Things you left out, but wish you didn't

[Walking Paradox]

What are some of the things that you don't think of when you are generating a character or writing an adventure, but wish you had by the time you start playing or running it?

For me, in characters, there isn't all that much, since I've played GURPS so much. Basically, I am used to being forced to iron out every detail that my character could possibly have, since there is a points incentive. Other games don't have this though and I know other people will have their thoughts.

For adventures, I rarely bother with generic NPCs or with things like the weather and I often find myself wishing that I had some kind of generic NPCs nearby or a random weather generator.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

There's no one thing that repeatedly crops up. However, I almost inevitably forget SOMETHING when designing a campaign.

 

[aco175]

I used to worry more about not using things like in depth npc's and weather more, but find that I do not have the time to devote to these aspects. I spend as much time staying a few weeks ahead of what the encounters are path of the campaign.

One thing not given enough time is magic items. Right now I just tell the party, "you find an item, level X". The group understands fine enough, but it is not the best use. I should have a list of things the pc's want and try to give placed treasure each level and a few misc. items for flavor. I would like to also develop some sore of rare item for each tier system that can be laid over existing items to make them better, or ideally a book of rare items all on their own with charts to help make your own.

I do ok with each encounter to make them enjoyable. I should use more traps and terrain to set each apart from each other. I do not really spend much time on maps like I used to, so each tavern and dungeon is skimmed over for encounters which get more time developing. I recycle some small towns and villages from past games and freely steal maps and such where I find them. One thing that would be neat is a site where people could post encounters and other stuff like maps and npc's for other to use free, not sure on anything legal though.

 

[jonesy]

One time I had everything done from characters to locations to plothooks and plotlines to everything imaginable..

..except I kinda sorta forgot to make a map of the campaign world and no longer had any idea where any of it was.

 

[Tamlyn]

Like everyone else, my RL is pretty hectic. So by the time I get to the table I'd forgotten half the stuff I'd prepared but was sure I wouldn't forget and I'd forgotten to prepare half the stuff I wanted to.

NPC personalities. The few times I'd prepared ahead of time and included personalities and flavor have led to memorable NPCs that the PCs still check in on. Other times I've wanted them involved and since I didn't include anything memorable for the NPCs, the PCs just don't care.

Monsters. My players have all played since 2E, at least, so they've seen everything. I re-skin, steal from other systems, or create my own monsters as often as I can. Which invariably leads to me forgetting special actions, powers, or items that I had intended to include.

Magic Items. Same as monsters. I want to include something new and unique that the players hadn't seen before. And I often forget qualities or powers that I'd originally intended.

[MENTION=27385]aco175[/MENTION] If you're looking for maps, I steal heavily from davesmapper. If I refresh it often enough I'll usually find exactly what I'm looking for. Then I just need to remember to populate it.

 

[aco175]

Great site, score!

 

[Pentius]

It isn't always the same things, but I always forget something. Another thing that crops up is that I need to get to know my group better. It seems like the NPCs they like most are the ones I've barely fleshed out, while the ones I spend any time on might get remembered as "That elf" or 'The mage".

 

[Jimlock]

I always forget that my character might never face closure, in respect to his background.

 

[SkredlitheOgre]

I generally forget special abilities of enemies in combat. Even if I have the entry for the enemy in front of my, I forget what they do as I try to keep track of everything that's going on.

In on 3E campaign, the barbarian in the group got hit with a mind flayers mental control. Because there were eight players and numerous enemies, I forgot about that point until one of the other players reacted. Unfortunately, I forgot long enough for the barbarian to do some pretty hefty damage to the mind flayer.

 

[Ringlerun]

I have a problem naming my characters so alot of the time i leave it blank. I then work out a name as the game progresses but sometimes i have been put on the spot. This has led to some utterly unheroic and stupid names for characters. My heroic star wars smuggler ended up being called Derek. And worse of all my uber elf wizard who would go onto to destroy continents and defeat gods got lumbered with Gayland " Insert joke here" So now i keep a few good names in my folder for emergencies.