So, how has the new edition of D&D changed the rules for designing?
Andy: The new rules have a robustness that’s never before existed in D&D. Classes, skills, feats, spells, magic items, and monsters interact in clearly defined (and thus easy to exploit, for a designer) ways. I love the fact that I can make a salamander a half-fiend 4th-level fighter/3rd-level rogue wielding a spiked chain to inflict nasty sneak attacks on unwary PCs. I love that I can include challenges that focus on the PCs’ skills (such as climbing, bluffing, jumping, swimming, and so on) and have a clear guide as to how to handle them. I tend to design adventures — particularly those that will see print — in a very modular fashion. I first figure out about how long I want the adventure to be, whether in number of encounters or total amount of experience points I want to award. I then break it down into a list of target encounter levels, and try to fill those from a list of monsters than I’ve already picked out. The system of XP, Challenge Ratings, and Encounter Levels in the Dung
