Before I talk about the session, I want to mention that the community on Twitch and Twitter is awesome! We have been very lucky and humbled to have great viewership, a large number of followers and subscribers, and to meet 2 goals this week! So awesome and appreciated. Thanks everyone, especially people reading this!
This session was very player-directed. I had a lot of improvisation going on because I had decided I really wanted players to be able to pursue the stories and leads that interested them.
The result was a session with very few scenes and lots of role-playing. The advancement of the story was much more personal and small-scale.
As a DM, parts of it were freeing, because I knew what players wanted out of the story and could help them get it. Parts were challenging, because I haven't fleshed out Eastkeep as much as I might have. I stand by the decision to build as I go, but there's always the challenge of keeping up with players.
I'm somewhat conflicted about the content of the session. There weren't a lot of things that happened but there were lots of opportunities for the players. We hit all 3 pillars of play (RP, Exploration, Combat) and all 3 were presented regularly. I hope that the session had enough content and interest for the players.
I think that this is something for DMs to be careful about. Having a session where PCs pursue individual agendas with small groups is tough for players. They can get bored waiting for their turn, so it's important to keep things moving and keep a rotation. I also think it's a good idea to ask "What are you doing?" often. Even someone who's supposedly sleeping or occupied may want to change their plans.
We ran a little longer than I expected; there was just a very loose flow to the session. I like the way that things are evolving but want to be more prepared for next session. I may have to start listing NPC names so that I can have those when I need them. It was a bit of an issue this time. 'Home base' sessions are probably the hardest for me to feel truly prepared for. This is the most open and sandbox-like time in the game. With a big city it feels like the possibilities are endless.
I try to guess what players are most likely to want and want to interact with, then prepare those things. It works pretty well and with a little more effort, I think it will deliver what I want.
If you read this, let me know what you think! What are your tips and tricks to prepare? What things do you like to do in these downtime-like sessions?
This session was very player-directed. I had a lot of improvisation going on because I had decided I really wanted players to be able to pursue the stories and leads that interested them.
The result was a session with very few scenes and lots of role-playing. The advancement of the story was much more personal and small-scale.
As a DM, parts of it were freeing, because I knew what players wanted out of the story and could help them get it. Parts were challenging, because I haven't fleshed out Eastkeep as much as I might have. I stand by the decision to build as I go, but there's always the challenge of keeping up with players.
I'm somewhat conflicted about the content of the session. There weren't a lot of things that happened but there were lots of opportunities for the players. We hit all 3 pillars of play (RP, Exploration, Combat) and all 3 were presented regularly. I hope that the session had enough content and interest for the players.
I think that this is something for DMs to be careful about. Having a session where PCs pursue individual agendas with small groups is tough for players. They can get bored waiting for their turn, so it's important to keep things moving and keep a rotation. I also think it's a good idea to ask "What are you doing?" often. Even someone who's supposedly sleeping or occupied may want to change their plans.
We ran a little longer than I expected; there was just a very loose flow to the session. I like the way that things are evolving but want to be more prepared for next session. I may have to start listing NPC names so that I can have those when I need them. It was a bit of an issue this time. 'Home base' sessions are probably the hardest for me to feel truly prepared for. This is the most open and sandbox-like time in the game. With a big city it feels like the possibilities are endless.
I try to guess what players are most likely to want and want to interact with, then prepare those things. It works pretty well and with a little more effort, I think it will deliver what I want.
If you read this, let me know what you think! What are your tips and tricks to prepare? What things do you like to do in these downtime-like sessions?
More awesome thoughts about one of the most challenging aspects of play. I really love reading these musings on your campaign!
ReplyDeleteI know that some DMs won't let their party split up, and I know players can get bored if pacing suffers. But I definitely feel that without the ability to do their own thing, players can't really ever fully play their characters. Artificial rules that inhibit choice-making can be really stifling.
But you called it! A lot of DMing is being a good guesser, and I do feel like the longer you play a campaign, the easier it becomes to guess the most likely 2-3 courses of actions for specific characters.
I've a group of players that like to split up and do their own thing in town, frequently. After a bit of experimentation, I found a sort of rhythm that really works for us:
- I try to keep each PC's "turn" to the length of a television scene. A conversation. A visit to a specific location. I make travel or incidental action a sentence, the equivalent of an establishing shot, and don't worry about random encounters and such when the group's apart.
- When they change gears, start a new major conversation, go to a new location, or when they do something more exploring-oriented: open a door to look into an unknown room, or do something unexpected (especially if it's a moment of suspense or a moment that requires me to "build as I go"), that's when I'll usually cut away to the next turn. They declare, I cut to the next player, and now I have a few "turns" to mentally prepare what's going to happen next.
- That sort of leaves me juggling a lot of shorter scenes, rotating between PCs. It means needing to stay really focused, but the upside is that it helps keep things from getting too boring for too long with the players -- and gives them more opportunities to link back up and join the others too.
I've found that to be the best approach for my specific group and game! As for prep ...
I try to prepare a thorough (but flexible) "town" with lots of hooks that players can grab onto or not at any point in the campaign ... but I don't over-prepare the details of less important locations (not more than a paragraph of description for most places to get us started), and only force events during downtime when they are central to a major storyline and time-sensitive -- or when the players seem lost and need a bit of guidance. Mostly, I just know that I need to be well-caffeinated, super-focused and ready to roll with the punches in our roleplay-heavy sessions!
Finally -- I feel you on the pain of NPC names. I use Trello to keep track of that stuff, but there was a session a few years ago where I wasn't writing down names. A random NPC at the time became a major player over the next couple of years of our game, because the players really took to him -- but in that first session, when they asked his name, I didn't have anything prepared. I looked around, my mind drawing blank ... and saw something sitting on my counter.
And that's how the barbarian/gypsy prince of our Romanian-esque setting got the entirely inappropriate name JAMESON.
I know I say 'Great minds' a lot, but we are running parallel campaigns from neighboring mirror universes...
DeleteThanks for taking the time to comment! Our processes are very similar in preparing for games! Switching scenes is exactly how I like to handle these character interactions. I find that players will find reasons to include one another as they go on as well, which I definitely like!
As for names...alas. I keep all my documents pretty well organized using Google Docs, but I really should come up with a list of easy NPC names. After all, I have a whole set of modular tiles and little enemies- why not a little NPC prep? A 'To-do' for next game!