[IronDM] Iron DM Returns! Winner announced!

[Tinner]

Wow! Who'd have thunk it?
This was a great competition. I agonized over each and every match. Every time a new list of ingredients was posted I would think "There's no way to build a coherent adventure out of this mess!" Every time new entries were posted, I'd read my opponent's and think, "Well, it was fun while it lasted."
Congrats to everyone who took part. I learned a lot from each entry, and even more from each judgement.
Thanks most of all to Wulf. I think he really gave the farm away with the tips he posted early in the contest. I took them to heart, and they served me well.
I'm anxiously awaiting the next Iron DM!

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Wow! Who'd have thunk it?

Honestly? I did, after round 1.

I thought your adventures were pretty top notch each time you posted one. This is not to say that you didn't have to work for your victories - your opponents did a good job of keeping you on your toes! - but each time I read one of your entries, I thought, "Yeah - I could use that!"

Congratulations on a well-done set of entries!

To all the other contestants: Excellent job, all of you! It was immensely entertaining seeing the different directions everyone took the same basic inputs. If ENWorld were a pub, I'd buy you all a beer.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Wow! Who'd have thunk it?

Not me, that's for sure.

Thanks most of all to Wulf. I think he really gave the farm away with the tips he posted early in the contest. I took them to heart, and they served me well.
I'm anxiously awaiting the next Iron DM!

Have fun defending!

 

[Roger]

Thanks most of all to Wulf. I think he really gave the farm away with the tips he posted early in the contest. I took them to heart, and they served me well.

Could you (or someone) please post a link to this post?




Thanks,
Roger

 

[reveal]

Could you (or someone) please post a link to this post?

Thanks,
Roger

http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=2306934&postcount=182

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Don't try to include statblocks or DCs. They don't add enough to the strength of your entry to warrant the extra time.

... Obfuscation of a weak entry notwithstanding, of course.

As in poker, sometimes a bold bluff works.

 

[carpedavid]

... Obfuscation of a weak entry notwithstanding, of course.

As in poker, sometimes a bold bluff works.

Don't let Wulf fool you - Iron DM judges are extremely hard to bluff.

Now that the contest is over, I can give the following analysis and advice: I paid almost no attention to the stat blocks that were included. The only match in which I gave them more than a cursory glance was the last match of the first round, in which I combed through Mark's stat block for the lich character because I couldn't find the use of one of the ingredients anywhere else.

For future entries, I'd recommend sticking with Wulf's initial advice and leaving them out completely. Any statistics that are important to note, like race, class, or special abilities, can be noted within the text of the entry.

I did like to see DCs for skill checks or saves included, though. To the keen eye, they provide a quick reference of how challenging a particular task should be. I wouldn't suggest spending much time meticulously calculating a DC - an approximation is appropriate based upon the amount of time available in the contest.

Lists of DCs (for knowledge checks and the like) can be useful, too. Often times, it's the easiest way to note what knowledge PCs can glean in a particular area. If a list of DCs repeats what's already in the text, though, then they're just redundant. Additionally, if the knowledge represented in the list isn't relevent to the goal of the adventure, then the list should be cut.

Try to make sure that everything that you include in your adventure is relevent to the actions of the PCs or is helpful in guiding the DM. Everything else just serves to pad out the word count .

 

[Zenodotus of Ephesus]

News posted. Congrats to all of the contestants and especially the winners!

 

[Tinner]

For future entries, I'd recommend sticking with Wulf's initial advice and leaving them out completely. Any statistics that are important to note, like race, class, or special abilities, can be noted within the text of the entry.

The only reasons I bothered with them at all, are: A - They help me get a feel for how the character will act in the scenario, and B - I use e-Tools, so it takes literally no time to generate these stat blocks.

That said, in your judgement, do they detract from the adventure, or just not add to it?
If they don't add any weight to the judgement, I'd still use them, just for their simplicity of use, and how much they help me stay focussed. However, if they actively hurt the judgement, I certainly wouldn't want to post them again.

 

[incognito]

Stopped in to congradulate the winner, and ask a Q

Hello All,

It's me, the Iron DM judge of 2002/2003. I was, uhh...stuck in a maze spell for a while, and so was absent from these boards for 2+ years now, but a little bird told me an Iron DM had started up again, and I wanted to pop back and see how nemmerle...err...El-remmen's excellent contest was fairing these days.

Turns out it's doing better than ever!

Tinner: Congradulations! Wulf/Stormborn are worthy adversaries. It took me a while to read through all the entries, but after all was said and done I was amazed by the quality of your submissions. Your style actually reminds me of an old poster here (seasong), except he was always focused on out-clevering himself with twists at the end of a given scenario.

Wulf: My question is for you. If you remember, and archive these things, you wrote an Iron DM entry, that is perhaps the best I have ever read; concening a field of poppies, a witch, and some adventurers who are to go and fetch ingredients for some potion, or elixir. Might you remember/have a copy of this piece? I would like nothing better than to see that again.

Oh and carpe david Not that you need it, but excellent judging, man. Tough, but fair - you do the job of Iron DM judge very well (even if you are kinda soft on people)