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GladiusVCreed
2015-11-04, 07:09 PM
In my time of experimenting as GM, I'm wondering now on this point: How do I keep story lines straight?
I've read before that players generally chart their own path, and to expect them to stick to any one "story mode" as I call it is unreal. I agree with that, because some PCs are straight up brilliant, and others are straight up insane. To have prepared something for every possibility is near impossible, if not all the way. What I have been doing is making it up on the fly, but I'm not too happy with that.
Is there anything to GMing that I'm missing out on? Or is there something I can do to help me with this?

ngilop
2015-11-04, 11:08 PM
In my time of experimenting as GM, I'm wondering now on this point: How do I keep story lines straight?
I've read before that players generally chart their own path, and to expect them to stick to any one "story mode" as I call it is unreal. I agree with that, because some PCs are straight up brilliant, and others are straight up insane. To have prepared something for every possibility is near impossible, if not all the way. What I have been doing is making it up on the fly, but I'm not too happy with that.
Is there anything to GMing that I'm missing out on? Or is there something I can do to help me with this?


For me I have a general over arching storyline. I tell the players the premise of the game before characters are created. Or if it is one of the times that the players were all like "hey we all wanna be Halfling nomads who are the sole survivors of a brutal X race raid. Then the players have a goal in mind and a baseline to create their concepts and actions around.

I plan for the 4 or 5 most obvious choices, and definitely put a carrot out in front of the 'best' 2 sometimes 3.

To me players not sticking to one 'story mode' sound horrific, every game I have ever played in or DMed has had cohesion and was parallel in regards to how the players made choices and took action. The thought of the various players doing what ever they wanted all willy nilly like would have gotten looks at best and heated words with a 'get back on track' slap.

But if you feel that is 'unreal' then Keep on playing how you feel the game should be played best. After all its your game, and youshould ply it like you want.

Nobot
2015-11-05, 05:53 AM
I generally improvise the first two-three sessions, throwing hooks for major quests (along the lines of 'defeat prime evil', 'halt magical plague', 'find artefact x') until the group takes one and is really into it.

From there on, I start planning as I'm nearly 100% confident they're going to follow the path. I do occasionally throw another hook at players as we go forward, just to see if they're still interested in the main and wouldn't rather barge off and do something else.

This works for me and might be worth trying for you.

Scorponok
2015-11-05, 06:08 AM
I write the story the way it would play out if the PCs didn't exist at all. Kingdom A invades Kingdom B, then a bunch of stuff happens. The PCs then come in and may or may not change the ending. If they don't even touch the 'main' quest, it then becomes interesting background filler. Most of the time, the PCs wandering off and doing their own thing ends up with bad guy eventually demanding their help and if they refuse, taking the fight to them and becoming their enemy.

LnGrrrR
2015-11-05, 01:32 PM
I like to try to throw out two or three options, with them being thematically different. (For instance, one might be requesting help escorting a VIP from one city to another (mostly hack and slash), another might be infiltrating a bandit's group to get info (half rp/half h'n's), and a third might be a request from someone to act as ambassadors in order to solve a problem (mostly rp).

Hopefully, at least one of the options sounds interesting. If not, then I'll have them hear some "rumor", and make them spell out the story themselves. I trust my players to not be ridiculous, like, "Hey I heard there's this building with a +10 sword and it's protected by a single skeleton!" Because if they DO something like that, they'll soon find out it's a +1 sword protected by at least ten skeletons...