Adventure Site Contest: The Retrospective

  Throughout the month of February, I reviewed every one of the Adventure Site Contestants (save my own). I went in order of submission, so the complete set:
-Legacy of the Black Mark
-Tomb of Rassanotep
-Oglias’ Folley
-The Tower of the Elephant/The Tower of the Malphyr
-St. Durham’s Home for Wayward Youth
-Lair of the Grim Gasher Orcs
-Death Talon Lair
-Red Tower
-Fountain of Bec
-Nalfeshnee Monastery
-Lipply’s Tavern
-Lost Vault of Kadish
-Etta Capp’s Cottage
-Whatever Happened to Brother Eustice?
-The Glen of Shrikes
-The Barrow Shrine of Corruption
-Frostfire’s Durance Vile
  Each submission has a link for what I thought in my reviews; the ranking in the end will be a mixture of ranked-choice judgements from not just me, but from the four other judges as well. They weren’t required to give reviews, but each judge is indeed reviewing every submission, from Owen Edward’s YouTube reviews to the blogs of Grützi, Shockthop, and EOTB. Once everyone is done with all reviews, I plan on cross-linking to each one of mine…there’s a nice difference of opinion in a lot of cases, which shows how valuable multiple judges are for a contest like this. Be sure to leave comments anywhere you have an opinion, feedback is valuable both for the reviewer and the reviewed. Special shout-out to the Fountain of Bec author Stooshie & Stramash, who’s weighed in on almost every entry so far.
  Just speaking for myself, this whole experience has been a delight. I’ve enjoyed reviewing every single submission, and found something of value in every single adventure sent in. Within the bounds of the initial spec there’s been a wide variety of submissions, from simple 5-room lairs to full-up multisession adventures…aimed at level 1’s all the way up to named heroes of level 9+…written for all the TSR lineages of B/X, OD&D, and AD&D. The adventure sites are designed to be place in environments like scorching deserts, snow-covered hills, and debauched cities…although the majority are for hilly woodlands, which makes sense for the baseline assumptions of D&D. Even within the tight confines of only two pages, the creativity, hard work, and enthusiasm displayed by everyone submitting something have blown me away.
  Going forward, once all the other judges wrap up their own review efforts, we’re going to vote on the top eight entries and publish them as Adventure Sites I, a free compilation for publication on both DriveThru and itch.io…something for the community as a whole to use and enjoy, with all credits given to the authors (who will also have a chance to edit a bit before broad release). The top-rated adventure writer gets crowned King of the Adventure Sites and receives his choice of a Merciless Merchants adventure, plus all due glory and adulation from the guaranteed billions of adoring fans. Every author is of course more than welcome to publish independently as well and I’ll shout out to anyone who does…I’d love for every one of these to hit the world.
  Looking into the future, the sharp-eyed reader will note that I called the publication “Adventure Sites I”. I won’t be committing the entire judges panel to a return, but I know that I myself will definitely be making this contest a regular feature, probably yearly. The Coldlight Press Adventure Site Contest has been an honor to judge and I’m already looking forward to what we see next.
  In the meanwhile, thanks to all who’ve submitted, and watch this space for the final results.