XDMC 36: Create a Theme

Welcome to the thirty-sixth 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.

The best way to keep informed about the competition is to join the Expert Dungeon Master Competition group. There you can review the rules, archives, and future contest ideas, and get broadcasts telling you when new competitions begin and when results are released!

For this competition, you are asked to produce a character theme that a DM could allow players to choose. There are numerous free resources on the website that can give you sample themes to use as a framework:

• Dark Sun
• Neverwinter
• Heroes of the Feywild
• Heroes of the Elemental Chaos
• Dungeon Survival Handbook

Required Elements

In order to enter this competition, your entry must fulfill the following required elements:

• Name. Name the theme.
• Mechanics. Provide all mechanics necessary to integrate the theme into a campaign.
• Flavor. Offer advice on roleplaying a character with this theme.

If you fail to include a required element, you will receive a score of zero in Themes.

Optional Elements

Each entry must include three of the following optional elements:

1. Capricious: Invocation of at least one of the Theme's features is at the DM's discretion, and not the player's.
2. Featureless: At least one of the Theme's features replaces or inhibits a feature from a race or class required to obtain the Theme.
3. Gregarious: The Theme offers benefits solely in social situations.
4. Keyword: All the Theme's features require, enhance, and/or possess a specific keyword other than weapon, implement, or a power source.
5. Moonlighting: The Theme's flavor revolves around a specific non-combat profession.
6. Original: The Theme changes the PC's origin.
7. Prosthetic: At least one of the Theme's features prohibits the character from using magic items that would occupy a specific item slot.
8. Recharging: The Theme contains a power that recharges like a monster power.
9. Skillful: At least one of the Theme's features requires and/or enhances a specific Skill.
10. Terroir: The Theme is more useful in a specific environment, climate, or terrain.
11. Unfriendly: At least one of the Theme's features hinders or harms allies.
12. Weapliment: At least one of the Theme's features requires a specific weapon or implement.

You should list the optional elements you intend your entry to meet. Failure to include this list means the judges will only credit you with those elements they happen to notice.

General Rules

Following are some general rules of the Expert DM Competition. The complete list of rules is in the Expert Dungeon Master Competition Group Wiki.

• 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 Made at Entrants' Own Risk. A judge may download your entry any time after it is submitted. So any edits you make might not be considered by a judge. For this reason, you should submit your entry in as complete a form as possible. Use the preview function liberally. Once winners have been announced, entrants may edit their entries.
• Multiple Entries Prohibited. Each applicant may only submit one entry 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 Materials Prohibited. Your entry may not include material hosted on a website other than wizards.com and community.wizards.com. Images from your profile gallery may be used. The judges must ignore material hosted on other websites.
• Plagiarism and Peer Reviewing 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.

Judges and Schedule

The contest will run from today through Friday, May 4, 2012. All entries must be submitted no later than 12:00 midnight at the end of that day (Eastern Standard Time). The judges of this contest are ClanBattlerage and wrecan, and the coordinator of this contest is wrecan. Good luck and have fun!!

Entry List

1. Jehojen's Half-Golem
2. Kestralb's Amnesia Patient
3. SpacyRichochet's Traveling Arms Dealer
4. XaviYago's Chain Fighter
5. geoffa's Changeling Child

Sample or Supplemental Entries

• ClanBattlerage's Reluctant Adventurer

Either will be accepted.

Apr 20, 2012 -- 3:06PM, Jehojen wrote:

How specific are we talking on the weapliment requirement? Is it "Requires a Bow", "Requires a Long Bow" or "Requires the Long Bow of Isabou the Archer of the Sands"?

The intent of the optional was to key the feature to a specific weapon kind, such as a longsword, garrotte, sling, etc.  A weapon group is not acceptable (axe, sword, bow, simple melee, etc.).

That said, if you wanted to tie it to a +6 Holy Avenger Kukri, knock yourself out, though you'll probably lose some points to usability.