I thought I knew which way this was going when I started writing.
Wicht’s entry is extraordinary. The adventure is elegant and, frankly, essentially flawless. The ingredients are, on the whole, strong. And one of them exemplifies everything I look for in an IRON DM ingredient’s implementation.
But el-remmen’s entry is also very strong. The adventure/campaign is not flawless, but is still very good and the slight edges on those ingredients really add up.
Do they add up enough? I guess I have to figure out how much better the adventure in “Crown” is vs. how much better the ingredients are in “Cow”.
…I’ve done some soul-searching and I’m going to have to side with excellence. “Cow” never fails to be good, but I don’t think it’s numerous slightly-better ingredients outweigh the excellence of the adventure presented in “Crown”, given that only one of its ingredients is actually not very good and another one is exceptionally excellent.
This is a
tough call. Part of me really hopes I’m the minority vote. But
my vote is for Wicht in this one.
…Alas, I am not fated to vote in irrelevance.
@el-remmen, no one knows better than you what this is all about and your skills do not disappoint. I’d be equally happy to see further entries from you or to see you get back into the judge’s saddle again. It has been a pleasure.
For now, however,
@Wicht advances to the championship round!