Pumpkins, Apple Cider and IRON DM!

[Wicht]

Hello, my fellow EN-Worlders!

It's that time of year again. The weather in these parts is turning cool. Cloves, cinnamon and ginger get mixed together in a certain proportion and added to just about everything. And the thoughts of people young and old alike turn to that age old question....

"When does the next contest of IRON DM begin?"

Well, you can stop wondering because that time is nigh upon us. Actually I'm a week behind schedule in getting it going. But, I decided, rather than blame it on procrastination, funerals, and too many sessions of Pathfinder with my kids, I'll just go with it and shift the whole kit and boodle into October this year and, since it's October, perhaps give it a slightly more,... horrific,... flavor.

Well, maybe, not all of it in October, but pretty close.

So here is the plan...

Sign up will begin this coming Tuesday, September 27th, at approximately 10 a.m. EST. This thread is not the sign-up thread, nor has sign-up begun. This thread is the warning that there will be a sign-up and if you want to participate, you have as much warning as everyone else. We want a total of eight contestants, and a few alternates if possible. Anyone with the ability to post to ENWorld is eligible to enter. When sign-up goes live in its own thread (which will also be the scheduling thread for the contest) it will be on a strictly first come basis.

The contest itself will begin following the completion of the sign-up period, no sooner than Thursday, September 29th, and no later than Saturday October 1st.

Also, if you are interested in judging, private message me. (You can do that now. You don't need to wait till next week.) Because of rulings by the IRBIDMA, participation as a Judge is restricted to members of the RB-DM's Club, former Iron DM participants, my relatives, and people willing to bribe me enough money to get on the panel. (Just kidding about the relatives, that would be wrong). The goal is to let [MENTION=67]Rune[/MENTION] participate in the contest this year, so we can, in fact, use some new judges or some judges that haven't done it for a while. If you are a former participant in IRON DM and think you might like to be a judge this year, please let me know.

Over the coming days, I will post the rules for this year, and some Iron DM related links.

 

[Rune]

Cool. But, just as a reminder, [MENTION=34958]Deuce Traveler[/MENTION] ought to be getting an automatic entry into the tournament (as he needs to defend his title). Which leaves seven slots, right?

 

[Wicht]

Cool. But, just as a reminder, @Morrus; ought to be getting an automatic entry into the tournament (as he needs to defend his title). Which leaves seven slots, right?

I feel like I am suddenly in mirror-universe. Not only has entire conversations been erased from ENWorld, and my Signature reverted back to last year's signature, but now Morrus is defending his Iron DM title.

In my universe, [MENTION=34958]Deuce Traveler[/MENTION] won last year. I shudder to think what other strange things I shall find in this strange new board so like, yet unlike, what I knew.



But yes, Deuce gets an automatic entry if he wants it, I should have mentioned that.

 

[Rune]

I feel like I am suddenly in mirror-universe. Not only has entire conversations been erased from ENWorld, and my Signature reverted back to last year's signature, but now Morrus is defending his Iron DM title.

In my universe, [MENTION=34958]Deuce Traveler[/MENTION] won last year. I shudder to think what other strange things I shall find in this strange new board so like, yet unlike what I knew.



But yes, Deuce gets an automatic entry if he wants it, I should have mentioned that.

Yeah. I typed in an extra "l" into "Traveler." Which, naturally, gets translated to "Morrus" around here.

Fixed, now, though.

 

[Wicht]

In hindsight, if the boards were down for a few days and then lost chunks of memory, I am a little thankful I procrastinated sensibly waited to start the contest. I shudder to think of losing half a contest in the middle of the contest.

 

[Rune]

In hindsight, if the boards were down for a few days and then lost chunks of memory, I am a little thankful I procrastinated sensibly waited to start the contest. I shudder to think of losing half a contest in the middle of the contest.

Yeah. Those were my thoughts, as well. Would have really sucked if we were already in progress. Or finished.

 

[Wicht]

Perhaps not everyone knows what IRON DM is. Perhaps you are new to EN World, or you simply missed it over the years. For your benefit, I have carefully plagiarized, cut-and-pasted arranged and edited the following well written introduction.



What is IRON DM?

The founder says it best:

We get 8 people willing to play (and 3 alternates). I pair people off as competitors and give them a set of 6 "ingredients".

The ingredients are elements that must be used in the designing of a scenario/adventure - which should be written up in overview form - players can be as specific as they like - but detailed stat-blocks and the like are not weighed as heavily as uniqueness and playability of the ideas.

The results are then judged by me and the winner moves on to the next round. . .

That's the basic structure, but times change and the rules evolve. A more accurate and detailed set of this current tournament's rules will appear later in a different post.

First though, some history of this tournament, one of EN World's oldest traditions:

The history of this tournament!

[sblock=Waaay back in the day...]Back in 2001, before the current incarnation of these boards, Nemmerle threw together the first EN World Iron DM tournament. Contestants each had one hour for each entry. By the next year, it was 24 hours, which remained the case for several years [Editor's Note: Kids today have it way too easy.]

Soon after the first EN World tourney, tournaments were being held at other sites, as well. The now defunct Nutkinland held a few. And, as Nemmerle was a founding member of the semi-secretive Rat Bastard DM's Club, it was only natural that tournaments happen there, as well. The judges for the EN World tournaments have almost all come out of that club, as well (I can think of only one exception). [Editor's Note: As noted in the first post, the rules of the IRBIDMA allow some exceptions if the money is good enough there is sufficient cause]

Anyway, back on topic: there were a few years (2006 through 2008) when EN World saw no tournaments, simply because the RBDM Club had a public forum for a while, and nobody ever started them up over here. But the RBDM Club moved and became private again and in 2009, IRON DM returned to EN World.

And here we are. [/sblock]

How can you find the old tournaments?

[sblock=An Excellent Question!]
For your convenience, here are all the surviving IRON DM tournaments we can find...

Iron DM 2015

IRON DM 2014

IRON DM 2013

IRON DM 2012

IRON DM 2011

IRON DM 2010

IRON DM 2009

IRON DM 2005

IRON DM SPRING 2004

IRON DM WINTER 2004

IRON DM FALL 2003

IRON DM SUMMER 2003

IRON DM WINTER 2003

IRON DM WINTER (HOLIDAY) 2002

IRON DM FALL 2002

IRON DM SPRING 2002

There is also the IRON DM Anthology. This is a collection of entries from the above tournaments that are particularly usable and/or inspiring. Note that many of them did not win the matches that they appeared in and should not necessarily be used as models for a winning entry. Still worth a look, though, especially if you've got a game coming up on short notice.[/sblock]

So there you go. Hope that helps. Do, if you haven't give some of those old contests a look. There's a lot of good ideas packed into them. IRON DM is not only for the participants, but has a long track record of providing inspiration to GMs everywhere. It even spawned a GenCon spin off which is still going to this day.

 

[Wicht]

Iron DM 2016 Contest Rules

Iron DM 2016 Contest Rules​

The Basics:

An Iron DM tournament is set up in a single-elimination bracket style, with each match determined based on scheduling availability among the eligible contestants. Matches will begin at a time designated by the judge and conclude according to the time allotted for the round.

Each match will consist of two contestants given a single set of ingredients with which to construct a brief adventure outline or synopsis. This adventure can be for any game system or genre of the contestant’s choosing. It is not expected that the synopsis will, or should, contain stat blocks, or other mechanical details. The contestant is responsible for making sure that the entry is written in such a way as to be as clear, concise, detailed, or simple as necessary.

[Judges Note: New contestants are well advised to read entries from previous years to see what sort of presentation style makes for a good entry. ]

These entries will be evaluated on their own merits and those evaluations will then be compared to determine the winner of a match, who will then proceed to the next round.

All matches will be given a time-frame within which to submit entries. Entries that are late may still be accepted at the discretion of the judge.

[Judges Note: Each judge has historically had their own methods of judging. If a late entry is accepted, a contestant may expect to be penalized for the late entry, and the later it is, the less likely it is to be accepted. It is preferred for an entry to be turned in on time, but incomplete than late and completed.]

All entries are expected to make good use of all of the ingredients submitted. They should be creatively applied, well-integrated, and fundamentally necessary to the adventure that they are used in. Ingredient use is the crux of the tournament.

[Judges Note: Do not assume that doing a good job with three ingredients will be enough, as long as you can craft a better adventure!

First round contestants will be given six ingredients for their matches. Second round matches will have seven ingredients each and the final round will have eight ingredients.

Formatting:

All entries are to be submitted with the list of ingredients at the top. DO NOT EDIT YOUR POST, ONCE YOU HAVE SUBMITTED IT! Contestants are responsible for proofing their work before submission and editing a submission is grounds for disqualification from the match.

While contestants may provide web links within an entry, such links will not be considered in judging. All relevant information for the entry must be within the entry itself.
Beyond those things mentioned here, there is no set formatting style for entries, but contestants are advised that the easier an entry is to read, the easier it is to judge.

Judgement:

Each entry will be judged on its own merits. Each entry will receive a written critique from the judge according to the standard of the judge. Each judge is free to subjectively use their own judgment as to the merits of entries, and a judgment once made is final. Contestants understand that this is a subjective contest and playing to the style of a judge may be a valid part of the contest for an entrant. Each judgment will conclude by announcing the winner, in that judge’s estimation. If a contest is judged by multiple judges, such as a panel of three, then the entry that receives a majority of judgments in its favor is the winner. Winners of the first two rounds advance to the following round to compete further. The winner of the third round is deemed the Iron DM for the year.
Judges are expected to be fair and constructive in the critiques according to the tradition of Iron DM. The goal is for the contest to be fun and each judge is expected to understand that goal and their duties.

2016 Tournament Structure:

Round 1:

All matches in the first round will have a 24 hour time-limit! All matches in the first round will have six ingredients, all of which are to be used in each entry. Entries in these matches will have a 750 word limit (not including the title and ingredients list; however any descriptions or definitions of ingredients will count against the limit!). Contestants who win their Round 1 matches will proceed to Round 2.

Round 2:

All matches in the second round will have a 36 hour time-limit. These matches will each have seven ingredients, all of which are to be used in each entry. Entries in these matches will have a 1500 word limit (not including the title and ingredients list; however any descriptions or definitions of ingredients included in the ingredient list will count against the limit!). Contestants who win their Round 1 matches will proceed to Round 2.

Round 3:

The third round match will also have a 48 hour time-limit. This match will use eight ingredients, all of which are to be used in each entry. Entries in this match will have a 2000 word limit (not including the title and ingredients list--any descriptions or definitions of ingredients will count against the limit!). The contestant who wins this match will become the IRON DM 2016!

 

[Wicht]

So.
Tomorrow is the date. I'm hoping to see a good selection of competitors.

Last year our competitors were
[MENTION=62721]MortalPlague[/MENTION] (IRON DM 2014)
Myself (IRON DM 2013, IRON DM FALL 2002)
[MENTION=57112]Gradine[/MENTION]
[MENTION=34958]Deuce Traveler[/MENTION] (IRON DM 2012, 2015)
[MENTION=976]Imhotepthewise[/MENTION]
[MENTION=60965]Iron Sky[/MENTION] (IRON DM 2009)
[MENTION=6762606]LucasC[/MENTION]
[MENTION=40177]Wik[/MENTION]

with [MENTION=6786484]PnPgamer[/MENTION] and [MENTION=758]Leopold[/MENTION] as alternates.

But don't think it necessary to have participated before to give it a go. If you think you got what it takes as a DM/GM/Storyteller/Narrator to make your PCs sweat, your players cheer and your stories sparkle (but hopefully not your vampires), then get in the queue at 10 tomorrow (EST) and join in the fun. Again, its first come, first served as far as entries, with the exception of Deuce Traveler, who has a title to defend. Old deck hands don't get preferential treatment over ambitious up and comers.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Halloween time is the best time. Looking forward to the sign-up thread.