Crypt of the Devil Lich Tournament

So the official tournament for Crypt of the Devil Lich was done at Gen Con in 2004. If you didn’t make it to Gen Con that year, or couldn’t get in to the tournament, it is still possible for you to organize your own tournament at a local game store. One of my local game stores, Dragon’s Keep, decided to do just that. I was invited to be one of the judges and given a copy of the module to run at the tournament that would host thirty players. For a normally non-competitive game, watching payers compete for prizes and bragging rights can be very entertaining.

The event turned out to be a big draw, with the store turning away over fifteen players. Players had to pay a small fee to participate in the tournament. Players were also allowed to create their own 15th level characters. They could use any of the core D&D rules to create their character, they could also use any supplemental rules included in large list of auxiliary books. The only catch was that the store mandated the players bring their copy of the books containing supplemental rules to the tournament (photocopies and electronic formats were not allowed). The characters were given no restrictions on alignment and only a few restriction on how starting gold could be spent. Characters needed to be approved by the staff before the start of the tournament.

At the tournament, we decided to only run the first two levels of Crypt of the Devil Lich because of time restrictions. Each level is supposed to take about four hours, but we discovered we really only had three hours per level at best in our time frame. The tournament worked by giving points for tasks accomplished as the players go through the dungeon. Points are subtracted for character deaths and other acts of stupidity. We decided to be strict about our time limit, ending each of the two rounds at exactly three hours whether or not the players had finished the level or even the area they were currently in. Each of the adventuring parties would move on to the next dungeon level at when the time was up, regardless of how much of the dungeon they had completed.

Players in the tournament were judged based on a couple of criteria. First, players were judged on their team score. Players had the opportunity to request teammates before the tournament began. Working well as a team is absolutely crucial to being able to complete the dungeon quickly. Second, players were judged by their teammates using a set of criteria. The scores given to each player by their team members were added to the team scores. The players with the highest combined individual and team scores went into the selection pool for the grand prizes. The best individual players in each team were invited to return to play the third dungeon level for more prize opportunities.

In preparing for the tournament, I had to make sure that I had carefully read the module. I also pre-rolled initiative for all the monsters, created initiative cards for the creatures, and made tokens for all the creatures. I then used sandwich bags to create packets for each room that included the initiative cards and tokens for all monsters. I also created figurine scaled maps for each room so I wouldn’t have to waste time erasing or drawing maps during play. I made initiative cards for the players to fill out upon arrival so that time wouldn’t be wasted rolling initiative during play.

So all my preparation for the tournament really played out well once the day arrived. The group I got was a spectacular adventuring party coming from the local university’s science fiction gaming club. The players all knew the rules and were used to playing with each other. They had a balanced party of characters and a lot of ingenuity. They also were focused most of the time and willing to work together. I wasn’t surprised when in the end, the top player was selected from my group and my group also had the highest team score. This despite having one character death on the second dungeon level.

The other judges had good groups as well. One table in particular gave my group a run for their money. The other groups fell behind for various reasons. One table had a really good judge, but had a player that insisted on playing an evil aligned cleric which weakened the group substantially. Another table did well despite being composed entirely of heavy fighters that were doomed to soaking up damage from most of the traps in the dungeon. This table also had several players that were unfamiliar with many aspects of the game. The table that performed the worst had the misfortune of probably having the two worst players. One of these players was asked to leave for being disruptive and the other was almost asked to leave. The table also suffered from having far too many players set on playing evil or chaotic characters. One player at this table asked to be moved to another table for the second round.

After the first round it became apparent as to what made a good gamer and what did not. The good gamers cooperated with the other players at their table. Good players knew the rules well enough to be able to brain storm ideas. Good players were encouraging to other players. Also, the good players had a clear grasp of when to be in character and when to be out of character. Other aspects that the good players and the good teams had were being ethical in their play, determined to have a good time with everyone, socially engaged, and generally just being friendly and nice to everyone. This was pretty much what we, as judges, expected to find.

In this sort of tournament is really is about how well you can get along with other people. Great teamwork meant that you would progress farther in the dungeon and collect more points. For me, that sense of cooperation and collaboration generated through the tournament is what made it so much fun. These sorts of tournaments are something I would like to see more game stores host. Dragon’s Keep hopes to host other tournaments in the near future.

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Written by 42 on June 27th, 2007