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Message: <blockquote data-quote="smerwin29" data-source="post: 3195001" data-attributes="member: 15050">Just as a less tangential tangent, let me say that writing a good RPGA adventure, especially a Core adventure, is difficult.  I've tried to describe writing one to my peers who write fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and this is the closest I could come: it is an ugly amalgam of short story, interactive fiction, science manual, user manual, and drama (a play).Having run countless campaigns in various role-playing games over the past 30 years, I have enjoyed creating adventures for my players in home campaign.  Writing adventures for mass consumption, especially RPGA adventures, requires a much varied skill set and is a whole different ballgame.It is amazing and wonderful, and sometimes scary, to see how much at the mercy of each DM you are as an author.  Unless a player actually goes back and reads the adventure, what they are really judging when the critique the experience is the DM rather than the adventure itself.  There are certainly methods to writing the adventure that make it easier for the DM to run it as you envisioned the play experience, but it is the DM who has to bring the NPCs to life, run the combats fairly and wisely, lead the PCs through the "story" of the adventure, allow the PCs to deviate when applicable, etc.I've been blessed to have played under a lot of great RPGA DMs early in my RPGA experiences, and the chance to play the game and then read the adventure taught me a great deal about how to write adventures that help DMs create fun games.And yes, the RPGA isn't for everyone.  And no, the RPGA isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination.  But for me, at least, it has been an incredible ride, a great springboard into doing freelance writing and editing for a number of gaming companies, and just a darn lot of fun.Shawn</blockquote>

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