Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 5150747" data-attributes="member: 59082">Here's the situation: I'm running a twice-monthly 4E game with a group of 5-9 people, depending upon the week (there's a core six including myself all of whom make it most weeks, two others who have played infrequently, and one who is joining). We've been playing for about a year and a half and are at 8th level. I really enjoy and want to keep this game going, but with a very busy life am pressed for prep time. I do have some spare time, but whenever I have "creative/fun alone time" I want to work on my novel, which is frankly a higher priority. The good thing is that 4E is the easiest edition I've played to quickly cook up an encounter and have a fun session. The bad thing is that most sessions tend to be of that variety. I have had trouble developing a larger campaign arc or detailing the world enough to do a good sandbox style, so am left floating somewhere in-between. Plus, the only other player who wanted to DM--we were going to alternate adventures--dropped out.This is what I want: To run a sandbox/megaplot hybrid with lots of big events happening, but a wide variety of options and player freedom. I want a game that is immersive and atmospheric but without getting too serious. I do love world-building, so prefer using my own setting, and realize I am just going to have to squeeze out a couple hours a week for world development. I don't mind running pre-made adventures but rarely find ones that really speak to me. I (and my players) like a blend of styles and encounter situations, with an over-arching vibe of lost civilizations, arcane magic, and elder mysteries. So more towards sword & sorcery/quest/adventure fantasy than dynastic/political.The world itself is conducive to this sort of play in that it is very much a "points of light" style setting, centuries after a magical apocalypse that destroyed most of civilization and wiped much of (human) racial memory clean. Civilization is just getting going again with only a couple hundred years of development, so it is somewhat like America in the 17th to early 19th century. In other words I don't know what has to exist beyond the edge of the map (yet!) because the players don't, nor do many people.The hard part for me is the "middle stuff." I can do the world design, I can think of larger plot arcs; on the small scale, I can design encounters. But the middle stuff, that which links the encounters together and fills out the larger megaplot; I guess you could call it simply "plot" or the adventure "storyline."Basically what I'm looking for from you are tips on how to  optimize prep time. How can I provide a sandbox with numerous  mini-to-mega plot opportunities without spending hours and hours  preparing? Again, some time is ok but I just want to minimize it, or  rather optimize the time that I do spend. The floor is yours.</blockquote>

Verification