Preparing when you have no idea what the PCs will do

[MadLordOfMilk]

(Note: For system-specific stuff, I usually run D&D 4e)

Sometimes, I haven't the faintest where the PCs will go or what they will do in an upcoming session. Pre-writing encounters almost borders on pointless/incredibly difficult, because I don't know what'll come up. Trying to figure out story elements is also difficult because, nine times out of ten, they go a way I hadn't expected whatsoever.

I'd love to just say "Please, I can just wing it!" but, though that is an option, I like to have something to work with. What's a DM to do in this situation?

Thanks in advance!

 

[fba827]

you're not alone - I have the same problem all the time.

To counter this, I usually come up with a couple stand bys ...

1) Come up with 2-3 encounters that can be tossed in but still fit some ongoing theme or plot. Like a group that works for the big bad eviil guy from some ongoing plot, maybe someone from a PC's background coming after them for some reason (be it combat or noncombat), etc)

2) I come up with a 2-3 plot hooks and ways to introduce them at the start of the session. They can serve as the stand by if the players are meandering without ideas, or if they seem to be rushing off in a direction that you hope to delay for one more session ... just make sure at least one of these plot hooks, if used, would have some sort of time urgency or otherwise have some goal/benefit that is so appealing the PCs would follow it first/now (i.e. have some carrots ready to dangle and entice them)

3) similar to the above, have an encounter that might serve as a road bllock or detour, plain and simple. a side-trek if you will. maybe the road the pcs choose on the side of the mountain has an avalance and they have to detour through a cave that you just happen to have prepared... maybe they get zapped by some crazy wizard and that puts them in some different area that you can have prepared, etc.

4) prepare to wing it, and wing it hard. reread any campaign notes you have so that the various plot hooks are somewhat fresh in your head. at least so you know what theme/flavor you want

5) glance through a couple scenarios/encounters/adventures either published or online/etc just to get -ideas- so that when you do wing it, you may be able to pull some feature/thing you saw in that scenario/encounter/adventure.

6) while this should (in my opinion) only be used as an absolute last and final resort, consider just asking the players if they can hold off on X until next session because "you had one more thing you wanted to work out for that particular option"

Edit, adding 7) See if you can't wrap up the previous session with getting the PCs to start their travel in the next direction, thus answering the question for you... "just as you start to head out ...; okay guys let's stop there, and pick up next time" (not exactly like that, but you get the idea)

Edit, adding 8) Ask them over email "what are some plots/ideas your PCs are considering following up on for next session?"

anyway, that's all i can think of off the top of my head. i can't help but feel like i'm forgetting something else, but this is what happens when you're old like me

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I am not big on improvisation and this is one of the things that I feel I could stumble upon, too. From what I gathered about others that are better at this than me, I notice that it's not "improvisation out of nowhere".

Experience helps a lot. Experience with DMing in general. Experience with your players (ability to anticapte the directions the ymight go, even if not always concious). Experience with the setting you play in.
Experience with the game system (to come up with encounters and resolution for anything that might come up fast.)

Preparation of the "right" kind. It's not necessarily about preparing specific encounters. But it helps to know things like:
- Which NPCs are around?
- What are their goals and personalities?
- What is their relationship with or attitude towards the PCs, if any?
This is important to "drive" a session. Another aspect is just being able to come up with something new on the spot, and here "generic" NPC traits can help, for example in form of a random table.

It also is useful to have an idea of locations the PCs might visit - areas of interest, how can you get there.

"Sandbox" DMs often seem to have tables for random encounters depending on locations. Even if you don't like random encounters (I don't), tables of this type can give you idea what the PCs might encounter or what you could prepare.

Obviously, the more experience overall you have, the more of this you will happen in some way anyway.

The right type of preperation is not having specific "plots" in mind. "A happens, PCs do either B or C which leads to D or E". It's more about having all the ingredients of a plot and let it unfold depending on whether the PCs touch on it it or not.
For example:
Your city has a mayor, a merchant guild, and a thief's guild. The mayor dislikes the current leader of the merchant guild. The thief's guild is probably robbing merchants all around the city. There are warehouses around town belonging to the merchant's guild. There is a city hall. There is the mayor's private residence. There are some thief hideouts. There is the city watch and its main building and the 3 city gates. You don't have any grand plot of the thieves trying to rob something important or anything at this point, which the PCs have to engage. But that's one plot that you could probably come up pretty fast. If the PCs decide for some reason to contact the mayor, you might improvise something about them investigating some warehouses to prove illegal smuggling operations. (Even if you never thought of it before - naturally the merchants might have going on something like that! And if you think this merchant guild leader is not the type for it, maybe the mayor is setting him up. Or someone in his organization does it without his knowledge.). With your table of NPC traits, you might quickly improvise some shady merchant doing this, maybe plus a corrupt city guard working for him. If the PCs contact the merchant guild leader, he might be worried about some recent break-ins and ask the PCs for aid in exchange for their help.

 

[Somebloke]

If you have a vague idea as to what sort of enemies in general they are going to be facing, then generate an 'encounter table' of general encounters from the character's level -1 (they do something really smart and bypass most of the encounters) to +5 (they manage to make that orc hoard they were meant to negotiate with really angry). If this sounds too complicated please note that this takes all of 10 minutes to do with the DMG and MM in front of you.

As for skill challenges- these tend to be really easy to wing. Just come up with some general ideas and go for the basic scenario style outlined in the DMG. Quite frankly I find it easy enough to run really quick ones based entirely on character roleplaying cues.

 

[Fanaelialae]

You could ask the players to plan their next move between sessions and let you know what they decide. This approach has worked well for my group in the past. We have an unwritten rule that if you're planning something completely off the wall (such as creating a temporal paradox), you're supposed to let the DM know a week ahead of time, if possible, so that he can plan appropriately. Otherwise, it's usually the DM who requests that the players give him a direction to plan around.

 

[Nebulous]

I generally try to plan ahead with enough material for at least three hours of gameplay. I often do much more than that, but i want to have enough for a single session and then options if things don't work out as i expect. And of course being ready and willing to improvise at the drop of the hat is essential to any DM skillset. I don't mind a little improvisation, but i could never ever run a pure sandbox where the players wander around doing their own thing. My players wouldn't like that either, they like having some plot rails.

 

[Mark Chance]

You might find it help if you don't prep plots.

 

[Umbran]

Sometimes, I haven't the faintest where the PCs will go or what they will do in an upcoming session.

Well, first a question - why don't you know? Solution - make sure you do know!

I generally wrap a session with a question ("So, what do you guys plan to do next?"). If they don't know, I encourage them to figure it out in e-mail or something, and to let me know.

My players know I am a human being, and that I cannot adequately prep in a vacuum. This is not an unreasonable request - make one of the players' responsibilities to communicate plans to the DM. We are not adversaries, such that they should keep secrets from me.

A hint - always have some things that will impinge themselves on the players in your back pocket. Your world is supposed to be a dynamic place with things happening in it that don't currently involve the PCs, right? Well, that means occasionally those events will impinge upon the PCs whether they like it or not. Have a session's worth of them ready - if players are not taking initiative, generally they're willing to take a hook you hand them.

 

[Engilbrand]

I make almost everything up on the fly. I may have an idea of what they want to do for the next session, so I cobble together a couple of ideas and see what happens. For the most part, though, I let them do whatever they want. There's a major plot, and every session builds towards it, but I don't know what I want to do until they get to a place where it seems like something fun and interesting should happen. This usually ends in a heap of awesome.

 

[Nifft]

Make a plan that does NOT involve the PCs. (Advanced mode: make several, each of which could mess up the others.)

Prep the NPCs in terms of their motivations, rather than in terms of their actions or roles. Have the NPCs easily able to react to the PCs because you know what each NPC cares about, and you know each NPC's agenda.

Plan a surprise or two, which doesn't depend on any particular action on the part of the PCs. For example: "Dragons attack from the sky!" -- there are many, many locations which are vulnerable to attack from the sky. As soon as the PCs are in one of these locations, and you have nothing better for that location, bang! -- dragons attack.

If the PCs have specific enemies gunning for them, the surprises are easier, since you have at least one NPC with the motivation "screw over the PCs". When they're in that NPC's jurisdiction, they should expect ambushes, assassins, etc.

Plan for a few hours of play, but don't put too much work into it, because your plans are the fallback position. The best outcome is the players taking the plot in their own hands, and your (hopefully not very hard) work being ignored. In my experience, I threw away about half of what I wrote, and of that (wasted) half I was able to recycle about 75% of it.

Cheers, -- N