IRON DM 2021 Tournament
Rune
Once A Fool
It seems @chaochou has started a thread with a Home Game version of this tourney. If any spectators out there want to try their hand at these ingredients in a less formal setting, you should check it out.
Wicht
Hero
My thanks to the judge for his work. And condolences to my opponent. I had real mixed feelings at the initial draw, pitting us together, as I hate to lose in the first round, but also hated to immediately knock off the reigning champ with a win. I wish @humble minion all the best in future contests!
I will say, as a general critique of The Dying Tree, that while the adventure seems fun, as a player, if I was a player I would feel like the Ork spores were growing a bit too rapidly and behaving in a very unorky manner. I also, if I had a PC knowledgable of ork spores, would not worry about tipping over the tree. I would pull a strategic withdrawal and follow Imperium Protocol and nuke the entire alien-haunted planet from orbit. It is, after all, the only way to be sure. Ork infestation is understood to be generally uncontainable, and burning the whole planet is a small price to pay for peace, especially if the planet has no human settlements. Other than that though, the whole running battle with orks over aquatic forest terrain is a cool set-piece.
A couple of explanations/responses to some of the esteemed Judge's questions/observations regarding Incident with a Lucky Angel:
1. The Ghost Mushrooms are called ghost mushrooms because that is their name; that is their name because they glow in the dark. These are a real-world mushroom which can be found on Eucalyptus trees. They only grow when the tree is dying, however, and are not to be found on healthy trees. These particular mushrooms have mutated obviously, but like everything else in the adventure, they are based on a real thing. One of the first things I did with Ghost Mushroom was google it to see if there was such a thing. As I had already settled on Koala bear humanoids for both the "Utopia," and the "bear necessities," I was pleasantly surprised to find that Ghost Mushrooms were a real thing, and that they were connected to Eucalyptus.
2.The Armored Lizard was definitely my weak link ingredient wise, though it did provide the Dragon Riders, and in many ways, the ability of their mounts to cross both land and water was important. Which means that Lizard became integral, but not armor. But if I only have one weak ingredient out of 6, I am going to be pretty happy. The background states that the riders were just beginning to scout out the island, so I had not considered the possibility of prior raids. The Island is 5 miles from land, on the other side of a settlement I was picturing as being a major player in the region. The foray to the island was meant to suggest a daring scouting mission, behind enemy lines, as it were.
3. The Utopia is a Utopia from the perspective of the humanoid koalas. They can lay around the island, picking food off the trees, enjoying the landscape and the weather, free from the worries plaguing the rest of the world.
4. It is my general opinion that the more you can tie ingredients together, the more integral they become, being less easily replaced. These ingredients just all seemed to do that, especially once I hit upon the angel being the source of radiation causing the mutation of the fungus and rotting the trees, thus rotting the society, and denying the Koala their necessary leaves. It even explained the rootless tree, the decay of which was what broke the angel thus creating the whole of the cycle. Its not often ingredients seem to fit together so well, but in this case they did for me.
5. I did realize, as I was editing and re-editing, that there was no actual conclusion provided for the scenario, and no suggested rewards beyond the possibility of saving a small slice of civilization from decay and pillaging. Word Count prevented much exploration there, but I also realized that the motivation of the PCs would determine their reward. Also, it struck me as something I had not much pondered before in relationship to the genre, but post-apocalyptic scenarios very seldom feature much in the way of reward beyond survival, saving a slice of civilization, or preventing the death of innocents. So genre-wise, the lack of clear reward was fitting for the setting.
I will say, as a general critique of The Dying Tree, that while the adventure seems fun, as a player, if I was a player I would feel like the Ork spores were growing a bit too rapidly and behaving in a very unorky manner. I also, if I had a PC knowledgable of ork spores, would not worry about tipping over the tree. I would pull a strategic withdrawal and follow Imperium Protocol and nuke the entire alien-haunted planet from orbit. It is, after all, the only way to be sure. Ork infestation is understood to be generally uncontainable, and burning the whole planet is a small price to pay for peace, especially if the planet has no human settlements. Other than that though, the whole running battle with orks over aquatic forest terrain is a cool set-piece.
A couple of explanations/responses to some of the esteemed Judge's questions/observations regarding Incident with a Lucky Angel:
1. The Ghost Mushrooms are called ghost mushrooms because that is their name; that is their name because they glow in the dark. These are a real-world mushroom which can be found on Eucalyptus trees. They only grow when the tree is dying, however, and are not to be found on healthy trees. These particular mushrooms have mutated obviously, but like everything else in the adventure, they are based on a real thing. One of the first things I did with Ghost Mushroom was google it to see if there was such a thing. As I had already settled on Koala bear humanoids for both the "Utopia," and the "bear necessities," I was pleasantly surprised to find that Ghost Mushrooms were a real thing, and that they were connected to Eucalyptus.
2.The Armored Lizard was definitely my weak link ingredient wise, though it did provide the Dragon Riders, and in many ways, the ability of their mounts to cross both land and water was important. Which means that Lizard became integral, but not armor. But if I only have one weak ingredient out of 6, I am going to be pretty happy. The background states that the riders were just beginning to scout out the island, so I had not considered the possibility of prior raids. The Island is 5 miles from land, on the other side of a settlement I was picturing as being a major player in the region. The foray to the island was meant to suggest a daring scouting mission, behind enemy lines, as it were.
3. The Utopia is a Utopia from the perspective of the humanoid koalas. They can lay around the island, picking food off the trees, enjoying the landscape and the weather, free from the worries plaguing the rest of the world.
4. It is my general opinion that the more you can tie ingredients together, the more integral they become, being less easily replaced. These ingredients just all seemed to do that, especially once I hit upon the angel being the source of radiation causing the mutation of the fungus and rotting the trees, thus rotting the society, and denying the Koala their necessary leaves. It even explained the rootless tree, the decay of which was what broke the angel thus creating the whole of the cycle. Its not often ingredients seem to fit together so well, but in this case they did for me.
5. I did realize, as I was editing and re-editing, that there was no actual conclusion provided for the scenario, and no suggested rewards beyond the possibility of saving a small slice of civilization from decay and pillaging. Word Count prevented much exploration there, but I also realized that the motivation of the PCs would determine their reward. Also, it struck me as something I had not much pondered before in relationship to the genre, but post-apocalyptic scenarios very seldom feature much in the way of reward beyond survival, saving a slice of civilization, or preventing the death of innocents. So genre-wise, the lack of clear reward was fitting for the setting.
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Radiating Gnome
Adventurer
Round 1, Match 4: @Neurotic and @loverdrive
Neurotic and Loverdrive, you have 24 hours to post your entries to this thread. Please limit your entry to a title, a list of the ingredients used and 750 additional words. Be aware: if you include descriptions of your ingredients with the ingredients list, those descriptions will count against your word-limit! Entries that exceed their word-limits will be considered to end once they reach that limit; everything after will be ignored.
The judges will be using Wordcounter.net to ensure that our counts are consistent.
Please include your list of ingredients at the beginning of the entry and please do not edit your post once it is submitted. Please refrain from reading your opponent's entry until after you have posted your own. You are on your honor to do so.
Entries that are between 1 and 59 minutes late will have their word-limits reduced to 675. Later entries that are at less than 1 day late will have their word-limits reduced to 525. Entries that are at least 1 day late will have their word-limits reduced to 375. Entries that are at least 2 days late may be disqualified at the discretion of the judge with consent from the match's opposing competitor.
Your ingredients are:
Empty Treasury
Wonderful World
Terrible Bard
Historic Bridge
Uncivil War
Spectral Lion
Neurotic and Loverdrive, you have 24 hours to post your entries to this thread. Please limit your entry to a title, a list of the ingredients used and 750 additional words. Be aware: if you include descriptions of your ingredients with the ingredients list, those descriptions will count against your word-limit! Entries that exceed their word-limits will be considered to end once they reach that limit; everything after will be ignored.
The judges will be using Wordcounter.net to ensure that our counts are consistent.
Please include your list of ingredients at the beginning of the entry and please do not edit your post once it is submitted. Please refrain from reading your opponent's entry until after you have posted your own. You are on your honor to do so.
Entries that are between 1 and 59 minutes late will have their word-limits reduced to 675. Later entries that are at less than 1 day late will have their word-limits reduced to 525. Entries that are at least 1 day late will have their word-limits reduced to 375. Entries that are at least 2 days late may be disqualified at the discretion of the judge with consent from the match's opposing competitor.
Your ingredients are:
Empty Treasury
Wonderful World
Terrible Bard
Historic Bridge
Uncivil War
Spectral Lion
Rune
Once A Fool
I really wish that hadn’t slipped past me. It only strengthens the already impressively strong ingredient-weave you had going on there!
loverdrive
Prophet of the profane (She/Her)
IRON DM 2021
Round 1, Alice Lovedrive vs NeuroticThe Ingredients:
- Empty Treasury
- Wonderful World
- Terrible Bard
- Historic Bridge
- Uncivil War
- Spectral Lion
There’s a reason why elves never sleep.
The nightmares tap into the noosphere and bring forth doom. The horrifying concepts of all too earthly drives, raw and uncontained, sip into the world, thought by thought, word by word and take a physical form.
The true scale of the threat is beyond their comprehension. The living don’t think in concepts, they give them names and looks and desires, twisting them even more and creating a dark image of themselves.
DROW
they call these horrors. Twisted, vile, cruel, living in the darkness of the Agartha, that’s how they are painted in the minds of the men.
But they never stoped. Of course, the horrors must have their own ugly cannibal pantheon, horrifying and incomprehensible.
The Bitсh With Many Teeth, The One Who Hungers, The Spectral Lioness, they call her. She will eat the sun, they fear, she will swallow the stars, drink the seas, chew through the earth and will never vomit this world back to be reborn anew.
The Conqueror, The King, The Equalizer, they call him. He will burn and pillage, they tremble, he will rape and enslave everyone and everything who isn’t a spitting image of him.
The End, The Grim Reaper, The Empty Treasury, they call it. It will come for them, they dread, it will snuff out their fires, scatter the ashes of their “eternal empires” and erase all memories of them.
Over time, they even figured out that maybe they are makers of their own doom… And of course, it’s a terrifying idea. They gave it a name.
The Fifth Trumpet, The One Who Paints, The Terrible Bard.
Akhilesh, the mad scholar, has gazed upon the stars and discovered that they always match the astrological records. He has lost his own mind and shattered all too many others, experimenting, searching the truth.
One day, everything became clear and for the first time in millennia, he had a real plan.
He hooked the Machine of Machines (which does exist) to the Difference Engine (which doesn’t exist), applied some fine science of causality reversal and connected the whole world right to the noosphere, the only true god, blind, idiot, all powerful god, who actually answers the prayers.
He hoped that it will lead to the wonderful world. A magnificent heaven with no cauldrons of hell, an eternal peace with no uncivil war, a historical bridge between the men and their god.
He was wrong.
Screams. Hundreds and thousands of screams. Panic, horror, pain and fury, all fusing into a cacophonic crescendo, beyond rhythm, beyond structure, the magnum opus of a cosmic nu-jazz maestro dying in a joyful agony of a heroin overdose, thrashing around in a delirious nightmare of pure ungodly happiness.
This was the soundtrack of the end of the reality itself.
Countless terrified reality benders turned the world into their own twisted Sistine Chapel, the broken Adam with dozens of dozens of malformed limbs reached his hand towards the sky.
The sky with no God. The sky with a gaping God-shaped hole.
Character creation
Say, who you were before. Write that down. It’s irrelevant, anyway.You have two stats: Control and Humanity, and both start at +0. When one goes up, the other always goes down.
Basic moves
To do it, do it
When you tap into the noosphere to reshape the reality, roll 2d6+Control. On 10+, you do it. On 7-9, choose one and on 6- the GM will choose for you:- The cacophony of the end of the world distracts you, you lose yourself in the unholy melody. Whatever you were trying to achieve backfires, but you are not in danger.
- Something breaks inside you, you lose the touch with the human inside. -1 Humanity.
- You are terrified of your own powers. -1 Control.
If you do it, you do it
When your actions reshape your personality as per reverse causality law, and you resist it, roll 2d6+Humanity. On 10+, you remain yourself. On 7-9, you still gain some characteristics of the new image. On 6-, the GM will tell you what happens, and you won’t like it.Special moves
Standoff
When you face a man-made god, roll 2d6+nothing. On 10+, you make it bleed the concept of blood. On 7-9, you are alive and well, at least for now. On 6-, this is it.The End
When you touch the Machine of Machines and try to erase it out of existence, the game ends. You get to narrate the consequences of the apocalypse.
Iron Sky
Procedurally Generated
@Snarf Zagyg , after reading your summary, your adventure is much deeper and nuanced than I saw when I was judging. I literally am about the worst judge you could have drawn for this; me having to go to a search engine to see who the Coen brothers were again probably doomed you more than anything you could have done on your end. Having the goals snipped also probably hurt you the most in playability as it left almost all the focus on Bay. It would have been much harder to judge with multiple objectives.
I've never run a time travel game because why not just go to the point in time when Bay is building a time machine and stop him before he has the capability of creating a reality breach?
Also, tvtropes is cool. I think I went down the rabbit hole on it when I first heard about it a decade-ish ago, then forgot it existed until you just mentioned it again. Wikis are like crack to me and I can only dip lightly lest I fall into them for hours straight.
@el-remmen my compare-contrast brain was functioning when I read your entry but I was trying to cover the adventures individually. Effectively replace "many of them are individually arbitrary/replaceable or barely linked" with "I found the ingredients somewhat tighter and less changeable than in Let Slip."
I've never run a time travel game because why not just go to the point in time when Bay is building a time machine and stop him before he has the capability of creating a reality breach?
Also, tvtropes is cool. I think I went down the rabbit hole on it when I first heard about it a decade-ish ago, then forgot it existed until you just mentioned it again. Wikis are like crack to me and I can only dip lightly lest I fall into them for hours straight.
@el-remmen my compare-contrast brain was functioning when I read your entry but I was trying to cover the adventures individually. Effectively replace "many of them are individually arbitrary/replaceable or barely linked" with "I found the ingredients somewhat tighter and less changeable than in Let Slip."
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Rune
Once A Fool
Commentary on loverdrive’s entry:
The prose in this piece is very nice. It has a good rhythm and keeps pulling the reader along.
The adventure itself might be the single most subtly ambitious entry I’ve ever seen in IRON DM. A whole PbtA system, scenario, and campaign (such as it it) packed into 750 words and an evening of play. A single story to tell in an evening and a new one tomorrow, perhaps. Impressive!
The adventure itself might be the single most subtly ambitious entry I’ve ever seen in IRON DM. A whole PbtA system, scenario, and campaign (such as it it) packed into 750 words and an evening of play. A single story to tell in an evening and a new one tomorrow, perhaps. Impressive!
Neurotic
I plan on living forever. Or die trying.
What (could be) a beautiful world!
Round 1, Alice Lovedrive vs NeuroticIngredients:
• Empty treasury
• Wonderful world
• Terrible bard
• Historic bridge
• Uncivil war
• Spectral lion
Synopsis:
PCs need to stop the Terrible Bard and his cult in creating his Wonderful World fantasy in which only the beautiful survive and multiply. To that end he emptied the treasury of the kingdom, creating his personal cult, organizing the most potent ritual in remembered history.
Background:
The bard spent decades preparing for this moment. Lion knight is kept sterile and now that everything is ready, he is poisoned. The king is convinced to make the best of the best his next Lion Guard.
The most beautiful girls of the seven kingdoms are invited to a beauty pageant to be held at Löwenan Crossing, mercantile center at the Four Rivers. The best dresses, the poise, the most beautiful face, alluring demeanor, if you have it, someone will sponsor you.
The most handsome, bravest men, whose forms rival those of the heroes of old are invited to their own version of the event. The reward? The most beautiful woman in the world and noble title.
Nobility usually disdains such displays, but even they cannot deny the temporary prestige the position brings.
And this year is promising to be incredible because the king and whole royal family will be there. Rumor is, the royal historian will sign the winners as the new nobles of the Löwenan family – recently extinct nobility of old – the inheritors of Marcelus Löwenan that held the Crossing at Crossings Bridge against the barbarian hordes, who kept the king alive until help arrived. Ever since, one of the family sons, a knight, guarded the king. And this is the first guard without children. The knight died from a mysterious illness before he could name an heir.
The historian arrives early to organize the event. The rumor is confirmed and the town goes into a frenzy.
The bridge is now a historical monument, a wide plaza connecting the town into a single unit.
With the promise of nobility, more than one family, nobles, merchants and peasants alike encouraged their most precious daughters to apply. The possibility also sparked the war between mercantile and noble families ranging from displays of wealth, competition at the best craftsmen to create the clothing to rumor spreading and defamation. This uncivil war rages on even as the contestants make their speeches, each trying to outdo others or make them look bad.
Of all 800 contestants, only 20 of each will be presented…and only two will be chosen as winners. At that moment, the Royal Historian will come up, proclaim the man next Löwenan, and make him swear his loyalty to the king on the family sword. The marriage is concluded immediately after and the revelry can begin.
Except…the bard concludes the ritual just as the newlyweds kiss and everyone outside the immediate area freezes in place lost to their own utopia, wonderful world of their inner desires. As the thought world moves faster than normal, many quickly show signs of deterioration. PCs need to find the solution quickly.
Potential resolutions:
Players need to stop the bard, the ritual, or evacuate everyone.
They can find out about the ritual from snippets of conversation between workers, observing cultists preparing for it, or hearing from the concerned librarian who helped with the research.
By this time they should know enough to be protected from the spell or to be on the bridge.
If they prevent the ritual, the bard collapses, crying about his life work. Or attacks in a rage. DMs call.
Killing the bard will not be enough by this time; the cultists have everything they need to complete the ritual. Interrogating him can yield the locations of the cultists. PCs need to stop some groups from finishing the ritual. Once the ritual is complete, the people will die in a short time. All, but those protected by the circle around the bridge.
To end the spell once finished, the players need to know about Löwenan family, their motto: post mortem Regis protegat (protect the king beyond death), their family sword, and Löwenans deed some centuries past. If the new lord invokes the motto holding the sword point down on the bridge, all Löwenan lords from centuries past will come to their aid. These spectral lions can enter the dream world of each person and take them out. Or they can help with the cultists.
Taking the people physically out of the city will also wake them, but PCs might have to contend with the cultists.
Rewards:
Noble title, Money, Reputation
