I'm afraid I don't have good answers to your questions...except that it's very subjective. It's like trying to describe a piece of art that grabs you. I throw out a LOT of roles for being too quirky or bending the "fantasy world rules" that we have in place. For example, one of my pet peeves is a role that claims some kind of immortal/demon heritage. Um, no, you're a mortal...deal with it. :P Other judges might love the story.

I tend to like a believable story that is fun to read and offers an interesting reason for this character to have chosen the path that he/she did. That's not to say that a decent 'my father was a paladin and now I want to be a paladin, so there...yay team good!' isn't worthwhile...but that's not going to make the cut of roles that stand out. Also, while I'm not "grading" roles and I'm not looking for typos and grammar...there's a LOT to be said for a readable role. Spelling, grammar, and nice formatting all help to not distract from getting your message across. Keep in mind the judge is usually reading circa 40 roles...many of them are at least 5 healthy chapters long.

To me, what makes the role stand out and make it's way to the winner's circle is almost always a combination of idea and delivery. I've seen roles where the concept was great, but pulling the concept out of the jumbles of sentences was painful. I've seen roles that were full of fluff, but just really well written (think mediocre fantasy book that's a super easy read and keeps you turning pages.) My favorites are when the two combine.

Now, ALL of that said...I get other imms to help me put together the prize packages, and every single time one or more of them says something like, 'I can't BELIEVE you picked this as a winner.' and 'This role was awesome and didn't even make your first cut list, what gives?' That is the EXACT reason I love a variety of judges from contest to contest. I don't want to make sure I'm following some clear cut set of rules to pick my winners. I want to have fun reading roles...pick a handful that move me, and trust that the variety of imms gives every style a chance to shine.