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Old 07-20-2019, 09:24 AM   #11
Anaraxes
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Default Re: The "B" Campaign

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Originally Posted by woodchuck View Post
Remember in many or most cases your players will not know nor care how much effort you put in to crafting your games.
Most people don't know or care how much effort is put into crafting a novel, or a movie, or a song. That doesn't mean they don't benefit from or appreciate the effort, even if they're not aware or appreciative in the same way a fellow crafter would be.

Then, there's a lot of throwaway dreck in those fields -- and the lack of care often shows. But then, some people enjoy that, too, sometimes even because it's obvious dreck.

Plan accordingly.
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Old 07-20-2019, 07:11 PM   #12
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Default Re: The "B" Campaign

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Originally Posted by Mark Skarr View Post
Cut up the plot, file off NPC serial numbers and reuse them in the future. It's only a waste if you throw it all away.
Just be cautious that you aren't caught running a Roman sandbox: All roads lead to my prepared plot. I've played in games where the illusion of choice became obvious, and we saw that we had been on a railroad and had only been choosing which car of the train we rode in.
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Old 07-21-2019, 09:36 AM   #13
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Default Re: The "B" Campaign

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Just be cautious that you aren't caught running a Roman sandbox: All roads lead to my prepared plot. I've played in games where the illusion of choice became obvious, and we saw that we had been on a railroad and had only been choosing which car of the train we rode in.
I don't get why that would be a bad thing.
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Old 07-21-2019, 11:27 AM   #14
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Default Re: The "B" Campaign

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I don't get why that would be a bad thing.
From the players' point of view, there's all the non-fun of being on a railroad, combined with having had the illusion of choice which has now been taken away.
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Old 07-21-2019, 04:56 PM   #15
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Default Re: The "B" Campaign

I design locations and NPCs, generate the relationships between these things, and let the PCs unravel the web of relationships however they choose to do it. This does mean a fair bit of worldbuilding prep work, but I'm not going into complete detail with each aspect, just what the PCs are likely to interact with.
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Old 07-28-2019, 04:13 AM   #16
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Default Re: The "B" Campaign

I run two completly different types of campaigns one for when the group is just out for a bit of lighthearted fun which can be quiet railroady (prepared more or less from first to last step) and high on combat encoutners being more game less roll play. But then that type of game has been decided and everyone knows this is lighthearted fun and monster slaying doing the quest is what we are going to do today and everyone is into that.

Second the more common and usually long winded campaigns I usually do a lot of background work on setting, imporant, NPC's, potential treasure if that kind of game, stuff that can happen and is happening on the larger scale. Then I set the players loose and se what does happen and how they mess up the setting. Some events will run in the background even if they don't choose to take part the world around them is alive and changing. But prepping more then very short plots (1-2 sessions) and usually ones indicated the PC's intend to follow these days seem useless, the player are making the story as the GM I usually provide options and twists not the complete path. Even so prepwork for many but perhaps not most sessions take much longer then playing them.

Someone above mentioned re-using what you have done with different names when it does't come up the first time. I also do this and it is a great way to ensure that at least 50+% of prep time is useful.

Last edited by exalted; 07-28-2019 at 04:30 AM.
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