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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gradine" data-source="post: 8172922" data-attributes="member: 57112">Judgement for Final Match: FitzTheRuke vs. humble minionThese are both really great adventures, though they both have their own difficulties in actually running them, for different reasons. We'll get to overall adventure quality later. First, let's see how FitzTheRuke's untitled adventure (henceforth "Y2K") and humble minion's "The Tale of When Grandmother Uzmah Decided Not To Die" (henceforth "Uzmah") handle these ingredients.Psychic ScreamThe psychic scream in "Uzmah" is a pretty important part of the hook in "Uzmah", and it also remains relevant throughout the adventure. That's a good ingredient usage. Is it "psychic?" Ehhh, it's a stretch, but not a terrible one. Meanwhile, I struggle to find this at all in "Y2K". The closest I can see is the DJ in the nightclub battle using an attack that seems to mimic the effects of a psionic blast, but it being like an ingredient is not the same as being the ingredient. Former ParrotThe former parrot in Y2K refers to the former gang members, who named themselves after one of the members' pet, which seemed to relate to the dude's pirate fetish. Individually, those excuses for an ingredient would be pretty weak and easily replaceable, but layered upon each other makes the ingredient stronger. Meanwhile, the former parrot is a transformed minion of the hags in Uzmah, and it's a bit weaker here, as any animal would work. It's tied to a later ingredient, which helps a little, but still, any bird would've done.Pink UnicornThe unicorn is a little bit better here in "Uzmah". It's a stuffed animal (for the baby), and a transformed unicorn whose healing powers are useful for the villain's purposes. It also presents a handy NPC to complicate things if its polymorph is dispelled. In "Y2K" it's a prize for a karaoke contest that... might not even happen. A very weak ingredient.Awakened WitchI don't think this works super well in either adventure. It's actually not necessarily going to happen in either. "Uzmah" witch is "awakened" to the truth, which is... a little bit of a stretch. "Y2K's" witch sleeps a lot for... reasons (needing to be awakened, for the ingredient, natch). Doing this is trivial, if at all (the PC might just have the key!). Not great.Time StopBoth adventures tie their main plot to this element, which makes it really strong in both. I like the little time hiccup foreshadowing in "Y2K" a lot, and gives it just the slight edge for me in this case.Pregnant MomentBoth adventures tie this into their Time Stop (which makes sense, given the linkage between Time and Moment). Again, this relates to "Y2K"'s clever foreshadowing, so it gives it just the slightest of edges.SwoopNow we get to the two oddball ingredients I provided for this match. "Uzmah" invents a game called "Swoop", but it does involve swooping, so I'll allow it. Its placement is a little more central (and PC-involved) than in "Y2K", where the swooping pterodactyls make an exceptional set piece, but just really isn't central enough.Turtles All The Way DownThere's a couple of ways to take this. Firstly, the phrase relates to Flat Earth believers, with the notion that a flat world rests on the back of a giant turtle (ala Discworld), but if you try to ask them what the turtle is resting on, their only answer can be a bigger turtle (and ultimately, it's turtles all the way down). The more literal route would be more in the vein of "look at that pit, it sure is full of turtles". "Y2K" goes this route, and its relation the central plot is minimal, at best. "Uzmah", on the other hand, throws turtles at us like they're going out of style. Most of them feel do not feel at all essential, and the "All The Way Down" language twisting really just doesn't work for me, but the presence of the zaratan ultimately saves it for me in having an actual thematic purpose for there being so many turtles elsewhere.So, ultimately "Uzmah" takes the edge on ingredients for me, though its closer than my initial reads suggested. "Y2K's" biggest weakness, as an Iron DM entry, it sadly one of its greatest strengths as an adventure. The way the business starts out so stakes that are low and personal, and the way the Time Stop starts intruding into the narrative as foreshadowing, is all genius. But too many of the ingredients are wrapped up in these earlier scenarios, which makes them less central, and thus, weaker as ingredients. If there were a stronger connection between the mad scientist and the PCs' social circle, it would have made a significant difference. As it is, the connection is tenuous at best. The other difficulty here comes from needing the PCs to have these pre-existing connections with NPCs. This is great, normally, but as a DM I prefer to have the players themselves assist with this sort of worldbuilding."Uzmah", meanwhile, is also an excellent adventure, and one with a number of very interesting moral dilemmas. Do the PCs really want to help with the miscarriage/murder of a pregnant woman? Even if she's a hag? There are a lot of missing pieces here, and a lot of paths for the PCs to take in solving this puzzle. The problem comes from the fact that the adventure is laid out in a kind of linear, as if the author is expecting certain things to come to pass that may not even happen. If Uzmah is trapped in a tiny, helpless, turtle, why kill her? That only seems to make her more powerful. It feels like this curse would've been more interesting, and fulfilling, had it gone the other way around, but I guess then you can't have that great set piece with the Zaratan.[SPOILER="Final Judgment"]I thought, going into this, I knew who I was going to pick. Writing this out has made me second guess this. These are both great adventures. Personally, I think I like "Y2K" a little better than "Uzmah" here, It's a slightly stronger adventure, and its structure appeals to me more.But is that enough to make up for the ingredient deficit?Ultimately, I have to say no. "Uzmah" is also an excellent adventure with a lot of moving parts and it just did a better job of incorporating its ingredients more centrally.[USER=59816]@FitzTheRuke[/USER], you've clearly got a handle on how to do this, and, as we requested, you gave us an instantly memorable adventure. Work on making those ingredients more central to your overarching plot (and tie those disparate elements together in a stronger way), and you'll be back to this final round before too long.For now though, I have to recommend [USER=5948]@humble minion[/USER]'s "The Tale of When Grandmother Uzmah Decided Not To Die" for the Iron DM 2020.[/SPOILER]</blockquote>

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