Alright boys. We've all had our two cents. Let's keep the speculation on Stuart's motivation to ourselves for now and focus on something else; His Thoughtless and Haphazard Categorization of the Godnards!...Gognards! Gorknards?*
Ye Edictes And Attributes Of Ye Evil Gorknards (Prince/Melan/Bryce/Noisims(? I guess you are in here now, report to Skull Mountain for an evil uniform) And Other Dastardly Members of the Wicked Elf-Game Reviewing Cabal of Evil):
The First Edict: Adventures Are Meant To Be Played: Meaning both in terms of utility as well as in content, the primary goal of an adventure is to be used. An adventure may have a secondary purpose (entertainment, toilet reading material, coffee table book, inspiration), but if it cannot be effectively used it is a failure.
Collorary to the First Edict: Good adventures are made not just by the brilliance and knowledge of Le author but also refined by the laborious act of playtesting. Good Material is just as often grown over decades of play as it is assembled wholecloth!
The Second Edict; Adventure design is measured via adherence to a set of fixed principles but allows for almost infinite variation within those sets of fixed principles. Adventures are not generally judged on novelty value but on the degree to which they resemble a platonic ideal, embodied by a series of universal 'classics' (B2, the G series, S3).
There is a concordance that sprawling nonlinear maps, faction play, resource management, tricks & traps, versimilitude, organized resistance for intelligent opponents, terse writing style, design that challenges the player's ability and the more nebulous quantity of 'The Unknown' are all desirable elements that should be present most of the time.
The Brycean School of Thought: Holds that Tomb of Horrors Ruined the Hobby, Utility is a paramount characteristic, Prep must be CUT DOWN, nothing is worse then Gimping Player Ability, Humanoids are Best Replaced with Humans and places emphasis on Evocative Novelty! Biased in favor of Faery-tales/Myth. Early Artpunk adopter. Embodies OSR Positivism (believes that the OSR now makes better material then TSR ever did).
The Melanian School of Thought: Emphasizes the synthesis between realism and magic (Gygaxian Naturalism?!?), Favors raw power and conceptual strength over presentation and utility, Prep agnostic, Minimalism Antagonistic, Biased in favor of S&S. Artpunk agnostic. OSR Agnostic (stance on OSR now vs TSR then unknown).
The Princean School of Thought: Is inconsistent and haphazardly cobbled together but manages to retain an admirable coherence with the two above-mentioned schools nonetheless. Recent: Heavy Focus on Precedent and Classics. Artpunk antagonistic. Biased in favor of Appendix N. Tomb of Horrors did nothing wrong! OSR negativism (Believes that adventure/game design has declined since the days of TSR, exception Kevin Crawford).
The Noisms School of Thought: ==Locked== Buy the DLC!
The Third Edict: Decent adventure writing is not a matter of genius or individual ability but comes from knowledge of existing material, practice and adherence to the principles outlined above i.e. OSR as craft, not as expressionism.
The Fourth Edict: Long form over short play. Hah! I paid attention in school and Noisms is this! Probably? a shared preference?
Political Leani- Hahaha just kidding
Together We Will Bury You
* Because we have the power of both Gork AAAAAND Mork!