Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7732473" data-attributes="member: 29398">I simply can't imagine trying to run a dungeon crawl without a map - within minutes I'd end up having different rooms trying to occupy the same space, distances and features that didn't line up, and so forth.  Also, as players we meticulously map the dungeons we explore (as I would absolutely insist on doing were I in your game); the assumption being that if there is no map there's a risk of getting lost...which means the DM's map or imagination has to be good enough to make things line up properly. Only to a point.  All editions of D&D have a "sweet spot*" in terms of what levels are the best for good play, and it behooves any DM to try and keep her game within this range for as long as possible.  So, how to do this?  First, slow down the advance rate to a crawl.  Then, instead of expecting the party to on average level up once or twice per adventure, try running three adventures per level and (by whatever means) stringing those adventures together into a story.  Now you've got something that'll take 30 adventures to get through 10th level instead of just 6 or 7.  The levels still advance and the story and characters still develop, only they spend longer at each stage...and as a pleasant side effect the sweet spot also lasts longer.* - in 1e and 2e it's about 3rd to 9th level; in 3e about 4th to 12th.  Not sure about 4e and 5e other than having heard it's still a thing.I know about 4e's tiers.  They kind of bake in what might be an erroneus assumption, however; that a campaign is going to go from "figures of local significance" to "cosmological figures in their own right".  I much prefer a campaign that takes quite some time to get from "neophyte adventurers just starting out" to maybe "important local rulers or power-brokers" or "bad-asses nobody wants to mess with".  In my eyes "figures of local significance" is already some way along the campaign's trail.Not if you can weave numerous different stories in such that one starts partway through another so when the first ends the second is in full swing and a third is starting to rear its head. Yes this is a bigger problem, solved as I said earlier by massively delaying that point from arriving.  Or, plan B: tweaking the rules so the system can handle higher levels.Yes, this can happen if one isn't careful and-or paying attention.  But there's many stories to be told within any given scope.Lost on me - I don't do comics. (which happily means I can enjoy the Marvel movies unencombered by any thought of canon) <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />And that right there is the crux of it.  Get the focus off of mechanical character development and on to a) characterization development and b) the here-and-now story being played out (regardless how said story is being generated) and you're good to go...and keep going.  I've been running my current campaign for close to ten years and I've no clue what the final situation or denouement will look like.  I've got about three years worth of adventures on the current storyboard (which has proven over time to be a rather malleable document; see below) but I know full well that one or more of the following could happen: - we play through everything I've got and then keep going into more that I haven't thought of yet - we more or less play through what I've got and then call it quits - we play through other stories and adventures that come out of the run of play independent of anything I've thought of - the game winds down sooner for other reasons e.g. players leave or I burn out or whateverThen every game is a railroad, even yours; because going in to any situation - big picture or small pitcure - there's going to be three possible outcomes that are dictated by the logic of the game: success, failure, or something unexpected.  What a DM can pre-determine isn't the possible outcomes (those are already locked in by that logic), but what happens next because of each of those possible outcomes - and that's her job.  She needs to be looking ahead to both "what happens if they succeed?" and "what happens if they fail?" while always being ready for the unexpected; and if her notes are any good she already knows what happens on success or failure and thus doesn't need to make it up on the fly, needing only to make stuff up if the unexpected occurs."Writing a story" is gilding the lily a bit. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />My storyboard consists of a series of lists of adventures, some connected together into vague APs, with notes on what level range each is for and about how long I expect each will take to play through.  There's also notes on some key plot ideas, possible enemies or villains, and on how some of these various adventures or paths might fit together and interweave; relevant as I've multiple parties in my game and need to consider which group might end up doing what and which active characters have encountered which plot points etc. during their careers.  I also note whether a particular canned module will fill the bill for any given adventure or whether I have to design it myself.This all fits on one page.Every year or so I re-do it, knocking off things that have been completed, adding in ideas I've had since I did up the last version, tweaking it to suit what I can actually run (e.g. for some years I was running two games a week, but for a while now it's been one), and so forth.  Knowing what might be coming down the road allows me to drop hints in now, whether they're picked up on or not.Lanefan</blockquote>

Verification