Scheduling Thread for the IRON DM 2020 Tournament!

[practicalm]

I would like to participate.

 

[Gradine]

I'll echo Wicht's advice, and add a few of my own:
7. When scheduling a match, I find that it's best to schedule my actual writing time in the latter half of the time allowed. This way, I've got time to ruminate on the ingredients and brainstorm before having to rush to writing.
8. Don't waste too much time or word count on backstory. Yes, Wicht already said it. It bears repeating, though; I've seen it trip up even experienced authors.
9. Most of the ingredients you receive will contain two words, typically (though not always) a descriptive adjective and a noun. Really give thought to why ingredient is necessary to the adventure, and why the descriptor is also a necessary facet of that ingredient.
10. We judges generally don't have any pre-conceived ideas about how we expect an ingredient to appear. We have know idea what an "Athletic Airship" is; what we want is for you to pleasantly surprise us with the answer.

For those wondering about what appeals to this particular judge, let me add...

a. Tell me a story. It doesn't have to be an epic or a railroad or anything like that. But I have to care about the world and the people. Which leads me to...
b. Give me stakes that are clear and impactful. What happens if the party doesn't intercede. Why should the characters care to?
c. Compared to my fellow judges I'm practically a hippie storyteller. Guts & glory; Gygaxian deadly dungeon crawls; these things are not exactly my cup of tea. That said, give your players difficult choices. Give them things to lose, goals to fail. I'm all for torturing players, but my preference is for emotional rather than statistical torture. That kind of pain usually lasts longer
d. We see a lot of D&D-esque fantasy. That's not a bad thing, but I love seeing people work outside of that box when they can. Usually the ingredients steer you in a direction, genre-wise; but still, don't be afraid to take risks and play with genre and playstyle. I won my championship with a solo-doppelgänger-PC murder mystery. One time I lost to a Scooby Doo spoof. Again, we love pleasent surprises. I don't have any particular system preferences as a judge. I wouldn't take issue with an adventure with no specific system in mind at all.
e. I too enjoy a good turn of phrase. You'll receive no pun-ishment from me.
f. For me, I love to see a good set of ingredients weaved together to tell the whole story. It's not enough to include a setpiece with an Athletic Airship; that airship has to be central to the adventure. Can I remove the ingredient without having to make any major revisions to the adventure? That's typically not a great sign.
g. If the phrase "hippie storyteller" didn't tip you off already, I tend to take a more freeform approach to my judgments. I do judge ingredient usage head-to-head, and they do play a significant role in my final assessment. Overall adventure quality can overcome a slight loss on the ingredients, though.

 

[Rune]

I am having a great time going back and reading former competitions. But I have two questions floating around in my head:

1. How the heck did I come up with SO MUCH STUFF in each of those entries?
2. How the heck am I gonna stick to the "new" word count limits given my penchant to write SO MUCH STUFF?

Good luck.

And keep in mind the formatting standards as they are set forth in the rules. At least one of the judges uses a point-based scoring system. It would suck to a lose a match by 1 or 2 points, just because old formatting habits die hard.

Little things, like how/where to present the ingredients list. Or bigger things, like including descriptions with the ingredients (acceptable, but counts against the word-limit. Also, probably unnecessary if your ingredient usage is good).

It’s all in the rules, of course, but that’s quite a chunk of text to sift through, so it seems a good idea to call attention to it.

 

[el-remmen]

It’s all in the rules, of course, but that’s quite a chunk of text to sift through, so it seems a good idea to call attention to it.

Eep! I guess I should read them then!

 

[CleverNickName]

I've been doing this competition for a number of years....always as a contestant, and never successfully. So in my long history of losing this contest, I've had ample opportunity to notice some patterns that others might find useful.

More often than not:

Adventures written for non-D&D games will score better than those specifically written for D&D. I'm not sure why...perhaps it makes the author look more versatile and experienced? Maybe non-D&D adventures are easier to write, or just more refreshing to read? I dunno. In any case, don't let the "DM" in the title fool you into thinking this is a D&D challenge. Branch out.

The word count and deadline are important, but they seldom determine the winner. Far more contests are decided by how the ingredients are used than any other judging criteria. So if you're going to stress out over anything, stress over the ingredients. Make sure that the given ingredients have been well-integrated into the story, not just casually mentioned. (I've lost several matches because of this.) Use the same ingredient in several ways: "bow" can be something you shoot, something you wear, a part of a ship, or a part of a greeting...so use them all.

Judges may have a favorite ingredient or two that they will scrutinize more than the others, or that they are expecting to see used in a certain way. The more specific the ingredient, the more likely this is the case. If an ingredient is giving you trouble, push through and resist the urge to drop it in the background...it's likely the judge's darling.

 

[Rune]

I've been doing this competition for a number of years....always as a contestant, and never successfully. So in my long history of losing this contest, I've had ample opportunity to notice some patterns that others might find useful.

More often than not:

Adventures written for non-D&D games will score better than those specifically written for D&D. I'm not sure why...perhaps it makes the author look more versatile and experienced? Maybe non-D&D adventures are easier to write, or just more refreshing to read? I dunno. In any case, don't let the "DM" in the title fool you into thinking this is a D&D challenge. Branch out.

The word count and deadline are important, but they seldom determine the winner. Far more contests are decided by how the ingredients are used than any other judging criteria. So if you're going to stress out over anything, stress over the ingredients. Make sure that the given ingredients have been well-integrated into the story, not just casually mentioned. (I've lost several matches because of this.) Use the same ingredient in several ways: "bow" can be something you shoot, something you wear, a part of a ship, or a part of a greeting...so use them all.

Judges may have a favorite ingredient or two that they will scrutinize more than the others, or that they are expecting to see used in a certain way. The more specific the ingredient, the more likely this is the case. If an ingredient is giving you trouble, push through and resist the urge to drop it in the background...it's likely the judge's darling.

Interesting data. I’m curious how far back you went.

I’d caution against blindly applying some of these lessons across the board, though. I’m just one guy, and I’m not going to pretend that I speak for the majority of judges, but at least one of your conclusions looks like a pretty risky gambit to me.

In particular, if you throw a varied bunch of weak interpretations of an ingredient at the judges in hopes that something will stick, this judge, at least, is likely to be disappointed with each poor use and additionally annoyed at the extra work involved in isolating the author’s intent.

On the other hand, if the author includes different manifestations of an ingredient that echo each other and reinforce some thematic underpinning, that lends strength to the ingredient as a whole (and generally results in a stronger adventure, as well).

Of course, to pull this off well, the author has to put in the work to make the theme important to the adventure.

As for judges favoring specific ingredients, and advice not to push them into the background, I will say two things. First, none of the ingredients should be dropped into the background! If they aren’t relevant to the PCs, they aren’t relevant!

Second, the best ingredients are ambiguous ingredients, precisely because they do not come with an expectation. And the very best ingredients are the ones that suggest a thematic frame that the author can hang an adventure on. Because: see above.

With that said, ingredients (or their components) sometimes have obscure secondary definitions. Contestants are advised to look them up, even when you think you already know what you’re looking at. You might be inspired in unexpected ways.

 

[CleverNickName]

@Rune, I hope folks take my advice with a grain of salt. I mean, I'm pretty clear about never having won this contest. If I had any magnificent insight, you'd think my track record would be better.

I've been competing for about 10 years (except for one year when I was an emcee and coordinator, and not a contestant), so that's as far as I went back. This isn't really "data," just my own observations and feedback I've gotten over the years. I certainly meant no offense.

 

[Rune]

@Rune, I hope folks take my advice with a grain of salt. I mean, I'm pretty clear about never having won this contest. If I had any magnificent insight, you'd think my track record would be better.

I've been competing for about 10 years (except for one year when I was an emcee and coordinator, and not a contestant), so that's as far as I went back. This isn't really "data," just my own observations and feedback I've gotten over the years. I certainly meant no offense.

No offense taken. I had been undecided on whether or not to provide a window into my preferences as the other judges had done. Your post provided me a reason (and starting point) for doing so.

So I did. I mean, it’s nothing I haven’t talked about before, but here it is.

 

[humble minion]

I'd like to participate

(3rd time's the charm at getting past the first round, maybe!)

 

[Wicht]

Six entries thus far... We need a couple more brave and creative souls to step forward to test their mettle.