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<blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 51103" data-attributes="member: 2205"><p></p><p>X-files was a really good analogy for me: for a long time they did an "every-other" plan, every other episode was a "campaign" episode, while it's alternate would be a "one-off."</p><p></p><p>Another good trick is that you really don't have to plan for everything the PCs could think of to do. You can have three or four canned responses that will be appropriate no matter what they do, and that way you can control things without them feeling railroaded. You can also make sure things work out without railroading PCs. If they don't seem to want to go north and save the kingdom from the orc hordes (to use a <em>bad</em> example) make sure the invasion happens anyway. Give them consequences for not doing what they should. Sooner or later, they'll usually come back to the sandbox and play, but they get to do it on their terms. That way both of you win: the PCs get to make the decisions, the DM (after a little free-wheeling) still gets to have the adventure or whatever that he planned, maybe slightly modified (I'd punish the PCs somewhat for this, though: if they ignore obvious clues, it will be a lot harder to go back and fix things after the fact.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Desdichado, post: 51103, member: 2205"] [i][/i] X-files was a really good analogy for me: for a long time they did an "every-other" plan, every other episode was a "campaign" episode, while it's alternate would be a "one-off." Another good trick is that you really don't have to plan for everything the PCs could think of to do. You can have three or four canned responses that will be appropriate no matter what they do, and that way you can control things without them feeling railroaded. You can also make sure things work out without railroading PCs. If they don't seem to want to go north and save the kingdom from the orc hordes (to use a [i]bad[/i] example) make sure the invasion happens anyway. Give them consequences for not doing what they should. Sooner or later, they'll usually come back to the sandbox and play, but they get to do it on their terms. That way both of you win: the PCs get to make the decisions, the DM (after a little free-wheeling) still gets to have the adventure or whatever that he planned, maybe slightly modified (I'd punish the PCs somewhat for this, though: if they ignore obvious clues, it will be a lot harder to go back and fix things after the fact.) [/QUOTE]
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