#dnd tip for writers: while we may have a tendency to want to throw a ton of cool things into every encounter we create, it is ok to ease back on the throttle. Over-designing can limit what the DMs can bring to the encounter. Add cool things, but give DMs space to add their own.
— Shawn Merwin Writing Games (@shawnmerwin) December 12, 2018
You didn’t know that complexity = fun? I guess you must have missed a memo. Just ask any armchair designer and they’ll tell you how wrong you are. Sometimes I am that armchair designer. Which is why I have to remind myself of this over and over and over again. I have a note card on my desk that says, "One cool thing" to remind myself to always look for one thing, but to keep it under control.
— Shawn Merwin Writing Games (@shawnmerwin) December 12, 2018
I had a discussion with a novice GM about this a few weeks ago as he was running Dragon Heist. He lamented all the places where he felt Waterdeep could have been more fleshed out. For every GM like me that loves to create, there are others who want prescription. The GM in question proceeded to dig up *every* sourcebook for Waterdeep and spent more time integrating them into a cohesive whole than he would have spent just making something up himself. To each their own, I suppose?
— His Grace, The Duke of Fall (@valthonis) December 12, 2018
Indeed. And you are touching upon a slightly different topic – worldbuilding, rather than encounter building – but it still can hold true. It can also hold true for rules complexity. But different people definitely want different things out of #dnd.
— Shawn Merwin Writing Games (@shawnmerwin) December 12, 2018
