Yes, I would consider this more of a setting than a map, design-wise. Possibly a "location", were it self-contained enoughA "map" can be textual only. A place, its features, occupants, fauna, flora, weather, etc. .. can be developed and described.
I had riddles and traps and only few words to describe them.I think my longest entry was "Bakra's Bond," back in 2009. It weighs in at 2,880 words. It had riddles and poems and everything.
If the purpose is to test discipline, it seems backwards to me. The higher word count should be toward the front of the competition, so that the contest gets more difficult and the writing requires more discipline the further you advance. Unless the first round is intended to be a "weed-out" round, I suppose.It’s not arbitrary though. It’s designed to test discipline. And creativity. But discipline first. That’s why the second and third rounds open the word-limits up.
A "map" can be textual only. A place, its features, occupants, fauna, flora, weather, etc. .. can be developed and described.
A "map" can be anything: something you draw on paper or a battlemat, something you build out of minis and terrain, something you rig up in your favorite VTT program, a detailed description that you read to your players ala "theater of the mind." We are all DMs, we all use maps in some way or another...so I think people should just submit their best version of whatever they would normally use.Yes, I would consider this more of a setting than a map, design-wise. Possibly a "location", were it self-contained enough
Personally, I would stay away from running a contest that judges game mechanics.I'm a bit leery about going too far into the weeds on a game-mechanical front too. Marrying your system mastery with creativity is certainly a relevant skill when DMing, but it'd really restrict the sort of entries we'd get.
Yes, as would I, now that I give it some thought. Perhaps instead of homebrewery, what we're more looking for is interesting and exciting world building. Monster design would thus be less about stat blocks and more about ecology, for instance.Personally, I would stay away from running a contest that judges game mechanics.
This reminds me of that "Dungeon on a Page" contest that happened a few years, which theoretically could have looked like anything, and there were quite a few grid-and-text entries, but the winner was a masterfully created handdrawn image of an island. As soon as you open up the contest to text or art, I fear that it becomes difficult to not take artistic talent into account, and the playing field becomes much less level.A "map" can be anything: something you draw on paper or a battlemat, something you build out of minis and terrain, something you rig up in your favorite VTT program, a detailed description that you read to your players ala "theater of the mind." We are all DMs, we all use maps in some way or another...so I think people should just submit their best version of whatever they would normally use.
In GBBO parlance, it could be a "signature challenge."
My two cents, anyway.