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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 4824530" data-attributes="member: 99">As far as incentives for minor quests, again, I award Action Points for them (to the entire group, not just one player, since achieving them is a group effort even if it is most meaningful to a single PC).  But really no such incentive is required.  This is stuff that the PC's wish to accomplish and they'd do it for "free".  I give out the Action Points because I like to see PC's get to do amazing things especially when they've just accomplished some kind of goal.When Inigo Montoya finally accomplishes his lifelong pursuit of Count Rugen, he turns almost certain defeat into roaring triumph.  That's the kind of stuff I want to facilitate.Thanks to your question and that example I just had an idea I might try.  Based on certain very important quests I might consider handing out Action Points with a bonus on them.  So for example if you did accomplish a lifelong goal then I'd give you a +5 Action Point.  Anything you do with that point gets a +5 bonus to success.  Lower bonuses would be attached to achievements of lesser significance.  Hmm...I'll have to mull that over but I think I may adopt that.The answer is that an awful lot of what happens in my game is made up only a few hours before the session starts.  The appearance to the contrary is a combination of a couple of things:  I've become quite good at tying together different plot threads into a coherent whole AND I've become even better at picking the brains of some seriously talented plotters and planners.  My online chats with Hobo and Nareau over at Circvs Maximvs produce some wickedly awesome ideas.The typical manner in which I approach campaigns these days is the one I used this time as well.  I come up with an idea for my first adventure or plot arc.  In this case it was the mission to deliver (the fake) Lord Harrix and (the fake) Gift to King Klo of Opkhar.  I knew that this would have them fall from the bridge to Opkhar into the river and then into and up through the Prison Mines of Pelor plateau.  That's all I knew for sure.  Everything since then has been fabricated no more than two or three sessions in advance.My reasons for this approach are many.  First, it's easy.  I mean in the sense that I'm not working too hard up front writing material.  I'm especially not writing material that might go unused because the players wanted to go in another direction.  It's not that I abhor railroading (I always do it at the start of a campaign).  It's just that I haven't even built the tracks until they commit to going that direction anyway.This method is highly adaptable too.  Different things may be important to different PC's at different points in the game.  If I don't plan too far in advance then I remain flexible about addressing these things as they crop up.But mainly I do it because it is the most fun for me.  I like being surprised as much or more than the players do.  So when the campaign takes twists and turns that I had not expected then that is tremendous fun for me.All of that said, I don't run my games as a total sandbox.  It would be silly to assert that I have no control or desire about what direction they go.  But what direction I'd like to see them go is something that is revealed to me over time rather than pre-plotted from the beginning.  And generally they go there much more from the carrot than they do from the stick.</blockquote>

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