[Information] What is Iron DM?

[bananabadger]

Iron DM is an annual celebration of the elusive blend of dedication, knowledge, creativity and chutzpah required to present and execute an unforgettable tabletop role playing game adventure. The event gathers and honors the dungeon masters, game masters, judges, referees, and all those who give their time to make games happen.

Since its first manifestation on this site in 2007, Iron DM has followed a format of asking participants to create an adventure or adventure element from a set list of themes or objects. After several rounds of play, one participant takes the "Iron DM" crown to hold until the next annual competition. To this day, the event continues as a competition-style format, but the goal of Iron DM extends to inspiring, supporting, and building the community of DM-players on this site and throughout the gaming community.

Though the contest has "DM" in its name, the event welcomes submissions from all game systems and formats. Indeed, choosing the right system and being able to balance the pros and cons of using a familiar system as opposed to using a more obscure system is part of the contest strategy itself. Parallel to that, this is an inclusive, affirming event in welcoming the diversity of backgrounds, themes, and identifications found in our gaming community.

Like our gaming community, Iron DM changes over the years. It responds to community-wide trends and groundbreaking innovations from within the contest. Please consider joining this year's event to help us grow the community and perhaps even raise the bar and define the standards for next year's gathering.

List of Iron DMs

Iron DM	Year	Winning System	Link to Winning Entry	Runner-Up	Link to Runner-Up Final Entry
RoBi	2007	D&D 3.5	Faces	Agwolf	The Star of Chaos
pfooti	2008	D&D 3.5	The City Eternal	Caveman	Desolation Denied
Malikane	2009	D&D 3.5	Rathyrian Black	withdraw	none
idilippy	2010	D&D 3.5	Forest of Madness	Moth	One Quiet Night
Melchior	2011	D&D 3.5	A Hippocratic Peace	Illya	A Cure for All Ills
Toba	2012	D&D 3.5	Sorrow in the Shadow of Scorn	Melchior	To Conquer Death
Bade	2013	D&D 3.5	Seasons of Rage	Aeternis	The War's Child
Ion2Atom	2014	D&D 3.5	A Dish Best Served Dead	Hippo	A Flickering Beacon
moozuba	2015	Pathfinder	Heart of Darkness	Rolzup	Those Who Shape
Inem	2016	Pathfinder	Frozen in Time	Rolzup	A Few Impossible Things
Inem	2017	Pathfinder	The Child Emperor	Khelbiros	The Curse of Skagos
Inem	2018	Pathfinder	Soul Surgery	Unko Talok	Hardened Hearts
Unko Talok	2019	Pathfinder	The Old Feud	Drager	Lover's Quarrel
Spoonybard	2020	D&D 5e	The End at the Beginning	Thaco	Dan's Labyrinth
Thaco	2021	D&D 5e	The Candymaker	LostCheerio	The Sunrise Pact
bananabadger	2022	FATE Core	The Jade Dragon	Auron3991	History Repeats
Strangemund	2023	Cypher / Numenera	The Hound's Crypt	jbear	Siblings of Death