Iron dm summer champion announced!

[lightful]

You're right, of course.

It's best to let it go, with a rattling threat: I'll get you next time !

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Check your email, though.

 

[seasong]

Re: Rant/Exposition/Whine

It occurs to me, writing this, that I feel more and more as if I should have won. In fact, what I’d really like to write as a follow-up is a critique of Wulf’s work and Rune’s judgement of the same. Would that be in really bad form ?

There is only one rule: please the judge with your entry. Most judges have a few absolutes (no plagiarism, no late entries, no editting after post), but what it really boils down to is, which one does the judge like better. By that standard, you lost, and there is no "should have won".

You may argue that the Judge didn't 'get' your entry, and that is likely true, but that just means you didn't write the entry for the Judge, but for yourself.

Me? I'm a whore .

 

[el-remmen]

Re: Re: Rant/Exposition/Whine

Me? I'm a whore .

/me sticks a three-dollar bill in Seasong's jockey waistband


Woo-hoo! Baby, let's go!!

 

[Pielorinho]

A comment from the peanut gallery:

Wulf, I loved the entry, especially the demented albino elves (God, how I'd enjoy roleplaying them as the DM). And once I thought of it, I can't get out of my head the idea of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser getting trapped in this Whistling Tower. Degenerate humanoids, mad wizards, crumbling structures, no treasure -- vintage Lieber.

Whaddya say -- were these guys inspiration for the adventure?

Daniel

 

[Rune]

Re: Rant/Exposition/Whine

God’s spit !
I had him ! I really thought I had him !

I've been in the same situation. I empathize.

But this time…this time, a golden opportunity was wasted. When I saw the ingredients I thought: “Wulf and elves…good for me”, when I saw he was “breaking” his NDA on the 3.5 MM and moaning about having lots of work to do I thought: “This is looking good”, when I completed my entry I was reasonably satisfied and hoped that all would be well, and then I saw Wulf’s entry and I thought I really had a legitimate shot.

I knew, when I first took on the task of judging, that there would be rulings that I made that people would disagree with. I knew it, because people often disagreed with rulings that had me win in past tournaments. It was inevitable. I stand by my ruling, however. I think this was one of Wulf's better entries, and that says a lot.

Elaborating on Rune’s observations I’d like to say that writing higher level adventures usually means, in my mind and experience, less detailed game mechanics. At high levels PC’s can do so many varied things that trying to keep them all in check would drive a DM nuts. You just pose problems and assume (rightly 95% of the time) that they’ll be able to work through (or around) them.

Okay, good point. What I was talking about was more along the lines of skill DCs and levels and such.

The phase spiders and treants were the servants of Noxilea and Asquilla, respectively, I thought that was obvious and fail to see why, in that light, it would be unusual. Rune makes a point of saying that he feels that the phase spiders were tacked on – I think that there couldn’t be a more logical servant for a drow loyal to Lloth living in the ethereal !

I'm not saying that they didn't fit, just that they didn't feel natural, within the context of the adventure. I got the feeling you chose them because they were a cool image (and one was an ingredient. Granted, they really were a cool image, but, even so...

One more thing, you hurt yourself a tiny bit by assuming that I was familiar with the deities. I know that the information is available elsewhere, but I've said this before: the burden of clarity rests on the author. As it happens, I'm not overly familiar with Lloth (I was enough to get by on in this adventure), but I have absolutely no idea who that other god is. Some sort of nature god, I presume (thus, the treants).

Which leads me to the prayer beads...

Prayer beads are used for counting prayers, nothing else, which is precisely what Asquilla is (albeit in vain) doing with them. Rune also comments on my use of the ancient elf ingredient. I agree that she could just as well have been a middle aged elf, or even an old one – but I think it’s fairly obvious that she has to be an elf. Personally, I found the image of an ancient elf, mindlessly counting off against the prayer beads almost as compelling as the garden Rune liked so much.

My problem with it was that either the treants or the beads didn't fit. And because they were together, neither fit. You see, nature deities tend to be light on dogma (if it's present at all), and dogma is what prayer beads are all about! I will concede that it is a very cool image, though. I meant to mention that in the judgement, but I forgot to.

When I saw the two elven ingredients it was obvious that the adventure had to be elf-centrique.

Actually, that was a trap. I was expecting to see those ingredients used in just such a way, (the way you used them, more or less), so the best strategy would have been to find something different to do with them.

Personally, I’m not terribly fond of them, or the drow for that matter, but I love the spider imagery…phase spiders !

Believe it or not, I'm with you 100%, here.

I was certain I would be getting the Dark Crystal points ! I thought that the scene where the Bielaja are grabbed by the phase spiders strikingly similar to the one where the spider-creations (Garthim ?) of the Skekses (?) grab Pod People ! It wasn’t intentional, but still…

I'll admit, I completely missed that one. And I think I know why, but I'll tackle it in my next post, dealing specifically with the Dark Crystal Factor (tm).

It occurs to me, writing this, that I feel more and more as if I should have won. In fact, what I’d really like to write as a follow-up is a critique of Wulf’s work and Rune’s judgement of the same. Would that be in really bad form ?

That's kind of what exposition is for.

Also, Rune, if you care at all, I preffered the way you formatted your first 2 decisions, it’s much more concise and you get a better feel for your reasoning.

Thanks for the input. I don't think I'll be changing it back though, because that seems to be the minority opinion and, quite frankly, reading the first two judgements almost puts me to sleep. As I am the author, that's a bad sign.

Besides, this way they're more nemmerlesque.

Wulf, congratulations (although it might have/should have been me) and the best of luck in Round 2 !

Did you read any of my older entries? If you had, you would possibly have a good idea of where I place my priorities when judging. I suspect that your priorities differ widely from my own.

Nevertheless, I think you're a great writer and hope to see you in a future Iron DM tournament--whether I'm judging or not.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

A comment from the peanut gallery:

Wulf, I loved the entry, especially the demented albino elves (God, how I'd enjoy roleplaying them as the DM). And once I thought of it, I can't get out of my head the idea of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser getting trapped in this Whistling Tower. Degenerate humanoids, mad wizards, crumbling structures, no treasure -- vintage Lieber.

That's the nicest thing anyone has said to me in a long while.

I have commented here frequently (and in my story hour) that there has been no greater influence on me personally, as a writer, than Lieber. But other than that, it wasn't intentional. When I finished writing it I was reminded more of the R.E. Howard story, with the elephant-headed thing at the top of the tower. That was Conan, I believe...

Anyhow, I am beaming... You've just taken all the sting out of my impending round 2 loss.


Wulf

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Re: Re: Rant/Exposition/Whine

You may argue that the Judge didn't 'get' your entry, and that is likely true, but that just means you didn't write the entry for the Judge, but for yourself.

Me? I'm a whore .

I will never go this route! I keep to the high road, pure, pristine, idealistic. No whoring for me. I have thought a couple of times with nemm judging, that the kinds of winning changes he proposes after the fact would only water down the adventure. As if, "Not giving the players a clear enough solution," is somehow a bad thing.

Or maybe I just really don't have time to read all the entries and know the judge like I should. I barely have time to finish my entry as it is... Now you want me to go back and study? Ok, this may not be champion-calibre talk here...

 

[Vurt]

Yesterday morning, I was humming and hawwwing, trying to come up with some interesting side-jaunt for my player's Sunday afternoon game. So I wandered on over to these boards and decided to check out (read: mine) the Iron DM thread for ideas.

When I read Wulf's entry, I immediately thought to myself: I am so running my players through this today! Copy. Paste. Print.

Where the adventure didn't run itself (which it practically did for most of the session) it was easily changed with a minimum of fuss, and everyone had a blast with it!

So kudos to Wulf for the fun, and kudos to everyone involved with the Iron DM tournaments for cranking up the pressure to produce such fine jewels as this! Everyone walks away a winner, even the lurkers.

Cheers,
Vurt

 

[Rune]

A note about style:

Style counts for a lot in judgement, but only after all other elements have been weighed.