So there were, in the end, just four completed entries. I’d be a little disappointed except that the entries are all very solid. It’s well-neigh impossible to judge them against each other, as they are all so different. So, instead of trying to rank them…I think I have four winners.
1. Matthew Schmeer of Rended Press: Everyone’s grumpy under that hill– and a river runs through it
This one has 17 flail snails, and includes a keyed dungeon map. The map was made by someone else, but Matthew definitely makes it his own. Those flail snails are makin’ babies, for example. This one is probably closest to the sort of thing I’d have made in the challenge, as I am a very meat-and-potatoes, dungeon-crawl kind of DM.
2. Matt Sprengeler of Uncle Matt’s place: Madness in the mist
This is probably my favorite, because it is an odd locale you could throw in almost anywhere … a swamp, the part part of town, a dungeon, whatever. It reminds me of a OPD design, and the procedural set up (rather than using a map, the party randomly is transported from room to the next) is clever. The “mist goblins” are creepy and will be the bane of any adventurers.
3. Andrew Shields of Between are the doors: The war for time
This one is pure evocation … a little short on A to B to C, and very long on rumors, names, and relationships that could spark a whole damn campaign. It does bear some comparison to the fourth entry. I think both of these entrants got nothing but NPC cards. I heard that from several contestants. Looking over my set of cards, it does seem like the cards have more NPCs than monsters, items, etc. Maybe TSR was trying to make sure the collector cards were different from the old Monster Cards. (If so, big mistake! The Monster Cards were one of the best accessories ever. I’d totally use them now if I had them.)
4. Theodric the Obscure : THE MEMBERS OF CAVEN
This one has a goodly number of interesting NPCs and the DM needs to keep their different motivations in mind to use them as the backdrop, as well as patrons and adversaries, in an adventure — actually this one is more a set-up for a series of high-level adventures, involving artifacts. I love the idea of a coven, er, caven, of wizards at cross-purposes … maybe because as DM NPCs are my achilles heel…I’m just not that good at characterizing them or making them all that significant. So this one would play to my weakness, but it has a lot of interesting ideas, and most astonishing it give game stats for Pathfinder, S&W, AND Labyrinth Lord.
(5.) Bob at Back to the Keep: Unfinished but interesting project
Bob blogged about his design process, and presents enough material to cobble together a sessions’ fun, but he did not finish it. Bad DM, no prize.
There were about ten other sets of cards mailed or scanned and emailed to various people, but these were the only entrants. So, I’ll be sending around a private email to the winners to let them pick their prizes.