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HKR
2012-08-18, 06:19 PM
Hello Everyone! I made this account months ago, but this is my first post.
I have been lurking here for quite a while however so I know you guys can give really good advice.

I´m working on a little homebrew setting and came up with an idea to actually make the players come up with a plot for the campaign.

What i want to do is give them some general information about the campaign world and some potential adventure hooks. The players are free to follow these or come up with their own plothooks, as long as they fit the tone of the setting. They can either go with what I have given them or take it as inspiration to create and define their own long term goals for the campaign.

I would then ask them to come up with a plan how to achieve their goal based on the information I gave them about the world. So instead of having a villain with a plan that the pcs have to stop i would have the players be the schemers.

example: Nation X has invaded nation Y. Nation Y won the war and now Prince Z is held prisoner in the capital of nation Y.
If the pcs´ main goal is to become friends of the king and be granted a lordship, this could already be the plot for the whole campaign.
It could also just be one step that brings them closer to their main goal. (become the rulers of the realm/build a trade empire or whatnot)

I think this would give the players a sandboxy sense of freedom. I always loved this in computer games but have never seen it done in RPGs.

Do you think this is a good Idea? has anyone ever done this? Any advice on how to pull it off? Any ideas for plothooks like the one I mentioned above?

Thanks in advance. I know you won´t let me down. :smallwink:

Glimbur
2012-08-18, 06:56 PM
If you are looking to make your life even harder, give them the hooks in game rather than out of game. They sit in a tavern (it always seems to start in a tavern) and they overhear gossip about people never returning from the Swamp of No Return. Or the barkeep mentions that there's no bread tonight because rats ate his grain; they left rather larger holes than necessary for normal rats. And so on. But that's pretty standard adventure stuff, so let me push something a bit... stronger.

The idea is called Speak With Authority. PC's know more about the setting than the players do, and the world is fluid until the PC's know about it anyway. So a character can mention something that is plausible, and if it is reasonable that they know it it becomes true. For example, the party might be trying to hunt down a cult before they summon a demon. The party wizard makes a Know(Arcana) or Know(Planes) check and rattles off a list of four unusual ingredients you need for a demon summoning. Then the party has a lead. The party fighter can remember that ever since the Siege of Northgate fortresses are in the habit of straining their water through cheesecloth... I'm not sure how that is a lead for the party unless they're in need of cheese cloth. The danger of this idea is that, with an overly permissive DM, the party can make things too easy for themselves. It is unreasonable, for example, for the party rogue's great grandfather to have buried a +5 Vorpal Long Sword in a place only the rogue knows about. Done right, it makes the storytelling a bit more collaborative, and can lead to a complex world.

Water_Bear
2012-08-18, 06:58 PM
The problem with having the player being proactive rather than reactive is that it means a lot more work for you.

If the player decide to go to the other side of the world, do you know the major cities in that country? What are they like? Do you know who the leaders are, their politics, what kinds of issues there are locally? Who or what else is powerful or revered in the area?

If you make it up on the fly, you need to be a pretty skilled improviser; if you write it out beforehand, it's a huge amount of work no-one will ever see in 99% of the games you run.

And that's just fluff. Crunch is harder. Do you have stat-blocks for the various types of soldiers/elite guards of the big powers, and some idea of their tactics? How about those leaders and other VIPs from a paragraph ago? There are sources for pre-generated NPCs; 95% of these are awful, especially the official ones. You will likely need to make most of your own stat-blocks by hand.

Plus; maps. If Prince Z is in a dungeon, you need to either have a map pre-drawn or get at least a session's worth of warning before they go free him. If the PCs want to know the layout of their city, or a battlefield, you will either need one pre-drawn or at least a good mental image of the place so you can sketch it out in a reasonable amount of time. Obviously you need world maps , and possibly smaller country/region maps.

Still, if you think you can do it go for it.

My DM style is to put in a huge amount of work before the game to cover every situation I can think of, and I like world-building / chargen at least as much as the actual "game" part of D&D. Others favor a more improvisational approach, because they like sunlight and joy. You need to decide how you are going to handle it; improvisation will save you days worth of prep, but without that prep-work you will have a lot more pressure on you in the moment.

HKR
2012-08-18, 08:18 PM
Thanks for the replies so far, guys.



If you are looking to make your life even harder, give them the hooks in game rather than out of game. They sit in a tavern (it always seems to start in a tavern) and they overhear gossip about people never returning from the Swamp of No Return. Or the barkeep mentions that there's no bread tonight because rats ate his grain; they left rather larger holes than necessary for normal rats. And so on.

I thought about that, but I think they should have at least some knowledge of the world before the campaign starts. There are some facts that every person in the setting knows, so why should the pc´s not know about them?
They will however get additional hooks during the campaign.


The problem with having the player being proactive rather than reactive is that it means a lot more work for you.

If the player decide to go to the other side of the world, do you know the major cities in that country? What are they like? Do you know who the leaders are, their politics, what kinds of issues there are locally? Who or what else is powerful or revered in the area?

If you make it up on the fly, you need to be a pretty skilled improviser; if you write it out beforehand, it's a huge amount of work no-one will ever see in 99% of the games you run.

And that's just fluff. Crunch is harder. Do you have stat-blocks for the various types of soldiers/elite guards of the big powers, and some idea of their tactics? How about those leaders and other VIPs from a paragraph ago? There are sources for pre-generated NPCs; 95% of these are awful, especially the official ones. You will likely need to make most of your own stat-blocks by hand.

Plus; maps. If Prince Z is in a dungeon, you need to either have a map pre-drawn or get at least a session's worth of warning before they go free him. If the PCs want to know the layout of their city, or a battlefield, you will either need one pre-drawn or at least a good mental image of the place so you can sketch it out in a reasonable amount of time. Obviously you need world maps , and possibly smaller country/region maps.

Still, if you think you can do it go for it.

My DM style is to put in a huge amount of work before the game to cover every situation I can think of, and I like world-building / chargen at least as much as the actual "game" part of D&D. Others favor a more improvisational approach, because they like sunlight and joy. You need to decide how you are going to handle it; improvisation will save you days worth of prep, but without that prep-work you will have a lot more pressure on you in the moment.

You´re right, planning is a problem. I´ll always have to know what their plans for the next few sessions are. I think communication is the key here. Also the players have to stay very focused on their goals throughout the campaign. Otherwise things might get a little too unpredictable for me.

To stick with the Prince Z-example:
If they decide to follow the hook and rescue the prince their first step should be to plan the journey. They have a rough idea in which direction nation Y lies, but they have never actually been there and don´t really know how to get there. The journey will take months and there are several different routes they can take. I will leave the decision which route to take to the players, but they´ll have to tell me at least one session in advance.
I can then plan encounters and potential adventures for the journey.

I want to keep track of travel distance, provisions, weather and the passing of time, so travelling itself could be an adventure and take very long in real time.

Gamer Girl
2012-08-18, 11:08 PM
Yours is not a bad idea...but you need to be ready for when it does not work.

It's simple enough. You can tell your group of players tons and tons and tons of stuff about your game world. And give them tons of ideas and suggestions and all. But then, after all this, you will get:

DM: Ok, that is the setting. Your all in the Dragon's Head Tavern. What do you want to do?
Players: Um, we sit around. Um, is there anything happening in the tavern? Um, we all order drinks and food.


In short 'railroading' or simply giving your players something to do is not bad. And a lot of players need the push.

Water_Bear
2012-08-18, 11:17 PM
You´re right, planning is a problem. I´ll always have to know what their plans for the next few sessions are. I think communication is the key here. Also the players have to stay very focused on their goals throughout the campaign. Otherwise things might get a little too unpredictable for me.

To stick with the Prince Z-example:
If they decide to follow the hook and rescue the prince their first step should be to plan the journey. They have a rough idea in which direction nation Y lies, but they have never actually been there and don´t really know how to get there. The journey will take months and there are several different routes they can take. I will leave the decision which route to take to the players, but they´ll have to tell me at least one session in advance.
I can then plan encounters and potential adventures for the journey.

I want to keep track of travel distance, provisions, weather and the passing of time, so travelling itself could be an adventure and take very long in real time.

Well, while I am 100% in favor of tracking minutia and keeping track of calendar dates (seriously, I'm not being sarcastic), you can't expect your players to stick to their plans rigidly. If nothing else, what happens each session will push them off their plans anyway; "no plan survives first contact with the enemy."

If they can keep to their over-arching goal, you will basically be playing a normal game of D&D but with more player engagement. Good times. But they might very well drastically shift their goals in light of new information; be ready for really odd descisions. This can actually be a really amazing thing.

Once a group of my PCs decided to defect to join an order of Paladins in a foreign country in the middle of a battle, flying off in their airship with a hold full of their former employer's treasure.

It was completely unexpected; they did it for valid in-character reasons, but I hadn't planned for it. I figured they would eventually ditch their evil bosses but it was a half-dozen sessions earlier than I imagined and for totally different reasons.

I had some basic stuff about the country already, a map and three stat-blocks for important NPCs, but no idea what would happen next. Eventually I came up with the idea that the Paladins of Freedom would want to test them, and made a series of lateral-thinking puzzles called the 'Tests of Ability'. When we met back up the next week, that session was one of the most I have ever run.

Hallavast
2012-08-19, 12:16 AM
I reject the premise that the PCs start as a bunch of misfit vagrant strangers to society with nothing better to do than get drunk in a tavern. Why don't they have day jobs? Bills to pay? Family to visit? Housework to get done? Investments to secure and manage? What's the group template? How do these people know each other, and how do they fit into the community? Why do they spend their time together in the first place? This should all be taken care of before the game starts.

But if you insist on starting in a pub doing nothing with your careers, fine. There's no reason adventure can't happen to you there. Do you know the barmaid? Does she have problems? Maybe someone owes her money but won't pay her back? Maybe she needs help getting out of the city with her new fatherless child, but the roads are dangerous. Maybe a creepy bar patron keeps pinching her fanny.

What about the Tavern owner? Say he runs out of ale for any reason; instant adventure. Say he wants to expand his operation in the next city over, but the local guild there won't let him buy the property he needs. So he needs someone to grease the wheels. Maybe the jerk thinks prices on ingredients for his ale are too high, so he needs a group of lobbyists to "persuade" the local baron to subsidize crop imports to his town. Does he keep a secret dog fighting ring in his cellar?

How about the patrons? Maybe another table is populated with foreign slavers who boast loudly about the "merchandise" they just got done moving. Perhaps a smoking, green clad ranger suddenly gets up from his corner to go accost some hobbits. Say some card players get all get up from their game suddenly to drag one of their players outside for a beating after accusing him of cheating. Perhaps the Mayor's husband comes in to the bar with his arm around a girl that's not his wife. It just could be a man wanted on 12 systems and his friend don't like one of the PCs.

The point is people got problems. It doesn't matter where you are. Adventure abounds behind every corner.

Jerthanis
2012-08-19, 01:11 AM
Start slow and ramp it up.

If they're used to relatively linear plots and clear bad guys, start with a situation where two people have a conflict and the PCs come in to solve it and each side wants their assistance on their side. Then throw in a third perspective, then a fourth, then a seventh.

Then, JUST when they start to get overwhelmed with sides and factions, have the actors come to the PCs asking, "So what's the next step bosses?" and now the PCs are in charge of resolving this conflict.

Then there's a new conflict, and the NPCs are still looking to them for guidance.

If the PCs are like, "Solve it yourselves, jerks" and abandon the whole thing, well... just figure out what happens to the situation without them, and move on to the next conflict that the PCs might be interested in.

Siegel
2012-08-19, 02:18 AM
Read Burning Wheel and Apocalypse World. Both do an exzellent Job at this.

Reluctance
2012-08-19, 02:34 AM
Most games that aren't D&D have a mechanic whereby the player "owns" a part of the world beyond their character. It can be their property, their best friend, or their reputation, but they get narrative say over that part and it's considered bad form to mess with that without damn good reason. Plus, people like to feel a sense of ownership, and you get easy plot hooks when someone steps on that. (Although use the last sparingly. Use the character's ties against them too often, you'll discover why orphaned vagrants are so popular an archetype. You're better off giving opportunities to advance their holdings than threats to.)

So start out by telling every player that they get to design and largely control a small group. It involves the players in the worldbuilding, gives them something to care about, and luckily for you helps tether them a bit before they decide to range all over the world just because they can.

Also echoing Gamer Girl's thoughts on sandboxes. Too open-ended leads to option paralysis. Don't be afraid to hint at directions if things stall. Pure sandbox, while a popular theory, doesn't quite make it in reality.

HKR
2012-08-19, 07:34 AM
Well, while I am 100% in favor of tracking minutia and keeping track of calendar dates (seriously, I'm not being sarcastic), you can't expect your players to stick to their plans rigidly. If nothing else, what happens each session will push them off their plans anyway; "no plan survives first contact with the enemy."

If they can keep to their over-arching goal, you will basically be playing a normal game of D&D but with more player engagement. Good times. But they might very well drastically shift their goals in light of new information; be ready for really odd descisions. This can actually be a really amazing thing.


The good thing is, that I know my players really well. If they change their plans drastically I think they will let me know in advance so I can prepare it for the next session. In fact I want to encourage them to change sides or betray their allies. After all that´s exactly the thing you can not easily do in a normal (linear) game.

Oh and I love the Idea of having the players design elements of the world. I will surely use that.

Thanks for all the advice so far.

kyoryu
2012-08-19, 01:06 PM
Here's some crazy advice.

Talk to the players. Ask them what kind of game they want to play, what kind of world they want to be in.

Talk to them about their characters, and their stories. Help them figure out what their goals for their characters are.

Put them in a compelling situation, that *requires* action. This doesn't have to mean it's a railroad! You're providing them an impetus to move, but not specifying the direction!

And, like others have suggested, read some Burning Wheel. The Adventure Burner will help too.

eggs
2012-08-19, 04:31 PM
It can help to tell the players what you're trying to do outright ahead of time, get some feedback on the kinds of adventure the individual players want, then throw some hooks at them as a group [closely related to what the players gave you in the first place] and see what happens.

The advantage is that telling them ahead of time gives them some time to brainstorm on their own, then gives you some time to find a way to introduce the plot points. Because problems can come from either end of the original approach: players can either be completely unmotivated and not come up with any great ideas on the spot, or they could also spring for an idea that takes more forward-planning from the GM than can be expected.

On the spot improvisation is great for one-offs, but it can get tricky to maintain coherence in a longer-term game (the kind that it sounds like you're interested in); buffering the creative work can make things much easier (both getting player feedback before the game starts and seeing what they're planning at the ends of your sessions).

Gravitron5000
2012-08-20, 10:22 AM
The point is people got problems. It doesn't matter where you are. Adventure abounds behind every corner.

You got problems? I feel bad for you son. I got 99 problems and a lich is one.

One thing that I have found useful is to do some preparation beforehand that is not tied to any specific location or situation. A folder full of (99 :smallbiggrin:) encounters/NPCs that you can draw on when your players do something unexpected can come in quite handy. These don't even have to be fully fleshed out. Sometimes just having a one line encounter idea that you can draw inspiration from and can adapt to the situation at hand is all you need to keep things moving.

Trog
2012-08-20, 10:57 PM
I'm preparing to do yet another one of these sorts of adventures so here's what I've tried over the years and what I found worked for my particular group of players.

Define the sandbox. As a person who will be spending a lot of time developing a sandbox area to adventure in it is perfectly okay for a DM to say to the players before they ever sit down at the gaming table and create characters for the adventure, even, to say something like "This adventure I made takes place in this region here and not beyond the bounds of it - I didn't work on that area. As you play keep this in mind. I as a DM will give you as little reason as possible to even think about going there. There will be plenty happening in the region detailed." Or something like that. This, at the very least, can keep players from heading off into the sunset in the opposite direction of available fun. I know with my group this sort of conversation has always worked well.

Likewise you can utilize the "fog of war" effect and hand out only a small regional map where they begin and with local conflicts. Some of these might lead out of the region and into others, revealing more conflicts and adventures as they go (slowly filling in the overall sandbox region mentioned above). As a DM this cuts down the options you have to run with due to their location and makes things, in the beginning at least, a bit easier to manage.

Individual prelude sessions with each character. Give each character their own plot of some sort - something that that one character is concerned with. When they finally get together at the beginning of the plot each may have missions they wish to get the group's help on. This can lead to some in-group tug of war and, bingo - they are driving the plot already. I did this once in a completely detailed city I created (Marsember in the Forgotten Realms, actually). Had preludes and confined the adventure to the city and spelled this out to the players ahead of time. The preludes worked so well that when it came time to gel them together as a group with their first encounter (the preludes all led up to them being in the same place at the same time) they all went their separate ways again! :smalleek: A bit rough to manage at first but very fun.

Another way this can be done is by giving members of the group opposing affiliations with outside power groups (nations, organizations, armies, cults, etc.). This will create competition within the group itself if you dangle a reward in front of them (retrieve this item and hand it over to one of the power groups - if your PC's group gets the item, you gain a level). Even if there is only one choice for a plot that session the competition will still provide the drama and direction. Just try to keep them all from coming to blows over it all.

For areas within the sandbox region that are a bit empty of adventure or light on detail due to time, the best bet is to develop an underlying structure to the region to fall back on when needing to make things on the fly. Broad brush strokes of history and migration can give you the proper backdrop to develop a small village on the fly if need be. Keep a selection of unlabeled town maps to use on the fly, remembering to label them after they have been used to define an area in play. A good list of names for commonly used business and a list of NPCs complete with a couple of roleplaying notes for each will keep your world populated on the fly if need be. Be sure to record these as you go so if a player stops back the same person you used last time is there once again.

Evil Never Sleeps. The bad guys in your adventure should always be up to something whether or not the players do anything about it. Think of how events would transpire in the region without PC intervention and, should it come to pass that the PCs do not select that plot, you can still advance the story and open up new plots based off of the villain's victories. PCs hear rumor of bandits raiding cities to the south but, instead, decide to go after a different hook in the east for a time. When they return they hear news that the raiding has moved northward. If the PCs ignore it again perhaps the next time they return they will find the city has been taken over by the bandit armies already. This keeps the world from being static and provides a fresh bunch of new hooks as time progresses.

Anyway, those are a few things I've tried. Hope they help. :smallsmile:

CET
2012-08-22, 12:05 PM
To add to what's been said:

- Start the PCs out with a compelling and immediate motivation to get the ball rolling. Maybe they are the children of a lord who has just been executed for treason, or they are old friends who buy a merchant ship together, etc. Having run many sandboxy games, I wholeheartedly agree with the advice that you should ease them into it.

- At the end of each session, ask the PCs what they plan to do next session, and for some general sense of how they plan to go about doing it. Now you know what to prep for the next session. I have yet to play with a GM who can prep exhaustively, and most of the ones I've seen try (myself included) burn out doing it.

- Take cues from the PCs and players. If the players can't stand one of your minor NPCs, make him the villain, etc.

- As the players start to get familiar with the game world, get longish term goals from your players. Maybe they want to set up a crime syndicate, or hunt down a particular faction. Give them chances to achieve these goals in small steps, starting as soon as possible.

Balain
2012-08-22, 01:43 PM
Many years ago I set up this huge campaign. I spent months before hand getting ready. I made a website that the players could go to and find character creation rules, I used a point system instead of rolling for stats, and started at level 3 or 4. what races they could pick and how the various races got a long. A little different than standard D&D.

I had a giant map I scanned in and set it up so they could click on any of the regions and get detailed descriptions of what was going on in those regions.

There was a section for the major NPCs. Kings princes, major bad guys they knew about, heroes, etc.

Then had a section that listed all the npcs they had met and interacted with.

There was a section on each party member currently alive and past party members with any write up the players wanted about themselves or each other and anything they wanted to add about themselves as we played.

Finally a section on the adventures so far as I saw it and each player could add their character thoughts on the adventure.

The day or so before we start the campaign, I send them an e-mail about how they have known each other for a little while now and adventuring for a little bit, they all agreed to split up find news of any great adventures and meet back up in 1 month. Each player had about 3 plot hooks and as a group would decided were they wanted to go when we started playing. From that point on it was up to them what and where they went based on those first plot hooks and what was going on in the world based on the website.

All the major npcs had their plans and nations were warring with each other etc. As the players took time doing stuff the world would change as well, and I was always updating the website.

It went really well and it was a lot of work for me and the players didn't see 99% of everything that was going on, except through the website as major things happened.

If I have time I might try something similar again. With starting school again Not sure I will be able to though.

Shurz
2012-08-24, 10:55 AM
I reject the premise that the PCs start as a bunch of misfit vagrant strangers to society with nothing better to do than get drunk in a tavern. Why don't they have day jobs? Bills to pay? Family to visit? Housework to get done? Investments to secure and manage? What's the group template? How do these people know each other, and how do they fit into the community? Why do they spend their time together in the first place? This should all be taken care of before the game starts.

But if you insist on starting in a pub doing nothing with your careers, fine. There's no reason adventure can't happen to you there. Do you know the barmaid? Does she have problems? Maybe someone owes her money but won't pay her back? Maybe she needs help getting out of the city with her new fatherless child, but the roads are dangerous. Maybe a creepy bar patron keeps pinching her fanny.

What about the Tavern owner? Say he runs out of ale for any reason; instant adventure. Say he wants to expand his operation in the next city over, but the local guild there won't let him buy the property he needs. So he needs someone to grease the wheels. Maybe the jerk thinks prices on ingredients for his ale are too high, so he needs a group of lobbyists to "persuade" the local baron to subsidize crop imports to his town. Does he keep a secret dog fighting ring in his cellar?

How about the patrons? Maybe another table is populated with foreign slavers who boast loudly about the "merchandise" they just got done moving. Perhaps a smoking, green clad ranger suddenly gets up from his corner to go accost some hobbits. Say some card players get all get up from their game suddenly to drag one of their players outside for a beating after accusing him of cheating. Perhaps the Mayor's husband comes in to the bar with his arm around a girl that's not his wife. It just could be a man wanted on 12 systems and his friend don't like one of the PCs.

The point is people got problems. It doesn't matter where you are. Adventure abounds behind every corner.

Couldn't agree more.
Nothing wrong with continuing a campaign or longer scenario after having completed a major task in a tavern, the "worth waiting for" moment (ice cold in Alex), but by then there should be enough hints for the adventurers where to go start.
Should you feel the need for a tavern start, make it different. For example being told of an ongoing bet at the inn for when the ferryman's boy will ask the miller's daughter to marry him. If the party just arrived in town, that could be the news they get from the proud ferryman while crossing the river.
If they have to go to the inn, then at least present them with a couple of potential contacts at the inn to talk to. With a few more regular inn visitors, there can be a bit of banter and different NPCs that provide hints:
- the Barkeep apologizes for not being able to server Arcadian Red wine, the last 2 caravans never made it this far.
- the town blacksmith tells the barkeep, that he had heard from a friend, a merchant down toward Arcadia mind you, that the Road-wardens where having their hands full with bandits. Now he had heard it there was almost like a regular war. There had been a lot of skirmishes and even some regular battles at a few of Road-Warden outposts near Darkmoor.
- you overhear a a grizzled veteran talking a couple of town guards that the Black-Feather orc tribe was migrating for some reason. Last time they did that was in his great-great-great-great-grandfathers time and that was because an Orc tribe war had flamed up.
- The ferryman's boy comes in and proposed to to the miller's daughter who is working as a barmaid at the tavern. Your party get invited to the feast the next evening.

This gives your players options locally and regionally in addition to coming up with their own ideas and targets. Very useful in case the group will pass the same way a few times, as the village life will progress. Next time they come along the barmaid has puffy eyes, a slight bulge and you find out her husband broke his leg while fixing a leaking roof.
This provides opportunity for the group to actively change the outcome of events in the village.
There may be recent travelers present or someone references contacts in other towns, villages, thereby building up the groups contact network.
Perhaps more rumors that relate to other rumors the group has picked up. Maybe now they have 3 rumors regarding the bandits and their whereabouts. Perhaps two pieces of information about the Orcs, their current location and a reference to their ancestral lands.
Some months later they may get invited to become in loco parentis for the newborn.

I see this type of events as a key to make the players run the plot. Everywhere they go, they should have a chance to influence the situation and the future events as well.
If they do nothing, that should also affect the outcome.

Asheram
2012-08-24, 05:11 PM
I'm in the middle of hosting a campaign where the players were given free reign of how they wanted to manage the task of infiltrating and taking over a city. The only rules they were given were to not blow their cover as humans (they are actually a home-brew dragon subtype) and that they had to do it before another group did it.

What i have learnt is that players just need a little push (a general task which they can see themselves actually managing), some motivation (death if they fail), and the campaign will run itself.
Really. During the first week i thought they'd take to familiarize themselves with the town they have managed to make one into a famed prizefighter, one is wanted for several murders as the "ice killer" and they have tricked a clan of kobolds that they are avatars of tiamat, there to make them take their rightful place in the world.

Alejandro
2012-08-24, 05:27 PM
For my game (Star Wars Saga) I am slowly weaning myself off overpreparing and convincing myself to just let the players do what they want to do and what they are interested in. After all, when they can literally leave a world and go to another one whenever they want to (usually) you can only plan so much.

A few things help me: I have excellent players, and they all created backgrounds and goals for their characters. I just had to get over my natural desire to plan extensively, and let them act on their goals.