[Advice] Putting more options in my games

I've been a DnD player for a long time (on and off for about 18 years) but I have never before DM'd. Now I've just moved to a new country and I'm DMing for an old friend from home and some people he knows. I'm loving the world building stuff, but I'm findign adventure writing hard work. That hardest part is making my adventures non-linear. I feel like everything is a little "So this happens" and the players take the only course possible "then this happens" so on and so forth. I'd like to be able to put the players in a situation where I don't know exactly what they will do. I guess as they become more powerful, they can be approached by other people or something like that. Maybe I should do some site based adventures instead?

I know there is a wealth of DMing experience on these boards, so let me know what you've done!

I think this kind of thing comes mainly from experience, not only as a DM but also knowledge of your players and how they work within the game...
so you know how to twist them to your Whim......

hmmm... maybe what i need to do is to actually play one of those Dneon adventures, or another published adventure like Death in Freeport. cos I've read Dungeon a few times (since the RPGA magazines merged) and I don'tquite get how hey've worked.

Olive said:

hmmm... maybe what i need to do is to actually play one of those Dneon adventures, or another published adventure like Death in Freeport. cos I've read Dungeon a few times (since the RPGA magazines merged) and I don'tquite get how hey've worked.

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Play through one of the adventures, or pick up Sunless Citadel or one of its ilk. I have been DMing for about 9 years, and that is the way I leanred. Good luck!

My advice would be to not plan out any one adventure at all. Just developing several plot hooks and throwing them at the players – or even letting the players dig them out of NPCs – is a good way to hint at the fact that the world goes on without the hero’s. Having two or three somewhat developed adventures that you can add onto later through improvising is a great way to allow freedom to the players to choose there own path.

This is another issue, letting the players find there own direction for their characters. If they are all good people and the someone from the town approaches them and expresses his people’s need of them to clear this or that cave of goblins then that is groovy and all but if the party cleric decides it is his business to stop the growth of the cult of Badguy in a neighboring city or one of the characters spots that poor orphan they saved a few weeks ago living in squalor and decides to adopt it than the players are the ones initiating the interesting encounters and adventures. This can help the players feel more connected to the communities they are so often risking their lives to protect and it can also help give them the idea that they can as characters in your setting affect changes on a more meaningful level than simply preventing this or that catastrophe – a lot of which is doing little more than maintaining the status quo anyway.

So, improvise more and let the characters seek out adventures actively – you know, the way adventurers do.

Usually what I do, to keep my games from being too linear, is that I come up with the main NPCs of the adventure and write down their motivations towards not only the PCs, but also each other. I also include any guilds or noble houses involved, and how they fit into the mix. I write down how the plot will move forward with or without the PCs, and what events CAN be influenced by them.

Then I just 'wing it'. I refuse to write down every possible outcome as players have a nasty (or wonderful, depending on how you see it) of suprising the crap out of their DM. This tends to happen even more with published adventures IMHO. By winging it, I leave every option to the PCs, but I have a framework for them to work within in for form of the NPCs motivations and the parties concerned actions.

The best way to 'wing it' is to buy an established city setting, such as Kenzer's Geanavue: Stones of Peace. The wealth of information gives you alot of material to work with, and its enclosed enough (within the city walls) for you to remain somewhat in control of their whereabouts. Plus theres a ton of NPCs, guilds, nobles houses and settings within almost every citybook out there for you to have a working plot w/o having to plan out every action and reaction the players will have.

Ive been DMing now for 15 years, and once I realized that this is an excellent way to write adventures (at least for me), my DMing got alot better and my players had a ton more fun.

Plus the world of a city seems truly alive when the NPCs have their own plots, sideplots and intrigues independent of the players, yet affected by them.

Hope this helps somewhat.

-=grim=-

Wow methinkus, thats creepy. We posted the same idea in a way, at the same time, and we both live in Albany. heh, must be the drinking water

-=grim=-

PC choices

Comments by Methinkus were right on. I've DM'ed forever it seems like. Once your PC's have established themselves in the world, they should be falling all over themselves discovering adventures just through interaction with their environment. However, you need something to get you to that point and again, Methinkus was right on. I'm just starting a 1st level Forgotten Realms campaign (my first, I've always been homebrew) and my PC's are just taking on a mundane, simple job for now. At the other end of it is a drow incursion, threat of foriegn subversion and invasion, the depridations of a fanatical religious cult and the, as yet, unknown return of a whole race of practitioners of dark magic who are bent on taking over the world! That's not to mention the everyday sort of evils. Just give them several choices (3?) and follow them. Good luck.

Thanks for that...

Anyone else have any salient advice?