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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aco175" data-source="post: 6980826" data-attributes="member: 27385">A lot of this is great advise.  Knowing your players is the best in my opinion.  My group likes to kill things mixed in with a good plot and a few puzzles.  There is less role-playing than other groups I have been with.  Each will have their own tastes.  We had one player in the past who liked to gain treasure and new abilities by advancing in levels over most of the rest.  Dragon had some good things on this written by Gygax around 2003 that listed 16 or 17 items that players liked in various degrees.I always liked to have a few different elements in my adventures, depending on how long each is planning to take.  Right now most of my adventures take one or two nights so I break it down into 4-5 encounters per night.  Some are introduction role playing, one or two may be a trap or puzzle, and most will be combat or some sort.  The combats will be 1-2 easy combats where the group will destroy the enemy with a few being average to hard.  The last encounter or next to last will be a combat that is challenging and memorable.Maps should have a couple choices depending on how many encounters you have.  The 5-room dungeon method is a good exercise in planning a 1-night adventure.  I try to make each dungeon split or have a branch where a secret door leads to the final room or reward.  Some split before coming back to the main threat.  It is a bit like railroading, but there is limited choices involved.  Overall I would say to try and DM, it is rewarding and most players will thank you for it.  The first few times you may not be great but it gets easier the more you do it.  Steal maps and encounters from old material to mix with your designs.  I find puzzles and traps online to steal and some are hard and others the players get right away.  When you are stuck, ask the players what they want.</blockquote>

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