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Whedonism www.wizards.com

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marco9999

No worries, they're very similar surnames after all. So you thought Will Wheaton was the madman behind Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, Horrible... ? I bet he wishes he was =)

June 30, 2012 5:29 AM PDT

Artsy_Wumpus

Never seen Buffy, Firefly/Serenity however was great. Everyone on Serenity was a dork, but I'm going to have to give it to Jayne if only for trading "Vera" scene and the entire "Mudders" episode...

July 10, 2012 6:11 PM PDT

D&D’s beating heart is its wealth of adventures. Recall titles such as...

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marco9999

Short adventures are great. They can be whipped up when people decide to play D&D on a whim and concluded in a single session. Cool!
I also have a soft spot for adventure paths and similar 1st to x lvl arcs, but remember to give strong hooks for the characters, ideas and concepts the players can work on so that the experience can be more personal and intense (Scales of War needed this badly, but you never even told the DMs what was gonna happen next, and it comes off as a sprawling,...

View full comment Short adventures are great. They can be whipped up when people decide to play D&D on a whim and concluded in a single session. Cool!

I also have a soft spot for adventure paths and similar 1st to x lvl arcs, but remember to give strong hooks for the characters, ideas and concepts the players can work on so that the experience can be more personal and intense (Scales of War needed this badly, but you never even told the DMs what was gonna happen next, and it comes off as a sprawling, tangled chaos of a plot, y'know?).

Avoid world-shaking events. You do know by now people don't like them. At least avoid them in canon. You -can- publish an adventure about something like the Time of Troubles or the Spellplague, but leave this stuff strictly optional, don't incorporate it in official timelines, books and rules -leave the choice to the players (that's sort of my anthem, ain't it? Or at least part of it... be flexible, keep it simple, leave the choice to the players...).

Open-ended (or even better, sandbox, if I get what you mean) is great. Aim for a lot of these. No railroading. No one likes railroading. Railroading subtly is a very complex technique and it usually doesn't pay anyhow. Give us basic plots and let us enter and exit them however we want. That does work. Remember your last Neverwinter setting? That rocks. Great freedom, great potential... aim for stuff like that.

As for urban vs dungeon vs wilderness, mystery vs action vs horror, emphasis on roleplaying or tactics or story or all of them... you'll have to give us a little of everything. Most of us like all of this stuff, some things more than others, but variety is the key here. Publish very different stuff. Traps and puzzles and clue-searching and intrigue, they're all important in different moments to different people. You can publish whole adventures or even settings focusing on some elements instead of others, and adventures too. Oh, and remember to give us hooks why we should care about this stuff. Of course everyone will be interested in different things, so tell the DM what kind of conflicts and NPCs and developments they can expect. We freed the dwarven fortress from the orcs squatting in it? Nice. The dwarf reconquered the fortress of their ancestors and destroyed the orc army who slayed those same ancestors? Now we're getting to something meatier. Personal involvement makes everything a lot more exciting for everyone. Always give possible hooks and ties -to NPCs, archvillains, situations, locations, items... everything you can. Not just based on class and "race" -think about all the possible things that might heighten up the ante -loved ones, hometowns, sworn enemies and old rivals, mentors and church-given missions... power is cool, but power without a thrilling story behind it is just... uh, we've all been there, haven't we? We've all found our magic weapons and whatnots... make it personal, folks. Make it in your face, close up and -personal.

May 12, 2012 3:58 AM PDT

AnnaDruvez

I enjoy all of the listed elements in moderation. Short campaigns are fun, so are long ones. There are no real favorite, depending on what characters I have running and what the players want to play. Maybe I'm a little crazy that way.
My biggest peeve is that sometimes you just can't get everyone together and still want to run a quick (hour or so) session. So, my least favorite part of any campaign is either having to scale it down to the number of players I have or having to quickly...

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May 26, 2012 7:02 AM PDT