This contest is inspired by the
Unfortunate Architect contest, which, I didn't realise until I dug up that link, was exactly twelve years ago -- a very appropriate time for a reprise
* * *
King Ebenezer the Eighth of Ephemera, Ephelna called his dungeon architects together. "
A new dungeon in time for Christmas, your Majesty?"
Cuthbert the Cautious inquired.
"
It needn't be anything large or elaborate. I just want something to house all these monsters my girlfriend keeps sending me."
"
I didn't know you had a girlfriend?"
"
Well, not exactly. Just a rather airheaded actress I met at the pantomime last year, and foolishly got involved with. She keeps sending me presents to try to win me back, and now I don't know where to put them all. Hence, the new dungeon."
"
What do these monsters consist of, your Majesty?"
asked Norbert the Numerate.
King Ebenezer called for his fiddlers three, and sang:
"On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Twelve roaches running,
Eleven goblins biting,
Ten guards a-leaping,
Nine aumtlich dancing,
Eight eyes a-watching,
Seven skippers swimming,
Six queens a-laying,
Five goooooooooooolems,
Four constructs,
Three wraithwings,
Two purple Slayers,
And a tar mother in a tar blob."
The architects walked away, scratching their heads....
* * *
Conditions
(Note that some of these are different from the original UAC, so please read carefully, and ask if you need further clarification.)
1. Construct a
one-level hold, with
the same hold and level name, and
at most 12 rooms.
2. The total number of monsters must be
exactly 12 roaches, 11 goblins, etc. (as in the song above). Note that this counts
initially placed monsters: unlike the original UAC, having roach queens does
not allow an unlimited number of roaches. (The queens are presented to you in frozen storage.) However, there is no limit on the number of monsters that may be spawned during play of a room.
3.
Monster swap: Shady Sam the Serpent Man offers you a trade. You may give him your entire stock of
one monster type, in exchange for
one brain or snake (any length and any type: red serpent, rattleserpent, adder, gentryii). This trade is optional. If taken, it counts as a permitted exception to Rule 2 above.
4.
Slayers: If you use a room-edge Slayer, every enterable edge tile of that room must be set to Slayer entry, and this counts as one towards your total.
5.
Tar: The room with the tar mother may have any amount of initial tar (but no initial tar babies).
6.
No other monsters. Except for the 12 types mentioned in the rhyme, and the possibility of taking Shady Sam's deal, you may not have any other monsters. Except for invisible characters, everything on the monsters tab counts as a monster, so this means no wubbas, no preplaced mimics, no stalwarts, etc.
7.
No monster generators. The following are forbidden, since they can generate monsters: fluff vents, all forms of tarstuff (except for tar in the tar mother room), tarstuff switch tokens, the "
Appear"
and "
Generate entity"
scripting commands. For potions and horns, see Rule 8.
8.
Drinks for Santa. You may include a maximum of
one of each type of potion and horn. You don't have to include potions at all, and if you do, you don't have to use all types, but for any type you
do include, you are limited to a total of one.
9.
Other objects: Orbs, bombs, mirrors, etc. are not restricted. Use as many as you like.
10. Don't take the rhyme too literally. The actions are not important; for instance, your waterskippers may be on land, and your queens may be on a floor type that prevents laying. The rhyme is only there to restrict the number of each type of monster.
* * *
How to Enter
After posting this, I will open a submission topic. Post your hold file there when it's ready. Entries will be anonymised during voting, so go ahead and create your hold with the player file with the name you would like it to appear under in the final compilation.
Entries must be "
Anyone Edit"
, must be masterable, and all challenges (if any) must be solvable. Usual HA rules apply.
The deadline for submissions is
11:59pm GMT, 21 December. Because of the verification process (see below), I will not start voting immediately, but on 25 December.
This is an official contest, so the usual prizes apply:
First place: 100 rank points and your pick from the Prize Pile
Second place: 50 rank points
Third place: 25 rank points
First-time entry: 10 rank points
* * *
Verification
Because this contest has very exact requirements for an entry to be valid, a verification process is necessary so as to be fair to everyone.
I will check the submissions topic every day, and when a new entry has been submitted, I will check it within 24 hours to make sure it fulfils the requirements. If it doesn't, I will inform the entrant by forum PM, and they will have until 24 December to submit a fixed entry.
If an entry is submitted and not fixed, it will still be entered in voting, but its final score will be reduced by 0.5 point for minor infractions (e.g. wrong number of a monster type) or 1 point for major infractions (e.g. use of a forbidden monster type). I will instruct voters to vote only for quality and enjoyability, and not to make additional deductions for infractions.
Good luck to everyone, and merry Christmas!
____________________________
50th Skywatcher
