Scott is a great GM, based on the one game I have played with him at a NC game day, his posts on ENWorld, and general reputation. He shared some advice which seemed very appropriate, given my upcoming one-shot game at the Library Game Night and the (hopefully) long term game that will follow. Much of what we talked about was gleaned from Robin Laws' book on game mastering, but Scott made some good additions to Robin Laws' advice. One of the best pieces was to plan an early ending to the campaign, a place where the group could stop after 8-10 sessions and say "yep, we did it." This, I thought, was a great bit of advice. With a new group, it guarantees a stopping point from which to reassess the game while still maintaining a story and a sense of accomplishment. With everyone being new, people are still getting used to each other, the GM, and the game world, so they can change things after the ending without messing up the overall story arc or party composition.

I had never really thought about a "campaign" lasting only 8-10 sessions, but Scott made a lot of sense. One of the problems with the last campaign I ran was a lack of definite endings for stories or adventures. There were very few points where the party could stop and say "we completed the adventure!". This led to some fatigue among players, I think. Everyone needs good stopping points and a sense of accomplishment.