Ralif Redhammer
Legend
Spinning off from another thread, let's talk Jennell Jaquays and why her work is awesome!
Though I have become a big Judges Guild fan in the ensuing years, my first experience with her work has to have been the Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide. This was the first really good advice I came across about DMing. The advice in past editions had some good stuff, sure, but it was still very much rooted in the adversarial approach to gaming. This was advice that was predicated on the idea that the game was supposed to be fun, that different people enjoyed different things. It talked about DMing as an art and a skill. It talked about dealing with the problems that come out. And the solutions weren't just "kill their characters with a no-save trap."
Though I have become a big Judges Guild fan in the ensuing years, my first experience with her work has to have been the Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide. This was the first really good advice I came across about DMing. The advice in past editions had some good stuff, sure, but it was still very much rooted in the adversarial approach to gaming. This was advice that was predicated on the idea that the game was supposed to be fun, that different people enjoyed different things. It talked about DMing as an art and a skill. It talked about dealing with the problems that come out. And the solutions weren't just "kill their characters with a no-save trap."