Regarding My SnowCon Games
I realized that the three different adventures I'm running at SnowCon are three different types of games. The first adventure has a specific goal: Stop the bad guy from doing bad stuff. If the party doesn't do that, they have failed.
The second adventure is almost like a story, with the party taking on character roles. There is a goal, but it's not the focus of the adventure. One fight in the beginning, a lot of roleplaying in the middle, an unexpected fight toward the end. The party's goal switches before the end, and survival becomes paramount over making it from point A to point B.
The third adventure is exploration. There is no goal. There is no end fight. There is no specific treasure.
I think it would be kind of me to mention these things when we start the game. Imagine the players expecting a big boss at the end of the dungeon crawl and coming away without. They might feel like they lost out. It's good to know these things ahead of time.