Please Critique My Session Notes

I am from the GM School of "Winging It" and these are my Pre-Game Session Notes from my current Mutants & Masterminds campaign. I would like to introduce two major encounters and one major plot advancement. Please advice me on my style of note writing. How can I organize it better.

Are the notes too vague? too short? not enough information? How can I arrange it so it's easier to access it during the session?

Thanks in advance for you suggestions

PJ

Pre-Session Notes:

Encounter: Traffic Jam - Session begins with cab ride to Revival Meeting; alot of traffic and cab driver accidently "bumps" car in front. A verbal confrontation ensues with very large and muscular man. This gives Jessica (AKA Inferna) and Johnny (AKA Dynamite) time to catch up.

Encounter: Revival Meeting - At Revival Meeting, Pastor David Blank gives sermon about sin and healing; then will call up "the sick" in need of salvation. Marcus Raymond (The Ghoul) approaches Pastor and gets "slained in the spirit"; then turns to The Ghoul and attacks him.

Plot Advancement: Rave Kipnapped - Charles Smith (head of Project: Genesis) authorizes hospital to transfer Rave to "secret" hideout (ASTRO Labs); will perform final stage of Project: Genesis on Rave.

is this all that actually happened during the game?

I assume the PCs already committed to going to this "Revival" thing from a previous session?

Otherwise, there's no notes on hooks on why they should go, nor info on if they are late to the scene, since there was traffic.

Where do you keep your notes on NPC stats (like the bad guys)? A seperate document?

How do the PCs know that Rave was kidnapped? Seems like the Plot Advancement is more of a "in the background note". Perhaps you need an encounter where the PCs learn of the kidnapping (either witness or news, or frantic person).

This list seems kinda short, only 2 real encounters. Do other things happen during the game?

Janx

I consider myself to have a bad short-term memory - so if I read your notes once and pretty much had the thing memorized I imagine you could do the same.

In a situation where you have more info, maybe organizing each of the three sections into
"summary"
"location"
"characters"

as in

Summary: car accident - argument with muscle dude

Characters:
Muscle Dude
Jessica
Jonny
Bystander A

Location:
Street outside of Arby's

The idea is to know quickly who is involved (so you can find character sheets, metal miniatures, etc.) and where it's taking place. I can't really read paragraphs comfortably while I'm GMing, so I like lists.

Plot Advancement is something I never write out ahead of time - I'll refer to one of my comments on the "DM Railroading" threads.

Janx said:

is this all that actually happened during the game?

I assume the PCs already committed to going to this "Revival" thing from a previous session?

Otherwise, there's no notes on hooks on why they should go, nor info on if they are late to the scene, since there was traffic.

Where do you keep your notes on NPC stats (like the bad guys)? A seperate document?

How do the PCs know that Rave was kidnapped? Seems like the Plot Advancement is more of a "in the background note". Perhaps you need an encounter where the PCs learn of the kidnapping (either witness or news, or frantic person).

This list seems kinda short, only 2 real encounters. Do other things happen during the game?

Janx

Click to expand...

The game has not happened yet. The players are already en route to the meeting and will hit traffic.

The world pretty much lives in my head; I try to make it come alive. I envisioned what would happen, how I would roleplay the NPCs (and stats are already written out). This will delay the players if they get involved, which they should because they are heroes and the confrontation will escalate to an all-out brawl. But it's all up to the player's action(s). What they do will have an outcome to the next encounter. If they are late it might affect the outcome of the meeting, in which the villain transforms into the creature and attacks the crowd. But when the players arrive and the transformation happens all depends on what I think would create the best drama and tension. Now if the players take way too long dealing with the incident then probably the best drama would be for them to arrive at the meeting and everyone is already dead. This is a decision that will be made based on the flow of the game and if the session is going well.

The plot regarding the kidnapping and how the players find out will also depend on how the adventure is going at the time. Maybe it'll be a phone call from the doctor, or maybe even the villain himself. Maybe the players go back to the hospital and find out then.

Our sessions are about 3 hours long. Two major encounters plus everything in between should fill up the time. And if it doesn't, then I'll "wing it."

I really like the idea of listing the encounters instead of the "stat block" look. That is a great suggestion and I will re-write my notes.

Janx, I thank you for your reply. It has made me think about adventure more and even though the notes are vague, I think if it was more detailed it might be difficult referring to my notes in the heat of the game.

PJ