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Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 998917" data-attributes="member: 11">First of all let me say that judging and Iron DM tourney is exhausting. . .  I don't know about the judges that followed me - but I read each entry AT LEAST three times, I make lists of how ingredients are used and how well that meshes with the adventure idea a whole.  That means that a longer adventure that tries to use its scope to slip in ingredients in an arbitrary way is going to get ripped apart - and not to toot my own horn (and this is not something one necessarily wants to brag about), but I think of the folks that have judged here and on other boards I was the least compromising and most likely to unapologetically take you to task.  I'll never forget telling two people in a second round that I wish I could eliminate them both.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />  And heck, on <a href="http://www.nutkinland.com" target="_blank">Nutkinland</a> when I ran it I made two players totally redo their entries with new ingredients. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />Anyway, I don't know where this "pander to the judge" idea came from - because to be honest, even though I like grim n' gritty low magic adventures, campaigns and settings - I will not hesitate to eliminate one if it is not up to snuff- even if the competitor's has tarrasques and demi-gods and flying ships dragging the sun out of its place in the realm of the dead, or some such thing.And while, I can understand why people might be worried about favoritism between players and judges - I really don't see that ever happening - again to use my own experience - when LordNightShade (who is a close friend of mine and who I founded the RBDM with) lost in the first round to [I don't remember who] he emailed me and ICQed me grousing about my judgement against him - My reply?  Read my reasons, they still stand.  Honestly, if someone started up an IRON DM round and I felt they would not be a fair judge I would take the risk of saying something about it - but so far the folks who have started up I have no problem with at all.------------------------------------To get to some of the points brought up by Lightful (and others) veryu briefly:I think changing the single-elimination single judge backbone of IRON DM would dilute it AND make it take way too long to resolve.  Personally, I think any IRON DM tourney that takes longer than two weeks is a mistake.  The more judges and more participants you have the more time it will take and the harder it will be to make arrangements for time and such - just a quick look thru this most recent thread alone will show you that scheduling can be a huge pain in the ass.As for how frequently. . .more than 4 times a year is too much for reasons others have already said.As for entry length: Anything over 3000 words is pushing it ( and I know I have done that) - but I don't want to set a hard and fast limit because a good adventure is a good adventure regardless of length - and as Seasong said, the longer it is the more chance of inconsistancy, tangential thinking and the boredom of too much detail become a danger.  I've never had to say, "Dude.  Your entry was too long and too uninspired.  i did not even read it a second time."  But I would.How many participants? More than 8 is a bad idea for reasons I touched on above.Criticism of the Judges: Personally, grousing and bad sportsmanship is so unflattering that in a way what it does to your reputation is its own punishment.  I don't argue with my DM about ad hoc calls in a game, and I wouldn't do it here either.Standards for judgement?  This would only cause MORE disagreement not more as soon as we pretend we can be objective about grading things the more people are going to cry FOUL when they feel that a judge has strayed from that -and who is going to be the ultimate judge?  Who will judge the judge?  I think the idea undermines the role of the judge.  Just accept that this person is going to judge it by whatever standard they have and based on their own experiences as a GM and as a player and be done with it.More responses as they come to me. . .</blockquote>

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