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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tom Cashel" data-source="post: 306596" data-attributes="member: 321">I’ve been changing my DMing style lately.Last year, when we first started playing 3E, I kept things fairly linear.  The clues led from place to place, and although there were a few times when the party had to choose what to do first, mostly things were episodic and all the episodes were more or less required.  It all culminated in a lost dwarven city and they were victorious (although a few PCs lost their lives fighting a black dragon).Now that I’ve taken a break to be a player for a few sessions, I am back to DMing.  I started by giving the PCs three choices as to what they’d like to do next (based on three books I bought...).  One choice was to head off in search of the lost treasure hoard of the Devil Dragon slain two years before; a second choice involved grave robbers and mysterious strangers wearing flat-topped, wide-brimmed hats; the third choice was to escort a caravan of settlers and their families from Cormyr to the Silver Marches.Since the world (we use FR) is not static, the choices they avoid will likely be investigated by someone else entirely.  There’s no going back.Now that they’ve decided to make the extremely long journey to the Silver Marches, I get to use my random encounter tables (although I tend to roll up a bunch of days before the session starts), my Side Treks from Dungeon, and basically improvise a lot, which I enjoy.  The current PC debate revolves around whether they should take established trade routes (longer, safer) or strike out across the wilderness (shorter, more dangerous, but they do have a ranger and a druid).I have plans to use a module or two in the forseeable future, but eventually I’d like to get to the point where all game sessions are directed by the desires and goals of the PCs.  Linear, episodic campaigns were perfect for a group getting familiar with the rules, but now that we’ve learned them I’d like to make it more spontaneous.Anyway, this isn’t really for any purpose but to start a conversation.  I know there’s a big difference of opinion as to whether planning or improvising is the way to go...and in the end it’s a matter of personal preference.  My own feeling is somewhat akin to the article in Dragon #298, Planning to Improvise—improvise, but have your notes in order!How do you folks do it?  How has your style evolved?  Where are you headed, and where did you come from?...And would you have chosen a different adventure than my PCs? <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    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />[note: the whole evolutionary arc of my campaign can be viewed at the link below, for those who have time on their hands.]</blockquote>

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