Drakevarg
2010-06-08, 06:56 PM
My question is admittedly extremely abstract, since it's a hard thing to quantify. The full, explained question is:
How much plot material is nessicary to run a single session of average length?
I'm asking because I'd rather not have enough for about half a session's worth of play and be stuck ad-libbing a story of rapidly declining quality. For example, my current plan is to start with a heavy RP session involving interacting with their friends and family (to develop empathy for when I brutally murder and zombify the lot of them, of course), followed by a second session of exploring the ruins of their village.
The reason this concerns me is that in different campaigns I've had radically different experiences in this regard. In one, quite literally the only things that happened were a knife fight, then being tossed off a cliff and climbing back up it, followed by an avalance. And yet I currently regard that as one of the most exciting sessions I've ever been in.
Another one gave me sufficient time to explore what appeared to be a mix between a fortress and that spa from "Spirited Away", then fight a small army of bandits, then fight a pair of minotaurs. (I can't remember if everything that happened after that was part of the same session or not. If so, then we also managed to get to town, take a ship, fight off some pirates, die horribly when the pirate ship exploded, get resurrected by an epic level cleric, head to another village, travel with a bison herd, find an ore refinery camp, fight a shadow mastiff, fight a skeletal dragon, fight off some cyborg things, and then escape on a mine cart.)
Obviously this is an opinion question, so I suspect I'll get alot of variation in answers.
How much plot material is nessicary to run a single session of average length?
I'm asking because I'd rather not have enough for about half a session's worth of play and be stuck ad-libbing a story of rapidly declining quality. For example, my current plan is to start with a heavy RP session involving interacting with their friends and family (to develop empathy for when I brutally murder and zombify the lot of them, of course), followed by a second session of exploring the ruins of their village.
The reason this concerns me is that in different campaigns I've had radically different experiences in this regard. In one, quite literally the only things that happened were a knife fight, then being tossed off a cliff and climbing back up it, followed by an avalance. And yet I currently regard that as one of the most exciting sessions I've ever been in.
Another one gave me sufficient time to explore what appeared to be a mix between a fortress and that spa from "Spirited Away", then fight a small army of bandits, then fight a pair of minotaurs. (I can't remember if everything that happened after that was part of the same session or not. If so, then we also managed to get to town, take a ship, fight off some pirates, die horribly when the pirate ship exploded, get resurrected by an epic level cleric, head to another village, travel with a bison herd, find an ore refinery camp, fight a shadow mastiff, fight a skeletal dragon, fight off some cyborg things, and then escape on a mine cart.)
Obviously this is an opinion question, so I suspect I'll get alot of variation in answers.