What is the point of GM's notes?

[prabe]

Focus is fine, brevity is not, assuming you and your group are intending to stay together for the long term.

Brevity can be (is) just fine, if it's what the table as a whole wants. Especially if you have players who particularly enjoy char-build, it gives them a chance to try out more ideas.

interesting timing in that I and the other main DM in our crew have just started an email exchange regarding adventure roots: whether a given adventure is something the players pushed for, the DM put them in, or some sort of mix. Early returns show that as a campaign goes on and develops more internal history, players (and their PCs) become more likely to drive adventures based on things that have already happened. That's still not authorship, in that the players aren't writing the adventures; it's more that the players are to a degree forcing what the DM will run next as opposed to the DM simply deciding.

I'd say the players are contributing at least something in the direction of authorship, if the DMs are being constrained to run adventures that fit the PCs' needs/stories. FWIW, the campaigns I run (which I gather are quite different than the ones your group runs) behave similarly: They start with an instigating event which I write up, then future arcs tend to be based more on the PCs' actions and goals.

 

[TwoSix]

Perhaps a bit more accurate to say that they like the sense that they're working within a thing that will result in a cohesive narrative when all is said and done?

I feel that's pretty much synonymous with what I said, but I think we're in general agreement.

There is a persistent idea that play with minimal constraint necessarily yields the most fun for and creativity from the participants, but that idea is inaccurate. Some people do shine when they are allowed to do whatever they darned well please. Others blossom within a framework.

Absolutely true.

 

[Umbran]

IME players aren't generally interested in authorship* but are more interested in random adventures or a mix of adventures; in that they'll get bored if a single story arc goes on too long.

There's also the question of what qualifies as a "story arc" to various people.

I'm in a group that's going through Rime of the Frost Maiden. In one session we are hunting down a vicious moose, and in the next, we are booting kobolds out of a mine. These look and play like a mix of or random adventures, though in each one there's a tidbit that leads to the whole.

If your AP is a single dungeon crawl, yes, it will get tiresome. If your AP is built out of several different threads that combine to bring to an overall culmination, it may feel less constrained, as the PCs activities and concerns change several times over the short term

 

[TwoSix]

Where you see a feature I see a bug; if you want to play another set of characters why not do so in an already-existing campaign to save the DM (or another DM) from having to design yet another campaign and-or setting? Of course, when most APs end at or near the game's capstone level the obvious question is "where do you go from there?", but to me that's a fault of both the AP design and the system's speed of advancement.

Focus is fine, brevity is not, assuming you and your group are intending to stay together for the long term.

My one group has been together for 12 years, we're on our 7th campaign together. No one has DMed for more than 2 years straight. We've only hit max level once, the other games ended just because the DM felt like their story was over, and it was time to move on. No one has much interest in playing in the same world for a decade-plus.

Brevity is totally fine. I know that some people like consistency, but I favor novelty. I'm ready for something new after a few dozen sessions.

 

[uzirath]

My GM notes usually focus on details of the setting that will enrich my ability to present various scenes. Sometimes this includes reminders about game-mechanics that are likely to come into play. Here's an example of notes from a game this winter taking place during a festival. The community was into gambling, so I pulled together some ideas for games and looked up how the gambling skill is handled mechanically.

Other things include lots of potential names of NPCs, sometimes with quick notes about personality or relevant abilities. I often choose a real-world language for a setting and then use Google Translate to generate words that reflect personality quirks. Here's an example from a recent session where the party was likely to run into a powerful individual who was also the father of one of the NPCs with the group. She had run away from her father and joined the group, which created no small amount of tension.

I often add to my notes during the game so they become an amalgam of my pre-game notes and a record of what happens in the game. (This is especially true when the played events contradict or change ideas that I had in my pre-game notes.)

 

[John Dallman]

The setting is not a sandbox: the PCs get given missions, although they have a lot of freedom in how they carry them out.

Why not? Over the course of 2-3 campaigns precovid my players took a small nothing town in droaam with a Cyran refugee meets band of war criminals ...

It's not a sandbox because it's a lightly settled and fairly civilised solar system (GURPS Transhuman Space), where spaceships are too expensive to run for small self-financed groups to fly around in. Being in the Royal Navy and the crew of a small warship trades some freedom of action for a lot of resources and support. Once they're away from base, they do not get sent orders unless there's some major emergency: responsibility lies with the PC who's the ship's captain.

An example of the kind of way they work, from recent history: when the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami happened, HMS Chatham (F87) was serving in the Persian Gulf, and was in port for Christmas. As soon as the captain heard of the tsunami, he called the crew back on board and set off down the gulf, on the grounds that they were bound to be needed, and they might as well start going there. Two days later, the British Prime Minister announced that he was sending a warship to assist, but it had actually sent itself. Anticipating orders and doing the right thing is conduct the Royal Navy strongly condones, in peace as well as in war.

 

[Emerikol]

I'm not really seeing a root "issue"; closed adventures have the advantage of brevity and focus, so that we can get on to the next game or next set of characters to play. In my experience, players generally aren't particularly interested in authorship or in random adventures, they like the sense that they're generally working within the loose confines of a script. There's a reason AP play is so popular.

There are a lot of reasons it could be popular and yours is just one.

One reason is that it is easy on the DM. And DM's are hard to find and good DM's are even harder. So I suspect that AP's are "fun enough" in many cases and that is what the DM has the time to do.

Another is that the most of the adventures sold these days are APs so if you want to purchase something you get an AP. There really are a lot of well done sandboxes to choose from if you are in the market.

So the people who are still sandboxing are those for whom the prep is half the fun. Those people are paying that price because for them it's not much of a price. They love it. As has been indicated above. Sadly though not many love it. Most see it as true work. I've found a good sandbox DM can get a group any time he or she wants. It's kind of like you can sell all the Filet Mignon at Hamburger prices but if you charge full rate many choose the Hamburger. Also, a lot of DMs just don't have the skills to successfully run a sandbox. So it requires more skill and that is not something a lot of people want to spend the time developing.

Let me recommend the book "Arbiter of Worlds" if you are interested. Most people though have chosen the path of the book "The Lazy DM" which is incredibly popular and is a fine proponent of that style of play.

 

[Grogg of the North]

My notes typically consist of the following:

1. Dungeon related stuff. What's in this room? How big is it? Traps? Monsters? Will they fight to the death or flee? Oh look, shinies!
2. NPC stuff. Who is this guy; what's he got to say? Maybe it's a big long speech I've tried to write out before hand. Maybe it's a few notes scribbled to myself. I find that there are times when I'll get ready for an NPC to speak that my mind gives me ERROR: FILE NOT FOUND, so I try to have things written out beforehand if I can.
3. Vague general notes. These are usually for when the party has downtime. They're just a quick sentence or two so I don't forget what's happening in the world around them. "Hey while you're hanging around town, Jurin, that kid you saved from town, comes to visit you at the temple....". These are usually used to spur roleplaying with the players and give prompts to the players. Maybe they decide to look into the strange lights in the forest. Maybe not. But at least it's out there now.

 

[Emerikol]

View attachment 134359

I just wanted to mention your use of that fae glamour. I once created a magic ring that had the property of making you utterly forgettable. No one could remember what you looked like even if they met you over drinks. They would remember the conversation. They would remember how they made you feel. You would not be able to describe them. It was a highly sought after item in my campaign.

 

[Emerikol]

My notes typically consist of the following:

1. Dungeon related stuff. What's in this room? How big is it? Traps? Monsters? Will they fight to the death or flee? Oh look, shinies!
2. NPC stuff. Who is this guy; what's he got to say? Maybe it's a big long speech I've tried to write out before hand. Maybe it's a few notes scribbled to myself. I find that there are times when I'll get ready for an NPC to speak that my mind gives me ERROR: FILE NOT FOUND, so I try to have things written out beforehand if I can.
3. Vague general notes. These are usually for when the party has downtime. They're just a quick sentence or two so I don't forget what's happening in the world around them. "Hey while you're hanging around town, Jurin, that kid you saved from town, comes to visit you at the temple....". These are usually used to spur roleplaying with the players and give prompts to the players. Maybe they decide to look into the strange lights in the forest. Maybe not. But at least it's out there now.

Good points especially the downtime note. The more you can make the players feel the world is moving along even off camera the more they will feel invested. Verisimilitude is a wonderful thing at keep players involved.

To me dungeons are interesting and challenging tests of skill but they are in a way the PCs "job". What is happening in the world is their life and often they will be motivated to get involved which can lead to other adventures. I've had PCs so liking an NPC that I thought the group was going to cry when he fell. Let me say they avenged him. So NPCs that are not enemies are vital to making a game fun.