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View Full Version : DM Help DMing Help: What do I need to prepare?



GorinichSerpant
2015-06-25, 08:53 PM
From several sources on DMing I've read to not over prepare and that a lot can be winged. However I've had the opposite problem in that when me an my group sat down I have trouble coming up with something the the fly to happen and focusing their attention.

What I currently have (completely in my head) is that the PCs will be be knocked off the giant floating turtle they call home into the sea where they was up on an tropical island. On the island there will be some natives who will naturally be suspicious of the PCs. The natives don't want any trouble but are capable to defend themselves against intruders. Then some pirates will stop by and attempt to extort resources from the natives. The pirates will at first send out only a small group to the island at first while the ship floats off shore. And all the pirates have some sort of gimmick involving brutally murdering people or some other sort of sadism.

Notable NPCs include:

The village shaman who is very muscular and wise old man. One of the few islanders who knows Gypsy Speak (the equivalent of common in this world)
Three attractive women who happen to be able to transform into viscous sharks , also from the village.
Hangman Johnson, the pirate caption who is obsessed with strangulation. He wears a noose like a neck-tie hangs people from the mast, that sort of thing.
Scrags, a troll who smashes things, eats people alive and scars flesh with the same artistic vision as a person who tattoo artist. e also walks around covered head to toe because trolls turn to stone in sunlight.
Samuel Skewer, a man who only uses piercing weapons like javelins and spears. Where Johnson didn't hang someone, Samuel sticks a spike and impales someone.
Bob, a fat old man who walks into combat with an ornate smoking pipe. This is because Bob is in equal amounts a pyromancer and pyromaniac, he throws ashes out of this pipe to throw fireballs and is immune to most mundane fires.

The pirates here are only the first small group that comes in, I can come up with some more if the need arises. The system used is STaRS so making character sheets for each of these characters shouldn't be a problem.

Notable locations:

The Island Village
The shipwreck where the PCs appear
The Pirate Ship


This campaign is about the PCs traveling the high sees in search of gold, fame, and power. They will probably go off the island as soon as they get a functioning ship or at least a boat.
Is there anything else I need to prepare other then some notes on NPCs, and a map of the island?

Karl Aegis
2015-06-25, 09:29 PM
Prevailing Winds
Weekly Weather Forecasts
High Tide
Low Tide
Saltwater or Freshwater
Location of natural harbors
Notable Land Features

Flickerdart
2015-06-25, 09:42 PM
What's your plan when the PCs join the pirates?
What's your plan when the PCs murder the villagers and plunder the village before the pirates get there?
What's your plan when the PCs steal the pirates' boat while the pirates are busy extorting the village, and go find their turtle?
What's your plan when the PCs steal the pirates' boat while the pirates are busy extorting the village, sneak aboard the ship, kill everyone, and become pirates?
What's your plan when the PCs skip straight past the village and go into the forest to start a new, better village?
What's your plan when the PCs skip straight past the village and go into the forest to build a ship, ignoring the whole pirates thing?
What's your plan when the PCs try to swim back to the turtle by hand and drown?

To be a good GM, you need to be able to use what you have to improvise for when your PCs do something weird. Take a look at your setpieces, and think - if the PCs do X thing, do I have everything I need, or should I add another NPC here or another location there? It will behoove you to prepare some super-generic locations and challenges you can use at some point down the road, with a brief change of description sufficient to pad out the session while you desperately try to patch the plot back together.

Geddy2112
2015-06-25, 11:02 PM
Prevailing Winds
Weekly Weather Forecasts
High Tide
Low Tide
Saltwater or Freshwater
Location of natural harbors
Notable Land Features

Minor details might not come up, but it helps to add verisimilitude and immersion, even if they are a bit strange. You don't need down to the nth degree, but have an answer besides "sunny, sky is blue so is the ocean" kind of thing


when
when
when
when
when
when
when
when your PCs do something weird
+1 to this. Flickerdart is very right that your PC's WILL go against any plan you make. If you think of 1000 ways an encounter can go, they will come up with the 1 you did not see coming. It is just the way it is. So always be ready for when the PC's do something unexpected. Two easy ways to handle this are
1. Ready random encounters-have some random encounters for any scenario planned. Animals and monsters of various terrains, puzzles and basic roleplay challenges. Perhaps its a street fair and a pickpocket tries to rob a PC. Or quicksand in a jungle, or a hungry shark in the water.

2. Schrodinger's dungeons. Named after the thought Schrodinger's cat were you cannot tell the state of the cat until you open the box, the PC's cannot know the layout of a dungeon, the NPC's in a city etc until they get there. Say you had a desert tomb planned out for the PC's to explore, but on the way they head north to a frozen abandoned castle. You had a desert jackal monster? Now it is a wolf. Egyptian style mummies? Now they are Skyrim style Dragur. Keep all the same stats, switching anything obvious like fire to ice and just reskin. You also don't have to have these challenges in order. Perhaps the desert tomb you planned out can be brought up later. Say the PC's never go to the city? Then they can meet some of these NPC's in another city. Once you have the concepts and rough builds for a situation, it can be applied more or less anywhere.

While this can be considered railroading, it is simply not possible to plan out complex challenges on the fly. To avoid railroading using this tactic, never make plot points based on a Schrodinger's dungeon. Just use it to change up the mechanical nuts and bolts so the game can progress.

nijineko
2015-06-25, 11:33 PM
This campaign is about the PCs traveling the high sees in search of gold, fame, and power. They will probably go off the island as soon as they get a functioning ship or at least a boat.
Is there anything else I need to prepare other then some notes on NPCs, and a map of the island?

jot down a few small notes on goals and personalities of major npcs. maybe have some plot points jotted down that you would like to reach, but be flexible about how/when you implement them - if you can't, don't worry; you'll be able to recycle and fit them in later.

oh, and keep notes as you play. very important.

GorinichSerpant
2015-06-26, 12:26 AM
Thanks for the advice I'll keep those things in mind.

Incorrect
2015-06-26, 02:54 AM
5 minutes.
Just tell yourself and your group that it is okay to say that you need 5 minutes to adjust the adventure.

Say Yes a lot.
When the PCs wants to do something, just let them. "Yes, but..." is the best answer to most requests.
This also applies when you overhear the PCs come up with theories on how the world works (who runs Bartertown, and so on). Maybe their theory is better that what you planned, so change the plan to the most awesome theory.


Those two are my main improvisation tools.
Besides that I usually try to have a general map, and NPCs with motives but without stats (the motives help you have the NPC react to the PCs unforeseen plans).

Honest Tiefling
2015-06-26, 03:03 PM
When I plan an adventure, I ignore the idea of what the players will decide to do. Because they will always find a way to do something I have never intended. Forever shall it be that I can never predict what the players will do.

What I do is I plan out what the NPC's plan is before the Player Characters arrive to throw a wrench into everyone's plans. What are they trying to do, and how they are going about it. Then I give myself a rough idea of their resources, minions and tactics. That later part should always be flexible, but I don't want the NPCs to seem like a deus ex machina so there need to be some limitations. And then personality, because my players have an odd habit of talking to the NPCs when I least expect them to. If you have a diplomancer, consider adding in some NPCs that might defect to the PC side of things. If you don't want to run minions for them, make them non-combat roles that are helpful but can be stashed in a base. My PCs keep bumping into people with little combat skills or elderly but trained people. If your group isn't entirely good aligned, maybe some pirates think the Player Characters would make for better leaders.

In your case, I'd plan out how the pirates get messages out to their other minions/boss on the ship, so if the players decide to interfere I have a basic idea of how that happens. Also, given that it is an island, make sure you know where your pirates are keeping their food supplies, ships, and ship repairing supplies. And water, given that they have a pyromanic. A skectch of their camp if you have time is probably a good idea.

And then I plan out some fluffy one-time events. For instance, you got a village for them to protect. Now, you need some hooks for them to give a damn about the place. Why do the attractive women turn into sharks? How can they use these powers? Are these powers known to the village, and how do they regard them? Perhaps this is a forbidden power, and the women get accused of aiding the bloodthirsty pirates, so they turn to the player characters for help. I have no idea what a Shaman is in your world, but they usually deal with spirits. There might be an old shrine that needs reclaiming, or even spirits working with the pirates or captured by them. Spirits could cause monster attacks or animals to be far more vicious then they would be normally, so could add in some monster encounters.

What food does this village rely on? If they forage on the island, then their people are in danger of either starvation, or getting killed/captured trying to feed people. What food do they have stored away? And where does their water come from? How does this village make money?

Also, no mole? You can have all sorts of fun with a traitor. Why are they betraying their village, or did they sneak in begging for help or pretend to be a shipwrecked sailor who can help them out? The mole could sabotage their food or even steal it for the pirates. Pirating is hard work and you need a hearty meal afterwards, anyway! The mole could frame them, and make the villagers suspicious of the newcomers. They could even sabotage defenses, letting the pirates come in unless the Player Characters have the skills to check over said defenses. What defenses does the village have, and where is it situated?

Also, if you detail out the plan, you know how much resources the pirates want to expend to take over this place. Why do they want a small village on a tropical island? After a few deaths, what is preventing the pirates from hightailing it out of there and going to a place with less murderhobos other then themselves?

When in doubt for small details I have not planned (like, does this island have poisonous snakes for venom to be harvested from?) I just roll a d20. 1-10 means no, 11-20 means yes. And then I come up with a quick explanation for why these details exist. Note that this is about setting details, not requests.

A bit ramble-y, but I hope that helps.

Spartakus
2015-06-27, 04:49 AM
When I plan an adventure, I ignore the idea of what the players will decide to do. Because they will always find a way to do something I have never intended. Forever shall it be that I can never predict what the players will do.

What I do is I plan out what the NPC's plan is before the Player Characters arrive to throw a wrench into everyone's plans.

Exactly like this. Prepare what happens if the chars do nothing but sitting on the beach and enjoying the holiday. Not in every detail but the general plan of the antagonists and other major NPCs. Maybe the pirates have a backup-plan "in case something happens with our first group" because they are used to having minor problems with the locals. But they would certainly have no backup plan for the backup plan.

But you can prepare some things that don't rely on NPCs. If you want the PCs to stay a while on the Island put some interesting places or people to explore in it. Rumors about a treasure in a spider/zombie infested cave. An old magical place protected by a grumpy treant. Whatever you can imagine. Just think of a reason why it is there and why nobody has explored it yet. The curiosity of PCs is one of the few things you actually can rely on.
This also gives you a point where the PCs are absent and the pirates can attack the village. PCs hate it when somone takes their stuff or kills NPCs they know:smallamused:

And another point: Dont worry if it seems hard to improvise things on the spot. It takes time and training but you will get better.

NomGarret
2015-07-01, 01:45 PM
For me the best balance point of preparation and improvisation is to plan about two sessions at a time and have a random encounter in hand as well. That way if the players go where I expect, I'm ready. If they circumvent or plow through what I had planned for that night, I have the next spot ready. If they go off in a completely different direction, and it's interesting, I let it happen. If they go off in a completely different direction, and it's uninteresting, I have the random encounter.

TheThan
2015-07-01, 01:59 PM
To be a good GM, you need to be able to use what you have to improvise for when your PCs do something weird. Take a look at your setpieces, and think - if the PCs do X thing, do I have everything I need, or should I add another NPC here or another location there? It will behoove you to prepare some super-generic locations and challenges you can use at some point down the road, with a brief change of description sufficient to pad out the session while you desperately try to patch the plot back together.

Pretty much this.
Figure out what sort of options the PCs have at their disposal, and then plan for them to take each of those options. The less improvisation you have to do the smoother your game will run. When they inevitably come up with something you haven’t anticipated; then you improvise; having things handy to improvise with, is also very important. some generic premade NPCs, locations and encounters will help along way to making your game run smoothly.

also you should know your player's personalities and the sort of shenanigans then tend to try to pull. so when they try to pull them it's of no surprise.