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<blockquote data-quote="seskis281" data-source="post: 2948426" data-attributes="member: 41593">I was browsing through this thread because I'm actually in the middle of designing a campaign setting and plan to market it, as well as writing adventure modules for it. I asked the illustrious Mr. Gygax for some advice in &quot;good&quot; design, and he said something pretty basic that I think fits here: it really only matters to me and my gaming group as to what is &quot;good&quot; or &quot;well-designed.&quot; I have bought published modules, as my fondest memory from youth was discovering the newest TSR release in the very early 80's (The Isle of Dread, The Drow Series), but as I am a writer I tend to create my own adventures for groups I play with - mining other material for ideas sometimes. But as I start looking to market my ideas I find myself reading comments intently to see what people like.The one thing I have discovered is you can't please everyone - we all have different tastes and desires for RPGing. Generally I think gamers can be divided into two broad schools - &quot;old&quot; school which wants very traditional medieval-style D&amp;D, and &quot;new&quot; school which wants far more cross-over in styles, wildly imaginative alternate possibilities. Within each of these there is also division between &quot;rules lite/detail lite&quot; and &quot;rules heavy/detail heavy.&quot; I'm an old school, rules lite kind of guy, so what I am designing is in the very general, less detailed vein of early D&amp;D/Greyhawk (original). People's opinion of &quot;good design&quot; is going to vary wildly depending on where they fit in the above - if they're new school and rules/detail heavy, something's not going to be well-designed unless it satisfies those needs. Conversely, to someone like me, too much detail is &quot;bad.&quot; In the end it's all a matter of tastes. Instead of asking &quot;is it good or bad design&quot; ask &quot;is it well-done for what I want.&quot;Cheers!John Maddog Wright</blockquote>

[QUOTE="seskis281, post: 2948426, member: 41593"] I was browsing through this thread because I'm actually in the middle of designing a campaign setting and plan to market it, as well as writing adventure modules for it. I asked the illustrious Mr. Gygax for some advice in "good" design, and he said something pretty basic that I think fits here: it really only matters to me and my gaming group as to what is "good" or "well-designed." I have bought published modules, as my fondest memory from youth was discovering the newest TSR release in the very early 80's (The Isle of Dread, The Drow Series), but as I am a writer I tend to create my own adventures for groups I play with - mining other material for ideas sometimes. But as I start looking to market my ideas I find myself reading comments intently to see what people like. The one thing I have discovered is you can't please everyone - we all have different tastes and desires for RPGing. Generally I think gamers can be divided into two broad schools - "old" school which wants very traditional medieval-style D&D, and "new" school which wants far more cross-over in styles, wildly imaginative alternate possibilities. Within each of these there is also division between "rules lite/detail lite" and "rules heavy/detail heavy." I'm an old school, rules lite kind of guy, so what I am designing is in the very general, less detailed vein of early D&D/Greyhawk (original). People's opinion of "good design" is going to vary wildly depending on where they fit in the above - if they're new school and rules/detail heavy, something's not going to be well-designed unless it satisfies those needs. Conversely, to someone like me, too much detail is "bad." In the end it's all a matter of tastes. Instead of asking "is it good or bad design" ask "is it well-done for what I want." Cheers! John Maddog Wright [/QUOTE]

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