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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FitzTheRuke" data-source="post: 9801344" data-attributes="member: 59816">FitzTheRuke’s Judgement for IRON DM 2025 FINALFenris-77 vs AustinHolm.Following the Rules[USER=2820]@Fenris-77[/user] “PARADiS3 R3GAiNED” (henceforth “Paradise”) and [USER=7054007]@AustinHolm[/USER]  “Traumhammer” (I’ll call it “Hammer”) were turned in on time and under word count, after a bit of a SNAFU-start. Stuff happens, so I think everyone involved can breathe a sigh of relief that we all made it to the end, with our sanity, perhaps tested, but hopefully intact.Presentation & ReadabilityI enjoyed both entries! It’s a real trick to turn in really workable adventures using such disparate ingredients, and both of you did great jobs. I honestly can’t say that I know which way this is going to go. I suspect that it will come down to true hair-splitting in the ingredients section. Let’s find out. But first:Playing the AdventureIt’s interesting to me that, in spite of my almost always playing D&D, I find that I generally enjoy the Iron DM entries that are NOT D&D-related more than I enjoy the D&D ones. This isn’t a slight to Hammer – I really like it, as we’ll get into – but I do find that I really enjoy this competition reminding me how fun other games can seem. I have, and I do, play other games, just not as often as I’d like. Will that make me biased? I guess we’ll see.I really like Paradise’s narrative, but as I do, I find myself wondering – is it TOO narrated? I can start to imagine how I would pick it apart to turn it into a game at the table, but I’ve got to do quite a bit of work to give agency back to the players. It’s a fun story, well told, but it’s a bit on the railroad, with much of its cleverness ultimately winding up as, best case, inspirational tone for the GM, and worse case, simply having half of it turn out to be read-aloud text. Still, I could run this as a quick one-off, and everyone would have fun.Hammer is more open to player input, with hexcrawling and riddle-solving. It could be played with multiple groups, for example, and come out almost entirely differently. In the end, I think it has the edge as the better adventure, but that’s not the same thing as the better Iron DM entry, at least, not by itself.Ingredient UseHere’s where we’ll find the really important contest:Shrimp HeavenIn Paradise, I can only find one reference to shrimp, as part of a filtration system. I guess they’re all dead now, so they’re in Shrimp Heaven? It’s a bit of a stretch, as an ingredient, and it makes me think that I might be missing something, but I’m going to have to assume that it’s just a passing use of the ingredient that never fully formed.In Hammer, there’s a great big (probable fight) encounter with some shrimp who managed to wish themselves into their best life, at least according to them. It’s a fun use of an Ankheg statblock.Hammer gets this one.Aggressive PuzzleIn Paradise we have Parcival, a dangerous AI that likes riddles and games, and will punish incorrect answers or boring counter-riddles, even going as far as unlocking security miniguns to shoot at the offending PC. Solid.Hammer also gives us a dangerous NPC as a puzzle, with Rätsel on a rampage, and a riddle that undoes him. It also works well.This one’s pretty much a tie.Restless ThievesParadise gives the PCs some “help” on their heist in the form of an NPC gang, and the wrinkle of inevitable chaos when they jump the gun and move in unasked. Love it.Hammer has the thieves as the instigators of the entire adventure – they stole the hammer and used its power to wish away their sleep.It’s too close to call here.Weight of InevitabilityIn Paradise, it’s only a matter of time before the heist goes pear-shaped, and we’re given a way to determine if the security alert is triggered.Hammer has its unfortunate Giant crushed under its own weight. It’s clever, does the job, and is the cause of all the trouble.It’s close, but I’ll give it to Hammer.Death WishParadise has security robots that are named DeathWISH. While I like the acronym, and they could certainly be deadly, it’s kind of a cautionary tale when it comes to IronDM ingredients: It’s got to be more than a name. It’s a little more than just a name here, but not much.Hammer has a lot of wishes, and Death is simply, and naturally, the final one, putting our unfortunate Giant to rest. It’s the endgame for the adventure. Nicely done.Hammer gets this one.Fertile GroundParadise gives us its BioCHEM Greenhouse as one of its set-piece locations, where the PCs can find Candida.Hammer has a cave that’s so fertile, it could grow hostile clones of the PCs, on top of simply feeding everyone.Both of these do the job.Shoulder PadsParadise has the CorpSec armour with the RIFD chips in the shoulders (I assume which gives them a padded look) but also function like a “Security Pad” by opening doors and such.Hammer gives us its Parasol Pauldrons – armour that helps, rather than hinders in the desert heat. The bad guys wear them, and they’d be useful to the PCs, but they might just get glossed over in actual play.I’ll give Paradise the bump here, for them being more important to the plot.Imposter SyndromeI’ve reread Paradise several times, as many of the ingredients are difficult to spot at first glance. Here, I think, we have the PCs disguised as Security Guards. They’re imposters, certainly, but it’s not much of a syndrome. If there’s more to it, I’m afraid that I’m missing it.Hammer has a few candidates: The aforementioned PC-clones, and the thief who now thinks he’s a doppelganger. Both are good.I’ll give this one to Hammer.Let’s see how it all adds up:[spoiler="Final Judgement"]Huh. Adding it up, it looks like my vote is for [USER=7054007]@AustinHolm[/USER]'s Traumhammer!You may be a first timer to IronDM, but you get how it works. Well done![USER=6993955]@Fenris-77[/USER], I freakin' love your entries, so I hope it's not too much of a disappointment. You've got what it takes to win this, for sure. As I write, I don't know how the other judges will go, so I won't be disappointed if they disagree with me, and you take the title instead!Great entries, both of you. Sorry for the wait on the judgement.[/spoiler]Edited only to get my @'s to work!</blockquote>

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