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<blockquote data-quote="Unwise" data-source="post: 6513058" data-attributes="member: 98008"><p>Yikes, I feel bad now. I seldom have any notes at all for a game. I quiet regularly run games without even having a plot, or any ideas to work off. I literally make things up as needed. The players think it is a sandbox and they have a lot of freedom, little do they know I am not so much being accommodating, but rather just making stuff up as they go.</p><p></p><p>Most of the time I have a good idea about what the PCs need to do and why, but that is about it. It is probably more like 15 years since I actually wrote up an entire dungeon and populated it with monsters and treasure. I have used published adventures before, but tend to make them go off the rails a bit every bit as much as the players do.</p><p></p><p>The funny thing is, all of our games tend to be part of large sweeping campaigns rather than small adventures. It is rather common for me to only begin to find out what the campaign is actually going to be about 3 adventures into it. </p><p></p><p>In some games, I even set myself little "DM traps" to test myself. Like I will include something odd, like the fact that only a certain players smells something weird in an area. Without having any idea why myself, just trying that I will come up with something cool when needed. Pulled off well, it looks like a lot of prior planning was involved. That particular example ended up turning into a pretty character defining trait, led to him joining a secret society and ultimately played a significant part in defeating the BBEG.</p><p></p><p>Some games don't lend themselves well to this style of play, like 4e and Shadowrun, but 5e seems built for it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Unwise, post: 6513058, member: 98008"] Yikes, I feel bad now. I seldom have any notes at all for a game. I quiet regularly run games without even having a plot, or any ideas to work off. I literally make things up as needed. The players think it is a sandbox and they have a lot of freedom, little do they know I am not so much being accommodating, but rather just making stuff up as they go. Most of the time I have a good idea about what the PCs need to do and why, but that is about it. It is probably more like 15 years since I actually wrote up an entire dungeon and populated it with monsters and treasure. I have used published adventures before, but tend to make them go off the rails a bit every bit as much as the players do. The funny thing is, all of our games tend to be part of large sweeping campaigns rather than small adventures. It is rather common for me to only begin to find out what the campaign is actually going to be about 3 adventures into it. In some games, I even set myself little "DM traps" to test myself. Like I will include something odd, like the fact that only a certain players smells something weird in an area. Without having any idea why myself, just trying that I will come up with something cool when needed. Pulled off well, it looks like a lot of prior planning was involved. That particular example ended up turning into a pretty character defining trait, led to him joining a secret society and ultimately played a significant part in defeating the BBEG. Some games don't lend themselves well to this style of play, like 4e and Shadowrun, but 5e seems built for it. [/QUOTE]
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