toxic skin). The athletic airship was a fit to come up with; I had visions of some titan swimming through the astral sea with a court on his back, I considered some sort of flying machine like what Gradine came up with, but I went with the owl as a symbol of the night. And the banal competition... how do you put a dull competition into an adventure in a central way without making it a dull adventure? These were very challenging elements, and I enjoyed working with them at every turn. They kept me thinking, kept me working right up until the final moment.</p><p></p><p>Gradine's entry was very impressive; I really enjoyed the ideas surrounding the heist, and I could definitely see this being a blast to run at the table. My group of players tends to enjoy roguish stuff like that, so I'm taking notes for a future campaign. A heist with airships is simply too much fun to pass up. I really hope you continue to compete in these, because I'd love to see what comes next.</p><p></p><p>As always, thanks to the judges. A lot of hard work has gone into this competition, and your efforts are appreciated. I hadn't ever been to round two before, so I didn't even realize that all three judges would weigh in on the entry, but the feedback and criticism has been very valuable.</p><p></p><p>I can't wait for round three. Best of luck to Wicht and Waylander.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MortalPlague, post: 6522133, member: 62721"] I think it would have, yes. Hah. So, how did I come up with Queen Under The Stars? I saw several versions of the adventure evolve and be tweaked or discarded. Early on, I decided the astronomer would be a demigoddess, who would use her ring to grant immortality to whoever became her husband. That element changed very little through the adventure. Bouncing ideas off one of my players, we spun yarn about a Discworld-style nation who determined who would wed the Astronomer Queen through a series of banal competitions aboard an airship (athletic airship, in this case, meaning an airship devoted to athletics). There would be frogs, because the prophecies had been written down by a prophet who was hard of hearing and had badly mistranslated things as he wrote. The chapel of wings would have housed the prophecy. In the end, I decided it would end up too silly, and the tacked-on nature of the elements wouldn't earn me many points. I kept the Astronomer Queen, and shifted things to a more serious competition of courtship. I had the PCs as the 'support team' for one of the candidates; basically, they'd flit about beneath the notice of really powerful NPCs and sabotage things or tweak things in their favor. Still aboard the airship, still doing banal competitions. I could never quite reconcile how the PCs would become involved in such an affair, though. Why would they be the first choice for an epic level NPC? I don't remember exactly when it occurred to me to shift the PC into the role of 'husband-candidate', but that's when things started to fall together. The PCs get a hold of a letter (which they really aren't the intended recipients of), and so they slip on board the airship and participate in a fey revel. The other big shift was a switch from 'demigods' to 'fey', which brought things down to the point where PCs could easily be involved without being epic level. It also made the elements fit together better, and made it easier to use the frogs. The other thing that went through several iterations was the finale. In my earliest drafts, I didn't have a villain. It was the PCs versus other NPCs competing for the same prize. But when I shifted things to the fey court, the idea of a 'Lord of the Frogs' came up, and I realized he could be using the icy toxin to put Feleira into a sleep from which she would never awake. And it would only happen at the climax of the dance when she took off the ring to give it to her chosen suitor! Perfect! I had him touch a frog to her cheek, and the toxic skin would induce the torpor. But the idea played out as too visible; he wouldn't get away with it. So instead he used a blowgun with the frog toxin, and unleashed several frogs on the populace. I was gleeful when I realized that the frogs could also paralyze the airship; I thought I was being quite clever. That would make it very important that the airship was 'athletic', and not merely a regular airship. Also, it tied the ice frogs to the airship element. Overall, these elements were tough. I was looking up frogs on wikipedia for inspiration, trying to find something unique to frogs where they couldn't be swapped for another monster (hence the toxic skin). The athletic airship was a fit to come up with; I had visions of some titan swimming through the astral sea with a court on his back, I considered some sort of flying machine like what Gradine came up with, but I went with the owl as a symbol of the night. And the banal competition... how do you put a dull competition into an adventure in a central way without making it a dull adventure? These were very challenging elements, and I enjoyed working with them at every turn. They kept me thinking, kept me working right up until the final moment. Gradine's entry was very impressive; I really enjoyed the ideas surrounding the heist, and I could definitely see this being a blast to run at the table. My group of players tends to enjoy roguish stuff like that, so I'm taking notes for a future campaign. A heist with airships is simply too much fun to pass up. I really hope you continue to compete in these, because I'd love to see what comes next. As always, thanks to the judges. A lot of hard work has gone into this competition, and your efforts are appreciated. I hadn't ever been to round two before, so I didn't even realize that all three judges would weigh in on the entry, but the feedback and criticism has been very valuable. I can't wait for round three. Best of luck to Wicht and Waylander. [/QUOTE]
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