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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TheAuldGrump" data-source="post: 5509603" data-attributes="member: 6957">Either I am a miracle worker, and can read my players' actions months in advance, or this is less than 100% true................I'm a miracle worker! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />Joking aside, I really do plan things out waaaayyyy in advance, and do a fair amount of second guessing myself (AKA 'spinning my wheels', 'running around in circles', 'chasing my tail'), but generally fall back to my original plans and find them good enough. <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=":)" />I find preparing with the idea that things will happen even if the PCs aren't there, but that if they are there then I will need to change plans works well. I chart out what I see as the most likely courses of action that the PCs might take (including 'ignoring the plot and ordering pizza instead') and what the likely outcomes are for those actions.It gives a framework that I can hang results from.The flip side is that I am absolutely rotten at improvisation - I need that framework. I can modify from that framework in a snap, but having the framework gives me a good idea as to what direction I might need to jump, and how a villain is likely to change his plan to fit the needs of the day.As it happens, I am pretty good at guessing what the players will do, and am genuinely pleased when they jump in an unexpected direction - when someone decides to pay court to the not-an-evil-necromancer-hiding-in-an-abandoned-tower. <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=":)" /> (She really wasn't evil, so the bard decided that she needed to get out more.)The only times that I get caught flat footed is when half the party decides to swim across the Rhine in flood. (And the half that stays behind are the ones with ranks in the Swim skill.) Planning for idiocy is hard. (Store game, random players. I really appreciate my usual players now.)The Auld Grump, they were surprised when most of them drowned and the survivor came down with pneumonia.</blockquote>

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