Campaign Design via Prediction

[the Jester]

When I design a campaign that is story-heavy enough to need forethought and design ( ), a big part of what I try to do is predict what my pcs want to do. Especially in my epic game- where the pcs can pretty much go anywhere and do anything on a moment's notice- I sometimes don't have a choice; I can't choose where the pcs go anyway.

Case in point: I'm currently feverishly working on the second arc of my low-magic experimental campaign, and although I'm working up the details on what will happen if they don't follow the path that I think they will follow, I'm focusing on their most likely course. This lets me prepare a better game for what I suspect that they will do, and it also lets me save a lot of time compared to what it would take to generate the same level of detail on everything they might do as what I am writing for what I think they probably will do.

Anyway, I am wondering whether other dms out there spend a lot of effort on predicting what their pcs will choose to do, and how much it affects your prep work and prep time.

 

[Piratecat]

It's most of my prep time.

Like you, my epic level PCs are crazy-stupid-mobile. I spend a lot of time thinking about what the most likely path is that they'll take. I usually scribble out a flowchart. Then I compare that to what the bad guys are doing, making note of any scenes that are so cool I want to make sure they happen (almost) no matter what.

I really like this type of design. It plays to my strengths as a DM, and is fun for me.