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D&D General Possible website feedback? I'll take anything.

twdockery

Villager
About 4 months ago I started posting some content, but I can't get a single visitor. I'll take any feedback, no hard feelings.

Encounters Forever!

I am posting some encounters I've run with some suggestions on how you can alter the encounters to make them more specific to your campaigns, and suggestions on how you could blend the encounters into existing modules for D&D. I'll take any feedback at all. If its boring and trite, if the content is weak, if the website is just lame, I'd like to know. I have about 50 encounters up there. Any help would be helpful.

Twdockery
 

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Stormonu

Legend
Your initial page could use a half-page introduction that explains what the site is for - "This website/page is a jump-off point for a variety of short encounter descriptions for use with your favorite roleplaying game. Each of the short descriptions below links to a full page further detailing the encounter, including ideas to alter the content to fit your playstyle and the party's level. It also contains information to add to existing D&D content or official adventures.

The white background, while making the text clear and easy to read is a bit bland. I'd suggest left/right page runners - some sort of geometric design perhaps, some sort of quasi-medieval text font for headers (I prefer Morpheus, but also Diploma, Stonehenge, Pegasus or a similar fantasy font would be good). Perhaps a light parchment/paper background as well.

Of what I have read of the encounters, I think they're great ideas, and the modifications are thoughtful.

Death and Darkness - It's common parlance to call anti-paladins "blackguards" these days.

A Race Against Time - "The party is called upon to rescue a group of miners who were trapped underground after a cave-in." should probably be listed under the alterations - in fact, it might be good to have a section for each encounter to have a "Suggested Hooks" section prefacing the encounter. The primary motivation for this encounter is that the party is underground, and currently doesn't have a way back/out. How they got there isn't really important for the encounter. You should also probably expand the section on the secondary threats - digging out (which may trigger another cave-in), suffocation issues (especially breathing in the mold spores), how to possibly keep warm (without adding to the suffocation problem) and possibly food and water issues if the time to dig out/escape will be lengthy enough to matter.

Portal to the Mirror Plane - Don't force player action ("The party quickly realizes that they are in a dire situation.") - allow them to come to this conclusion themselves from the gravity of the situation. A better phrasing might have been "The situation is dire, and the defenders plead for the party's assistance."

The Sea Child Vision - The idea behind this is a good one, but I feel the way its handled is rather weak. There's no immediacy to the vision and it's too vague. I'm unsure how to "fix" it, but it needs more interactivity in some fashion. Perhaps after the initial intonation, the child might quest the PCs with a task/quest to "prove" they are the heroes of the vision and worthy of learning more about the impending disaster. While some of this is hinted at in the "possible modifications", there should be something in the encounter that makes it more than a simple pronouncement. This may be one where a hook would be really strong. Getting to the prediction might be the challenge in itself.

The Blood of the Planar - "The Planar from which the blood is harvested must be killed and its blood must be consumed within a day of its death" - I think you mean "must be manufactured within a day of its death", otherwise this makes little sense being found in an abandoned winery.

That's all for now, I'll try to get to the others in the near future.
 


Kobold Stew

Last Guy in the Airlock
Supporter
What you have is great.

As has been suggested above, a short introduction, tying the art to the ideas, and saying the viewer can click through on any of them, would be an important start.

I would also suggest you add "about the artist" -- some way of connecting it to you, and to reach out, connect to a patroen, or whatever. If you aren't monetizing it, and it's just for the love of the game, then say so. But let us meet "you" (as you feel comfortable presenting yourself).

Do you want people to lift your art? It's not signed, that I can tell, and though your name is on some of the filenames, most won't see that.

Are you on socials? If so, you should give a link. give people who like your work a chance to follow/be followed, and to be told when you post new content. You could also get subscribers, if all you are asking for is an email, so we could be told when something new happens. Somehow you need to find a way to actively pull views from other things people are doing.

I'm not going to make a point of coming to your site evey 2 days, but I'd always click on a link showing new art and a name I (come to) recognize. Hope this helps.
 

twdockery

Villager
Your initial page could use a half-page introduction that explains what the site is for - "This website/page is a jump-off point for a variety of short encounter descriptions for use with your favorite roleplaying game. Each of the short descriptions below links to a full page further detailing the encounter, including ideas to alter the content to fit your playstyle and the party's level. It also contains information to add to existing D&D content or official adventures.

The white background, while making the text clear and easy to read is a bit bland. I'd suggest left/right page runners - some sort of geometric design perhaps, some sort of quasi-medieval text font for headers (I prefer Morpheus, but also Diploma, Stonehenge, Pegasus or a similar fantasy font would be good). Perhaps a light parchment/paper background as well.

Of what I have read of the encounters, I think they're great ideas, and the modifications are thoughtful.

Death and Darkness - It's common parlance to call anti-paladins "blackguards" these days.

A Race Against Time - "The party is called upon to rescue a group of miners who were trapped underground after a cave-in." should probably be listed under the alterations - in fact, it might be good to have a section for each encounter to have a "Suggested Hooks" section prefacing the encounter. The primary motivation for this encounter is that the party is underground, and currently doesn't have a way back/out. How they got there isn't really important for the encounter. You should also probably expand the section on the secondary threats - digging out (which may trigger another cave-in), suffocation issues (especially breathing in the mold spores), how to possibly keep warm (without adding to the suffocation problem) and possibly food and water issues if the time to dig out/escape will be lengthy enough to matter.

Portal to the Mirror Plane - Don't force player action ("The party quickly realizes that they are in a dire situation.") - allow them to come to this conclusion themselves from the gravity of the situation. A better phrasing might have been "The situation is dire, and the defenders plead for the party's assistance."

The Sea Child Vision - The idea behind this is a good one, but I feel the way its handled is rather weak. There's no immediacy to the vision and it's too vague. I'm unsure how to "fix" it, but it needs more interactivity in some fashion. Perhaps after the initial intonation, the child might quest the PCs with a task/quest to "prove" they are the heroes of the vision and worthy of learning more about the impending disaster. While some of this is hinted at in the "possible modifications", there should be something in the encounter that makes it more than a simple pronouncement. This may be one where a hook would be really strong. Getting to the prediction might be the challenge in itself.

The Blood of the Planar - "The Planar from which the blood is harvested must be killed and its blood must be consumed within a day of its death" - I think you mean "must be manufactured within a day of its death", otherwise this makes little sense being found in an abandoned winery.

That's all for now, I'll try to get to the others in the near future.
Hey, thank you so much. I appreciate the feedback. This was really positive. I'm just looking to improve and I am thankful.

Twdockery
 

twdockery

Villager
You need some sort of home page concept; an intro page letting me know what this site is about. A menu system too. Let me see at a glance your list of encounters. Maybe organise the encounters by... theme? level?
THank you, I'll look into the homepage ideas posted here. This is really nice. I'll look into integrating a level-based idea. Thank you again, this was very positive
Twdockery
 

twdockery

Villager
What you have is great.

As has been suggested above, a short introduction, tying the art to the ideas, and saying the viewer can click through on any of them, would be an important start.

I would also suggest you add "about the artist" -- some way of connecting it to you, and to reach out, connect to a patroen, or whatever. If you aren't monetizing it, and it's just for the love of the game, then say so. But let us meet "you" (as you feel comfortable presenting yourself).

Do you want people to lift your art? It's not signed, that I can tell, and though your name is on some of the filenames, most won't see that.

Are you on socials? If so, you should give a link. give people who like your work a chance to follow/be followed, and to be told when you post new content. You could also get subscribers, if all you are asking for is an email, so we could be told when something new happens. Somehow you need to find a way to actively pull views from other things people are doing.

I'm not going to make a point of coming to your site evey 2 days, but I'd always click on a link showing new art and a name I (come to) recognize. Hope this helps.
Thank you for the feedback. This is great. I don't deal with social media very often, but that probably means its time to get started. Thank you for the feedback, that is extremely helpful.

Twdockery
 

Kobold Stew

Last Guy in the Airlock
Supporter
Thank you for the feedback. This is great. I don't deal with social media very often, but that probably means its time to get started. Thank you for the feedback, that is extremely helpful.

Twdockery
Glad to help, and welcome to the board. 6 months ago, I would have thought Twitter and instagram would be enough. Can't comment on the current landscape, though -- maybe just insta?

I also realize I left one thought incomplete -- you want to sign your art because it's yours. Don't be shy. Even if you aren't monetizing, you don't want OTHER PEOPLE to do so. So I think you should put a copyright notice and say whether you mind people reposting your images, etc. (I am not a Lawyer, etc.)
 


Mad_Jack

Legend
I also realize I left one thought incomplete -- you want to sign your art because it's yours. Don't be shy. Even if you aren't monetizing, you don't want OTHER PEOPLE to do so. So I think you should put a copyright notice and say whether you mind people reposting your images, etc. (I am not a Lawyer, etc.)

As someone who regularly does image modifications, I always tell people that they should ALWAYS sign their art, and not just in one corner - if possible, work your signature into the art itself somewhere close to the main focus of the image so that simply cropping a pic can't be used to remove it.
Given the complexity of your work, it should be easy to work your signature unobtrusively into the background patterning (for example, in the scrollwork on the decanter or the deck of illusions) near the center of whatever you happen to be illustrating...

As an aside, always put the "©️Date YourName" text on the pics. (In some places, simply placing the copyright text on a pic is enough to establish copyright.) If you ever want a website to take down one of your images that someone posted without your permission, you're going to need to be able to produce the original image with the copyright text on it to even begin to prove that it's yours.
 
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