JSUN
Squire
Posts: 136
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Post by JSUN on Oct 25, 2003 4:42:04 GMT -5
I have spent most of the night preping and thinking about my regular weekend game and in the process I jotted down some random, half-baked thoughts about game planning and preparation that came to me..
What Im wondering is how far do you plan your campaigns and story lines (baring rail-roading of course)? Are you the type of GM that only develops the skeleton of a story allowing for a lot of growth and future development or does the step by step, start to finish approach more suit your style? The one where most of the major details have been worked out in advance.
Thanks, JSUN
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Post by Hussar on Oct 25, 2003 7:13:14 GMT -5
Typically, I'm about 1 week ahead of my players (sometimes not even that). For the most part, I let my players determine what is going to happen and try to roll with things as they come. I've tried making over arching story lines, but, to my dismay, I always wind up rail roading the players. I have realized my own limitations and now I just try to stay one or two steps ahead of them with a bare bones idea of where things are going to go in the future.
For example, in my current campaign, my players have just found a lost island with a number of races on it. They've made friendly with the first group and are going to go exploring eventually. Now, I have a pretty good idea what the other groups are and where they are on the island, but, as far as specifics go, I haven't the foggiest. I'm waiting for the players to decide where to go first and then I'll worry about it.
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Post by Shadowdragon on Oct 25, 2003 15:03:00 GMT -5
Personally, I created my campaign world, placed towns and made the major personalities in them and some of the minor ones that would likely be interacted with. Then I took some adventures (pre-made and personal) and scattered them through the lands. As the character's advance in level more rumors and thus adventures are added to the world I've created. (This is simply to keep 1st level charcters from stumbling on a 12th level adventure.) That's about all the planning (other than random encounters/weather/time frame(season)/and continuing antagonists that I do.
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nodwyck
Soldier
A henchman isn't just for Christmas, it's for life!
Posts: 261
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Post by nodwyck on Jan 25, 2004 18:42:41 GMT -5
I love stuff that has a vague deadline. This lets the players do pretty much what and in which order they want to. They have never failed me. Of course, the deadlines can be purely something they pick up by themselves, from a scrawled note or a feeling they get when they look to the east or whatever.
I'd love to do something nonlinear, but as I'm lazy as hell (non-linear stuff needs too much notes, too much off-the cuff junk (with accompanying notes etc.) I can't possibly make it work out. Oh wait... Yes I can, except I make a total mess of my notes and it'll end up worse than without notes.
Tell me, good folks, how do you do it?
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Post by MoonHunter on Mar 4, 2004 8:37:35 GMT -5
Every character has one to three plot lines associated with them. Some of them are major plot lines (that tend to drag the other players along with them), but most are minor subplots that can run concurrently with any main plot line.
Every plot line has Primary "Scenes" or Events that occur over thier course. There are usually one to six depending on the plot line. I plan out elements needed to run a given scene, possible entry points and exit points for the plot line.
Most of these are "one line notes", until they might be used. When they are "upcoming, I flesh them out slightly, as above. Complex scenes need more work than simple scenes. Any game mechanics (such as NPCs, rules, etc) needed to be worked out ahead of time.
So Tholcrom has a plot line "Revenge against his Brother's Killer". The Events are "Finding Out who Did it", "Hunting down the first person", "Confronting them and discoverying who really did it (A noble)", "Hunting down the Noble", "Confronting the Noble"
This week, I should have time for "Confronting them and discovering who really did it." The general situation is that The Alleged Killer is currently hiding out from The Guild.
So there will be scenes where Tholcrom will encounter Guild, while searching for "The Alledged Killer". There might be conflict. But one of the exits will include "Someone following Tholcrom".
There will be a scene in the back of a bar, where Tholcrom will encounter Big Sam, who knows where the Dark Hand Killer (Our alledged killer has a name) is.
Scene: Tholcrom will go to the rambshackle tennemant. The Guild member will follow then report back.
Scene: As Tholcrom is about to kill him, he informs him that he didn't do it.... someone else did. The action of this scene is: The Guild breaks in and tries to kill everyone. Tholcrom must save this guys life, to get the info he needs. Oh... and did I mention the tennemant is on fire?
These scenes will be interspersed with the various research, purchasing, and carrousing scenes for the rest of the group.
The Day before I am to run this, I work out any game mechanics (and look up how fire damage works).
Then I fit things in the best I can given what the player does.
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Post by EK - Shadow of Death on Mar 24, 2004 23:54:25 GMT -5
I plan one adventure at a time and write out the timeline for it. The timeline is what would happen if the players never interfered at all. As the players take on the adventure, people slowly (or drastically) change their plans to fit the new circumstances. I'm always careful that I know exactly what my NPCs will do, and thus I define them thoroughly well in advance.
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