Frustrated DM...

I run in the forgotten realms, I want to share the realms with my players, but its seems so hard to do that. Everything keeps getting stuck in one place.

I have a hard time flowing because it seems I am a sucker for detail. I hate railroading. I hate being arbitrary. I don't like saying that somthing happens because I think it would be cool, I like things to happen because that makes sense. I like my players to do what they want and then face the consequences for making a raid into the goblin lair. I don't plan things, I just think of how things are and how they react to the players. But with running it this way, to get the detail I want, I have to put in a lot of work. I would like it to be openended, but I can't seem to provide that with the level of detail I want.

Its like a zen thing. I want the players to feel free to go to different locations and get involved with things, but I want to be detailed enough so when the details matter I can provide fun and exciting situations. Essentially, I want to find a happy medium between rule mongered dungeon crawls and simple arbitrary storytelling. And I want to do it without more than a few hours of preparation a week. I want dungeon crawls, fights with interesting terrain, and character death lurking around every corner but I also want politics, drama, and high adventure. All at the same time. They seem to mix like water and oil.

The more openended I am, the less key characters get statted, the less detailed locations are, and it seems to me the harder it is when all hell breaks loose and the PCs have to have a confrontation with some powerhouse I just looked up or made up.

Do I seek the impossible? Are my frustrations just?

Aaron.

You have touched on one of the main reasons I avoid DMing as much as I can.

Key tip for DM'ing: Don't worry about details until you need them. Sketch out the politics and such, and only get into detail in the week(s) leading up to the session where they will come into play.

Conversely, detail out that goblin lair and the consequences when they get there, not too much before.

Don't concern yourself too much with the stats of guys the PC's may fight until they are likely to fight them.

Plan out as much as you can, without getting bogged down. It's a fine line. I can't tell you exactly how I do it, but I seem to manage that line well. Also, keep in mind that pacing is more valuable than following every possible rule. If the choice is between guessing a DC and taking 2 minutes to look it up, go ahead and guesstimate it. The players will never know that that DC 15 climb check should have been DC 10 - and even if they think so, they'll probably guess you upped it's difficulty for legit reasons.

Which brings up another corallary. Don't tell the players that you're winging it, and they will never know. It's best if they think that even the totally off the cuff stuff is preplanned. I know that although I am a big-time planner, that some of my best NPC's and ideas come to me on the spur of the moment. If the players knew that, they wouldn't react in the same way.

Your frustrations are at least partially unnecessary. The secret is that you don't need to give your players free choice, as long as they think they have free choice. You're striving for a Platonic ideal that you really don't need.

It's like what I do for a living. I specialize in a fairly obscure field; I don't know everything, but I know more than the people I'm talking to. That's the secret to being an expert in something, and DMing works the same way.

In gaming, I usually have a handful of interesting NPCs and gripping fight scenes thought out, but they're modular; they can be moved where needed. Then I have two to four different plot lines that the PCs can choose. They'll pick the one they want, and my modular encounters will then be fitted into that plot line.

Mind you, you need to separate consequences and encounters. The consequences will probably be different if the group goes down path A instead of path B, but they'll still meet this cool NPC and fight these cool monsters. They didn't know that those encounters had been originally intended for path B and had gotten moved! If you know physics, it's like Shrodinger's Cat; until they choose their actions, your encounters exist in a limbo and can be moved wherever needed.

This balancing act allows you to provide fun fights and cool NPCs, but still let the PCs roam where they will. It works really well for me, and I seldom have more than an hour or two of prep time per week.

I'm pretty much of the same mindset as you are. I like very broad options for my players but when I queried them, I got the complaint that there were too many plot hooks. Eventually most of them will interweave back into the core direction for the campaign, but as players they were getting frustrated because they as a group were having a hard time deciding which one to explore. So I've tightened things down a lot and they seem to be happier.

You might check with your players... if they're like mine they'd like a lot more direction to be given by the DM. You may end up saving yourself a lot of work and still satisfying your urge to be creative and comprehensive. If they still want a lot of "free will" plan for your plotlines to interrelate more... present in game reasons for players to go along with certain lines you've developed. It's the same idea as a magician "forcing" a certain card. They do it without the audience realizing they are doing exactly what the magician wants. As PirateCat pointed out, if the players believe they have free will, they'll stay happy.

These threads always turn into a bunch of people saying more or less the same thing.

So why stop now?

Here's a solution I have found invaluable, and in fact paid off for me just last night in the latest episode of Barsoom:

Always have handy a couple of maps, some assorted monster stat blocks, and vague memories of old gaming sessions. Last night my PCs got themselves to the capital city of Kish, and managed with some pretty clever manuvering and mostly just really fast running, to install a brand-new Tyrant on the Iron Throne.

See, the current Tyrant is actually an undead monster known as the Tyrant's Shade, who rules half the world. Now, his tomb is just outside the palace along the Street of Waiting Tyrants, and much to my surprise, the PCs decide, the instant New Tyrant is installed, to go racing off to the tomb of the Tyrant's Shade to grab some little silver box they know is in there.

I have not keyed this admittedly important encounter location. I haven't even thought one darn bit about it. Bad DM.

But I HAVE got a generic dungeon map I picked up somewhere and have had sitting in my folder for the past year, just in case something like this happens. And I have vague memories of running Tomb of Horrors sometime in the early eighties, a module I know for a fact none of my players have been through (this is why you should always DM multiple groups -- you get more milage from the same tricks).

So suddenly I'm running a half-remembered version of Tomb of Horrors (uh, everybody make a Reflex Save. Okay, the hallway starts tilting...), making EVERYTHING up as I go, and my PCs are having a ball trying to find this silver box before demigod undead monstrosity comes home.

That's a little more flexible than I really like to be, but because of the way Barsoom is structured, I don't always know where my PCs are going.

So always keep a couple of maps with you. Dungeons, caverns, and an inn will probably cover most of your eventualities. Then you can at least have a reference point to guide you in emergencies. And if they have some unique features to make them memorable, so much the better.

Barsoomcore, that is a great way to describe it - "vague memories of old gaming sessions." Yeah, I have done this. If I am feeling really vauge, I might pull events from multiple gaming sessions and roll it all into one.

Back to Jester47's post.

Illusion of free will is important. Consequences make the world seem alive. Once they begin down one path, it gets harder to get off that path and accept the consequences. Whenever possible, you want your players beginning to commit to a story arc. They will be sucked into it and they won't want to leave it. Then, you can begin to let the rest of the world run on auto pilot while you plan what comes next in the story arc.

Keep dropping snippets of information about what else is going on so the world doesn't feel like it came to a standstill while they did their story. But, don't make it easy and compelling to leave the story arc you are on. If they hear about the invasion of a kingdom from the refugees that fled, the impetous to save the kingdom is diminished. After all, the kingdom was already invaded and people fled. Something happened that is interesting, but the players will probably want to stay on track with their mission/quest/whatever.

So, you let them choose the story arc. You give them chances to get off that train. You provide them with enough information that they don't like the answer if they do get off that train. You only need to plan for one story arc at a time.

Of course, there will be little one-offs. Maybe a brawl in a bar with the NC barbarian you just made up because he would add a little flavor to the bar. Then the captain of the town guard that is arresting the PC's for disturbing the peace. Stuff like that will still catch you off guard. But, you probably won't feel quite as frustrated as you do now.

Hey guys,

keep the replies comming. I am starting to get an idea of how to find the line for myself and every little suggestion (even if they are all the same) helps!

Aaron.

One problem you mentioned is having quick stats for NPC's...

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=67915

That should come in handy.

Besides, Baraendur says it's well laid out !

If you guys have any examples of situations, or thought processes involved in making those modular setups, I would be very greatful to see them.

Thanks!