Monkey King
Explorer
What were the difficulties of designing Tyranny of Dragons at the time that the Fifth Edition ruleset was being finalised?
Which adventure - of the many excellent adventures you have designed - is the one which you are most proud of?
And which published adventure that you didn't have a hand in designing is your favourite of all time.
Well, the Tyranny of Dragons adventure design started when there was no Monster Manual, and for me, that was a major difficulty. Both Steve Winter and I know the monsters available in a general sense, but at least for me, adventure design often begins with a trip to the Monster Manual for inspiration, for useful details, or combinations of creatures that might make a good encounter. That just wasn't available when we were working on Hoard of the Dragon Queen.
My favorite that I've designed is a tough one. I think Courts of the Shadow Fey wins that, because it has memorable NPCs, a few good twists, and an environment that doesn't get a lot of attention in fantasy RPGs.
My favorite adventure by someone else is probably "Horror on the Orient Express" for Call of Cthulhu. That has a lot to do with how I experienced it as a player. It was the first adventure I played in when I joined TSR, and the game master was David "Zeb" Cook, and my fellow players included Jeff Grubb, Dale Donovan, and Steven Schend, among others. It was extremely well-written, the players were all extremely sharp, and Zeb kept us on the edge of our seats for a full year of sessions.