Rodney Thompson Looks Behind The Screen

WotC's Rodney Thompson is the author of the first in a new series of articles on the official D&D website, "a regular column by Dungeon Masters for Dungeon Masters that presents helpful tips for use in your D&D campaign." The first article looks at the creation of an adventure cheat/prep sheet, incuding the adventure, interludes, character arcs, encounters, and more.

You can read it here. Additionally, check out the DM Support Group video below!

[video=youtube;teHtEpCk64Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teHtEpCk64Y#t=123[/video]
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[Sir Brennen]

Okay, ENWorld community, get working on a DM Cheat Sheet template based on the article above for me to steal

Yeah, I could probably make my own, but it might be a nice to have on the site to point new DMs to.

 

[Zaran]

Holy Drek! This was the one article I needed to fulfill my life's work of the most amazing DnD campaign ever! Thank you so much for taking what must have been weeks of thoughtful note taking to give us this treasure of an article. I should be able to read this for weeks without needing any more content from any of the 7 other individuals who still have a job at WotC.

 

[JeffB]

I was kind of thinking the same thing. I find it sad that this edition, (which has a nice tight set of rules, that I like )has had such craptacular support since it's release. Very underwhelming.

No updates to basic rules since Nov.
No conversion guides.
No 3p support license.
No magazines, digital or otherwise.
A failed etools upon the eve of release.
A farmed out subpar adventure path.
No standalone adventure support.


It feels all very much like 1996 to me.

 

[turkeygiant]

Holy Drek! This was the one article I needed to fulfill my life's work of the most amazing DnD campaign ever! Thank you so much for taking what must have been weeks of thoughtful note taking to give us this treasure of an article. I should be able to read this for weeks without needing any more content from any of the 7 other individuals who still have a job at WotC.

Ok that's a little biting...

But yeah my general response was pretty "meh" too. Like it's all good advise, but its not really interesting as an article. Maybe they are starting out with just the basics, but I'm hoping to see some more in depth and advanced writing on DMing, not just what amounts to "right down your plans ahead of time...".

 

[TerraDave]

It was OK. Look forward to future ones. And I liked this:

"a legal duel on the street between a paladin of Pholtus and a cleric of St. Cuthbert"

Also liked the Video:

"And the bees have guns"

 

[koga305]

I liked the article. Of course we're all familiar with the idea of prepping, but the way Rodney does it was interesting to read and is actually very applicable to my game - I've been having trouble with pacing and keeping different character/plot/world threads going lately, and the way he does interludes looks like it's a perfect fit for my game.
I do agree with other posters that it'd be really nice to have this sort of thing more than once a week. As a fan of Magic: the Gathering, WotC's other property, reading the 2-3 articles every day on their site is very enjoyable and keeps me engaged with the game. I'd love to have something similar for D&D!

 

[Morrus]

Let's tone down on the snide, eh, guys? The article is fine. It's for new DMs.

 

[Dire Bare]

Holy Drek! This was the one article I needed to fulfill my life's work of the most amazing DnD campaign ever! Thank you so much for taking what must have been weeks of thoughtful note taking to give us this treasure of an article. I should be able to read this for weeks without needing any more content from any of the 7 other individuals who still have a job at WotC.

EDIT: Removed most of my post. I was answering the snide at the top of the thread with more snide, then saw Morrus' post which reminded me to calm down also.

If I were in charge of WotC, I would instruct my employees to completely ignore fan message boards with all the incessant whining, entitlement, and attacks on both the company and the individual employees. It doesn't matter what they do, the negativity and armchair quarterbacking just rolls on and on.

 

[Morrus]

Y'know when I said "tone down the snide" I didn't mean "magnify the snide by a factor of 10 and direct it back at people who have posted in this thread."