[OOC] Studio Audience (conversations about 2023 Iron DM)

[Strangemund]

Literally cannot wait to see the feast for the eyes that is briar's post. Your legendary skills at formatting are known throughout these wild lands.

Unrelated but also kinda related! I have a question! Does including a title in your fieldset count towards the Word Count? Like inputing something like [fieldset=Cypher System: OOPS! All Dogs!]. I know the other formatting stuff doesn't but I figured I'd ask just to be safe!

[briar]

I only did some light formatting this time around, so try not to be too disappointed

The fieldset's title is part of the 'I personally classify this as any text that you can see and 'select' in the body of your post, after its posted, with the exception of the spoiler tag and the secret tag that are required by the rules, since those get deleted later anyway.output' and you can select it as text in your post, which means it'll copy and paste just like the rest of your post's body, so I imagine it still counts. I recommend just using a period as your fieldset title, as punctuation won't generally trigger the word counter, even by itself. Incidentally, random note, but the titles of Spoilerbuttons can NOT be selected and do NOT copy and paste, which might be a similarly relevant question and should probably be addressed so people know, else someone might accidentally go over their word count without knowing. I wouldn't want to see anyone get bumped for a technicality.

Lastly, be careful about using symbols and emoticons, though. I wanted to add some extra pizzazz to my post like -ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ- or ✧༺♥༻∞ for some eye-candy/flair, but they still count as "words" to the word counter (although you can still shorten them to one word by eliminating space between the symbols, fyi ).

[jbear]

Question - The scenario specifies the word 'room'.

How literally must we take this word?

Would 'space' or 'location' be acceptable synonyms?

So long as we are not designing an encounter that moves to multiple locations but the space is not four walls and a door, is this a correct interpretation of the word 'room' or should we limit ourselves to a literal interpretation and discount locations such as a cave, an arena or a street for example?

[bananabadger]

@Strangemund -- Yes, the wordcounter identifies fieldset titles in its count. Spoilerbuttons, as briar points out, are another story. For what it is worth, you might want to consider the lack of precedence in using a spoilerbutton. Judges might love it; they might hate it. There is very little past use of it in previous Iron DM entries to make much of an educated guess.

@jbear -- I think Savoylen answered the room question here. If not, please let us know, but my inclination is to allow ambiguities to be ambiguities and allow the judges to decide how well any competitor made the case for their interpretation. Since you have a bye this round (unless someone in your group drops), this might be the time to push the envelope on any interpretation.

[Gaijin]

@Briar, Be careful with punctuation as well. Any isolated character seems to be eligible to count as a "word" in the tests I was running today.

Re: Judge Interface/Formatting

Can we assume that our entries will be read on a computer, as opposed to a cellphone? A fair bit of formatting doesn't play as nicely in portrait view.

[briar]

Originally Posted by Gaijin

@Briar, Be careful with punctuation as well. Any independent character seems to be eligible to count as a "word" in the tests I was running today.

It seems to depend. Most standard punctuation doesn't seem to trigger it, but I noticed that some punctuation that stands in for words, like "&", do count as a word, even if you have it in a string of other punctuation like %#$%@&%@. I find this odd because in some cases, even punctuation by itself can carry meaning, like the use if a "!" to show alarm.Oddly enough, though, independent letters and numbers DO count. So saying "Point Z" still counts as two words.

(Note: see attachment for verification)

Anyway, I appreciate the word of caution, one tablemancer to another. 😄

[bananabadger]

We will ask the judges to read entries in Drake (no background), but there has been no discussion about requesting/requiring a desktop or laptop read.

I don't mean to put you off, Gaijin, but I'm not comfortable giving an immediate answer. Let's wait for Savoylen to rule on this when he is able to later today.

[Gaijin]

Originally Posted by briar

It seems to depend. Most standard punctuation doesn't seem to trigger it, but I noticed that some punctuation that stands in for words, like "&", do count as a word, even if you have it in a string of other punctuation like %#$%@&%@. I find this odd because in some cases, even punctuation by itself can carry meaning, like the use if a "!" to show alarm.Oddly enough, though, independent letters and numbers DO count. So saying "Point Z" still counts as two words.

(Note: see attachment for verification)

Anyway, I appreciate the word of caution, one tablemancer to another. ��

Ooh, Interesting.

I can't give you my verification due to sensitive content, but within certain tables, adding nothing but "?" in their own cells counts each individually as a word, but not in a simple tables. It seems that something in the formatting of more complicated table triggers characters to be read as words in the wordcounter...

Edit: I'll toss together a generic example to share.

---

@Bananabadger, No worries, I'm just going to roll with it. Once I have it structured, it'll be east to adjust later if it becomes an issue.

[Gaijin]

@Briar,

Ah... It took some playing with, but I figured out what the problem was...

By including an inequality symbol, "≤", anywhere in the table, it suddenly decides to read "?", and other punctuation, as a words.

Edit: Actually, if you just add the symbol directly to Wordcounter.net it will start tracking punctuation, so it's just a quirk of the word counter itself.

[briar]

Originally Posted by Gaijin

It seems that something in the formatting of more complicated table triggers characters to be read as words in the wordcounter...

Huh...wait, hold on, that doesn't make sense. Cause when you copy and paste the output of your post into the Word Counter, it only takes the text, not any of the formatting or the background code. It doesn't bring the table over, just what's in it, so how can it be affecting the word count on completely different site? 🤔 If that's the case, it must be some sort of spacing issue, maybe? Perhaps having something in certain kinds of tables creates a unique space that, when combined with the "?", counts as word?

Edit: Ack, ninja'd. Got it, makes sense! Thanks for the workshop 😄

[AnotherDragoon]

I can commit to reading entries on a PC.

[rhaiber]

Thanks for asking about fieldsets, Strange. I was wondering the same thing myself. And thanks to everyone who helped clear things up.

Now I have two more questions, one about the competition in general and the other about this round specifically.

1. In general, considering that Round 0 was an introductory post, should subsequent rounds be part of the same game/setting? Would it be a good idea to make it so that when all the Rounds are put together, you end up with the different components of a single campaign module? Or is each round meant to be independent and explore a wide variety of different settings and/or systems?
   • My inclination is to assume that since there is no specific mention of this in the rules it falls under the heading of neither required nor prohibited, but that leads to a follow-up question: if one were to craft all their rounds into a single cohesive narrative, would that be viewed positively (hey, kudos on maintaining continuity!) or negatively (boring lack of originality and dearth of creativity).
2. More specifically for this round, does the idea of an encounter imply that it should involve combat? Would it be equally acceptable to craft an encounter that was a skills challenge, or a puzzle, or a social encounter?

[savoylen]

Originally Posted by Gaijin

...

Re: Judge Interface/Formatting

Can we assume that our entries will be read on a computer, as opposed to a cellphone? A fair bit of formatting doesn't play as nicely in portrait view.

Its up to the Judge on when/how/viewing preference (phone, PC, MAC, etc. etc.) so keep that in mind when formatting.

From my past experience (take this for what it is worth), when a judge had trouble reading a submission on a phone, they switched to a large format machine. I have never see or heard of a judge scoring down because the didn't like the formatting on a small device like a phone.

[savoylen]

Great questions.

I'm going to refer you back to the "meet the judges" thread. Most of this was address in fairly good detail there. This is your best source for these type of questions.

My personal tip is when you know what room you are assigned, go back and read the judges in the room's "tips". Its always best to write to your audience.

Originally Posted by rhaiber

...
In general, considering that Round 0 was an introductory post, should subsequent rounds be part of the same game/setting? Would it be a good idea to make it so that when all the Rounds are put together, you end up with the different components of a single campaign module? Or is each round meant to be independent and explore a wide variety of different settings and/or systems?

Each round is judged independently of the other.
And to your follow up question, that would be the domain of the judges in the room.

More specifically for this round, does the idea of an encounter imply that it should involve combat? Would it be equally acceptable to craft an encounter that was a skills challenge, or a puzzle, or a social encounter?[/list]

No. An encounter is whatever you think it means as long as you can sell it to the judges in your room.

[Gaijin]

Do we have any sadistic non-participant lurkers floating about that are interested in reviewing an entry?

I have a first draft mocked up and would love to be thoroughly chastised before starting from scratch tomorrow.