This is certainly not a priority read. These are my goals, hopefully I will execute on them more often than not.

I want the game to be driven by the decisions of the party as much as possible. I want there to be lots of interesting choices. Never think 'What does the DM want us to do'.

I want the party to choose the level of risk and difficulty a good amount of the time. Example: the party may know of three different things that makes sense to try and do. First, find and eliminate an orc raiding party that is terrorizing the local villages. This might be a fairly easy task for the group with a modest reward and a reputation boost. Second, there might be a basilisk nearby that one of the players can use for a potion. The party might consider this challenging but doable. Lastly, they know of a necromancer not far off that has a magic wand and a valuable spellbook. The party might consider this hard to very hard… but with a much bigger payoff if successful. I want the party to make these sorts of risk/reward choices.

I will have a list of important NPCs that each have their own plans and goals. Over time, if the party does not interfere, they execute these plans and the party may see the region/world change because of it. They might get news from far off some new thing is going on. If the party interferes directly or indirectly with these plans, the NPCs will react to that. The NPCs may also seek the help of the party. Basically, I want the world to feel like its moving based on what the party is and is not doing. This line of thought is one reason the party may not want to take too many long rests.

I also want encounters to feel varied and unpredictable. Some combats should be fairly easy to give players a chance to feel good about their abilities. Other combats should be somewhat taxing. Others very difficult to the point fleeing might be the best option. Others simply avoided all together. I 100% do not want the players to think, ‘ok this encounter is put in front of us, so that must mean we are supposed to be able to beat it’. Also, some encounters might be resolved by communication, not combat. Lastly, I don’t want players to feel the series of encounters in a dungeon crawl is in a predictable pattern like: encounters 1,2,3 are easy, encounter 4,5 are medium, encounter 6 is the boss fight… so plan accordingly. Some dungeons might be like that, others might not, most will likely depend upon the paths and choices the party makes.

I want to lean into how players build their characters, what they enjoy, etc. If a player picks a certain ability/feat/etc. I’ll try and make sure that choice has uses in the game. I’ll try to design the game where there are spots where each character will shine, and some spots where a character might be vulnerable and needs the help of the rest of the group. I want player feedback if I’m failing in this area; I want you all to feel great about your characters and the choices you make.