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<blockquote data-quote="JustinA" data-source="post: 3526232" data-attributes="member: 51618">I set up situations. Characters X, Y, and Z are planning to do A, B, and C. When the players interact with the situation they will change it, which will lead to new situations and scenarios.As I get to know my players and their characters I get better at anticipating what they are likely to do. This allows me to focus my prep around these expectations, but if they decide to go off in an unanticipated direction (which happens more often than not), I just have to fall back on the fundamental elements of the situation: Who's trying to do what? How will they try to accomplish that?Take the movie DIE HARD, for example. If you were to design that as a railroaded scenario you would look at the movie and design a series of encounters around the major scenes, and then force your player into those scenes.If you were to design that as a non-railroaded scenario you would map out the building, stat up the terrorists, and know what the ultimate goal of the terrorists was. You'd also know what the terrorist's initial plan of action would be. With that information you know everything you need to know in order to run the scenario.Honestly, there are only two joys I get from DMing:(1) Revealing the world I have created to my players.(2) Seeing what happens when my players are turned loose.And the latter is what really makes it worthwhile for me to put in the incredibly long hours necessary to DM the game. There are so many wonderful moments which have been &quot;found&quot; around the game table that I would never anticipate in a million years of preplotting a scenario. Those are the moments that make me love the game.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="JustinA, post: 3526232, member: 51618"] I set up situations. Characters X, Y, and Z are planning to do A, B, and C. When the players interact with the situation they will change it, which will lead to new situations and scenarios. As I get to know my players and their characters I get better at anticipating what they are likely to do. This allows me to focus my prep around these expectations, but if they decide to go off in an unanticipated direction (which happens more often than not), I just have to fall back on the fundamental elements of the situation: Who's trying to do what? How will they try to accomplish that? Take the movie DIE HARD, for example. If you were to design that as a railroaded scenario you would look at the movie and design a series of encounters around the major scenes, and then force your player into those scenes. If you were to design that as a non-railroaded scenario you would map out the building, stat up the terrorists, and know what the ultimate goal of the terrorists was. You'd also know what the terrorist's initial plan of action would be. With that information you know everything you need to know in order to run the scenario. Honestly, there are only two joys I get from DMing: (1) Revealing the world I have created to my players. (2) Seeing what happens when my players are turned loose. And the latter is what really makes it worthwhile for me to put in the incredibly long hours necessary to DM the game. There are so many wonderful moments which have been "found" around the game table that I would never anticipate in a million years of preplotting a scenario. Those are the moments that make me love the game. [/QUOTE]

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