2020 One Page Dungeon Contest: My Comments & Scoring of the Winning Entries

The results for the 2020 One Page Dungeon Contest are finally in, and the winners have been announced on the official One Page Dungeon Contest website. As you can probably imagine, 2020 was a challenging year for the contest - it got a later start than normal, with entries being accepted until the end of July (usually the contest ends at the end of April). The judges were given extra time to judge our entries, and even with the extension, I fell behind and did not return my scores until October. As it turns out, I wasn't alone, as the other judges were also behind, meaning that the official scoring didn't finish until this past weekend. 

In this post, I'll talk about my thoughts and scores on the winning entries, starting with the first 10 winning entries. Before reading, I encourage you to read one of my posts from the 2019 contest in which I discuss my judging criteria. I think it's important to understand how and why I use the criteria I do when judging the entries. In particular, the "short version" is that I create a weighted score, and 25% of that score is based on the layout of the one-page dungeon (does the layout use the one-page format as a feature and creatively present the details, or does it simply try to make the type smaller and cram in as much as possible in the one-page format?). Another huge factor for me is spelling and grammar (which is weighted at 10%). Constantly misspelled words will negatively impact my score. Four sections are each weighted at 15%: Premise (the "hook" - does the adventure quickly and succinctly describe an easy way for a referee to get the characters involved quickly, or does it rely on the referee to figure that out?), Characters (are NPCs given enough detail to make it easy for the referee to use them, or does it rely on the referee to figure out personalities, tactics, etc.?), Map (is the map useful and related to the adventure, or does it look like an after-thought?), and Usefulness (is there enough detail and information provided to make this easy for a referee to run with little other prep, or is it just a creative idea with no execution?). My last part of the weighted score is "Other" which I use primarily to award points for creativity in setting, idea, or execution that's not covered by any of the other categories. 

This year, there were 154 entries, which is the most I think I've had to judge since I started judging back in 2014. Based on the way I weigh my scores, there are quite a few ties (sometimes as many as 5 or 6 entries tied for the same weighted score, even though their raw scores are different), so out of the 154 entries, I ended up ranking them #1 - #70. For the "Top 20" I had to turn in for my scores, when I had ties, I used the raw score as a tie-breaker to help me condense the list to 20. 

Out of my "Top 20," 15 of my entries also made it into the "official" Top 20 (meaning that at least one of the two other judges also ranked these high enough to push them into the top tier) and five of mine Top 20 received an Honorable Mention (which I believe means I was the only judge to score these in my Top 20). So, you can see that there's a lot of variation among the judges in terms of our scoring procedures. 

With that background, here are my comments on the first 10 Top-Scoring Entries. 

Canal City Heist

Author: Stephen Thompson

Official Score: #1 (tie)

My Score: #1

• I graded this entry very highly in nearly every category, with perfect scores in "Grammar/Spelling" and "Other" and near-perfect in "Layout" and "Usefulness"
• In my notes, I mentioned, "A really top entry. Covers all the bases with a good workable map (although details of some buildings would help), different characters with enough personality to run, great use of factions, different options for play, and good detail to make it useful at the table. Really well done."
• This is a good example of an entry that I judged late in the contest (it was #136 out of 152 entries) but which was so good that any potential "judging fatigue" I may have had did not impact it (and note that I go through and re-read and re-judge my scores at least twice if not three times before turning in my scores to ensure that I'm being fair and not judging something negatively due to fatigue or my current mood) and also an entry that scored just above average in my "Map" category (I gave it a 6/10 for Map) but that scored so well in all the other categories that it was my winning entry. 
• In terms of a Raw Score, this one got a 60/70 and for Weighted Score, an 8.4/10; to give you a sense of how close some of my scores were, my #2 entry got a 58/70 Raw Score and an 8.2/10 Weighted Score.

Other things that I liked about this entry: An immediate hook at the beginning, use of different colored fonts to draw attention to specific types of information, and putting a time limit on the heist so that the characters aren't tempted to use a lot of short rests (if playing 5E) to finish the adventure. 

The Riven Tower

Author: P. Aaron Potter

Official Score: #1 (tie)

My Score: #9

• I gave this entry top scores for "Map," "Grammar/Spelling" and "Other" and very high scores for "Layout" and "Usefulness"
• In terms of a Raw Score, this entry got 56/70 from me, and the Weighted Score was 7.7/10. 
• In my notes, I mentioned, "Really nice looking map, decent premise, fun ideas such as the 'risk factor' versus DEX, etc."

There's a lot to like about this adventure, which is why it scored so highly with me. I loved the creativity of naming things like the Aggressively Affectionate Bedspread and the Spirits of Misfortune. 

Maw of Snails

Author: Gus L.

Official Score: #2

My Score: #8 (tie)

• I gave this one a perfect score for "Grammar/Spelling" and near-perfect for "Usefulness" and very high for "Layout" and "Characters." 
• My notes mentioned: "Another snail entry [oddly, there were quite a few snail-related entries in 2020 for some reason]. Nice use of shading to distinguish different encounter areas. Good use of minimal stats to help run monsters. Nice mix of traps and monsters. Overall really nice job of using symbols, colors, and headers to draw attention to key info. Layout and organization make it easy to find what is needed. Not jam-packed with too much info."

You can tell from my comments that I liked this one quite a bit. One thing that dinged the layout score a couple of points was a really small font (it wasn't horrible and there was enough negative/white space so it didn't feel crammed, but I wonder if I printed this out how easy it would be to read at the table). While I graded this above average for the premise, I felt that just one additional line to help a referee drive the PCs to the place could have helped. 

Ex Libris Pendyl

Author: Cheryn Rapp and Brandon Dingess

Official Score: #3

My Score: #8 (tie)

• I gave perfect scores for "Premise," "Layout," "Grammar/Spelling," and "Other"
• For my other scores, I gave above average for the "Map," average for "Usefulness" and a little below average for "Characters"
• In my notes, I wrote, "Very creative layout and use of font. Clever idea and the whole aesthetic makes good use of the format. The major downside if the font, which, while it matches the theme, is hard to read. Additionally, the different encounters/traps could use a tiny bit more detail." 

This is one where, although the font was extremely difficult to read and normally I would grade down for that, I set that aside and gave it a perfect score for layout because the font, as I mentioned, was very well tied into the theme of the entry. I definitely wouldn't make a habit of using a hard-to-read font like this all the time (if every entry does something like this for this year's contest, I wouldn't be very happy...) but in isolated cases, it can work. 

Are You Smarter Than a Kobold?

Author: Vincent Raitt

Official Score: #4

My Score: #52 (tie)

We come to the first winning entry that I did not score in my Top 20. Here's how I scored it: 

• Perfect score for "Map" and high for "Grammar/Spelling" and "Usefulness." 
• I gave this one slightly below average scores for "Premise," "Layout," and "Characters."
• My notes say: "Really good looking map, but no hook/premise, and the font is not good - too small, and the kerning smashed everything together making it very difficult to read." 

How would I improve this to get a higher score from me? In this case, the map, while nice, doesn't need to be quite this big. If there map were just, say, 10% smaller, then the line spacing between the lines of text could have increased and that alone would have made it so much easier to read. Also, there are little things like "it's" instead of "its" and "Wight" incorrectly spelled as "Whight." The vertical lines that separate the DC of a check from the monster/trap and the result are much too close to the rest of the text, which again make it difficult to read. Perhaps even using a color-coding system so the Monster/Trap is one color, the DC is a different color, and then the result going back to the first color, would help. 

There's a lot of good stuff here and I don't want to imply that I didn't enjoy this one. With just a small amount of attention to the layout and spelling, this could have been a higher-scoring entry from me. And, as you see, the other judges rated it high enough that it landed at #4, so that's something to be proud of. 

Orokoa: The Isle of Blood!

Author: Grant Lambe

Official Score: #5 (tie)

My Score: #2

• This one got a perfect score from me for "Premise" and "Grammar/Spelling" and very high scores for "Layout," "Characters," and "Other." For "Map" and "Usefulness" I also gave this high scores. 
• My notes: "Packs a lot of punch into the 1-page format. Map with a random table to locate different events/encounters, a table of starting characters, sample NPCs, side-quests, locations... Really nicely done. Missing level guidelines and some basic stats/info for running the NPCs, but overall really great job." 

Not too much more to say about this one - I liked it a lot, and it just barely missed out being my #1 entry. 

Mystery of the Moon Monolith

Author: Matt Farleo

Official Score: #5 (tie)

My Score: #30 (tie)

• I gave this a perfect score for "Grammar/Spelling" and really high scores for "Other" and "Layout" and either average or above average for "Premise," "Characters," "Map" and "Usefulness."
• My notes: "Good overall. Nice non-standard setting, decent map (without a scale). Some of the details were a little unclear." 

I personally love non-standard fantasy settings when judging the contest, so this was a fun one for me. While my rank of #30 might look "bad", to put it in perspective, this one got a Weighted Rank of 6.55/10 whereas my #13 ranked entries had a 7.5/10, so that's less than a point of difference. I did like this one quite a bit, but there were just some others that I liked a little better. A few things to lift the score would be a slightly bigger "hook," and a few more details to make this easy to run without a lot of prep work.  

The Barrow

Author: Shawn P. Collin

Official Score: #5 (tie)

My Score: #58 (tie)

• I gave this one high scores for "Grammar/Spelling," "Layout," and "Map" and below-average scores for "Premise," "Characters," and "Usefulness." 
• My notes: "Map is nice... standard set-up, light on detail..."

This is a perfectly good adventure, and I did like the map. I liked that it provided adventure hooks to get a party interested, but in my notes (and looking at it again) I commented that the background and hooks are pretty standard stuff - nothing unexpected. There's nothing inherently wrong with that approach (not everything has to be crazy, wacky stuff), but that along with the lack of detail for any encounters contributed to my feeling. I get what the author was going for - basically, that you can use this map and then stock it however you want to fit the level of your campaign. Those kinds of adventures can be very helpful in a pinch, but for a one-page dungeon, I'm looking for a bit more detail to make the execution of running it a lot easier right at the table. Again, that's just me as a judge - the other two judges don't seem to have that same outlook, given that this one scored a tie for 5th place. 

Shipwrecked in the Weird Sea

Author: Pencils-and-Dungeons

Official Score: #6 (tie)

My Score: #3

• Perfect scores for "Map," "Grammar/Spelling," and "Other" and high scores for "Premise," "Layout," and "Usefulness."
• "Really well done. Good premise, great map, good use of space in layout (nothing pushing the envelope, but it reads well with good use of bold type, headers, etc.). Random mutations and captain's log book is good." 

Here's an example of an adventure where just a few little added touches, like the mutation table and notes in the captain's log book can push the "Other" score up. While it only counts for 5% of my total weighted score, it can help propel an adventure a little further up in my scoring. I also really liked the evocative writing style that used descriptions of sounds and smells in addition to sights, to help a referee properly convey the atmosphere. So few writers do that, and it stuck out to me. 

The Planeshifted Insectarium of St. Tindalonius

Author: Stefan "The Moth"

Official Score: #6 (tie)

My Score: #26

• A perfect score in "Other" and near-perfect in "Grammar/Spelling," with high or very high scores in "Premise" and "Characters" and above average in "Map" and "Usefulness." I gave this one an average score for the "Layout."
• My notes read: "The layout could use a little work (margins are too tight and not even; scan is "bent" so it curves), but this is a very creative idea. There's a lot here and it would take some work to run, but there's enough detail that it wouldn't be too difficult to flesh out. Lots of really creative descriptions and encounters."

Again, don't let my score/rank fool you - I liked this one, a lot. On a non-weighted basis, this got a 51/70, and as a reminder, my top-scoring entry got a 60/70, so this is right up there. The layout unfortunately lowered this one down for me. I'm not sure if it was just a bad scan when it was submitted, or if the layout was done this way, but if you look at the image, you'll see that the margins on the left-hand side start wider at the top of the page to being almost non-existent at the bottom. While that may sound like I'm nit-picking, I actually have to look at that level of detail when reviewing and judging the entries, or else I'd never have any "winners" because the lion's share of the entries are all good and any one of them could really be winners. So, I have to start nit-picking and looking at things like spelling, grammar, layout, etc. and those things will ding your score. It doesn't mean that the entry isn't good - it just means that it could use a little work to clean it up. 

This one also has a note I wrote for myself in the margins - I wrote, "For Joy's game?" That's my daughter's game I running for her and her friends (all age 11 as we speak), and I wanted to remind myself that I wanted to use this in her game, so that alone is high praise from me. 

That's my take on the top-10 ranking entries from 2020. Later this week, I'll comment on the remaining winners and honorable mentions. 

As a reminder, you can buy a PDF of all of the 2020 entries here. 

Hanging: Home office and my bedroom, both on my laptop

Drinking: Hot chocolate with a little splash of Averna Amaro

Listening: "Surrey with the Fringe on Top" by the Wes Montgomery Trio, from the album "Movin': The Complete Verve Recordings"