Harp Rose's page

This is a really important conversation and it is really tricky to navigate feminism in a fantasy realm with nonhuman creatures. We should definitely be talking about it. But this is not the place. At this point we are disrespecting Crystal and the other contestants. Let's focus on their hard work.

So, is the assumption that if we don't get to Calla in time or if we don't convince her to be good, then we have to fight the hag that she becomes? Wouldn't that be a pretty easy fight since she has no experience being a hag and probably has not been trained in hag stuff and knows nothing about her own powers?

I was referring to the two paragraphs before your sentence of approval in which you made the issue very gendered and you willingness to overlook a similar issue in this post. But perhaps this discussion belongs outside of this forum.

This one is a close second for me. Like a really close second. This author really went for it with the sodden lands and really hit home. I love the use of divination which I think is really underused. The adapting the divination to storm auguries is a bit of a stretch, but in a good way that the system needs to be stretched. And I love the use of the Thunderbird, because it is fairly neutral but can be turned evil. I would like to see the PCs try to turn it against the hags. I also love the sand box feel and I think there could be a ton a super cool loot hidden around here. I feel like I may be talking myself into voting for this one, lol.

But on a side note, it is SUPER disrespectful to post about one author on another authors page. Especially when you pretend to do it out of some bizarre notion of "fairness."

I expressed my concern about hags in the discussion of the Storm-Veiled Spires. In the interest of fairness, I shall also state there that I have some misgivings about a story of a mean old lady seducing a good man and leading him to ruin, then showing up later with a surprise kid and demanding child support. Err, I mean, his soul. :) So, hags, they are tricky.

But... I think this pitch handles the hag a lot better than the other entry in this contest. She's the most active NPC in the story. She is given personal motivations, beyond being just evil. The themes surrounding hags, like dark motherhood, are relevant to the events in the story. She can't be reviled existentially without also, in some light, condemning the innocent victim in the story, according to that person's nature.

Wait, you have an issue with the hags being powerful and controlling a massive monster in the other proposal, but not with them being needy moms who do anything to get the man?

I understand why some people like this and why some people don't. Personally, I don't see it. This is a simple search and rescue mission. It is the plot of like 50% of all classic fairy tales. It is a race to save the princess in the tower. Nothing elegant about it.

I really like all of your ideas, but they just dont seem to fit together well. Like, the gnomes are really sudden. Then there is a dragon. And also, it is raining acid. That is a lot all in one go.

I really like this. I think that it is strong, and fun. There is nothing wrong with a little silly. Frankly I think that we need to maybe stop throwing stones at our glass houses as we roll our dice over here. I think that a little silly is ok in this arena. The important thing is I have fun playing it and I really think that I could enjoy this. This is something that I could see me and my group sitting down with some beers and having a blast playing through this. It is fun, it is catchy and it has my vote!

See, I think that this is EXACTLY what an encounter should be. There is a clear plot, a clear goal, and a cut and dry reason for doing it. This leaves the PCs free to find the means to the ends. It explicitly states that players have free creative reign to slow her down or capture her however they want. It allows so much room for creativity.

This is what I feel is missing from a lot of the other proposals and from a lot of published encounters in general. So many of them read as, here is the situation, the PCs have to do x by completing y to achieve Z. And yes, there is fun to be had in that, but it leaves very little to the imagination. This encounter basically plays out like real life. Here is where you are, here is what you need to accomplish, how are you going to do it? This is why I play DnD. To get the feeling of how awesome life could be if I had magic powers. I could summon a swarm of bees to attack her, or a could STAMPED A HERD OF SHEEP AT HER. I love this!

I only ever vote for one, and this one has my vote.

I love the use of three dimensional space here. And I love that the dam is made of ice, which means that it could be really challenging terrain to walk on. The dead folks and the hags give it a really strong flavor. Not only do you want to destroy the dam just to fight the badies, destroying the dam has far reaching implications for some apparent conflict nearby. It's a map with a hook, which is really and impressive feat. I love this and it has my vote for sure.

That being said, your handwriting looks like a font out of a childrens book.

I want to know more about how this play house got to be so abandoned. Why are there no people here?

This map definitely appeals to the little kid in me. It would be really fun to fight anyone or anything in a room filled with dinosaur bones. That said tactically speaking there is a lot to be done with this room. You can hide behind bones, could the bones be used as weapons, can you animate any of the skeletons? All these things could be explored in this room. I would definitely like to go adventuring there.

where there is quicksand, I would really like to see tar pits. As someone mentioned above, tar pits are kind of synonymous with dinosaur bones. If you're going to go for a trope, go all the way.

This is a beautiful map. I can definitely see how it made the transition from reverent place of worship to dangerous boss battle zone. I also like this because whatever the PC's have to fight, they also have to be really smart about their surroundings, which could either help or hinder, depending on how they swing it.

I can't help but disagree with the suggestion that the side rooms don't add much to the map itself. Side rooms make a map more interesting for me visually, and more suspenseful, playwise. You never know what might be in there, and I feel like this map would give a DM a lot of places to hide surprises, both fun and fanged. The fact that some of the side rims are only accessible through secret doors makes them more inviting.

I find that this map also gives me a hook which is something that's very important to me, from a storytelling angle. I'm sitting here wondering, can the shrine be repaired? Can it be activated? Is there residual elemental magic that can be used in fights? Can ice prisons be melted and the prisoners made to fight? Did someone save the fish when the aquarium broke?

OK, maybe not that last one, but these questions make me really want to explore this place.

This map does not tell me anything about what I might be doing here. I can very easily and clearly see that it might lead me through some danger and to some treasure, but it seems like it should be a warm up to something bigger. On the other hand, I really like the way this is drawn out. Are you a professional cartographer? Obviously not. But am I squinting my weak eyes at this, trying to figure out what the. He'll I am looking at and checking the key every second? Nope. I feel like this map would facilitate smooth, continuous game play.

When using a concept that is this much of a trope, there need to be really amazing original details. I feel like there were just not enough on this one. While there is a lot of stuff and a lot of different areas, it does seem like there is very little room overall.

There is no key, so I have to assume that all of the areas that doe t have something specifically drawn are empty? There could be some really cool stuff in the laboratory, but that lab is tiny, only a little bigger than the fish's eye.

Also, I feel like I have to say fish because this leviathan looks like a piranha. Or a mitten.

I feel like this looks really nice, but what would actually happen there? The sink hole could conceal something unpleasant, but other than that it seems like a place more for looting than for a decent fight.