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<blockquote data-quote="Spinachcat" data-source="post: 4224161" data-attributes="member: 37588">It's a tough situation because you want to reward their ingenuity, but it gets frustrating when they negate a chunk of your work and then look at you for what's next.&nbsp; The skill challenge in 4e is going to open a whole new segment in the adventure generator that is just focused on creating cool challenges that can be dropped into adventures.&nbsp;&nbsp; I plan to spend significant time on this once we actually see who such challenges are actually built in the DMG.&nbsp;&nbsp; One of the goals of the 15 Minute DM is to help the DM when the players go off track and decided to wander away from what you may have planned.&nbsp;&nbsp; Or when they get a hairbrained idea and want to follow a red herring.&nbsp;&nbsp; Case in point:&nbsp; I was running a Diablo D&amp;D campaign and the heroes were on their way from Point A to Point B and stopped at a small town.&nbsp;&nbsp; It turns out some crazy dungeon supposedly existed under that town in one of the Diablo novels so the players were SURE that was now the adventure.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; I told them this was all news to me and they looked bummed.&nbsp;&nbsp; So I sent them all to the Xbox for 30 minutes and whipped together a dungeon by the time they got back.&nbsp; Absolutely!&nbsp; I am looking forward to seeing how the trap / obstacle rules work so I can make the odds and ends in each room part of the encounter.&nbsp;&nbsp; I most certainly will be giving lots of room flavor for each area.&nbsp;&nbsp; I fully agree that empty 40 x 40 rooms or &quot;Guard Chamber&quot; is not enough.&nbsp;&nbsp; I am a big fan of minor quests.&nbsp; I definitely will have NPCs will problems that heroes need to solve.&nbsp;&nbsp; I want them to meet the merchant who lost his favorite goblin and the scholar who needs help with a translation to the farmer who found a strange sinkhole in his garden.&nbsp;&nbsp; I think minor quests help make the world more real and that makes the world more worth saving. Definitely!&nbsp;&nbsp; The theme of the dungeon will be very important to calm the crazy randomnness which is much harder to explain storywise.&nbsp;&nbsp; Also, I will want to focus on terrain themes, weather themes, urban vs. rural themes, and certain monsters, like the kobold who are lots of fun in 4e.&nbsp;&nbsp; I got to play against some &quot;shifty&quot; kobolds and their archers and they are now a foe to be reckoned with!&nbsp; There was a suggestion on RPG.net for a dungeon with only whales and dinosaurs.&nbsp;&nbsp; Somehow, I have to make that work!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Spinachcat, post: 4224161, member: 37588"] It's a tough situation because you want to reward their ingenuity, but it gets frustrating when they negate a chunk of your work and then look at you for what's next. The skill challenge in 4e is going to open a whole new segment in the adventure generator that is just focused on creating cool challenges that can be dropped into adventures. I plan to spend significant time on this once we actually see who such challenges are actually built in the DMG. One of the goals of the 15 Minute DM is to help the DM when the players go off track and decided to wander away from what you may have planned. Or when they get a hairbrained idea and want to follow a red herring. Case in point: I was running a Diablo D&D campaign and the heroes were on their way from Point A to Point B and stopped at a small town. It turns out some crazy dungeon supposedly existed under that town in one of the Diablo novels so the players were SURE that was now the adventure. I told them this was all news to me and they looked bummed. So I sent them all to the Xbox for 30 minutes and whipped together a dungeon by the time they got back. Absolutely! I am looking forward to seeing how the trap / obstacle rules work so I can make the odds and ends in each room part of the encounter. I most certainly will be giving lots of room flavor for each area. I fully agree that empty 40 x 40 rooms or "Guard Chamber" is not enough. I am a big fan of minor quests. I definitely will have NPCs will problems that heroes need to solve. I want them to meet the merchant who lost his favorite goblin and the scholar who needs help with a translation to the farmer who found a strange sinkhole in his garden. I think minor quests help make the world more real and that makes the world more worth saving. Definitely! The theme of the dungeon will be very important to calm the crazy randomnness which is much harder to explain storywise. Also, I will want to focus on terrain themes, weather themes, urban vs. rural themes, and certain monsters, like the kobold who are lots of fun in 4e. I got to play against some "shifty" kobolds and their archers and they are now a foe to be reckoned with! There was a suggestion on RPG.net for a dungeon with only whales and dinosaurs. Somehow, I have to make that work! [/QUOTE]

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