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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Haltherrion" data-source="post: 5331875" data-attributes="member: 18253">My games seem to go better with preparation and best with both preparation and flexibility. Meaning, for me, it helps to have encounters ready to go and some thought into interesting plot hooks but if the players do something unexpected, it is nice to run with it. Often there are ways to incorporate the prep'd stuff into the unexpected path anyway. I don't write classic modules but I do like to do a "deep dive" in a focus area if I can identify one appropriate to where the game is. My upcoming arc is an example. As a meta step, I asked them what they wanted to do next. Some options were multi-session arcs: <ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">odd jobs in the current location as they had been doing</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">follow up one of the PCs connections and get involved with some intrigue among some human kingdoms</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">go an expedition that promises a far amount of fighting</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">something else they wanted to suggest</li> </ol>For me, to do intrigue right requires proper context and preparation, a fair amount of it, and I didn't want to do it unless they were interested. For #1, odd jobs can certainly be ad lib'd but they can easily be prep'd as well. Anyway, they went with #3. For that, I've prep'd some encounters to use that vary from none (if they sign on with a caravan) to a lot. The encounters will be randomly selected if needed based on where they are going and what route they chose. Unused ones can always be used later. For their destination location, I've worked up the notable people and creatures in the area, some locations, some of the local tribes/groups, some possible random encounters, and the locations of certain places of interest to them. How they interact with it is up to them and many prep'd things may not get used but having them available gives me lots of options and as I usually do, if something different pops up, I'll go with that. I've had some good ad lib'd sessions but if that's all I try to go with, my game tends to fall below the type of game I'd like to run. But I don't claim to be great at ad lib'ing.</blockquote>

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