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<blockquote data-quote="Dave Turner" data-source="post: 1228299" data-attributes="member: 12329">The solution to your dilemma is to embrace the &quot;No Myth&quot; style of DMing.&nbsp; I first stumbled across it at The Forge a few months ago and it's really the way to go.&nbsp; I'll try to sum it up here.The idea is that the world is empty until your PCs actually interact with it.&nbsp; Maybe &quot;empty&quot; isn't the right word.&nbsp; &quot;Undetermined&quot; is a better word, like in quantum physics.&nbsp; This doesn't mean that the entire campaign is free-form, although it's close.&nbsp; What it means is that you shouldn't sweat-out exact details regarding your new campaign.&nbsp; The broad outline is fine.&nbsp; Once you have that broad outline, start creating &quot;slices&quot;.&nbsp; These are individual and unconnected game elements, like NPCs, locations, treasures, and so on.&nbsp; Make them all relevant to your broad outline and ideas, but don't link them up with each other.When you get down to playing, you simply incorporate these slices into play as you go along?&nbsp; Need an innkeeper?&nbsp; Well, you've got this gruff, ex-adventurer NPC (cliche, I know) that you could use.&nbsp; Suddenly, this particular NPC is the innkeeper.&nbsp; Need to know what's in the treasure horde?&nbsp; Pick a couple of treasure slices and they're suddenly there.&nbsp; The trick is that the PCs will never see the action &quot;behind the curtain&quot;.&nbsp; They have no way of knowing that you didn't have the treasure horde mapped out in advance.What is the advantage in this system?&nbsp; You can tailor the campaign to your players.&nbsp; They can accept the broad premise of your campaign but pursue their own path.&nbsp; You don't have to sweat the path they take, since you're just placing interesting obstacles and twists on the path they choose.&nbsp; This level of player control over the course of the campaign will draw them in regardless of the fact that the broad strokes have already been painted by you.I've probably mutilated the spirit of the No Myth approach due to my brevity.&nbsp; You can go to the Actual Play forum on The Forge and search for &quot;No Myth&quot; for a better explanation.&nbsp; Better yet, I can email you my condensed version of the information that I cut-and-pasted from when the discussion occurred.&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dave Turner, post: 1228299, member: 12329"] The solution to your dilemma is to embrace the "No Myth" style of DMing. I first stumbled across it at The Forge a few months ago and it's really the way to go. I'll try to sum it up here. The idea is that the world is empty until your PCs actually interact with it. Maybe "empty" isn't the right word. "Undetermined" is a better word, like in quantum physics. This doesn't mean that the entire campaign is free-form, although it's close. What it means is that you shouldn't sweat-out exact details regarding your new campaign. The broad outline is fine. Once you have that broad outline, start creating "slices". These are individual and unconnected game elements, like NPCs, locations, treasures, and so on. Make them all relevant to your broad outline and ideas, but don't link them up with each other. When you get down to playing, you simply incorporate these slices into play as you go along? Need an innkeeper? Well, you've got this gruff, ex-adventurer NPC (cliche, I know) that you could use. Suddenly, this particular NPC is the innkeeper. Need to know what's in the treasure horde? Pick a couple of treasure slices and they're suddenly there. The trick is that the PCs will never see the action "behind the curtain". They have no way of knowing that you didn't have the treasure horde mapped out in advance. What is the advantage in this system? You can tailor the campaign to your players. They can accept the broad premise of your campaign but pursue their own path. You don't have to sweat the path they take, since you're just placing interesting obstacles and twists on the path they choose. This level of player control over the course of the campaign will draw them in regardless of the fact that the broad strokes have already been painted by you. I've probably mutilated the spirit of the No Myth approach due to my brevity. You can go to the Actual Play forum on The Forge and search for "No Myth" for a better explanation. Better yet, I can email you my condensed version of the information that I cut-and-pasted from when the discussion occurred. ;) [/QUOTE]

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