New Year's Adventure Design Contest - "The One-Page Adventure"

DangerousPuhson

My my my, we just loooove to hear ourselves don't we?
Ok, if there's two things I've gleaned from our work over at Game Theory Co-Op, it's this:

1) Accept the Groundwater Deity as your personal savior or perish, and
2) People are busy

In deference to item #2, this design contest's theme is the classic ONE-PAGE ADVENTURE. Nice, quick, easy. Fit it all onto a single page, and let's see who can come up with the best one. We'll give those "other" one-page dungeon contests a run for their money (presumably, unless the folk here talk the talk, but won't walk the walk).

Just so there's no accusations of personal bias or subjective rulings, I hope to recruit one or two other members of this forum who aren't planning on competing to share the judge position with me (ideally, one "inexperienced" member and one "experienced" one).

The submission deadline for these will be March 1, 2020.

If you think you've got some writing chops to demonstrate, or want to show off a neat idea you have, or just generally want to see how your work measures up, you can sign up in this thread. Winners, like our past contest winners Grutzi and shib71, are just straight-up better than you right now... are you sure you can live with that? No? Then WIN THIS CONTEST!

Note: If you've already participated in a one-page dungeon contest, there's no problem if you want to submit your existing work for this contest. In fact, I strongly encourage it - more entries means a better contest, especially if you have done something before and are perhaps less likely to want to make something from scratch. Likewise if you want to take your work from here and submit it "over there", I don't see any problem with that.

Further note: I understand not everyone has ability or skill to make their own maps, so entries will NOT BE PENALIZED on the quality of any graphics, though there will be extra points awarded for how the graphics are used/incorporated into the 1-page format to make a complete, easy-to-use package. If you require a map, Dyson has your back - we won't be deducting points if you choose to go that route.

So, tenfootpole.org adventure design forum, let the games begin!
 

DangerousPuhson

My my my, we just loooove to hear ourselves don't we?
Submissions right here. The general approach is to upload to Google Drive or Google Docs and to provide a link, though a one-pager might be small enough that you can just straight-up attach it to a forum post.
 

Grützi

Should be playing D&D instead
bob ross dnd.jpg
Yeah ... I'm in.

Though as one of the exalted ones having already proven my mettle I could also judge if no one else steps up.
 

Malrex

So ... slow work day? Every day?
I'm too slammed with projects. I blame Squeen.
I could possibly be a judge...
 

Two orcs

Officially better than you, according to PoN
I just want to say Blade of the Barbarian is 90% written and 0% polished. The real battle is between efficient writing and reducing the font-size.
 

Grützi

Should be playing D&D instead
Two orcs said:
I just want to say Blade of the Barbarian is 90% written
Yeah ... look at him flex :p

I have done me some thinking and nothing more right now.
Gotta move to a new home this weekend, after that I will have the time to write something up ;)
 

squeen

8, 8, I forget what is for
Two-orcs! Very creative and evocatively written. I feel like I was there and I know these NPCs.

A small grammar error?
"...Each informal test acts as tie-breaker..."

An odd description:
"...1-handed sword..."

I can't figure out what this means:
"..."Hits" represent near misses..."

Also, in general, I'm not sure how I would run the Wisdom (poetry) or Courage (bragging) informal contests. I think I would prefer some more guidance for the DM there (and relax the whole 1-page constraint).

Neat. Thanks.
 

Two orcs

Officially better than you, according to PoN
Thanks for the feedback! I have corrected the grammatical errors. If the informal tests are unclear it's a failure of the text and should be taken into account when judging the adventure. My intention:
The poetry test is a test of how many languages you speak. The substance of the player's comment does not matter though anything that can be taken as a slight might be a pretext for a duel. The party likely knows a lot of languages among themselves and if the test is required as a tie-breaker another contender might challenge it on account of the player getting an assist from someone else. The players realizing the nature of the test and pooling their knowledge covertly is the optimal play.

The informal test of courage is open ended but the most straight forward way is to boast about slaying a foe of more HD than the rest.
 

squeen

8, 8, I forget what is for
I like your Spoiler replies---and I don't want to bias the judge so I will hide my feedback too:
A critique I would have its that it's too "player stats" based and doesn't really require much player agency to succeed.
(Ye Old "Old School" vs "New School" debate.) It would be better if it taxed the PC mentally in some way---sifting out the skilled and clever players.
 

Two orcs

Officially better than you, according to PoN
The stat based nature of the challenges is an insidious sedative. If you sleepwalk through the adventure you will lose because of Elding's cheating, identifying the main competition and overcoming them through subterfuge or violence is necessary and there is a lot of time during the feasts and afternoons in which to scheme. For a single PC to beat the challenge "fairly" they would need high scores in Strength, Intelligence Constitution and Hit points which is unlikely.
 

Two orcs

Officially better than you, according to PoN
My incredible effort has scared off any contenders! Truly a satisfying victory.
 

Grützi

Should be playing D&D instead
Two orcs said:
My incredible effort has scared off any contenders! Truly a satisfying victory.
No so fast Kiddo ;-P
I will upload my contribution soon. Just adding the finshing touches ;)
We'll have our battle my good sir :)
 
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