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<blockquote data-quote="Rechan" data-source="post: 5663279" data-attributes="member: 54846">What you might also do is simply shift from looking at it like planning out the method that players will do something, and instead focus on what it is they need to accomplish in the first place. For instance, &quot;Your mission, should you accept it, is to acquire the secret plans from the villain's library.&quot; They could kick in the door swords drawn. They could sneak inside. They could pretend to be servants. They could bribe a servant. They could hire a high level thief. They could set fire to the opposite side of the house and, in the confusion, rush the library. They could... The point is, you focus on designing the defenses around the library, the guard rotations, etc. Know the building. Then, unless the PCs just pay off someone else to do it, then you're set for several possible avenues. You also prep what happens to the information once the PCs get it to who it belongs to - will they be betrayed? Was there a spell on the villain's safe that made them easy to track down once they got away? Another way to shift your thinking is to put the ball in the player's court. You ask them &quot;So, what do your characters WANT? Well, if you want it, then go get it. I won't hand you the adventure, you go make it.&quot; Then you just have the world react to what they do. You may toss in a plot or two of your own, but the goal here is to make them do some of the sweating, deciding what to do and where to go, and you simply have the location ready and the consequences ready.Less 'alter the way you think about GMing' would be to have some prepared scenarios to stall. The &quot;You come across something weird on the road&quot;. A single encounter or side trek that you can drop in several locations. This is so you can either buy time to think of how to deal with their latest scheme, or to fill up the session if they went too fast through your prepped adventure and there's still an hour of game left.Finally, there's no shame in admitting to your players, &quot;Dang guys, I didn't prep for that. Could you give me five minutes to think?&quot;</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Rechan, post: 5663279, member: 54846"] What you might also do is simply shift from looking at it like planning out the [i]method[/i] that players will do something, and instead focus on what it is they need to accomplish in the first place. For instance, "Your mission, should you accept it, is to acquire the secret plans from the villain's library." They could kick in the door swords drawn. They could sneak inside. They could pretend to be servants. They could bribe a servant. They could hire a high level thief. They could set fire to the opposite side of the house and, in the confusion, rush the library. They could... The point is, you focus on designing the defenses around the library, the guard rotations, etc. [i]Know the building[/i]. Then, unless the PCs just pay off someone else to do it, then you're set for several possible avenues. You also prep what happens to the information once the PCs get it to who it belongs to - will they be betrayed? Was there a spell on the villain's safe that made them easy to track down once they got away? Another way to shift your thinking is to put the ball in the player's court. You ask them "So, what do your characters WANT? Well, if you want it, then go get it. I won't hand you the adventure, you go make it." Then you just have the world react to what they do. You may toss in a plot or two of your own, but the goal here is to make them do some of the sweating, deciding what to do and where to go, and you simply have the location ready and the consequences ready. Less 'alter the way you think about GMing' would be to have some prepared scenarios to stall. The "You come across something weird on the road". A single encounter or side trek that you can drop in several locations. This is so you can either buy time to think of how to deal with their latest scheme, or to fill up the session if they went too fast through your prepped adventure and there's still an hour of game left. Finally, there's no shame in admitting to your players, "Dang guys, I didn't prep for that. Could you give me five minutes to think?" [/QUOTE]

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