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Final insights and thoughts from my 5E campaign. Two years in the making and things ended differently than I thought, but that's the nature of the game! Special sound effect from Daniel Simon, which I found on soundbible.com here:  http://soundbible.com/2140-Grenade-Launcher-2.html

Season 2, Episode 13: Cheating the Long Game Discussing how to pull off a long term story arc with an emphasis on leaving things mutable so you can adapt to developments as they arise. Two key links from this episode are the Front System from Dungeon World and the sample fronts from my campaign. 

Season 2; Episode 12: Taking the Long View - I begin plotting out the next big adventure as the party researches an ancient map identifying places of power. This captures a free-flowing creative process to capture the big ideas ahead of adventure design.

Season 2; Episode 11 - Player Screen time: The characters receive some much needed downtime - preparations and consequences of their initial foray in this city in the cross-hairs. Juggling to ensure everyone has enough screen time turned out to be a challenge. 

Season 2; Episode 10 - The campaign needed a tune-up so we held another campaign building session. It's like reprising session zero, but with distinct differences. The following organization of the existing plots is referenced in the podcast: A & B Plots

Season 2: Episode 9 - Story Doctoring. Using classic story elements to identify ways to correct story problems at the table. This is a link to the plotted examples discussed in the episode. 

Season 2: Episode 8 - Gaming is supposed to be a fun pastime intended to relieve stress, but DMs can burn out, suffer anxiety, and even feelings of inadequacy. Where does this come from and how can you help yourself stay fresh and healthy. 

Season 2; Episode 7 - I think character creation is a game unto itself and talk about the process I go through to ensure I have an effective and integrated character. 

Season 2; Episode 6: Cry Havoc and let slip the ghouls of war! In this episode I recount our big battle using the Warfare rules from Strongholds and Followers. What worked and what I'll do differently the next time we have a large scale battle.

Season 2, Episode 5: Building Combat - turns out I had more to say about combat. Most notably I'm working through using the Warfare rules from Strongholds and Followers to bring the battle of Red Road to life.  In the podcast I mentioned our subreddit, which can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AnatomyofaCampaign/ And here is a link to the simple stat visualization I mentioned. 

Season 2, Episode 4: Understanding the two official methods of combat encounter design, where I think they help and where I break the rules when constructing a combat encounter. 

Season 2, Episode 3: In consideration of Theater of the Mind style play. Recent life distractions forced me to employ a purely TOTM approach and it reminded me of the benefits to the game when you put aside the pretty minis and maps. 

Season 2, Episode 2: A complex morale scenario traps the players in a town about to be overrun by undead from without and within. Alignment, morality and what makes a character proactive.

Season 2, Episode 1: Discussing methods for designing a city based on the purpose, history and alignment of the location. Unless you're intending to publish your city, you'll need to be efficient and prioritize where you should focus your design efforts. My goal is to provide my players a place to engage and interact that feels unique and distinct within the game world.

Episode 35: The Season Finale! Part 5 of 5 covering the lessons from the Adventure at the Temple of Borlane. What are the components of an ending and how do you pivot into the next story? We have another Player audio contribution and special ending to this episode. 

Episode 34: Part 4 of the final 5 part series of this season. Exploring conflict and how it can be used to enhance drama in your game across all manner of scenes, including combat.

Episode 33: Driven to Adventure - integrating character motivation and backstory into the plot. Part 3 in our 5 part series centered on the party's 5th level milestone adventure in the Temple of Borlane. Characters are the centerpiece of any game, but how do you use them, what are the pitfalls and how much or little of their backstory should be included?

Episode 32: The second of the final five episodes for the season. Dungeons can be a challenge, but they remain a viable staple of the game. What are the pitfalls and how did I approach adapting Against the Cult of the Reptile God's dungeons for my adventure?

Episode 31: Season One Finale Part 1 In the first of the final five episodes of this season, we're taking a broader view of the end module at the Temple of Borlane. There are a number of dangling threads and new ideas as we enter this final adventure. Many things have been bubbling up since the beginning and it can be hard to tie things together in a satisfying way. This is about pulling those ideas together so they can work for you.

Episode 30: We went a different way. Events in the session, driven by player choice and the dice, served up a different scene than I expected. Seizing on the opportunity, I changed things up to feed into the emotional impact at the end of the battle around the farmhouse.