Just reading one post made me junk everything I'd been working on for Saturday night's gaming and start over. Why, because I'd forgotten to write in anything of wonder and what I had written doesn't lend itself to modification. In short, I had remembered the mechanics and forgotten the game.
The post in question was an older one written by -C; one of the 'You might like' suggestions when I was reading Hack & Slash's current entry. The post is The Epic Failure of Perception and Stealth, A Skill Deconstruction Post,reading it I realized that everything I had written was based on what the players rolled, not what the characters did. That's just wrong, I'll let them roll perception checks, but they won't find the secret door, they'll find something for the characters to twiddle and once they do they'' find the secret door - or the pit trap.
While one post made it blindingly obvious what I was doing wrong, posts at The Rusty Battle Axe and at The Nine and Thirty Kingdoms about Magical Geography and having wonders in your campaign laid the ground work. When the players talk about the magic in your dungeon, it should be about the experience, ala Disney, rather than the +1 Sword of <current foe> Slaying the characters found.
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