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View Full Version : How do you plan a session?



Totally Guy
2008-09-01, 04:55 PM
I'm just wondering how people sit down and actually put together a session.

I mean do you consider it as a series of encounters built around the story and flesh from there.

Or a list of likely options the PCs will take splitting the possibility tree.

Do you plan the world and gather enough detail to allow a sandbox.

Plan a timeline whereby the world is affected an evil plot without the pc's intervention.

And then how is it recorded?

Me, I have a big A4 notebook just filled with cool scenes that I think are coming up. As they become appropriate I put them into the story.

Self indulgent text wall stuff in box.
Last session I had "that scene where someone on the stage would probably get assasinated" and loads of scenes that just didn't get used. The scene where the gnomes climb into the scientist's tower at steal reagents, the scene where the mayor thanks the party for something, the scene where the party spy on the BBEG's dodgy dealings. I even had a scene where the BBEG is blinded by the PC's sabotaging his lens+mirror experiment, but that one got chucked when I was told by the players that lighthouses go near rocks not docks... The lighthouse was quickly changed into a windmill and I do know how they work.

So I might see if I can put those scenes in the next session.

Scenes that I didn't plan the I had to make up... the scene where the PC's walk up to the BBEG's front door and start asking him questions about the BBEG without asking for his name or knowing who he was... :smallsigh: That was metagaming on their behalf. They'd just been asking every NPC for their names and I was struggling to assign the right name to the right NPC so they thought they'd be nice and not ask the guy that lived in the big menacing tower what his name was.

And another scene I had to make up was after the political defeat of the BBEG through the PC's saving his life he went to the pub and had a drink with the adventurers. That was surreal.


Anyway I have all kinds of difficulty trying to find the right pages in the heat of the action. What's a better way of keeping track of the session? Is there anything besides my big ol' pad of paper I should consider?

JellyPooga
2008-09-01, 05:05 PM
Mostly, I keep it all in my head.

I build a world to encompass whatever story I have in mind (whatever that may entail, from an entire planet with mythology and everything to a single building). Then decide a few important plot points and make NPC's that need stats and go from there really.

PC's, if given free reign, can always think of something you didn't plan for, so trying to second guess the possibilities is pointless. Likewise, planning set encounters and trying to get your players to resolve it in X, Y or Z way is like trying to teach a cat tricks (i.e. almost impossible), so IMO your best bet is to have only vague ideas and make most of it up on the fly...that's what I do anyways. It can be tricky sometimes, if you have a mental block, but in my experience it's the best way to run a game.

Lycan 01
2008-09-01, 05:23 PM
I build the setting up in my mind.

I then decide where the PCs begin, and what their mission is.

I figure out, from player personalities, what the likely choices will be over the course of the game.

I jot down every possible situation that can arise from these choices.

Yes, I waste a lot of time on things that never happen. But I'm never unprepared. :smallamused:

Totally Guy
2008-09-06, 04:03 AM
That's pretty key advice there. Expect the unexpected.

Anyone else prepare for sessions or are we the only ones? I'd have thought that everyone would have an opinion on this topic.

AstralFire
2008-09-06, 04:17 AM
I plan sessions when it's fairly obvious the PCs won't have major deviations from what was generally set out for them to do within the last session, so I can speed things along. Or if I'm trying to run anything where they have to do research. In that case I think like I'm playing a D&D cRPG and design extensive NPC branching paths of dialogue, etc. They're still allowed to deviate, but the thing is I usually plot out enough that they don't actually have anywhere else to deviate -to-. A lot like Lycan.

When planning is neither practical nor useful, I go totally seat of my pants. I have enough NPCs plotted out and a good enough grasp of spontaneity that the only PC who's been able to figure out when I'm doing which with any regularity is my girlfriend.

Bug-a-Boo
2008-09-06, 04:50 AM
My favourite method is to keep it all in my head and wing it. It gets pretty hard at times, but my players forgive me if I need a moment to ponder all the ramifications of their latest actions.

It's my favourite, because being forced to come up with things on the fly and still have it all fit together is fun and very rewarding if it goes well. And good mental excersize too.

BobVosh
2008-09-06, 04:55 AM
I like to have a general idea of what I want to happen. Then everything is winged.

Mastikator
2008-09-06, 07:59 AM
Do you plan the world and gather enough detail to allow a sandbox.This.

I also improvise a lot when there are details I missed, and add the improvised details into the world.
And change and add more details between sessions.

I don't really record it, my memory works fine and I rely on the players to remember stuff too.

nagora
2008-09-06, 08:33 AM
If I want to kick the PCs into action - and that's something that you nearly always have to do with a new party - then I look for or create an NPC/monster who has a reason to interact with the party. They may be an attacker, a patron, a relative, a government representative, or basically anything which will cross paths intentionally or otherwise with the party. Sometimes it might be an environmental event like an earthquake or hurricane rather than an NPC, but that's rare.

Then, I note down what that main NPC is attempting to achieve and their alignment. This gives a good basis for deciding how they react to the party's actions or demands/barganing as applicable. It also means that, if the party simply walk/run away or are defeated, I know what happens next and I'm not depending on the players to do pre-determined actions in order to work out the flow of events. So, no possibility tree but I do have a form of the "timeline whereby the world is affected an evil plot without the pc's intervention", but there's no assumption that the NPC is evil.

With that sorted out, I look for somewhere to set the game (if it's a new party, obviously an established party are already placed somewhere) and look around at what other NPCs might obviously become involved and think about their reactions and perhaps what resources they may provide either side if approached.

The last phase is stating out anything that might need stated and creation of random encounter tables for the area if I don't already have some. These are graded for toughness/level based on where in the world we are, not the party's level. I will normally start a party of 1st levels in a civilized area and let them work their way out to the dangerous frontiers or whatever at their own speed.

With this ready, I start the players a little ahead of the main NPC's plan so that they can get settled into the sandbox and perhaps, if they're lucky or paranoid enough, discover what's coming before it happens and thereby prepare for it or even prevent it ever happening.

As long as I as DM play all the NPCs and monsters as if they were my own characters then each event follows naturally from the combination of what each NPC/monster desires and the actions and reactions of the PCs and other NPCs. So, once the ball is rolling I rarely have to do much further prep for latter sessions except read over notes from the previous one.

valadil
2008-09-06, 08:51 AM
I do the notebook full of stories too. It's also got statted NPCs arranged by affiliation.

Basically I write up an outline of what I expect to happen. It's actually really straightforward most of the time. (Note that we rarely stick to the outline, it's just a list of things I'm well prepared for.)

I try to split the session into three sections: beginning, middle, and end. I also aim to run them as talk, fight, talk, or fight, talk, fight. I also try to make sure the last part ends on a high note so the players go home happy. You can beat them up for 95% of the game, but as long as they win in the end they're usually happy.

Back to the outline. It's basically a list of what I expect to happen. I do write out descriptive text ahead of time, but only because I suck at improvising it. NPC speech will sometimes have key phrases planned out, but rarely the whole speech. That's something I'd rather improvise.

Within the outline I also include page references for any rules we might have to look up. Usually this is just to the MM, but other books have come up.

Session planning takes as long as I have free time. I can write a four hour game in a half hour if pressured, but I'm much more likely to give each session an afternoon or two. I have a hard time figuring out how much game to write because I don't know how long it'll take to get through. My general estimates are that die rolling activities take 3 times longer than expected and roleplaying activities are 3 times shorter. In general each page I write takes an hour to get through.

Raum
2008-09-06, 10:28 AM
I'm just wondering how people sit down and actually put together a session. I mean do you consider it as a series of encounters built around the story and flesh from there. Or a list of likely options the PCs will take splitting the possibility tree.I plan NPC actions based on their goals and the situation as last session left it. Other than asking players what their character's goals are, I don't try to plan player character actions. Unless you're scripting the storyline that's bound for disappointment...probably fairly quickly if you have creative players.


Do you plan the world and gather enough detail to allow a sandbox.Not usually. A sandbox is difficult to accomplish unless the PCs have strong goals and the players are proactive about sending PCs after them.


Plan a timeline whereby the world is affected an evil plot without the pc's intervention.Sort of...I'll give the antagonists goals and make a preliminary plan of how they intend to accomplish them. No time line though, not worth the effort when it would change as soon as the PCs did something to interfere.


And then how is it recorded?It used to be notes in three ring binders, one for plot and one for NPCs. Using a wiki now, it works better. Makes it very easy to track nonlinear notes and relationships.


Anyway I have all kinds of difficulty trying to find the right pages in the heat of the action. What's a better way of keeping track of the session? Is there anything besides my big ol' pad of paper I should consider?Try a wiki (http://www.tiddlywiki.com/) it works pretty well for me.