Expert Dungeon Master Competition #4

Create an Urban Menace

Welcome to the fourth Expert Dungeon Master Competition! The primary purpose of the Expert Dungeon Master Competitions is threefold:

• To create a resource for new Dungeon Masters drawing on the vast talent pool of the experienced Dungeon Masters of this forum.
• To create a fun and vibrant competition that is sportsmanlike and friendly.
• To showcase the creativity and talent of Dungeon Masters like you

In honor of Halloween, we're looking to be creeped out! In this fourth competition, the objective is to create an "urban menace" that is terrorizing a community and that the PCs are intended to confront.  Urban Menace, Defined

• The menace is an individual or group of individuals that threatens the lives or livelihood of a portion or all of a community
• The menace can represent an external threat (such as Freddie Kreuger or the Mongol hordes) or an internal threat (such as Jack the Ripper or a thieves' guild).
• The majority of the community is neither Evil nor Chaotic Evil.
• The community (or the targeted portions) must be aware of the existence, and afraid, of a threat posed by the menace.

In order to enter the competition, you must fulfill the following required elements:

• Name. Name the menace and describe what level PCs the menace is intended to challenge.
• Means. Describe the menace's resources, methods and goals.
• Stats. Provide stats for the menace. (If the entry uses an unaltered creature, race, class, item, trap or power described in an official 4th edition product, including Dragon and Dungeon magazines, you need only cite the product.)
• Confrontation. Provide suggestions for how the PCs might confront the menace.

1. Prosthetic.  One or more of the menace's body parts (or of one member of the menace if an organization) has been replaced with an inanimate object (glass eye, peg-leg, axe for a hand, etc.)
2. Pets.  Several or all of the pets in the community are more than they appear.
3. Amnesia.  The community ignores or forgets the menace's victims for reasons explained in the entry.
4. All Tier.  The menace can provide a challenge for parties from first through thirtieth level (as described in the entry).
5. Good. The menace has an alignment of Good or Lawful Good.
6. Solo.  The menace is a solo creature.
7. Slow. The menace (or all members, if an organization) has a speed of 5 squares or less.
8. Otherworldly. The menace (or all members, if an organization) is either undead and/or from a plane other than the Material.
9. Psychic. The menace (or one or more of its members, if an organization) has an attack with the psychic keyword.
10. Teen-Obsessed. The menace prefers to target adolescents.
11. Urban Myth. The menace uses a false urban legend to its advantage.
12. Affection. The PCs can discover -- and use to their advantage -- that the menace has an affection for a single harmless creature or person.
13. Skill Challenge. The PCs can engage in a Skill Challenge (described in the entry) to learn useful information about the menace.

• Code of Conduct. All entries must comply with the forum's Code of Conduct.
• Contest Duration. Contests usually run for two weeks, beginning with the post announcing the competition. The Coordinator may extend the duration of the contest at his discretion after consulting the other judges for that competition. However, such extensions should be done very rarely.
• Edits After 15 Minutes Prohibited. Applicants may not edit their entries more than 15 minutes after submission. This includes editing done by forum moderators, unless the moderator specifically states that the entry had not been edited prior to the moderator's action. If the entrant submits an entry before the contest closes and then edits the entry after the contest closes, but within fifteen minutes of submission, the edits will be considered valid. Entrants should use the forum’s “preview post” function or an off-line text editor to check the entry before posting. Once winners have been announced, entrants may edit their entries.
• Multiple Entries Prohibited. Each applicant may only submit one entry prior during the period in which entries may be submitted. Submitting multiple entries disqualifies all entries. Additional entries may be submitted after the competition closes, but they will not be judged.
• Multi-Post Entries Prohibited. Each entry must be contained within a single post. The judges must ignore any subsequent posts.
• Outside Links Prohibited. Entries may not include material hosted on a website other than the post on which the entry appears. Images hosted on, or links to, other websites will be ignored by the judges when scoring.
• Plagiarism and Previewing Prohibited. All entries must be the original, exclusive work of the applicant. Entries found to be copying the work of another, or that have been posted for review prior to the close of the competition, will be disqualified.

The contest will run from today through Friday October 17, 2008. All entries must be submitted no later than 12:00 midnight on that day (Eastern Standard Time). The judges of this contest are BraveBoudica, Nyarlathotep and wrecan and the coordinator of this contest is wrecan.  Good luck and have fun!!

mccowen wrote:

I haven't entered any of these before (despite writing up entries for the first two), because I'm scared to have actual judges looking over my stuff. I'm stiffening my spine for this one, though; wish me luck.

I do have one request for clarification: this round is titled "Urban Menace", but the rules don't specify that the community has to be a town or city. For instance, a forest dragon that demands harsh tribute from a farming hamlet currently satisfies all four parts of the definition.

So, what would the judges find acceptable as a "community"?

Unless the other judges disagree, I would accept a farming hamlet as a community. I personally would define a community as any sort of permanent grouping of intellignet creatures with a shared society, anything from a Major City to a Nomadic Camp.