Michael Silverbane
Adventurer
I use roughly about a quarter to a third of what I prepare for any given game. Which is... not much of it, to say the least. But I like to keep my campaigns really very open-ended and let the players' characters drive the story, going where ever their whims take them. I have stacks and stacks of sites and characters that the PCs have seen once or twice... if at all. Entire plot-lines, with kingdoms rising and falling have gone by with the PCs hearing nothing but rumors of their comings and goings in a distant, unvisited land.
I'm not really discouraged by it, though... because I have a good time writing the stuff up and imagining the various scenarios and transactions that could take place, whether the characters witness (or interfere with) them or not. And my players have a good time taking part in adventures that are as much of their own making as mine.
That said, if there's some event or scenario that I really want to happen, it'll happen (usually with some modification) wherever my players are at the time. Or if there's a site that I really want them to visit, then some problem comes up wherein the solution to that problem can be found in that site.
Later
silver
I'm not really discouraged by it, though... because I have a good time writing the stuff up and imagining the various scenarios and transactions that could take place, whether the characters witness (or interfere with) them or not. And my players have a good time taking part in adventures that are as much of their own making as mine.
That said, if there's some event or scenario that I really want to happen, it'll happen (usually with some modification) wherever my players are at the time. Or if there's a site that I really want them to visit, then some problem comes up wherein the solution to that problem can be found in that site.
Later
silver