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<blockquote data-quote="Riley37" data-source="post: 6633413" data-attributes="member: 6786839">A cogent point.Some variations:(A) You have a game session from 7 to 10 o'clock. At 9:30, the PCs are returning from Mission A. At 9:45, they're resolving downtime activities, and that's when you start the tavern scene. At 10, the PCs have answered, the session is over and you know which story to prepare for the following session. (Also, foreshadowing, and the players might have good ideas between one session and the next).This breaks the pattern of &quot;session start and end = storyline start and end&quot;. Not viable if you're running Adventurer's League, of course, but breaking assumptions *you didn't even know you had* can sometimes lead to an especially enjoyable game.(B) If the PCs turn down the mission as offered, then the storyline which you then make available, involves going to the same locations, with the same inhabitants. Perhaps the mask-seeking cultist tries to solo the mission, having failed to outsource it, and the PCs, having declined the mission, now must stop him, and they are hot on his trail, and the adventure is 99% the same sequence until they catch up to him at the Final McGuffin.Either he can bypass some encounters which the PCs have to resolve more directly, or there are encounters which persist after he passes them; for example, he fights his way across the Passage Blocked by Wasps, and the PCs then have to cross the same passage... sure, the cultist killed some wasps, their corpses are crunchy underfoot, but a fresh set of wasps has emerged from the nest and now blocks the PCs' passage.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Riley37, post: 6633413, member: 6786839"] A cogent point. Some variations: (A) You have a game session from 7 to 10 o'clock. At 9:30, the PCs are returning from Mission A. At 9:45, they're resolving downtime activities, and that's when you start the tavern scene. At 10, the PCs have answered, the session is over and you know which story to prepare for the following session. (Also, foreshadowing, and the players might have good ideas between one session and the next). This breaks the pattern of "session start and end = storyline start and end". Not viable if you're running Adventurer's League, of course, but breaking assumptions *you didn't even know you had* can sometimes lead to an especially enjoyable game. (B) If the PCs turn down the mission as offered, then the storyline which you then make available, involves going to the same locations, with the same inhabitants. Perhaps the mask-seeking cultist tries to solo the mission, having failed to outsource it, and the PCs, having declined the mission, now must stop him, and they are hot on his trail, and the adventure is 99% the same sequence until they catch up to him at the Final McGuffin. Either he can bypass some encounters which the PCs have to resolve more directly, or there are encounters which persist after he passes them; for example, he fights his way across the Passage Blocked by Wasps, and the PCs then have to cross the same passage... sure, the cultist killed some wasps, their corpses are crunchy underfoot, but a fresh set of wasps has emerged from the nest and now blocks the PCs' passage. [/QUOTE]

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