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Where to Begin

(AOA1-1 The Worth of a Slave)

Good news! Wizards of the Coast has allowed the campaign admins to share the Ashes of Athas campaign adventures (20 adventures organized into 7 chapters). To order the adventures, just send me a PM with your e-mail address. We can't begin to describe how glad we are to be able to share the campaign with you!

Now, back to the purpose of this blog series. I wanted to review each adventure from a design perspective, sharing some insight into how the adventure was created, highlighting areas where we tried new things, and sharing what we learned in going from concept to draft to actual play. 

In the Beginning

Note: As with all parts of this blog series, there are spoilers within!

I've shared how the campaign started up both on ...

 

Ashes of Athas:
Looking Back on the Dark Sun Organized Play Campaign

On March 1st Mike Shea (operating the site Sly Flourish) invited me to chat about the Dark Sun organized play campaign called Ashes of Athas. You can watch our chat here.

I was also fortunate to be on the Misdirected Mark Podcast #48, where I chatted about Winter Fantasy and the conclusion of the Ashes of Athas campaign.

The campaign spanned 7 Chapters, 20 adventures, 84 hours of play time, and a ton of sleepless nights as Chad Brown, Derek Guder, and I worked to create the campaign. Now that it has concluded, I would like to take some time to discuss a few of the individual adventures and the approach we took to design and develop them.

I thought I might start by asking whether there are any particular encounters...

Interlude: Extending the Five Minute Workday

Legends & Lore discussed the Five Minute Workday, the concept that after a very short period of time (such as one battle), the players decide to rest again so as to regain all of their resources. I was pretty dissatisfied with the column, in part because I didn't understand what it was advocating. After reading it several times, it seems to say the following:

• WotC is working on the math of the game to ensure a solid foundation.
• The focus to achieve balance is shifting from the encounter (4E's innovation) to the adventuring day (of previous editions).
• The adventuring day is defined by a number of rounds of combat with a certain number of enemies.
• Hit Points are the tracking mechanism.
• DMs will be crystal clear on target rounds/day expected.

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Addendum: D&D Next Monster Design and Organized Play

Yesterday I wrote about D&D Next Monster Design. I wanted to add a bit more after looking at it through the lens of Organized Play.

First, I want to plug something I had the pleasure of playtesting and helping with: the Midgard Bestiary for 4th Edition! This is a Kickstarter by Kobold Quarterly. KQ is pretty awesome for bridging the editions. They take the best of each (as well as edition neutral content) and provide fantastic publications. One of my favorites is their guide to Board Game design, and I don't even make board games! This monster book is really sweet. I like it so much... more on that later... For now, let's say the monsters are proof of what you will read below!


Organized Play is a large category of play that encompasses...

A Few Tips for DDI Article Submissions

I feel really fortunate to have written a few articles for Dragon and Dungeon  (an article on sparring and other contests called Step Into the Ring, an Asian-themed adventure The Five Deadly Shadows, an article for DMs providing Dark Sun wilderness lore and encounters with Traveling the Athasian Wastes, an article on classic monsters with The Ecology of the Vegepygmy, and an article on a villainous secret society in the Dark Sun setting with The True). I know many of you share the dream I had of writing for Dragon or Dungeon. To that end, I want to share a few good links and tips I picked up.

Useful Links for DDI and RPG Freelancing

I bookmark any link I think might help me write for D&D. I organize my bookmarks so I have a category for just

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