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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ExploderWizard" data-source="post: 4493218" data-attributes="member: 66434">I think that while the focus of the campaign should be on the PC's and thier actions, the world at large needs to keep moving with or without them. Its logical to want to tackle every challenge possible at full strength and a party that is able to do so certainly will.  As an adventure designer, its the DM's job to make sure there are reasons why this is not possible, and those reasons should make sense. I am a big fan of adventures that feature dynamic timelines. The events that unfold when no action is taken and how different actions by the PC's shape future events are a big help in making the adventure feel more alive and less static. One of my favorite old school adventures L2 The Assassins Knot, was set up like this. If the players took thier time with the investigation, people continued to get killed. The Bad Guys took steps to eliminate the PC's if they started causing trouble.  The players at the table know that the game is all about thier characters. If the game world treats thier characters in the same fashion then nothing in the world is going to make any sense.  As far as adventure features go, the GURPS guidelines on adventure design work well for D&D and other games. The general list: 1) situations where roleplaying/ negotiations can avoid combat2) situations where combat is inevitable.3) situations that allow PC's to use trained skills effectively4) situations that force the PC's to attempt things at which they are unskilled. Its not really a strict formula, but rather a simple checklist of interesting features.  As far as "heft" is concerned, as a consumer I am more impressed with the quality of an adventure than how much "stuff" is in it. Designing adventures with a pre-defined amount of combat xp or a set number of encounters is a bad idea. The only exception to this being tournament adventures which must be constructed with more rigid guidelines.</blockquote>

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