Bored with knowing what will happen next

[Ry]

I'm defnitely not sick of DMing, I sure as hell don't feel like being a player in somebody's campaign.

I've basically got a prep method down, games take no time to put together and they're a breeze to run. My players are happy. But I'm bored with knowing what will (probably) happen at a game.

Any suggestions on how to add more unexpectedness on the DM's side of the screen?

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

Put more of the plot in the player's hands. I used to come up with about 4 or 5 adventure hooks that I'd give to the players at the end of an adventure and say, "Pick one." The one they pick would be the one that I would prepare for the next session.

 

[phindar]

Give the players more control at the table. Something like Fate Points or the Swashcards from Scratch Factory, that can change the course of the adventure. You have five or six brains at the table, might as well use them. Most of the time, players are already suggesting things, usually by saying Wouldn't it be cool if.... The trick is to harness that energy productively.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Encourage the victi.... players to speculate. Lots of times they come up with things that are far more subtle and downright mean than I could on my own.

And it can be a lot of fun to play off those kinds of things.

 

[The Shaman]

Any suggestions on how to add more unexpectedness on the DM's side of the screen?

Go random.

I'm co-refereeing a Traveller game right now, and each of us uses nothing but the random encounter tables each time we play to create the action - no pre-planned adventures or hooks. It's a fun way to run the game, because it requires a lot of on-the-fly, seat-of-the-pants interpretation of the results - even we don't know from week to week what the adventurers will face.

 

[Ry]

What would you suggest for such a table?

 

[The Shaman]

What would you suggest for such a table?

Try the tables in the 1e AD&D DMG - make a random cave system for the adventurers to explore, with random monsters, random treasure, random noises, random odors, et cetera then come up with the why of it all as you go. Let the tables give you all the elements of the adventure, and explain how they fit together to the players (and yourself!) after the fact.

 

[Ry]

Thanks. I don't htink that's really what I'm aiming at though; I'd still know basically what would happen each session (those tables don't add puzzles or something do they?) Monsters will be different, but there's no surprises for me beyond "aw hell, that wasn't a CR 15 monster in 1e..."

 

[der_kluge]

Are your other players comfortable GM'ing?

If so, you could try Round-Robin gaming. Each person takes turns GM'ing a portion of the story around the table. This is mostly only good for one-shot games, but the game won't look anything at all like what you started when it comes back around to your turn.

Or, you could try a broader approach - let a different GM take over your game for a few weeks, and then give it back to you when he's done. It'll probably be completely different.

 

[Grimstaff]

Ingredients for a fun session of DM'ing:

1 Wilderlands of High Fantasy
1 Mother of All Encounter Tables
1 Tome of Horrors
1 MM
1 DMG
Pick a hex (these are 5 mile hexes)
Pick another hex a hundred miles away.
Give your players a reason to go there (the count of Clifton needs a scroll of Cure Disease now! etc).
Send your players to the market for provisions for a hazardous 2 week journey (wagons, horses, hirelings, food, water, etc.)
Start traveling.

The wilderlands guidebooks and MoaET will show you what can happen, you just referee what they throw at you, the story will slowly build around this.
DM'ing this recipe gives the DM as many surprises as the players, only you get to tie everything together and enjoy building (during play instead of by yourself before hand) the actions and motivations of the countless NPCs, cults, villains, martyrs and so on the Wilderlands will provide for you.
You may not believe, but the other Wilderlands DMs on these boards will support me here, your campaign will literally build itself and you'll love every minute!