So our summer hiatus is nearly over and I’m getting our group ready to get back to the table, back to the story. I’ve reminded the party members where they’d got to (after I reminded myself). It sounds as though we may have lost one of the players, which is sad but completely understandable under the circumstances, plus it gives me free rein to do completely despicable things to her PC…

It’s also a time to reflect on future plans and solicit feedback from my players regarding what they’d like to see more of. Hopefully I have enough strings to my bow to be able to cater to at least the major requests, but I’m concerned that I won’t. Particularly I’ve been petitioned to provide more riddles and quizzes and I know that one of my other players wants more puzzles. I’ve got as far as adapting a Hashi (Japanese bridge puzzle) for a room trap – they have to complete it to get out, but the rest is causing me a headache. I like to think I’m good at story (though my players haven’t penetrated it yet) and encounters (though my mooks tend to go down too easily), but we all seem to continue to have fun – probably partly because we meet so irregularly that it doesn’t wear thin.

There is a strong meta-story to my campaign, though it might seem a little obscure to my players. My inspiration is taken from TV shows such as Doctor Who; each episode is a distinct story but there are series-spanning meta plots that keep people coming back. That’s what I’m aiming at anyway. Maybe I need to bring it further to the forefront, or make it more obvious that the events are connected.