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Iron dm summer champion announced!
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<blockquote data-quote="Wulf Ratbane" data-source="post: 959544" data-attributes="member: 94"><p>I think the most useful exposition is to just go through my thought process on how I arranged the ingredients. I really do think of Iron DM as a great resource for DM's to learn how to craft adventures. Not that I am saying I am any friggin master at it, but at least that's the goal. In my case I enter not to instruct, but for the practice. I have seen what good DMs are capable of. I'd like to be a good DM.</p><p></p><p>So here's how I put it all together, more or less:</p><p></p><p>I started with the albino elves. Albinism as an inherited trait always reminds me of inbreeding, but the fact that we're talking elves, with such normally long lifespans, means that any amount of inbreeding would ordinarily take thousands and thousands of years to take hold. So I started with wondering how I could speed up or cut short the lifespan of these elves. </p><p></p><p>The albinos led me to the ancient elf; I decided he'd have something to do with it, so I placed this long lived elf as the major villain in contrast to the albinos with their hamster-like breeding cycle.</p><p></p><p>The withered garden came next. Whatever the ancient elf was doing to drain the life from the albinos would be happening to the garden as well. These two ingredients together would serve as clues to the players that something was up. I disagree with Rune's assertion that the withered garden isn't handled well; it is certainly not described as evocatively as lightful's, but it is a vital clue to the players.</p><p></p><p>I tumbled around the phase spider and the specimen collection for a while. Somehow, they seemed to fit together; we can all picture that spider under glass. In my mind I had the spider as part of the specimen collection, but I changed it later. Certainly, the spider's careful inbreeding has a specimen-collection like quality to it, and it certainly helps to weave him into the ingredients. He doesn't seem as out of place, for example, as a hill giant or some other creature sent out to grab victims for the tower. The phase spider just fits better. In the end I wanted the spider far more as the hook into the adventure, and decided he'd be the one to get the <em>players</em> into those specimen containers.</p><p></p><p>The very nature of the phase spider hooked me onto the idea of using the Ethereal, somehow, as the mechanism by which the tower drained life. I admit, I don't own the Manual of the Planes, and I think that slowed-aging aspect is actually a feature of the Astral, not the Ethereal, but it was just another thread in the weaving. It worked.</p><p></p><p>I was left only with the prayer beads-- I knew this was my weakest ingredient. Couldn't seem to fit them anywhere. In the end I was fairly happy with them; they admittedly aren't an integral part of the adventure, though I tried to make them so (as the only means of escape for a low level party). But I couldn't help grinning a little when I put them in the hands of the albinos, who could at any time have used them to escape-- except of course, they're too stupid. And the wind walk prayer bead persuaded me to put holes in the tower-- I very much liked the idea of the players whistling through the tower as they escaped. So while the prayer beads aren't an <em>essential</em> ingredient, I think they add a nice spice. </p><p></p><p>An aftertaste, if you will...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Wulf Ratbane, post: 959544, member: 94"] I think the most useful exposition is to just go through my thought process on how I arranged the ingredients. I really do think of Iron DM as a great resource for DM's to learn how to craft adventures. Not that I am saying I am any friggin master at it, but at least that's the goal. In my case I enter not to instruct, but for the practice. I have seen what good DMs are capable of. I'd like to be a good DM. So here's how I put it all together, more or less: I started with the albino elves. Albinism as an inherited trait always reminds me of inbreeding, but the fact that we're talking elves, with such normally long lifespans, means that any amount of inbreeding would ordinarily take thousands and thousands of years to take hold. So I started with wondering how I could speed up or cut short the lifespan of these elves. The albinos led me to the ancient elf; I decided he'd have something to do with it, so I placed this long lived elf as the major villain in contrast to the albinos with their hamster-like breeding cycle. The withered garden came next. Whatever the ancient elf was doing to drain the life from the albinos would be happening to the garden as well. These two ingredients together would serve as clues to the players that something was up. I disagree with Rune's assertion that the withered garden isn't handled well; it is certainly not described as evocatively as lightful's, but it is a vital clue to the players. I tumbled around the phase spider and the specimen collection for a while. Somehow, they seemed to fit together; we can all picture that spider under glass. In my mind I had the spider as part of the specimen collection, but I changed it later. Certainly, the spider's careful inbreeding has a specimen-collection like quality to it, and it certainly helps to weave him into the ingredients. He doesn't seem as out of place, for example, as a hill giant or some other creature sent out to grab victims for the tower. The phase spider just fits better. In the end I wanted the spider far more as the hook into the adventure, and decided he'd be the one to get the [i]players[/i] into those specimen containers. The very nature of the phase spider hooked me onto the idea of using the Ethereal, somehow, as the mechanism by which the tower drained life. I admit, I don't own the Manual of the Planes, and I think that slowed-aging aspect is actually a feature of the Astral, not the Ethereal, but it was just another thread in the weaving. It worked. I was left only with the prayer beads-- I knew this was my weakest ingredient. Couldn't seem to fit them anywhere. In the end I was fairly happy with them; they admittedly aren't an integral part of the adventure, though I tried to make them so (as the only means of escape for a low level party). But I couldn't help grinning a little when I put them in the hands of the albinos, who could at any time have used them to escape-- except of course, they're too stupid. And the wind walk prayer bead persuaded me to put holes in the tower-- I very much liked the idea of the players whistling through the tower as they escaped. So while the prayer beads aren't an [i]essential[/i] ingredient, I think they add a nice spice. An aftertaste, if you will... [/QUOTE]
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