Scheduling Thread for the IRON DM 2020 Tournament!

[Rune]

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.

This is just food for thought; don't change it on my account. I will hate a word limit of any size in a creative writing contest.

The idea is to shift the focus of the challenge toward the integration of ingredients as the rounds progress. The corresponding increase in word-count is a necessary byproduct of the increased ingredient-count.

For me, 750 words for Round 1 is perfect because it’s always going to be a challenge (where 1000 isn’t always – speaking from experience). Part of the IRON DM experience is that of improving as an adventure-writer.

Because of the bracket-structure, there isn’t a lot of room/time for that to happen. Half of the contestants will only get one shot in a tournament. The tough parameters (especially in Round 1) force the author to focus on the things that really matter. Part of that is going to be innovating ways to be efficient.

But, then again, I also tend to think most published adventures (especially nowadays) are overly wordy and often poorly presented. Take that for what it’s worth.

 

[Wicht]

Does it make sense to start up a general "IRON DM DISCUSSION" thread?

Personally, I don't see why you can't just hijack this thread now... it's on topic and its what the rest of us are doing anyway.

 

[Wicht]

Trivia question I am interested in for those doing the sorting: who has the most entries over the course of the years?

 

[el-remmen]

Personally, I don't see why you can't just hijack this thread now... it's on topic and its what the rest of us are doing anyway.

Gradine started one. Plus it will be easier to reference back to a separate thread down the line when someone wants to read about the brainstorming re IRON DM but doesn't remember it was in the scheduling thread of the 2020 tourney.

 

[el-remmen]

Trivia question I am interested in for those doing the sorting: who has the most entries over the course of the years?

So far that is just me. I do hope to make some spreadsheets as I go through to keep track of number of entries by each contestant, wins, losses, and a master list of all ingredients.

Edit to ask: aside from word count any other data that should be looked out for as we go through?

 

[Rune]

So far that is just me. I do hope to make some spreadsheets as I go through to keep track of number of entries by each contestant, wins, losses, and a master list of all ingredients.

Edit to ask: aside from word count any other data that should be looked out for as we go through?

It would be interesting to keep track of systems and genre. My recollection is that Summer 2003 was the first tourney with non-D&D 3e entries (two of them). These says, D&D seems a lot less common. Without checking back, maybe half in this tourney?

 

[Gradine]

It would be interesting to keep track of systems and genre. My recollection is that Summer 2003 was the first tourney with non-D&D 3e entries (two of them). These says, D&D seems a lot less common. Without checking back, maybe half in this tourney?

To be fair, I was doing my level best to pick ingredients that would lean away from standard D&D-esque fantasy

 

[Rune]

To be fair, I was doing my level best to pick ingredients that would lean away from standard D&D-esque fantasy

I noticed that. And I think a lot of the R1 and R2 ingredients pushed hard for horror, too.

 

[CleverNickName]

The idea is to shift the focus of the challenge toward the integration of ingredients as the rounds progress. The corresponding increase in word-count is a necessary byproduct of the increased ingredient-count.

I'm glad you brought that up. Why does the ingredient count increase from round to round? Like the word limit, this wasn't always the case in Iron DM.

 

[Rune]

I'm glad you brought that up. Why does the ingredient count increase from round to round? Like the word limit, this wasn't always the case in Iron DM.

I think I just explained why in the part you quoted.