Common Mistakes

In the five years since Blades of Exile was releaed, we saw lots of new
scenarios. A lot of them, to be honest, we would have been better off not seeing. While we really appreciated people's efforts, it's important to try 
to provide something people would want to play.

First common mistake: no testing. You must test your scenario. This is an
absolute necessity. If the player leaves town and is buried in a wall,
you've just wasted that person's download time. If you can't enter the main
dungeon, there's just no point to having the scenario. Be sure to play
through the scenario yourself, at least twice. And, more important, have
someone else play through it. A different person will spots tons of errors
you didn't. Different people will show you which of your puzzles are too
obscure.

if you are having trouble finding testers, ask for volunteers in the forums
on the Spiderweb web site. Don't send a scenario to us without testing.

Second common mistake: the big room syndrome. This is very common with all
games that come with scenario editors. A person gets the editor. They're
excited! The rush! The power! "Now," they think, "I can place the dragon! I
can attack the party with a lich!" They then make a dungeon level which is
just one big room, filled with all sorts of the most bizarre and exotic
monsters. The problem is that a scenario like this just isn't any fun for
someone to play. They walk into the big room and get sucked into a big,
huge, long fight. It takes hours to play and probably slaughters their
party, and there's no point to it. One advantage of finding someone else
to play your scenario is that they can point these problems out.

Scenario design is tricky. It takes work and practice. Stick with it, but
remember that your very first impulses may well lead you astray.

-Jeff Vogel