Storytelling balance: Advice needed

[McTreble]

Hey there, gang:

I'm attempting to run a game in which I do very little railroading. I'm trying to only have a basic outline of adventure within a greater context. I have focused mostly on creating NPCs to populate the world, figuring that most plot and character work will stem from the NPCs in the world. Everyone has a few words of description, basic motivations, that kind of thing. I have become attached to several of them, but understand that they might die, no matter how much I like them (such is the plight of an open mindset.)

Anyway, my peril is this: During the next session, the players could theoretically finish what I have planned. I am hesitent to plan ahead of this next session for hopes they might do stuff on their own with this last part to spin the story in a new direction. Since I can't possibly anticipate what that would be, I can't plan for it. Again: railroading is bad. I want them to feel like it's their story; not mine.

On the flip side, I'm a busy dude with a job and lil kids. We play every 2 weeks, but I don't want to cram a ton of work into the weeks between if I can get ahead on my own motivation.

Any tips? What's the balance between preparation and over-prep?

 

[invokethehojo]

Railroading = bad

however, nothing to do at a gaming session also = bad

As a well intentioned DM you have a responsibility to not dictate your players fun... however, as responsible players they also have to be mindful that DMing takes time and effort outside of the game. Meet them in the middle, explain your situation and find some middleground that works. Let them know you really don't want to railroad them (which they should appreciate) but that you don't have enough time to write up a full fleshed out world to be their sandbox. I'm sure they will be happy to give up a ounce of freedom for a pound of USDA quality Role Playing.

 

[Janx]

at the end of each session (or during your prep) ask your players what their PCs intend to do next.

What's their next line of investigation
whats their next goal
what do they want to get done

write content for them to do that, with complications and challenges.

ask the players to mostly stick to what they said they'd pursue as goals.


Your not looking for "I want to fight a dragon and find a flaming longsword in its treasure".

You are looking for, "after we finish off the BBEG, I'm going to..."
take care of that crooked sherriff over in Crooksville who gave us so much trouble when we passed through
look for a dungeon that I can get some XP and treasure

 

[OnlineDM]

at the end of each session (or during your prep) ask your players what their PCs intend to do next.

What's their next line of investigation
whats their next goal
what do they want to get done

write content for them to do that, with complications and challenges.

ask the players to mostly stick to what they said they'd pursue as goals.


Your not looking for "I want to fight a dragon and find a flaming longsword in its treasure".

You are looking for, "after we finish off the BBEG, I'm going to..."
take care of that crooked sherriff over in Crooksville who gave us so much trouble when we passed through
look for a dungeon that I can get some XP and treasure

I second this. This is exactly what I do with my in-person game. There are several plot hooks dangling at any given point. As they pursue any particular hook, things are pretty straightforward (we're delving into the duergar caverns to rescue a kidnapped dwarf... the DM can plan pretty well for that). Once they've finished that storyline, I ask them where they want to go next (and they probably have two or three obvious choices, plus whatever off-the-wall thing they might come up with on their own).

Once they've told me where they want to go next, I prep that part of the storyline for the next session. This does mean that I have to try to end a storyline at the end of a session. If there's one big battle left, that could be messy - they start the next session with that battle and then... what? Well, we probably play a board game for the rest of that session!

 

[amerigoV]

Anyway, my peril is this: During the next session, the players could theoretically finish what I have planned. I am hesitent to plan ahead of this next session for hopes they might do stuff on their own with this last part to spin the story in a new direction. Since I can't possibly anticipate what that would be, I can't plan for it. Again: railroading is bad. I want them to feel like it's their story; not mine.


Any tips? What's the balance between preparation and over-prep?

Random encounters! Now, it does not have to be old skoole roll a monster off a table. But you should have 4 or 5 little vignettes handy that you can throw in anytime. Just because it is a Sandbox/No Railroad does not mean that things to not happen to the PCs. Just like in our lives, s^&t happens.

For example, if your next session is in a city, you could have a couple of items like
1. PCs witness mugging in a nearby alley
2. House catches fire, a mother screams for someone to help her save her child caught inside.
3. Backstory development - something in one of the PCs backstory comes into play (an old debt, friend, enemy).
4. Beholder attacks. Cuz why not? Beholders like to zap townies.
5. One of your favorite NPCs shows up (so you can show them off)
6. PCs are trying to get to another part of town and get caught up in a massive traffic snarl (or cause one accidently)

Having a backlog of little events will help keep things fresh and make the world more alive. You do not even have to prep much more than a one line description - just wing them and see where they go. This allows you to fill the time and then ask them questions about what they want to do as the session ends as Janx suggested.

 

[CuRoi]

Forgive the abuse of the railroad analogy...

There is a big difference between railroading and conducting a story. When you are railroading, you are forcing the players along a pre-determined path regardless what they attempt to do to change it. When conducting, you're making sure the train(s) all stay on track and get to the various stops chosen by the passengers. If the party wants to switch tracks, you let it happen at the earliest conveinence.

If they want to hop off the train at the next stop and catch the 1:15 to Santa Fe, you should let that happen too. However, maybe there's an unavoidable delay; maybe the resltess natives have laid siege to the station, maybe there's a drought and you're out of steam until the players can fix the situation; maybe the train just never shows up and the party is curious enough to investigate.

Make sense? This is your sandbox too.

Without some sort of "direction" from the DM - if you don't have enough available engineers to drive the train, if the passengers aren't given a schedule of all the stops, and if nobody checked to see you have enough fuel on board, your'e on a trip to nowhere.

Without the abused analogy:

If you think they may finish the most recent story arc and are unsure what they will pursue next, you aren't railroading if you devise a side-plot or even if you draw their attention back to a storyline they didn't take the bait on earlier. The story isn't just "theirs" enitrely. Yes, they are the stars of the show for sure, however the story also belongs to the group as a whole. So it's perfectly ok for you to plan something they did not anticpate ahead of time.

For instance, if you just want to buy time and you have a really cool band of astral ninjas that wants to pop in and smack them around, then do it. Don't feel just because you have made the very wise decision to not railroad your players, that you can't sometimes provide them with things they have to react to or did not expect.

If you stop providing at least some sort of story direction you'll make your current predicament worse - your players will have no clue where to go and will wander aimlessly while you are paralyzed and unable to create something for fear of "forcing them" to play. I've seen plenty a "sandbox" game (and run some) that ran into that dreadful snag.

These "between quests" times are also perfect for unfinished business. The guy the put in jail seeking revenge, the local law enforcement finally catches up to the party rogue, the mage stumbles across a key arcane element in soem elaborate item or puzzle he has been working on. While players should be free to "sandbox" it almost always takes the DM nudging people to get creative juices flowing.

Also remember that this world you created is a vibrant living thing not just for the players to manipulate but for you to reveal to them. What has happened while they went on the last quest? What could have developed in that time which will change the landscape and maybe force them to recognize an old threat or re-evaluate their current position? Answers to any of these questions can quickly provide an idea of where the next train out of the station is headed...

 

[chaochou]

From Apocalypse World:

Your (the GM) moves are:
- Seperate them
- Put someone in a spot
- Announce off-screen badness
- Announce future badness
- Take away their stuff
- Make them buy
- Activate their stuff's downside
- Tell them possible consequences and ask
- Offer an opportunity, with or without cost
- Turn their move back on them
- Make a threat move
- After every move ask "What do you do?"

AW specifically tells you not to pre-plan a storyline. Instead you create 'fronts', each of which has a number of 'threats'. (Fronts are things like hunger, while the threats might be 'gang raid' and 'giant mutant rats in the storerooms') When you want to pick up the pace, you make a move with a threat (as in 'make a threat move' in the above list).

I think it's a cool list. AW is also a game based exactly on the way you are organising yours - with NPC interaction at the core and crazy stuff improvised off of that. It might be worth finding a copy. The GM advice there for running the game you're talking about is spot on.

I admit it, I'm a huge fan of AW.

 

[McTreble]

Thanks! These are all great ideas.

 

[kitsune9]

at the end of each session (or during your prep) ask your players what their PCs intend to do next.

What's their next line of investigation
whats their next goal
what do they want to get done

write content for them to do that, with complications and challenges.

ask the players to mostly stick to what they said they'd pursue as goals.


Your not looking for "I want to fight a dragon and find a flaming longsword in its treasure".

You are looking for, "after we finish off the BBEG, I'm going to..."
take care of that crooked sherriff over in Crooksville who gave us so much trouble when we passed through
look for a dungeon that I can get some XP and treasure

I completely agree with this. If you want to plan appropriately and don't want to overplan your sessions, this is where you get your player's input. Once they made the decision to engage in an action, they're committed.

 

[Haltherrion]

It's always a good idea to have some encounters worked up, both combat and RP, that you can drop in as needed. And if the players show a particular interest in them or handle them in an open ended way, it can always provide the next arc or theme.

Even if they finish the current thread, you should have some idea where, geopgrahically, they will be and what sorts of interesting things could happen there.