In the near future, I'm going to be running a campaign, but I'm unsure as to how many players, and also what level they are going to start at, but I still want to get the nitty gritty (encounters, monsters etc) penned down.
Additionally, I would like to give the players the option to approach the various arcs of the story in whatever order they wish.
As such, I'm an interested to hear how DM's here plan encounters and monsters and their levels with flexibility in mind, as I don't think my current method is very efficient.
Currently, I'm writting monster 'packs', where each pack is tailored to a specific level range (say, 1 to 3, 4 to 6) for 3 players, with a 'booster' for each additional player. So for example, if it ends up being 4 players and they're level 5 when they reach the encounter, they get Pack 4-6 plus 1 booster monster.
The problem I've found with this is that sometimes you end up flooding the players with many weaker monsters if they're a much higher level than I expected, rather than tailoring a whole new set of monsters more suitable for their level.
I gladly appreciate any advice on the subject.
Additionally, I would like to give the players the option to approach the various arcs of the story in whatever order they wish.
As such, I'm an interested to hear how DM's here plan encounters and monsters and their levels with flexibility in mind, as I don't think my current method is very efficient.
Currently, I'm writting monster 'packs', where each pack is tailored to a specific level range (say, 1 to 3, 4 to 6) for 3 players, with a 'booster' for each additional player. So for example, if it ends up being 4 players and they're level 5 when they reach the encounter, they get Pack 4-6 plus 1 booster monster.
The problem I've found with this is that sometimes you end up flooding the players with many weaker monsters if they're a much higher level than I expected, rather than tailoring a whole new set of monsters more suitable for their level.
I gladly appreciate any advice on the subject.