Preparing when you have no idea what the PCs will do

[The Shaman]

From what I gathered about others that are better at this than me, I notice that it's not "improvisation out of nowhere".

. . .

Preparation of the "right" kind. It's not necessarily about preparing specific encounters. But it helps to know things like:
- Which NPCs are around?
- What are their goals and personalities?
- What is their relationship with or attitude towards the PCs, if any?
This is important to "drive" a session. Another aspect is just being able to come up with something new on the spot, and here "generic" NPC traits can help, for example in form of a random table.

. . .

"Sandbox" DMs often seem to have tables for random encounters depending on locations. Even if you don't like random encounters (I don't), tables of this type can give you idea what the PCs might encounter or what you could prepare.

. . .

The right type of preperation is not having specific "plots" in mind. "A happens, PCs do either B or C which leads to D or E". It's more about having all the ingredients of a plot and let it unfold depending on whether the PCs touch on it it or not.
For example:
Your city has a mayor, a merchant guild, and a thief's guild. The mayor dislikes the current leader of the merchant guild. The thief's guild is probably robbing merchants all around the city. There are warehouses around town belonging to the merchant's guild. There is a city hall. There is the mayor's private residence. There are some thief hideouts. There is the city watch and its main building and the 3 city gates. You don't have any grand plot of the thieves trying to rob something important or anything at this point, which the PCs have to engage. But that's one plot that you could probably come up pretty fast. If the PCs decide for some reason to contact the mayor, you might improvise something about them investigating some warehouses to prove illegal smuggling operations. (Even if you never thought of it before - naturally the merchants might have going on something like that! And if you think this merchant guild leader is not the type for it, maybe the mayor is setting him up. Or someone in his organization does it without his knowledge.). With your table of NPC traits, you might quickly improvise some shady merchant doing this, maybe plus a corrupt city guard working for him. If the PCs contact the merchant guild leader, he might be worried about some recent break-ins and ask the PCs for aid in exchange for their help.

That's all very, very good advice. For someone who's "not big on improvisation," you have a remarkably strong grasp on how to go about it.

You might find it help if you don't prep plots.

Some good advice there as well.

Prep the NPCs in terms of their motivations, rather than in terms of their actions or roles. Have the NPCs easily able to react to the PCs because you know what each NPC cares about, and you know each NPC's agenda.

And that's pretty much what I was going to add.

Most of my prep time is spent on creating non-player characters, in particular their goals, and finding ways to connect them together into a web of inter-relationships. I've used the analogy that this is like a dungeon map, with the characters like rooms with monsters, traps, and treasure and the connections between them like corridors. The events of the game come from the adventurers interacting with the non-player characters: they make friends, they make enemies, they set goals, they help friends achieve goals, they hinder enemies' pursuit of goals.

 

[Beginning of the End]

Sometimes, I haven't the faintest where the PCs will go or what they will do in an upcoming session. Pre-writing encounters almost borders on pointless/incredibly difficult, because I don't know what'll come up. Trying to figure out story elements is also difficult because, nine times out of ten, they go a way I hadn't expected whatsoever

Are you talking about "I don't know what they're going to do" or are you talking about "I don't know how they're going to respond"?

The former is relatively simple to solve: Ask them. When I wrap up a session I almost habitually ask, "What are you planning to do next time?" There may be times when I know something they don't that will probably send them in a completely different direction, but in general there's no better way to get a firm grasp on "what I should be prepping" than by asking what they're planning.

Solving the latter is simply a matter of prepping resources instead of encounters. Don't Prep Plots gives some insight into designing a "toolkit". (EDIT: Oh, hai. I should read the thread before posting.)

Could we get a specific example of this? Either something you've experienced in the past or something upcoming? Then we could discuss specifics.

 

[TheYeti1775]

Really depends on the game.

If your a fill in DM, flying by seat of pants is most likely.
If your the main DM, your world is in constant motion with or without the PC's.

Most of the time this is solved via email between sessions in games I DM. Most one on one character stuff is handled there as well, and group actions during the game.

I find knowing the PC backgrounds very helpful in these times as you can guessimate what reactions will be to situations.

Have several random encounters prepared if you need filler, or time to really plan if they randomly go off in direction Z when you only planned A thru F.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Make a plan that does NOT involve the PCs. (Advanced mode: make several, each of which could mess up the others.)

Prep the NPCs in terms of their motivations, rather than in terms of their actions or roles. Have the NPCs easily able to react to the PCs because you know what each NPC cares about, and you know each NPC's agenda.

Plan a surprise or two, which doesn't depend on any particular action on the part of the PCs. For example: "Dragons attack from the sky!" -- there are many, many locations which are vulnerable to attack from the sky. As soon as the PCs are in one of these locations, and you have nothing better for that location, bang! -- dragons attack.

If the PCs have specific enemies gunning for them, the surprises are easier, since you have at least one NPC with the motivation "screw over the PCs". When they're in that NPC's jurisdiction, they should expect ambushes, assassins, etc.

Plan for a few hours of play, but don't put too much work into it, because your plans are the fallback position. The best outcome is the players taking the plot in their own hands, and your (hopefully not very hard) work being ignored. In my experience, I threw away about half of what I wrote, and of that (wasted) half I was able to recycle about 75% of it.

Cheers, -- N

The broad answer in a nutshell is right here.

A quick question: is this the first session of a new campaign or did the PC's just finish up with everything they were involved in?

 

[Ourph]

Stop worrying about what the PCs are going to do and think about what YOU are going to do TO the PCs. In other words, don't let your game world sit back and wait for the PCs to come to it, have it go after them. Have old enemies send assassins after them, thieves steal their hard-won loot, local adventuring companies recruit them or try to stamp out the competition, local charities ask for their help or somebody frame them for a crime they didn't commit, etc.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

I'd ask my players what they plan on doing next session. Then prep accordingly.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

That's all very, very good advice. For someone who's "not big on improvisation," you have a remarkably strong grasp on how to go about it.

I think thanks to EN World I kinda got the "theory", but I haven't had much opportunity to actually and consciously apply it. And maybe I just like to play down my abilities as DM to ensure that people are only ever pleasantly surprised.

 

[MadLordOfMilk]

Thanks for the advice, everyone! As the OP I haven't been terribly responsive, mostly because my responses would be little more than "thanks! ....thanks again! ...cool, thanks!" etc. The responses are all pretty clearly-explained, so there aren't really major questions to ask. So, thanks!

I do think the most straightforward/easy solution is "just ask them," which I can't believe I didn't think of earlier. I'm definitely going to use a bit of all of the above, though! Lots of solid advice.

...Could we get a specific example of this? Either something you've experienced in the past or something upcoming? Then we could discuss specifics.

A quick question: is this the first session of a new campaign or did the PC's just finish up with everything they were involved in?

Mostly, I'm talking about when the PCs just finished everything up. Something like "OK, it's 11 o'clock and you just utterly destroyed your primary enemy, that whole situation is pretty much over with, let's call the session now," then you later realize you're not sure what they're going to do.

Certainly, I should've tied hooks/etc into future adventuring in what we were doing beforehand, but that doesn't mean I always manage to

As far as starting campaigns, for that I usually either start everything in action, or ask people what sort of game they'd like to play so I can prepare stuff along a general theme, so that's less of an issue for me.

 

[roguerouge]

Surf their reactions, be responsive, say yes to things, have two drinks before you start to rev you up or relax you, listen to their brainstorming, and, when all else fails, follow Raymond Chandler's advice: "When in doubt, have two men come through the door with guns."

 

[brainstorm]

Improv vs Prep

As a player, I hate it when DMs make things up on the fly - and I'm not talking about a little clue or a slight alteration to a plan, but wholesale making it up as you go. In my experience, it generally comes across as the DM doesn't have a clue as to what they are doing. I'm sure there are DMs out there that can improvise whole campaign arcs on the fly, but I've never seen one.

As a DM, I hate not being prepared for the above reason. So, I generally lead the game in the direction that I want it to go. Options are still there, but the more attractive ones are limited. Sure, the PCs can skip town altogether and take a boat to another continent at any time, but why would they when there are several plot points right here in town that are promising? The illusion of freedom of choice is still there, but the reality is, choices are limited. For those that say that this is railroading, I say that this isn't much different than real life. Sure, I can drop all of my responsibilities as a working parent and husband and hop on plane to another continent any time I want, but the reality is that my working and recreational choices are limited. The illusion of freedom is what matters most of the time.

In addition, its been my experience that players enjoy games that are prepared specifically to cater to their characters. Encounters that challenge them, awards that they want, goals they've been working towards, etc.

So my recommendation to the OP is to prepare a few plots at a high level. See which way the PCs are headed and plot more heavily in that direction. If the PCs begin to veer off, gently push them in the direction you want them to go. This can be done many ways. For example, there may be an option to check out a local ruin or to tackle a dragon's lair. If they're not ready for the dragon's lair, make it known to them that many adventurers more powerful than them have tried to take on the dragon and have not returned - that's a clue that maybe they're not ready to go that route yet. But it's also rumored that the ruins may contain a weapon that is a bane to dragons, so that's the gentle push to get them to go to the ruins before taking on the dragon.