Hey, DM, what should we do now?

[Henry]

Whenever players are in that situation, it helps to have some goals directly outlined, as you said. It's a hard line to draw between "railroading" into one or two choices, and giving TOO much choice. My preference is to give two to four CLEAR goals the party could pursue, but if someone wants to go some other way, then let them know they can do something not in the list. That way, those who don't know what they want can take inspiration.

In my homebrew world, I know every nook and cranny, and can let the players go wherever they wish. I just started a short-run Forgotten Realms game, and am trying to build my knowledge of the Realms where I can do the same thing with them.

To me, this is the Best DMing style - to know your campaign so intimately, that all you need are some pre-fab stats, a table of new names, and your pencil and dice, and you can build any adventure they see fit to wander into.

 

[Pielorinho]

In between story arcs, I ask players what sort of stories they're interested in exploring next. A political game? A dungeon-crawl? A storyline in which gods figure prominently? One in which their PC gets involved in a war? A planehopping storyline?

As much as possible, I try to build the next story-arc around their requests, and around the need to bring in any new PCs. And then I dangle plot-hooks in front of the PCs to lead them toward the adventure. They might get strange results on a divination, or they might receive a letter asking them for aid. Maybe I encourage a player to in-character advocate travelling to their homeland.

Once they're going on the adventure, I try to modulate my hints and hooks. If the PCs are going gangbusters through the adventure or are being really proactive, I'll have the world around them go into reactive mode, to a large degree. If the PCs are floundering, then a friend or an enemy will approach them to get things jumpstarted.

Daniel

 

[The_Gneech]

I've had two different groups that I was the primary DM for; one group was very aggressive, the other very passive.

The aggressive group was extremely easy and fun to DM for; all I had to do was provide a world, and they'd create their own adventures. "A gem the size of a baseball? I'm THERE!" "Let's head down to the tavern and find some trouble to get into!" and so forth. The best part was, they'd ask questions that led to me creating cool stuff for them to do. "Is there anywhere around here I can sign up for bodyguard duty?"

The downside of this was that they were constantly derailing scenarios. "The princess has been kidnapped!" "Oh, what a shame. I'm gunno go assassinate the leader of the theives' guild." "But! The princess! Kidnapped! Don't you want to rescue her?" "Not especially." I had to learn to come up with fixes on the fly in a big way, and I enjoyed that, but there were times when it would fall super-flat.

The passive group, OTOH, requires a lot more work on my part. It's easy to get them involved in any scenario I may come up with ... all I do is put a sign on it that says, "Adventure, This Way" and they'll happily follow the plot -- but that means I have to sit around and think it all up. This does make for easy planning, but it also can be kinda boring; it feels pretty repetitive to come up with a story when working up the scenario, and then just going through that same story when running the game.

One of the players in this passive group DMs his own game, and strangely enough, he's also something of a passive-aggressive DM. He has a certain way he wants the scenario to go, and he gets flustered when we either A) don't respond to it the way he was expecting, B) don't WANT to follow the plot he's set up, or C) entirely circumvent the problem he's set up by using a spell he wasn't planning on or some neat tactic.

In order to make the game work, I often find myself reading the plot as he telegraphs it and having my character do things that will have it go the way he wants ... although my natural inclination is often to do something else entirely. But that would just make him want to know why I was trying to break his story.

The problem with being a CN ftr/bbn in a NG wiz world.

-The Gneech

 

[Fenes 2]

To me, this is the Best DMing style - to know your campaign so intimately, that all you need are some pre-fab stats, a table of new names, and your pencil and dice, and you can build any adventure they see fit to wander into.

Yes. Although I prefer it if I can build the adventure with some time to prepare, and not right at the table - I improvise enough as it is with the sidetrecks my players stumble into, or decide to pursue.

 

[the Jester]

I'd probably point out all the things on their table they hadn't attended to yet- but the pcs I dm for are sloppy about making lots of enemies and getting in over their head and never clean up all their messes.

I guess I'd probably tell them what each choice looked like, from their perspective- without recommending one or the other.

 

[Larry Fitz]

I have no problem discussing the type of adventuring the players want to get involved in OOG, but as for specific suggestions of what to do next, if I prompt them at alll it will be with NPC's IG not me saying "hey the dire dolphin of doom is holding Patrick Duffy hostage in it's lair, you should go there!"

 

[MarauderX]

Spoon fed

Some groups I have had needed each piece to a puzzle given to them, and it made city adventures a drag when they just went from point A to B because the last clue they got told them to. Mystery adventures became really fun for them and boring for me as they would hop from one spot to the next pretty quickly, and anything that stumped them would tend to hold up the game, which is never good.

On the other hand I have received good feedback for an open campaign that had some BBEG that they were after that crossed them in some way, and now it was an effort to track him and his organization to bring him down. In between adventure encounters the party felt free to take time out to create magic items, train, etc. and basically put the campaign on hold once they felt drained by following the plot I had set up. I didn't pressure them to get going when they were in between chapters, and they liked going on one session side-trip adventures once in a while that didn't have to do with anything finding out more about or chasing the BBEG.

Then when they finally do get the BBEG, they switch gears and get back to relaxing, taking game-time off. Once that happens they often times ask themselves "what do we want to do next? should we go back and fully explore that mysterious island we left behind?" and therein another adventure pops up, sometimes leading into another plot hook that was previously ignored to get the BBEG.

This is also very helpful for me as a DM, as I can focus on where the PCs may go and what they might do, which makes it all the more interesting for all of us. Having a dragon just sitting in his lair waiting for the PCs to stumble along does just not happen IMC. I gotta have it thought out or it just won't be a good adventure/campaign to me, and as a player I expect DMs to do the same.

 

[Mark]

There might be some additional info in the-

DMing Advice thread

Hope that helps!

 

[Shadowdancer]

The last time my players asked me that question, I told them to go to Hell. But I wasn't kidding.