Being busy with 5e speculation actually had me skip over the little gem about the changes  to the 2 page tactical adventure layout.

I'm happy and saddened by this.

The Happy

I'm happy because with my adventure writing, I tried my very best to stay with the 2 page layout system. Because of this I had to severly shorten some of the areas of my adventure. Sometimes leaving out details that were semi important, leading me to have to find a way to incorporate those clues elsewhere in the adventure. I hated doing it, and large swatches of text were deleted to fit things on 2 pages.

Then the change to the official adventures were changed out.

I agree that there isn't as much information put into a 2 page layout, especially when you are introducing 3 or 4 new types of never before published

So they changed the submission rules. At first I was a little upset, but then I realized that it gives me a deadline to work for so I can actually set myself a timeline on what needs to be done when. It also means I can have a large set of submissions to throw at the wall and to see what sticks. It would also be nice to get some actual feedback on things submitted. A Sorry we aren't interested isn't terribly helpful for a hopeful designer, something along the lines of why they aren't accepting it is better. Knowing what I may need to improve on, or if it's just a matter of the magazines focusing on a different direction at the time.

I don't mind this.

But I should have really read the rules originally earlier. It seems they only want adventures of about 10,000 words. I'm over 7,000 already

Toolboxes, you know those large red metal containers that hold, well, tools? Amazing containers of tricks of the trade. While the DM's toolbox isn't a physical box in most cases (I do have the PHB DMG and MM in a nice boxed gift set) there are huge differences between the one I had in 3.5 compared to the 4e. Actually I take that back, it's not that my toobox is bigger, it's that my design space is neigh infinite.

In 3.5 making a creature was not unlike making a character. You figured out what it's type was, gave it some hit die based on it's type and what level it was. Figured out it's attacks from it's stats and Base Attack Bonus (again all going back to it's type). Gave it weapons and armor. Figured out it's defenses and damage. Possibly gave it class levels, which further changed its

So, a lot of what I do lately is to get a pulse of the community and see how they feel about certain aspects of pre-made adventures. After all, appealing to the majority is how money is made. I've seen a few lately on treasure, mostly because I was actively looking for them.

I haven't actually assigned any treasure yet, and what I currently have written has notes in red colored font about adding treasure rewards here. I know of the DMG parcel system, and the random loot system in the RC.

1) While I like the idea of parcels so you know exactly what you are giving out, this doesn't quite work in a pre made adventure due to not knowing where the party is as far as level, or where they may be within that level. For instance what if they already received 2 parcels of treasure, and the adventure

So, I downloaded GIMP. Free and works just as well as my old photoshop, which is a good thing. So I decided to post up the first encounter map. I didn't include any of the labels or monster locations for obvious reasons. It turned out decent. I don't particularly like the water, but it's workable. I'm also considering removing the parchment overlay, but it gives it a look that I like.

The origional is actually full size, so if I printed it out you could actually use it for a full fledged map. So I have this whole map draing thing going for me now, and it makes me happy.

Right now I'm redoing the old map on paper. Mostly because my son found my old DM binder and decided that my map was a maze and proceeded to "solve" it using red pen. Plus I'm taking out some extranious extra parts that

While putting the finishing touches on an encounter I realized that I had to find a way to draw up some maps of my encounter areas. However, I haven't really found anything that I really like. Most that have the look and feel that I like also involve picture editing. Unfortunately with the newest version of windows is no longer compatable with the adobe photoshop that I had from about a billion years ago (give or take a million). Paying 100 bucks for some software that I have limited use for and if I don't actually get the gig I'm aiming for will have no use for, and also it's mother's day so most of my spending money was spent on my wife.

BTW Happy Mother's day to you motherly types that may be reading!

This is the problem, I think. I honestly want to make my work look at close to actual

It's nearly summer in Vegas. Hanging out at Freemont Street, and on the Strip have started to become the norm. As the temperature goes up so does the amount of exposed flesh.

It's good times.

But I've still been plugging away. This is taking much longer than originally anticipated, and I am behind on my self made schedule. However, it's not a bad thing.

I have to remind myself that I don't have my own tools to do much of this stuff, so I either have to find it if someone has already made it, or make it myself. I searched the Dubya Cubed for what I could find that would speed up, or at least make my little project look a bit better. Which may be completely pointless because if it does get accepted, the typesetting and everything will be redone to match their formatting which are things

So I've been writing.

I forgot stuff about me since I haven't been DMing. I'm good at it.

I don't mean to say that like I'm the best thing since sliced gnomes, but it is to say that I'm pretty good at coming up with interesting things. I'd like to share some of that, but at the same time keep the spoilers to a minimum.

If you've read my other posts you may have remembered that I was going to convert my old 3.5 adventure into 4e. Well the first issue I ran into is that I wrote that for an existing world, and now it needs to be a stand alone adventure. This meant I had to remove a lot of the parts of the overarching plot of the actual campaign. Then I realized that this basically left the adventure to be not much more than just a dungeon delve, and I say "bah" to that.

Well, this is what

So I've been busy.

I've spent much of my hard earned working compensation; which is actually just all the money I've been saving lately from cigarettes since I quit smoking; on all sorts of new books. Namely the PHBII, DMGII, MMIII, Psionic Power, Primal Power, Divine Power, Metallic Dragons and the Adventurer's Vault 2.

I've been pouring through it  and all the errata. This is a lot of reading. At first it didn't seem like much, but then I realized I have this whole full time job, and wife and kids, and school, and all sorts of other things, like this week, in-laws.

Oh, and it's spring in Vegas, which makes me want to go outside and see real things like scantily clad women on the strip.

It makes for slow going. But looking over these things I have found that in order to do what