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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pseudopsyche" data-source="post: 5108455" data-attributes="member: 54600">I'd like to echo the call for diversity.  The DMGs include some wonderful advice on identifying types of players and tailoring encounters to them.  Let's identify different types of campaigns and D&D games and tailor adventures to them.  Designing adventures to appeal to every campaign risks bland flavor (since some DMs have their own campaign settings) and an emphasis on combat (since most campaigns feature combat).Let's take H1 as an example.  I think it works great for DMs who want a straightforward introduction to the system and a dungeon-crawling style of game.  I ran it pretty much by the book, to kick off the first D&D campaign I ever ran.  In hindsight, I realized that I prefer more narrative logic in my adventures, and I see so many missed opportunities for story and role-playing.  If I could go back, I would try to bring the keep to life by making each section its own mini-dungeon with its own story.  Maybe the goblins have always lived there and chafe under the rule of the recently arrived Kalarel and the hobgoblins; the PCs can convince them to rise against him.  Of course, Keegan and his dead followers are the original inhabitants, and he can send the PCs on missions to specific other portions of the keep, to wipe out intruders or even to retrieve his children's effects from the level beneath.  The hobgoblins themselves could be purely mercenary, opening up other role-playing opportunities for turning them against Kalarel.  But I feel like H1 focused on engaging encounter design, since that's what every campaign could use.  H1 includes a page (22) entitled "DM's Advice: Add More Story."  As an inexperienced DM, I would have loved some help and more examples on how to do just that.Of course, I'm not saying that every adventure should cater to my style.  I'm just saying that you should be aware of different styles and work to address all of them (presumably, in proportion to their incidence rates in the community).  For myself, I really enjoyed the latest Chaos Scar adventure, Crossroads.  It's location-based, so it doesn't assume any particular order of events.  It provides some evocative flavor (the gibbet tree) and NPCs with personality (the current occupants of the trading house).  It provides useful suggestions and ideas for how to make the adventure relevant to a campaign (put an existing NPC in the tree), as well as obvious hooks for further adventure (the dwarven caravan).  It errs more on the side of a toolkit for creating adventure, instead of a scripted adventure (such as H1) or a purely background article (like many of the DM resources in Dungeon magazine).To sum up: diversity.  Just as Dragon aims to provide something for every player in every issue (but not every article!), your adventure line (but not every adventure) should provide something for every DM.  I would like to see more risks taken, particular in the pages of Dungeon magazine, where you can presumably afford to be more specialized.  I'm actually very encouraged by the TOC of the current issue, which includes a horror adventure and a city-race adventure.  I'd love to see more Eberron adventures or locations, too!  And diversify not just in genre, but in DM style!Anyway, thanks for listening.</blockquote>

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