The Muros-2010

[Silveressa]

*Curtsies with the grace of a keeper of time*

"It is with great honor I accept this award and once again gladly call these citadel walls home. May the sparks of creativity and the flames of imagination light our way into the future!"

[Dossta]

*Rushes the stage just as the MC looks ready to announce the next award*

Wait wait wait wait, I'm here!

*Stands for a moment, blinking in the light*

Wow, I really don't know what to say.  I am truly glad to have found the Citadel in my time of need, and I thank everyone who has commented on my ideas and replied to my pleas for advice within the forums.  Without you all, GMing my own campaign would have been a far more intimidating prospect.  I would especially like to thank Pieh, for his unbounded enthusiasm and encouragement, Silveressa for her wise witicisms, Echomirage, Redgre and Murometz for their excellent commentary and Strolen (of course), for making this whole site possible.

I'm sure that there are many others who I forgot to mention, but I think that I have already gone on far too long.  I look forward to working with you all again in the future.

*Bows*

[Ancient Gamer]

I want to personally congratulate the one person on this site whose subs I love more than words can tell: CaptainPenguin! Congratulations on your price. If there was a "Most Fantastic Subs Ever" price, I, for one, would have voted for you. Still, your price is eh, price-worthy nonetheless.

I also want to congratulate Dossta. Newcomer of the year... That is quite some accomplishment in this house of creativity.

Well done, Dossta!

[Murometz]

After yet another word from our sponsers (and from one of our most distinguished Academy Members, AG), we now come to the "Bests" of 2010. These are biggies. As we have decreed previously, content is truly king here at Strolens. And so, with that in mind, let us present the Awards for:

Best Subs By Category 2010
and
Sub of the Year for 2010

Drumroll...

The Award for Sub of the Year 2010 goes to everyone's favorite Slovakian, ECHOMIRAGE!

I present Unthar, Sun of the Dead in all its splendor. 5's, HoH's, Goldens, "I love it" comments, you name it, Unthar had it...in spades.

Congratulations. Come take a victory bow, Echo.

[Murometz]

Usually, the Keepers of the Vault of Clandestine Scripts, do not reveal their secrets to the public. Yet in this case, I feel I need to present the incredible evidence for all to see.

The Award for the 2010 Item of the Year goes to....

title  member_name  date_submitted  hits votes rating comment_count XP hoh golden
Lantern of Flameless Light JPatterson 2010-09-01 04:37 AM 260 6 4.166667 10 45 0 0
Lytharian's Luminescent Orbs Dossta 2010-09-03 05:01 PM 297 6 4.166667 10 45 0 0
Spectacles of Hidden Truth Infested-jerk 2010-09-07 10:17 PM 268 6 4.166667 8 44 0 0


We have a TIE for 1st place, and hence we will chain-saw the Muro Award statuette into two equal pieces.

JPatterson and Dossta's (our ol' grizzled vet  ) submissions, Lantern of Flameless Light and Lytharian's Luminescent Orbs respectively,had a aggregate score of 4.16667, 6 votes, 10 comments and an identical 45 XP apiece.

Infested-Jerk MUST and will be sited as well. His Spectacles of Hidden Truth finsihed a mere POINT lower in overall XP with 44, and all the same stats.

Congratulations to all of you Item Champs of 2010!!!

 (I will send PMs to those winners who may not see this)

[Murometz]

Before we return to the "Best of 2010 By Category Awards" I would like to announce the winner of the 2010 Longest Comment of the Year award. This seems like a very timely award to hand out, based on the recent chit-chat about comments and critiques on submissions in the forums...

The winner is...AXLEROWES!! Good work sir. You gave an unflattering but oh so truthful and constructive comment to Flight of the Pegasus, by Scras and me 

I salut you, Axle. Take note Strolenites--you know who you are--nothing wrong with getting critiqued.

They say the best comments are from the heart. So here I present the comment, one that axlerowes eventually deleted and sent as a PM instead. A comment, that truth be told, both Scras and I thought was dead-on. The comment was great, and reminds me that self-deprecation is a noble quirk.

(I'm handing out an award to someone who skewered me. Theres something wrong here  )

You start with the briefing, which is good, it tells you everything you need to know about the atheistic of the setting, the powers at play, and the goal of the PCs. Then you get a GM aside, fine, but that slips back into descriptions of the game world. There is extension of the briefing, when the nature of Soviet Union’s spy detection is discussed. In a GM section reality is flexable, and what we have here should prep GM as to how to handle the logic of the world and more importantly how the setting has been designed to support the narrative. If this is meant to be information for the GM so the PC can have a Q and A with St. James then it could stand a little more fleshing out. Or at least instructions as to what the writers think the GM should flesh out on his own.

Then we have the dossier on Dr. Pegasus, he is all back story, but there is nothing here that gives the PCs the flavor of Emil. We gather he is a survivor, we gather his chief connection in life has been with his work (not with a person), but we do know anything about him. And perhaps the PC handout should share little actual information about, a list of enigmatic facts may be more suspenseful afterall Martin Sheen’s character (and the audience) knew only what Kurtz had done and could speculate as to why. But this write up then deviates from a list of facts to a list conclusions. “For several years, Dr. Pegasus was in a state of professional nirvana” How did the DCO reach that conclusion? Also if you want to make this “realistic” sounding handout, consider who wrote this, what was their source information and most importantly what is their margin for error. After all didn’t one of you once post that uncertainty is the core of drama? The last paragraph doesn’t belong in the dossier, it belongs back in the briefing.

But never in this post, even outside the dossier, do you give Dr. Pegasus any humanity, or make him at all interesting. You might give us GM information about the character here, his will dos and won’t dos. Is he going to trust another government? Can the PCs trust him? Yes the GM using this could answer these questions, but it hard to believe that the answer to these question’s are not part of your vision for this write up. Also if the GM must answer these questions then why write up the character at all, it could just be “a scientist”, as it stands know there is nothing that makes Dr. Pegasus more than that. There are some hints, his rough up-bring, the clippings on his walls but you wrote nothing that will make a GM say “d**n, I can’t wait for players to meet that guy”. Instead he is just a McGuffin that spits out steam weapons. The fact that he has tyrannosaurus arms and is French, gives a GM only shadows. Player gets the Shadows, a GM should get the flashlight.

Next we have some events, the Zepplin ride and Odessa. As it is written know the Zepplin ride is nothing more than a description of a setting. Sure the PCs could yuk it up while they order cognac and coffee on the DCO’s tab and the Face character could seduce a Carpathian Countess, but really there is nothing here. Then there is Odessa, which sets the transition from safe Western opulence to dangerous eastern corruption and desperate poverty. GOOD! The PCs have to deal with the Russian mob. What for? Are they going to be the deus ex machina, or a brief violent encounter to cement the PCs’ status as unit. Again you give us nothing, other than you enter a mob run town. If that is all you are giving us why even write more than that?

But the Zepplin and the town are also a problem inherent (or limit) whenever you write an odyssey (a group trying to get from A to B). An odyssey is just one d**n thing after another, they need not be connected. I would suggest making this a chase or race. Perhaps the PCs spot a group of Japanese “tourists” on the Zepplin as well. A rival extraction team, the PCs now must not only to cross a hostile wilderness but they have to do it faster and better than their rivials or defeat them as well. Perhaps there are Prussian agents on the Zepplin, the Russians and the Prussians may be more frenemies than allies. The Prussian’s may be on to DCO mission, but not willing to share their intelligence with the Russians. You get my drift. If you are going to make it one thing after another fine, but make sure the events are substantial, help to set a tone and move the narrative.

Then you have a dossier on the agents at the Lab, this is fine except you break form again and reference Goebbels.

Then we get to the heist, you call it hide and seek and it could be series of recon moves and stealth moves (a maze). Which is fine But you could also do this a heist, give the PCs some more information and let them plan an entrance. But I guess a maze is fine.



Finally, where is twist, where is the decision point, the story here is very linear, but at what point are the PC confronted with a novel or unforeseen crisis? When do you give your players a chance to flex their moral muscle, to fall back on all that back-story they wrote to make a decision in character or to come up to a solution to a problem that wasn’t foreseen in the GMs original plan. If the PC are smart resourceful and lucky, then almost nothing has happened the way this adventure is written. They get in they get out, the blow up the dam or the lab and move on. They could do it without speaking a single line of dialog.

[JPatterson]

Hello, everyone, I'm JPatterson, flat-footedly surprised nominee and nonetheless proud co-holder of the Muro Award for the 2010 Item of the Year, for my Lantern of Flameless Light, along with Dossta for Lytharian's Luminescent Orbs and Infested Jerk's Spectacles of Hidden Truth.

I'd like to thank everyone for their votes and comments and congratulate my co-winners, and thank the administrative staff here also, and hope all these items have had or may have some future use for players and GMs, even if just to provide some ideas - also thanks to Pieh for recommending me to check this place out a second time, and congratulations to him for his own accomplishments and help here. Sorry I haven't been around much, I've got a few things I can concentrate on, online, and some projects that are keeping me very preoccupied, but a lot of offline stuff that's keeping me from being able to be active in all the places I'd like to be. Best of luck to everyone, and Strolen's remains one of the most creative and active places for sharing of ideas - what a great resource and community!

[Murometz]

JPatterson, you are very welcome and thanks for the kind words!

Tonite awards: Best Plot-2010
                         Best Location-2010
                         Best Article-2010
                         Best NPC-2010
                         Best Society-2010
                         Best Dungeon-2010
                         Best Zombie-related Submission-2010
                         Best System-2010

[Murometz]

The awards just keep coming...

Best Submissions of 2010 By Category

Best Plot: Unthar, Sun of the Dead (shocker!) by EchoMirage

Yay!

Best NPC: We have another TIE! Rage Mages by angryscotsman and Grandfather Pestilence, by MichaelJotneSlayer

Woo!

Best Location: Temple of the Golden King and Silver Queen by Dossta (you are racking up awards like  frequent flier miles!)

Wheeee!

Best Lifeform: Grey Reaver by Kassil

Yahoooooo!

Best Society: The Grand Order of the Reef by Dozus

Yeehaw!

Best Article: The Zombie Strain by Scrasamax

Sweeeet!

Best System: Zombie Day by Kuseru Satsujin

Yipee!

Best Dungeon: Four 5s (A Puzzle Dungeon) by axlerowes

Yowser!

Congratulations to all the winners!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ancient Gamer]

Huzzah!

[Michael Jotne Slayer]

WARNING - DO NOT START READING WITHOUT PRESSING PLAY!!


*A nude 40000BC Indo- Mongolian little person with blue and white body paint and devilish good looks enters the stage, grabs the trophy gently. Music fills the dusty halls of the Citadel and the little person starts a speech on behalf of MJS.*



"My grandfathers name was bla bla bla bla. Bla bla bla bla bla bla, friends bla bla bla bla. Thanks to bla bla bla bla."

*After a few minutes of talking*

"When you grow up in the suburbs, the suburbs of anywhere, you know, a dream like this seems kind of vaguely ludicrous and completely unattainable. But this moment is directly connected with those childhood imaginings, and for anybody who is on the downside of advantage and rely purely on courage... It is possible."

*Applause*

Thanks very much.

*The midget steps of the stage*

*Applause continues and song fades out.*

[Strolen]

ROTFL!!

What a brilliant stretch! An appearance by JPatterson which was executed with extreme grace. Pieh, Silveressa, Dossta's words were greatly appreciated!!!  AG's words are always appreciated and MJS floors us with a confusing array of sensory objects that brought a tear to mine eye. Hurray for midgets and hurray for all our deserving winners!!!!!

[Murometz]

I can't believe this is happening, but it is...I can't get this stupid song out of my head

 

*shakes fist at midget*

[Scrasamax]

Apparently I wasn't reading this too closely (2010 was not a productive year for yours truly) and then all of a sudden I had an award on my profile...  I would like to thank the academy, and the Zombies, and too much time on wikipedia

[Mourngrymn]

I may have missed it somewhere, and I realize that they are placed in the forum what the winners won their awards for... wow say that five times real fast. But anyway, would it be a nice touch if the awards under the personal profile actually went to the sub they were awarded it for, if possible that is.

[Strolen]

Yeah, I have to play with the code for that as it is a stock plugin for the forum. It also has limited text space in the fields. I tried to put the name of the sub in most of them but it kept cutting off the end of it.

I should be able to list the awards in the Citadel Profile area eventually with direct links and will see if I can recode the current automagic link it creates. I hesitate to do a lot of changes to the forum mods because I am already 2 updates behind. Each time I update it resets it all back to default and that is very annoying.

[Murometz]

If its still April, its still Award Season...

I would like to present two related awards today.

The winner of the Most Comments in 2010 Award, as well as the Most Votes 2010 Award goes to the one, the only, the Master of Disaster, the King of Commentary, the Viceroy of Voting, the Activity Ace...

CHEKA MAN!!!

Congrats Cheka!! Without your constant activity, the Citadel would be a quieter place!

Speech!!!

[Strolen]

Hurray for Cheka!!!!!!

[Scrasamax]

Three cheers for Cheka!

[Strolen]

Made the pretties. You rock Cheka!!

[Murometz]

Speaking of making things pretty....


Ok, so now its May. Must be time for more awards! Though let it not be said that the awards ceremony will continue in perpetuity, until the end of time and beyond. It *will* end soon.

And now a quick word from our sponsors…

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Or step across the dunes and fiery wastes of Aterrizar. Will you live to tell the tales?

Or dive into the nether reaches of the World of Neyathis. You may never surface again.

Check out these and other fine fantasy worlds here... http://strolen.com/freetext

---------------------------------------------------


Tonight’s award is for Best/Coolest New Site Feature of 2010 (give or take some months from other years). The nominees are all here this evening, so let us announce them in no particular order…

Strolen, for Bringing Chat back!
Strolen, for Unvoted!
Strolen, for Author’s Activity color code!
Strolen, for Profiles Enhancer!
Strolen, for New Banners!
Strolen, for Email notifications!

And the winner is…

*rustles envelope for extra suspense*

STROLEN! For one of those!!!!!!

Speeeech!!! Thanks for keeping the site “hot” and “fresh” chief!!

[Silveressa]

(Just a small side note, every single link except the last one in that list is broke...  )

[Strolen]

The 2010 Page 'o Facts for your viewing curiosity and pleasure.

http://strolen.com/muro_awards

[Strolen]

(Just a small side note, every single link except the last one in that list is broke...  )

All links (on this page) updated!

[valadaar]

Thats odd - if I follow Muro's link to Word of Neyathis, it works for me.