4.5 out of 5 stars

Oops.  Forgot to keep track of the time yesterday, so these reviews are a bit late.  Sorry.

The first article released on Wednesday was the latest installment of Dungeoncraft and the focus is on quests.  Along with skill challenges, quests represent the way that players earn XP outside of combat.  As a result, the number of quests and the way you use them can significantly change the way your players perceive and interact with your game.  This makes knowing how to use them very important to any DM that wants to have something more than a hack’n’slash campaign.  In this article, James talks about quest chains, a series of quests (most likely minor) linked together by a common theme.  In addition to linking quests, however, James also suggests tying their goals together (by location or more directly) and thus having your players weighing and debating different options, and maybe figuring out what to do based on competing interests.

James also provides an example of this for his own Greenbriar campaign.  However, the quest chains here are highly player specific, each being tailored to the motivations of a specific character.  This isn’t something that was discussed in the general one, but one which does make sense.  Having different quest chains focus on different characters and intertwining them helps keep each character share a portion of the spotlight as the game progresses.  The problem with the example, though, is that the number system that James used in the general discussion isn’t carried out here, making it harder to see how the intertwining plays out.  It’s still there, as James makes clear which locations can be tied to which quest chain, but you have to be paying much closer attention because of the lack of numbers.

Except for that lack of numbers, the article is a good one, however, and one that every DM should take the time to read.