Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="maddman75" data-source="post: 3475041" data-attributes="member: 2673">Because I'm paying special attention to the start, beginning, middle, and end.  I'm not going off some script, I'm setting up a conflict, introducing and expanding on it, and bringing it to an emotionally satisfying climax.  Them killing the BBEG early is rarely the problem.  Its usually that they resolved the conflict in a way I didn't anticipate, or go in a completely different direction.  The aim is to have the evening's gaming end with that climax, not when they reach it in my script.The other extreme from railroading is completely freeform.  The game takes place in a simulated environment - say a dungeon.  The game picks up in whatever room they were in when the last game ended, and it ends in whatever room they are in when time is up.  This gives the players freedom, but it doesn't grab them at the start, it doesn't build them through the session by exploring their conflict, and it doesn't bring it to a close at the end of the night.  That can lead to games that don't grab the players the way I want them to.This isn't for beginners.  Nor is it really for players - the players needn't have any clue this is going on.  Just that the games are completely awesome and satisfying.  I'm also not saying this is the end-all and be-all of gaming - this is one way to make a fun game.  Its me basically writing out what I *do*.  I don't make plans, I set up a conflict.  The PCs can resolve it however they want.  What I do is by use of pacing, scene framing, and narrative is to guide things into the intro-conflict-climax pattern.  I've found this makes for really good games.Buffy was a huge influence on me, and got me to think of gaming in episodes.  Its infected the rest of my gaming, and I strive to make each session like an episode on a TV show.  There's the same characters and places and ongoing plots, but at the same time a self-contained story is created within the session.The problem is that my style is highly dependant on the characters in play.  The only way I could write a module is with pregenerated characters, and even then it isn't going to get the idea across.  The hardest session really is the first one, because there's nothing to build on, I don't even have a firm grasp of how the characters will be played.  There's no way I could write a game for someone else to run with someone else's characters - even if I did they would have to do it themselves.  The plot in this style isn't ignored.  It also isn't prepared ahead of time.  It is created real-time, at the table.  Its impossible for me to get my plans ruined, because I don't make any.  If I'm thrown a curveball I just follow Piratecat's golden rule - ask myself what's the coolest thing that could happen right now?  Forget all my plans, forget anything that I might have prepared.  Things in my notes are suggestions - if something cooler comes up I go with that.The essay posted is not complete, and I think this conversation is highlighting some areas I need to explain myself a little more clearly.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

Verification