Local Speakeasy: Home Brewing 3.X Voting Thread V: Curtain Call

[ShiningStarling]

Welcome one and all to the voting thread for the Local Speakeasy: Home Brewing 3.X Competition V: Curtain Call. Voting will consist of each voter giving a first, a second, and a third place vote, as well as a vote for the categories of Most Original, Most Likely to See Play, and Best Use of Theme. Anyone can vote, and in fact, entrants must vote to qualify for victory.

A first place vote is worth three points, a second place vote is worth two points, and a third place vote is worth one point. Votes for the three other categories are each worth 1 point in their category. You may not vote for your own entry.

You are encouraged to include reason with your votes, though this is not absolutely required.

The entry that ends up with the most points wins the contest, and each category goes to the entry with the most votes in it.. Voting starts now and will continue until 11:59pm (Eastern Standard Time USA/Canada; GMT-5) on July 14th.

Entry	Creator	1st	2nd	3rd	Total Points	Most Original	Most Likely to See Play	Best Use of Theme
Devilish Musician [Monster]	rferries	1	1	1	6	0	2	0
Instruments of War [Magic Items]	bekeleven	1	2	1	8	1	3	1
Cadence Casting [Magic System]	Jormengand	2	1	1	9	2	0	2
Echoes of the First Lillend [Magic Location]	Temotei	1	1	2	7	2	0	2

Unfortunately, celestia's and sengmeng's entries were incomplete, and thus inelligible.

Voting thread based upon Zaydos's Ancillary Contest voting thread.

1st: Jormengand - Cadence Casting
2nd: bekeleven - Instruments of War
3rd: Temotei - Echoes of the First Lillend

Originality and Theme - Tie - Jormengand and Temotei
Most Likely to See Play - bekeleven

[rferries]

1st Place: Cadence Casting.
2nd Place: Echoes of the First Lillend.
3rd Place: The Instruments of War.

Most Original: Cadence Casting (everyone had unique spins on things but this is by definition most original as it's an entirely new casting system, to say nothing of the effort it must have taken to work it all out!)

Most Likely to See Play: The Instruments of War (All balanced and flavourful), and fit easily into most games without need for new mechanics. I would definitely equip a bard with one (if not all) of these.

Best Use of Theme: Echoes of the First Lillend; I didn't know about magical location rules before this contest but you can already tell this must rank among the best ones - effectively a location that moves! It's a miniquest in itself and oozes flavour.

Notable mention: Shariel - I would have liked to see how this one turned out, the flavour is great but it's hard to judge without the granted abilities.

[Temotei]

1st: Instruments of war, by bekeleven
2nd: Cadence casting, by Jormengand
3rd: Devilish musician, by rferries

Most Original: Cadence casting
Most Likely to See Play: Instruments of war
Best Use of Theme: Cadence casting

I like all of these entries, actually, and I could see myself using any of them in a game. Devilish musician is probably the hardest to fit in with a party, but they can always influence NPCs, so there's that. Could be a nice plot hook to have a bard with amazing talent trying to escape their contract. Cadence casting really is a sweet concept. I dig it. Instruments of war is first for me because it's the easiest to use, the one I see myself using most readily, and the idea of a musician beating things up with their instruments has been an issue I've addressed in multiple different ways. Another one is always good.

[bekeleven]

1st: Echoes of the First Lillend. Very fluffy, very cool. A bit low-impact, though - Like a lot of magical locations tend to be more trouble than they're worth, and this is no real exception. To sum up: Cool concept, mechanically low-impact.

2nd: Devilish Musician. Once again, I like the flavor. My mechanical problems are mostly in the editing camp, with some sloppy wording (How many times per day can he bargain? Why does he have save penalties vs morale effects, when every 3.5 morale effect is beneficial?)

3rd: Cadence Casting. It's undeniably a cool concept, but I think it grew a bit too big for its britches. This is something that should be expanded into its own class, not stuck into the bard, it's just too much of a hack. Having to learn a bunch of sub-par spells... The chords being "spells" that are cast as a free action without being known... It just doesn't really fit inside of the system where it's placed. Also, I'm sure 16th level spells break some things. A cool concept, and the implementation did the best it could given the framework, but I think the framework was wrong.

Most Original: Echoes of the first Lillend. It's really cool.

Most likely to use: Devilish Musician. I like Echoes a lot, but honestly by the time PCs are planeswalking around I probably don't want to spend a whole session making them perform for 24 straight hours for a 4k-equivalent reward. Musician has some pieces I'm not wild about but it's a solid concept, especially as an NPC-based plot hook or challenge.

best use of theme: This is tough. I love Devil went down to Georgia, and Cadence Casting is a cool design for spell chains. Since I feel like "best use" refers at least in part to my favorite design rather than my favorite implementation, I'm going to go with Cadence casting.

[Jormengand]

1st: Devilish Musician. I love the way the song's been done into a monster which actually works. Copy all of the mechanical wording problems and paste them here, but it's a decent way of doing things.
2nd: Instruments of War. Anything that prevents a combat bard being perform (sing) or bust is nice.
3rd: Echoes of the first Lillend. The area seems nice, but it's difficult to imagine actually using it in a game.

Most Original: Instruments of war. While everyone's wanted to fight with a musical instrument as an improvised weapon (by "Everyone's" I mean "I've"), the idea of ones which are made for it is neat.
Most likely to see play: Devilish Musician. I can see using one as a plot boss for something.
Best use of theme: Probably the instruments of war again. Taking the theme off on a slight tangent - which fits it well into a D&D setting where everything is trying to kill you - works nicely.

EDIT: [OPRAH]You get a 6! You get a 6! Everyone gets a 6![/OPRAH]

[ShiningStarling]

1st: Cadence Casting
This is slightly obligatory. I like Jorm's work, but yet again they managed to snatch a thought right out of my head and put it together right quick, probably cleaner than many of my first drafts would be. Pretty sure this means that Jorm is a Psion stealing my thoughts, so giving them first is the only logical choice.

2nd: Instruments of War
I want to make a War Bard now. Thanks :3

3rd: Echoes of the First Lillend
Great concept, the flavor text had me riveted, but the mechanics were underwhelming (as ends up happening with so many of my favorite ideas in D&D)

MO: Echoes of the First Lillend
See above

MLtSP: Instruments of War
Items are easy to meld into any campaign, and these are fun enough to get there.

BUoT: Echoes of the First Lillend
I like 'Devil went down to Georgia' as much as the next girl, but Echoes' description had me... feeling the heart and soul of why music is great, so this vote is a kudos to Temotei's prose just there.


Also, Voting Closed, please hold while votes are tallied...

EDIT: Votes Tallied, congrats Jorm!