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[IRON DM] Spring 2004 Contest Thread FINAL JUDGMENT POSTED, CHAMPION ANNOUNCED!
- Thread starter Wulf Ratbane
- Start date
Wulf Ratbane
Adventurer
Enkhidu said:
LOL...
Nope... I said the other day I'd get to it this weekend so we could do the final next week.
Nemm's not the only one with a social life; but today the little lady is away so the day's all mine.
Of course, I am expecting Grim Tales to arrive at my house today, fresh from the printer, so my duties here at Iron DM may take a back seat to doing a giddy little dance of joy today...
Wulf
Wulf Ratbane
Adventurer
Match One judgment posted above.
el-remmen
Moderator Emeritus
Wow.
This is the first time I was certain I had lost. There have been times I suspected it and was wrong, or certain I had won and lost, and other times it was equally as likely either way - but I was sure CarpeDavid had me beat.
He had a great entry. And when I first started working with the ingredients I thought that only an epic level adventure would do them justice, but that I am woefully underqualified for such a treatment - so I purposefully tried to go the opposite way. As you can tell I did not even mention magic in that whole entry.
But then I saw CD's entry and he had not only done it, but done it well. . . My hats off to you, Dave.
As for the judgment, I knew "Final Enemy" was my weakest ingredient, so I tried to sprinkle it in there as much as possible hoping one of them would catch the eye, but all the while knowing it was a fairly obvious ploy.
"Best of Intentions" while not presented in a way for PCs to interact with directly, was there in directly in terms of learning about motivations and the logistics of the city's problems in the midts of their investigation.
An adventure is a story, whether or not PCs become involved with it or how fast they do it goes on with or without them - without that you have rail-roading and lack of verisimilitude. Including a reference to what happens if the PCs do not take a hook is not an admission of weak hooks (just he opposite, I though my hooks were really good) but rather a statement on the obstinance of players (at least in my experience).
Dictionary.com was my friend when it came to "Queen of Spiders" (oh snap! I'm giving away my secrets), and I have even put ingredients into Google just to shake my mind out of literal or linear thought - but when I saw that a spider is also a trivet I thought of how a cook is the hub of kitchen and how info passes through him from both the floor and the individual components of a kitchen and it really made me think aabout passing of information. It just all came together.
My favorite part of my own entry is the ways the adventure could change stylistically based on timing and hook-choice - again showing the story-angle of my style, i.e. here is something that is happening, how do the PCs'actions affect this happening? how do their lack of action affect it?
Personally, I can't agree with Wulf saying my ingredients di not seem tight - when "Dwellers of a Forbidden City", "Queen of Spiders", "Best of Intentions" and "Assassin's Knot" all tied into each other in terms of motvation and presentation of an adversary - and Keep on the Borderlands, while further out - was still central in the Guild's plan. As I said before "The Final Enemy" was crap.
But then again, I can see that unlike my usual entries, I did not use consistancy of imagery to bind things together, which CD did very effectively - but I just think it is a different kind of binding.
Anyway, while I'm glad I won and look forward to the final round, if I had lost to that entry I would have been just fine with it - because it definitely is the kind that keeps the level of competition in these later rounds up to a great level.
CD, thanks again and you, too - Wulf.
This is the first time I was certain I had lost. There have been times I suspected it and was wrong, or certain I had won and lost, and other times it was equally as likely either way - but I was sure CarpeDavid had me beat.
He had a great entry. And when I first started working with the ingredients I thought that only an epic level adventure would do them justice, but that I am woefully underqualified for such a treatment - so I purposefully tried to go the opposite way. As you can tell I did not even mention magic in that whole entry.
But then I saw CD's entry and he had not only done it, but done it well. . . My hats off to you, Dave.
As for the judgment, I knew "Final Enemy" was my weakest ingredient, so I tried to sprinkle it in there as much as possible hoping one of them would catch the eye, but all the while knowing it was a fairly obvious ploy.
"Best of Intentions" while not presented in a way for PCs to interact with directly, was there in directly in terms of learning about motivations and the logistics of the city's problems in the midts of their investigation.
An adventure is a story, whether or not PCs become involved with it or how fast they do it goes on with or without them - without that you have rail-roading and lack of verisimilitude. Including a reference to what happens if the PCs do not take a hook is not an admission of weak hooks (just he opposite, I though my hooks were really good) but rather a statement on the obstinance of players (at least in my experience).
Dictionary.com was my friend when it came to "Queen of Spiders" (oh snap! I'm giving away my secrets), and I have even put ingredients into Google just to shake my mind out of literal or linear thought - but when I saw that a spider is also a trivet I thought of how a cook is the hub of kitchen and how info passes through him from both the floor and the individual components of a kitchen and it really made me think aabout passing of information. It just all came together.
My favorite part of my own entry is the ways the adventure could change stylistically based on timing and hook-choice - again showing the story-angle of my style, i.e. here is something that is happening, how do the PCs'actions affect this happening? how do their lack of action affect it?
Personally, I can't agree with Wulf saying my ingredients di not seem tight - when "Dwellers of a Forbidden City", "Queen of Spiders", "Best of Intentions" and "Assassin's Knot" all tied into each other in terms of motvation and presentation of an adversary - and Keep on the Borderlands, while further out - was still central in the Guild's plan. As I said before "The Final Enemy" was crap.
But then again, I can see that unlike my usual entries, I did not use consistancy of imagery to bind things together, which CD did very effectively - but I just think it is a different kind of binding.
Anyway, while I'm glad I won and look forward to the final round, if I had lost to that entry I would have been just fine with it - because it definitely is the kind that keeps the level of competition in these later rounds up to a great level.
CD, thanks again and you, too - Wulf.
Wulf Ratbane
Adventurer
Just a little bump.
The last judgement will be posted as soon as I get to work...
Wulf
The last judgement will be posted as soon as I get to work...
Wulf
Wulf Ratbane
Adventurer
Zappo said:"Oooh, the thread was bumped, this gotta be the judgement..."
*nnngh*
You're killing me.
Scroll up now.
Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later: I just never figured that my defeat would be so, well, sound.
I went back and read Zappo's entry the morning after I posted, and I was blown away. He not only covered all the bases, but he did it in a way that would be fun for the PCs. Congrats, man! As for my own entry, I think that if I had given it another read through I might have caught the fact that I didn't do a good job of giving the PCs enough "hook" for the adventure - maybe if I had corrected that I might've given Zappo a better run for his money (though I'm fairly sire I still would have lost). At least then I might have been able to find the pants that Zappo beat off me.
Anyhoo, I guess I can't really be disappointed this was my 10th(?) overall entry in Iron DM and my first loss. Oh well, I guess the Vaxalon-like streak is over.
Have fun, guys!
I went back and read Zappo's entry the morning after I posted, and I was blown away. He not only covered all the bases, but he did it in a way that would be fun for the PCs. Congrats, man! As for my own entry, I think that if I had given it another read through I might have caught the fact that I didn't do a good job of giving the PCs enough "hook" for the adventure - maybe if I had corrected that I might've given Zappo a better run for his money (though I'm fairly sire I still would have lost). At least then I might have been able to find the pants that Zappo beat off me.
Anyhoo, I guess I can't really be disappointed this was my 10th(?) overall entry in Iron DM and my first loss. Oh well, I guess the Vaxalon-like streak is over.
Have fun, guys!
