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Message: <blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 6088911" data-attributes="member: 463">Also, I'm happy to prep Bangs that I then discard/never use, because they don't fit with prior PC action. For this reason it's important not to over-prep: player action  may often mean I don't use that cool scene I had in mind before the session. And that's fine - that's what open-resolution, non-railroaded play is all about. Pre-prepped scenes centred around a single PC are often the riskiest, especially with 4e's encounter-centric design. I once had a beautiful set up for a particular PC - she'd be in a country inn when she was recognised by the bad guys hunting her from her backstory, likely leading to an epic multi-level battle over 3D terrain, all of which I had lovingly prepared over several hours. Player did not turn up, never returned to the game (left the country!), all the material was unuseable and wasted. Since then I've always tried to avoid heavy-prep scenes dependent on one PC. I was pretty worried on Tuesday when the Tiefling (Vialya) player was late that he wouldn't turn up, and my big dramatic scene with Vialya's Tiefling mother Zeb'oltha would go to waste - but the encounter would still have run as a regular combat between Zeb'oltha, her minions,  and the other PCs, wasted prep would have been ca 15 minutes not 3 hours.</blockquote>