Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 5089575" data-attributes="member: 3586">I came across some advice by Gary Gygax in the AD&D DMG that I'd managed to breeze right through on my many, many read throughs the book. The reason I'd missed it before is because it's almost a passing thought before he gets into a longer description of something more important: converting AD&D characters to Gamma World and Boot Hill and vice versa.To give the quote a little more context, the original D&D books and the core three AD&D books were primarily interested in describing the dungeon experience - that is, the game that most people would begin with in D&D. The DM creates a dungeon, the adventurers go into it, overcome its challenges, become rich (or dead, or both), and go home.It was the adventure modules that showed a lot more possibilities as to how could be played: the sweeping story arcs of the Giant/Drow series and the Slavers modules, the old legends and deathtraps of White Plume Mountain and the Tomb of Horrors.You could probably see the clearest reflection of this advice in Gary's "Gord the Rogue" books; from Gord's beginnings with adventures that seem to have little relevance besides being "good adventures", on to his later importance to the entire world of Greyhawk.So, here's the advice:Gary Gygax, Advanced D&D Dungeon Master's Guide (page 119)While it might seem high unlikely to those who have not been involved in fantasy adventure gaming for an extended period of time, after the flush of excitement wears off - perhaps a few months or a year, depending on the intensity of play - some participants will become bored and move to other gaming forms, returning to your campaign only occasionally. Shortly thereafter even your most dedicated players will occasionally find that dungeon levels and wilderness castles grow stale, regardless of subtle differences and unusual challenges. It is possible, however, for you to devise a campaign which will have a very minimal amount of participant attrition and enthusast ennui, andit is not particularly difficult to do so.As has been mentioned already, the game must be neither too difficult to survive nor so easy as to offer little excitement or challenge. There must be always something desirable to gain, something important to lose, and the chance of having either happen. Furthermore there must be some purpose to it all. There must be some backdrop against which adventures are carried out, and no matter how tenuous the strands, some web which connects the evil and good, the opposing powers, the rival states and various peoples. This need not be evident at first, but as play continues, hints should be given to players, and their characters should become involved in the interaction and struggle between these vaster entities. Thus, characters begin as less than pawns, but as they progress in expertise, each eventually realizes that he or she is a meaningful, if lowly, piece in the cosmic game being conducted. When this occurs, players then have a dual purpose to their play, for not only will their player characters and henchmen gain levels of experience, but their actions have meaning above and beyond that of personal aggrandizement.</blockquote>

Verification