Enjoyed reading this a lot! As a Game Master, but also writer, this chapbook provided me with excellent advice on how to improve my adventures in table, but also encouraged me to venture into writing adventures myself. As a Vampire the Masquerade Storyteller, this book Did a nice job at outlining how to run a nice Intrigue without the fluff added by the games.
I will certainly find myself reading this again in the future.

Great ideas to help improve scenario building - already using to improve several of my own.

As we've come to expect from Robin Laws, this is a really great toolkit for any GM wanting to write their own scenarios - or lazy GMs like me who want to get the best out of pre-written adventures. The by-the-numbers approach works well, Robin lifting the hood of a whole manner of different RPG genres, and then describing what components makes a scenario work in that genre.

The only thing I'd have liked to have seen is a fully worked up example of writing a scenario from start to finish, to show Robin's approach at work.

Grabbed this at the Kraken, a most excellent gaming retreat deep in the German wilderness. These Chapbooks originate from this event, and it is a delight to have something to read that wont make you feel guilty for not playing it. Robin knows what he is talking about. He has written across a wide spectrum of RPGs and other media with consummate expertise, wit, brio and elan. This confection distills a lifetime of scenario writing into an accessible and inspirational guide. Whether designing adventures for your table or for publication, the Crucible serves as a wise counsel by your side. Robin tackles the broad categories of Dungeon, Mystery, Chain of Fights, Survival and Intrigue, with nods to the more niche Picaresque and Drama to boot. I guarantee you'll be nodding along to these essays and raising the eyebrow on occasion as yet another that's-so-obvious-why-hasn't-anyone-said-that-before sentence is casually dropped into your game brain. By focusing in on elements common to the best adventures: premise acceptance; emotional stakes; cutting to the fun; obstacles and turning points, you can fix your adventure before your players arrive. It is a one or two sitting easy read that's incredibly relatable and written with style. Buy it. Read it. Do it.

A bare-bones chapbook full of good practical advice for creating traditional adventures following structures Robin's outlined and described in more detail elsewhere. It's a bit dry at times, but serves as an excellent general guide.

I would give it five stars, except for the lack of one structure, the "Adventure", glaring for a book with FOR ANY RPG in the title. (An "Adventure" is where a sometimes mutable primary objective involves a mix of travel, conflict, and escalation, like Star Wars.)

A great book on creating adventures from scratch. I've been running homebrew games for years and when folks ask me 'how to DM' I can point them to some resources for game theory and game prep, but nothing applicably useful for adventure creation. This book nails it in advice specifically for adventure scenario design in concise and simple terms that's also great for a beginner. It is something I've never really found before. This book gives folks starting concepts that would really give someone a jump-start when creating an adventure. In very simple terms he breaks it down in a way that's real, applicable, and useful for DM/GMs of all experience levels.

An excellent deep dive into common traditional RPG scenarios with interest drivers and pitfalls.