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IRON DM 2023 Tournament Thread
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<blockquote data-quote="Snarf Zagyg" data-source="post: 9204026" data-attributes="member: 7023840"><p><strong><span style="font-size: 18px">Notes from a Tavern </span></strong></p><p></p><p><u>Ingredients</u></p><p>Guardian Goose</p><p>Flooded Cavern</p><p>Hollow Peg-Leg</p><p>Elemental Orchestra</p><p>Legendary Door</p><p>Cured Orc</p><p>Time and Space Bomb</p><p>Captivating Toy</p><p></p><p>[Spoiler]</p><p><strong><em>GM NOTE- There is no GM. Or everyone is a GM. You’ll figure it out. But you need at least three people. You can have more, but you need at least three. </em></strong></p><p></p><p>Every participant is a player (see below). The characters all start with two insanity points. There are no other stats.</p><p></p><p><u>Mechanics</u>-</p><p>You can choose between two “actions” on your turn.</p><p></p><p><em>Option 1</em>- On your turn, declare and write down a basic principle of play (e.g., the game has magic/no magic, or the game has hit points).</p><p></p><p>Describe a challenge for your character. This can involve creating some new fiction in the game.</p><p></p><p>The player to your left explains and writes down a <u>simple</u> rule that determines the success/failure of the challenge. If there is an already-existing rule for the challenge, the player may add a detail relevant to the situation.</p><p></p><p>Resolve the challenge.</p><p></p><p>Then the player to your right will narrate the outcome based on the success/failure.</p><p></p><p><em>Option 2</em>- You can eat the orc meat (see below). Eating meat increases your insanity by one. In addition, you can <em>disbelieve</em> the fiction. Successfully rolling at, or under, your insanity score with 2d6 means that you can eliminate any single (1) principle (and associated rules). Failure to roll under means that you can eliminate any single (1) rule and that you acquire two additional insanity points. Accumulating 11 insanity points turns you forevermore into a nonplayable NPC, and your turn ends immediately and forever.</p><p></p><p><em>And then…</em></p><p></p><p>Play passes in a counterclockwise direction. Play continues until (1) the Trial is concluded (see below), or (2) every player but one has been driven insane, leaving one character, alone, forever, externally validating the loneliness that was already inside; or (3) everyone stops playing because the rules have overwhelmed the game, finally signifying the utter futility of running after marks and prizes and accomplishments.</p><p></p><p><u>Rule Zero</u>- At no point can a new principle or rule contradict the fiction or rules already established in the written rules.</p><p></p><p><u>Rule Zero and a Half</u>- At no point can a new principle or rule contradict Rule Zero, or an existing principle or rule created by a player.</p><p></p><p><u>Rule Zero and Three-Quarters</u>- At no point can a new principle or rule result in an “instant-win” or “instant-lose” for a character.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong><em>Background</em></strong></p><p>You have been hard at work with your fellow designers creating the upcoming changes to The World’s Most Popular Roleplaying Game. You know that you must finish this work as your employer, the World’s Most Semi-Successful Toy Company, keeps you working with the alluring promise of meager pay, expensive and complicated health care benefits, and, if you make your deadlines with uncompensated overtime, Taco Tuesday.</p><p></p><p>But the constant toil is tiring, and you’re feeling the crunch. The latest, greatest, but certainly not new, edition will be released soon. You only need to get a few more tweaks in, and you and your friends can leave and go to the Earth, Wind & Fire Concert that you’ve been waiting for.</p><p></p><p>…but as you put in the finishing touches to the improved, but not new, Monk, you feel this strange surge of energy shoot through you. You’re no longer in the spacious yet sterile conference room, far removed from your usual cubicle.</p><p></p><p>Instead, you’re in a tavern. But not a sports bar. You’re in THE TAVERN, where adventurers congregate to go out on adventures. Except you’re not an adventurer, you’re just an NPC. And not even an important NPC.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong><em>The Tavern</em></strong></p><p>You’re in The Tavern. It’s a legendary tavern known to all who have played The World’s Most Popular Roleplaying Game, but not so legendary that the name matters. It’s called the Smiling Drake. Or The Salted Goblin. Or the Dragon’s Breath. Something that was probably generated from a random table. And it’s filled with several interesting people. A merchant who is a little tipsy and is, perhaps too loudly, describing the route of his caravan. A shadowy figure in the back who might be a member of the assassin’s guild. A haughty elven warrior who looks strangely out of place. A pirate with a parrot and a peg leg talking about buried treasure. A bartender who keeps saying, “No, I am not a dragon pretending to be a human, why do you ask?” A board with a list of bounties that you can’t quite read.</p><p></p><p>Periodically, a group of adventurers barge through the legendary entrance to this tavern, make some small talk with the interesting people in The Tavern, throw around some gold, quaff some ale or mead, and then depart.</p><p></p><p>… and everything in The Tavern resets. Waiting for the next group of adventurers to come through.</p><p></p><p>You’re trapped in the generic starting tavern for a D&D game. But you’re not an adventurer. You’re not even a colorful NPC that the adventurers talk to. No, you’re one of the faceless background people who doesn’t have a name, a class, or even a stat block.</p><p></p><p>You quickly get your bearings. You discover the following immutable facts about The Tavern-</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">No Exit. The doors to The Tavern are legendary to adventurers, swinging open to call them to adventure. To you, they are distasteful, imprisoning you as cannot fathom pulling or pushing on them.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Beyond Good and Evil. There is a giant, angry goose that is just outside the heralded swinging doors to The Tavern. The goose allows adventurers in and out of The Tavern and appears to them as nothing more than a charming waterfowl, but viciously attacks and chases back any of the NPCs that try to leave. Who do you suppose the Goose is? Why, the torturer, of course. The Goose is not good, the Goose is not evil, but the Goose always is and always will keep you inside.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Tunnel. In the basement of The Tavern is only one tunnel, dark and lonely, yours.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Cave. At the end of the tunnel is a strange scene; a flooded cave bereft of light and hope, and you are the strange prisoners. Is there something under the water? Perhaps another tunnel, or a device, or a tentacled beast? Or is the dank water just a manifestation of the omnipresent despair that you feel lapping at the remains of your sanity?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Metamorphosis. While the adventurers that walk through those doors are plied with flagons of ale and obscenely large succulent turkey legs, you are an NPC, moving toward the unknown nourishment you crave. There is only one food you may be served: the preserved meat of orcs. You notice that the other NPCs seem to enjoy this strange flavor, chewing methodically on it; after you have eaten two slices of it, you begin to feel as if your life as a designer of this game was more of a troubled dream. You know that this orc charcuterie tethers you to this world, but you cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside of you. You cannot even explain it to yourself.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Steppenwolf. The pirate, in truth, calls himself Steppenwolf. He is aware of the unreality of all that is around him and finds neither home nor joy nor nourishment in The Tavern which is strange and incomprehensible to him. His hollow peg leg contains a map to a treasure in the hills outside of The Tavern that he has refused to give to any adventurers because, after all, what’s the point? It all just resets again.</li> </ul><p>But just as all hope seems lost, you remember something … something fleeting. Something ephemeral. You’re not just NPCs. You are GAME DESIGNERS. Maybe, just maybe, you can design your way out of this problem.</p><p></p><p>You realize that you can create the rules that affect this world. But at the same time, the more tasty orc prosciutto you consume, the more this world seems real to you, and the less you can remember that this is just a game.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong><em>Character Motivations</em></strong></p><p>There are three motivations for characters.</p><p></p><p>1. The character wants to escape the nameless life of the NPC and become a full adventurer. The character desires to replace this banal existence with an existence of chasing gold and adventure, anything that will distract the character from the utter meaninglessness of existence.</p><p></p><p>2. The character wants to return to the sweet, sweet embrace of The Toy Company. The character is looking for any possible way to rend a hole in the fabric of space and time to escape The Tavern and return to the decadent escapism of modern life.</p><p></p><p>3. The character has embraced The Tavern. In despair, there are the most intense enjoyments, especially when you are aware of your hopelessness.</p><p></p><p>Assign the motivations in order. If there are more than three players, continue assigning them in order starting again with the first motivation.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong><em>The Trial</em></strong></p><p>Players have three hours before the Earth, Wind & Fire concert begins in the material world. After one hour and fifty minutes of play, put on <em>Greatest Hits</em> by Earth, Wind & Fire. At the end of the album, it will be too late to go to the concert, and the characters will be stuck in The Tavern forever. This is a victory for any Player whose character has a motivation to stay in The Tavern unless that character is already insane.</p><p></p><p>Players who are trying to adventure will succeed if they manage to get past the hallowed doors of The Tavern that have seen so many adventurers pass through them, get past the wicked giant goose that keeps them in place, and go forth on an adventure. Maybe they might find a way through the despair of the Cave or drown in the process. But if they can recover the buried treasure that Steppenwolf has on his map located in his peg leg, they win. What do they win? Maybe stop making up your own games, and just play D&D at that point. Go back to the tavern and read the board. Find your next adventure. </p><p></p><p>Players who are trying to blow a hole in space and time and return to the sweet capitalist embrace of The World’s Most Semi-Successful Toy Company might also learn something from Steppenwolf about the unreality of this existence, and a way to end it. Or find something in the flooded cave beneath The Tavern. Or double-cross their adventuring comrades and find that the treasure is not gold that glitters, but instead explodes them back to their own time and space. The important thing is that these players find their escape in returning to the Toy Company, finishing their work on the game, and getting to hear the sweet dulcet sounds of Earth, Wind & Fire in concert. </p><p></p><p>Players who are resigned to the true futility of existence will do everything they can to keep their friends with them in The Tavern. Work to remove the narrative tension. Remind the other players that other people can sort out problems. Adventuring is a lot of work… better leave that to the adventurers. And why get recaptured by the allure of the constant treadmill of a capitalist toy company; after all, isn’t work just the same as entering a pie-eating contest where the prize is … more pie? You can never change your life, and you aren’t dissatisfied with what you have here. Orc salami isn’t as bad as Taco Tuesday. Nothing happens. Nobody comes, nobody goes. But you will always find something to give you the impression that you exist.</p><p>[/SPOILER]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Snarf Zagyg, post: 9204026, member: 7023840"] [B][SIZE=5]Notes from a Tavern [/SIZE][/B] [U]Ingredients[/U] Guardian Goose Flooded Cavern Hollow Peg-Leg Elemental Orchestra Legendary Door Cured Orc Time and Space Bomb Captivating Toy [Spoiler] [B][I]GM NOTE- There is no GM. Or everyone is a GM. You’ll figure it out. But you need at least three people. You can have more, but you need at least three. [/I][/B] Every participant is a player (see below). The characters all start with two insanity points. There are no other stats. [U]Mechanics[/U]- You can choose between two “actions” on your turn. [I]Option 1[/I]- On your turn, declare and write down a basic principle of play (e.g., the game has magic/no magic, or the game has hit points). Describe a challenge for your character. This can involve creating some new fiction in the game. The player to your left explains and writes down a [U]simple[/U] rule that determines the success/failure of the challenge. If there is an already-existing rule for the challenge, the player may add a detail relevant to the situation. Resolve the challenge. Then the player to your right will narrate the outcome based on the success/failure. [I]Option 2[/I]- You can eat the orc meat (see below). Eating meat increases your insanity by one. In addition, you can [I]disbelieve[/I] the fiction. Successfully rolling at, or under, your insanity score with 2d6 means that you can eliminate any single (1) principle (and associated rules). Failure to roll under means that you can eliminate any single (1) rule and that you acquire two additional insanity points. Accumulating 11 insanity points turns you forevermore into a nonplayable NPC, and your turn ends immediately and forever. [I]And then…[/I] Play passes in a counterclockwise direction. Play continues until (1) the Trial is concluded (see below), or (2) every player but one has been driven insane, leaving one character, alone, forever, externally validating the loneliness that was already inside; or (3) everyone stops playing because the rules have overwhelmed the game, finally signifying the utter futility of running after marks and prizes and accomplishments. [U]Rule Zero[/U]- At no point can a new principle or rule contradict the fiction or rules already established in the written rules. [U]Rule Zero and a Half[/U]- At no point can a new principle or rule contradict Rule Zero, or an existing principle or rule created by a player. [U]Rule Zero and Three-Quarters[/U]- At no point can a new principle or rule result in an “instant-win” or “instant-lose” for a character. [B][I]Background[/I][/B] You have been hard at work with your fellow designers creating the upcoming changes to The World’s Most Popular Roleplaying Game. You know that you must finish this work as your employer, the World’s Most Semi-Successful Toy Company, keeps you working with the alluring promise of meager pay, expensive and complicated health care benefits, and, if you make your deadlines with uncompensated overtime, Taco Tuesday. But the constant toil is tiring, and you’re feeling the crunch. The latest, greatest, but certainly not new, edition will be released soon. You only need to get a few more tweaks in, and you and your friends can leave and go to the Earth, Wind & Fire Concert that you’ve been waiting for. …but as you put in the finishing touches to the improved, but not new, Monk, you feel this strange surge of energy shoot through you. You’re no longer in the spacious yet sterile conference room, far removed from your usual cubicle. Instead, you’re in a tavern. But not a sports bar. You’re in THE TAVERN, where adventurers congregate to go out on adventures. Except you’re not an adventurer, you’re just an NPC. And not even an important NPC. [B][I]The Tavern[/I][/B] You’re in The Tavern. It’s a legendary tavern known to all who have played The World’s Most Popular Roleplaying Game, but not so legendary that the name matters. It’s called the Smiling Drake. Or The Salted Goblin. Or the Dragon’s Breath. Something that was probably generated from a random table. And it’s filled with several interesting people. A merchant who is a little tipsy and is, perhaps too loudly, describing the route of his caravan. A shadowy figure in the back who might be a member of the assassin’s guild. A haughty elven warrior who looks strangely out of place. A pirate with a parrot and a peg leg talking about buried treasure. A bartender who keeps saying, “No, I am not a dragon pretending to be a human, why do you ask?” A board with a list of bounties that you can’t quite read. Periodically, a group of adventurers barge through the legendary entrance to this tavern, make some small talk with the interesting people in The Tavern, throw around some gold, quaff some ale or mead, and then depart. … and everything in The Tavern resets. Waiting for the next group of adventurers to come through. You’re trapped in the generic starting tavern for a D&D game. But you’re not an adventurer. You’re not even a colorful NPC that the adventurers talk to. No, you’re one of the faceless background people who doesn’t have a name, a class, or even a stat block. You quickly get your bearings. You discover the following immutable facts about The Tavern- [LIST] [*]No Exit. The doors to The Tavern are legendary to adventurers, swinging open to call them to adventure. To you, they are distasteful, imprisoning you as cannot fathom pulling or pushing on them. [*]Beyond Good and Evil. There is a giant, angry goose that is just outside the heralded swinging doors to The Tavern. The goose allows adventurers in and out of The Tavern and appears to them as nothing more than a charming waterfowl, but viciously attacks and chases back any of the NPCs that try to leave. Who do you suppose the Goose is? Why, the torturer, of course. The Goose is not good, the Goose is not evil, but the Goose always is and always will keep you inside. [*]The Tunnel. In the basement of The Tavern is only one tunnel, dark and lonely, yours. [*]The Cave. At the end of the tunnel is a strange scene; a flooded cave bereft of light and hope, and you are the strange prisoners. Is there something under the water? Perhaps another tunnel, or a device, or a tentacled beast? Or is the dank water just a manifestation of the omnipresent despair that you feel lapping at the remains of your sanity? [*]The Metamorphosis. While the adventurers that walk through those doors are plied with flagons of ale and obscenely large succulent turkey legs, you are an NPC, moving toward the unknown nourishment you crave. There is only one food you may be served: the preserved meat of orcs. You notice that the other NPCs seem to enjoy this strange flavor, chewing methodically on it; after you have eaten two slices of it, you begin to feel as if your life as a designer of this game was more of a troubled dream. You know that this orc charcuterie tethers you to this world, but you cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside of you. You cannot even explain it to yourself. [*]Steppenwolf. The pirate, in truth, calls himself Steppenwolf. He is aware of the unreality of all that is around him and finds neither home nor joy nor nourishment in The Tavern which is strange and incomprehensible to him. His hollow peg leg contains a map to a treasure in the hills outside of The Tavern that he has refused to give to any adventurers because, after all, what’s the point? It all just resets again. [/LIST] But just as all hope seems lost, you remember something … something fleeting. Something ephemeral. You’re not just NPCs. You are GAME DESIGNERS. Maybe, just maybe, you can design your way out of this problem. You realize that you can create the rules that affect this world. But at the same time, the more tasty orc prosciutto you consume, the more this world seems real to you, and the less you can remember that this is just a game. [B][I]Character Motivations[/I][/B] There are three motivations for characters. 1. The character wants to escape the nameless life of the NPC and become a full adventurer. The character desires to replace this banal existence with an existence of chasing gold and adventure, anything that will distract the character from the utter meaninglessness of existence. 2. The character wants to return to the sweet, sweet embrace of The Toy Company. The character is looking for any possible way to rend a hole in the fabric of space and time to escape The Tavern and return to the decadent escapism of modern life. 3. The character has embraced The Tavern. In despair, there are the most intense enjoyments, especially when you are aware of your hopelessness. Assign the motivations in order. If there are more than three players, continue assigning them in order starting again with the first motivation. [B][I]The Trial[/I][/B] Players have three hours before the Earth, Wind & Fire concert begins in the material world. After one hour and fifty minutes of play, put on [I]Greatest Hits[/I] by Earth, Wind & Fire. At the end of the album, it will be too late to go to the concert, and the characters will be stuck in The Tavern forever. This is a victory for any Player whose character has a motivation to stay in The Tavern unless that character is already insane. Players who are trying to adventure will succeed if they manage to get past the hallowed doors of The Tavern that have seen so many adventurers pass through them, get past the wicked giant goose that keeps them in place, and go forth on an adventure. Maybe they might find a way through the despair of the Cave or drown in the process. But if they can recover the buried treasure that Steppenwolf has on his map located in his peg leg, they win. What do they win? Maybe stop making up your own games, and just play D&D at that point. Go back to the tavern and read the board. Find your next adventure. Players who are trying to blow a hole in space and time and return to the sweet capitalist embrace of The World’s Most Semi-Successful Toy Company might also learn something from Steppenwolf about the unreality of this existence, and a way to end it. Or find something in the flooded cave beneath The Tavern. Or double-cross their adventuring comrades and find that the treasure is not gold that glitters, but instead explodes them back to their own time and space. The important thing is that these players find their escape in returning to the Toy Company, finishing their work on the game, and getting to hear the sweet dulcet sounds of Earth, Wind & Fire in concert. Players who are resigned to the true futility of existence will do everything they can to keep their friends with them in The Tavern. Work to remove the narrative tension. Remind the other players that other people can sort out problems. Adventuring is a lot of work… better leave that to the adventurers. And why get recaptured by the allure of the constant treadmill of a capitalist toy company; after all, isn’t work just the same as entering a pie-eating contest where the prize is … more pie? You can never change your life, and you aren’t dissatisfied with what you have here. Orc salami isn’t as bad as Taco Tuesday. Nothing happens. Nobody comes, nobody goes. But you will always find something to give you the impression that you exist. [/SPOILER] [/QUOTE]
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