Which are you, The plan everything out GM, or the Ad lib?

This is one encounter from another adventure. I haven't even read it to see if is readable or complete (please be kind, posting my art makes me very nervous), but I happened to open the file because I needed some world building information out of it and thought I'd give another example:

Top Hat Plasticrete, LLC

You arrive on site at Top Hat Plasticrete, LLC, a sprawling operation of perhaps 100 acres near the edge of the city, wedged between other industrial sites and the beginning of the suburbs that have grown up beyond them. A chain link fence surrounds the site, and two BSS ground speeders with flashing lights are set up to either side of the entrance directing traffic. Several large air cars with markings of local news agencies are parked nearby, with a cloud of camera droids hovering just above the fence. One crew is apparently live broadcasting.

The interior consists of huge mounds of piled sand and other particulates, massive holding tanks, feed tanks, cranes, and miles of piping, most of it running overhead on pylons leaving the ground covered with a deep layer of mud and wet sand except where there are large casting floors – plasticrete slabs naturally – for precasting large forms. Water from the continual rain is dripping over everything. You see a large number of employees wearing hard hats and coveralls sheltering beneath an elevated office building. Some are smoking stimulants of various sorts. Mixed in among them are a number of blue humanoid droids, scratched and weather-beaten. A bit beyond this point there is a BSS armored air car, and an unmarked air speeder with concealed flashing lights. Several BSS security people wearing riot gear are sheltered behind the armored air car and a large holding tank, scanning the scaffolding and walkways beyond. A man in a brown trenchcoat and broad brimmed hat, smoking a cigarette, is watching your vehicle arrive.

Benelux Security SWAT Squad (4): DEXTERITY: 2D+2, Blaster: 4D+1, Dodge: 4D, Brawling Parry: 4D, Grenade: 3D+2, Melee: 4D, KNOWLEDGE: 1D+1, Survival: 2D+1, Tactics: 2D+1, PERCEPTION: 2D, MECHANICAL: 1D+1, Search: 2D+1, STRENGTH: 2D+2, Brawling: 4D, Climbing/Jumping: 3D+2, TECHNICAL: 1D+1, Blaster Repair: 2D
Equipment: Riot Carbine, Medium Armor, Stun Baton, Manacles, Gas Mask, 2 tear gas grenades

Riot Carbine: Damage: 4D+1, Range: 3-20/60/250, special: +3 bonus to hit at close range

Benelux Security SWAT Squad Sniper: DEXTERITY: 2D+2, Blaster: 4D+1, Dodge: 4D, Brawling Parry: 4D, Grenade: 3D+2, Melee: 4D, KNOWLEDGE: 1D+1, Survival: 2D+1, Tactics: 2D+1, PERCEPTION: 2D, MECHANICAL: 1D+1, Search: 2D+1, STRENGTH: 2D+2, Brawling: 4D, Climbing/Jumping: 3D+2, TECHNICAL: 1D+1, Blaster Repair: 2D
Equipment: Blaster Rifle wt. Sniper Scope, Medium Armor, Stun Baton, Manacles, Gas Mask, 2 tear gas grenades

Dannen Barneto, Benelux Security Detective: DEXTERITY: 2D+2, Blaster: 4D, Dodge: 4D, Brawling Parry: 4D, Melee: 4D, KNOWLEDGE: 2D+2, Bureaucracy: 3D+2, Intimidate: 3D+2, Law Enforcement: 3D+2, Scholar: 3D+2, PERCEPTION: 2D, Command: 3D, Investigate: 3D, Search: 3D, MECHANICAL: 1D+2, STRENGTH: 2D+2, Brawling: 4D, TECHNICAL: 1D+2, First Aid: 2D+2
Equipment: Blaster Pistol, Stun Baton, Manacles, Gas Mask, 2 tear gas grenades

Who are you: I’m Detective Barneto, Benelux Security Services. You must be the Hunters sent from the Guild.
What can you tell me about the situation?: BLX Labor droid blew a diode and killed it’s supervisor, then disappeared. We’re pretty sure we’ve reacquired it here. So far as we can tell, it’s holed up in a pump control room located about 15 meters off the ground, about eighty meters the other side of this tank. SWAT exchanged fire with it when we arrived but we haven’t seen it since.
What can you tell me about the BLX?: It’s a general purpose labor droid manufactured by Serv-O-Droid, Inc that’s been on the market about a hundred years now. When it was first introduced it was highly controversial because it has very little firm programming aside from a personality matrix and a rather sophisticated learning module. The idea was that instead of having a fixed function set, different buyers could instruct the droid to perform a variety of tasks the way they’d train an organic laborer. Industry watch dogs complained that with that open ended of programming, Serv-O-Droid was guaranteeing a product that would eventually go haywire and which couldn’t be repaired with routine memory wipes. However, apparently the designers really knew what they were doing with the personality matrix, because the droid has been remarkably stable with very few friendliness failures. The BLX got to be really popular. They’ve sold eight billion of them, and I could only find 18 cases going over 80 years where they attacked anyone – only three of those fatally counting the incident with AAA Waste and Recyling.
Any idea what went wrong with this one?: Not a clue. No one seems to have noticed in problems with “Blocks 7” before he bludgeoned the operations chief to death. Whatever happened either happened really fast or Blocks 7 was keeping his infatuation with violence really secret for a long time. Everyone is really touchy about it though. Serv-O-Droid has representatives on the way from the Core Worlds to investigate the situation, and the Moff’s office has issued an advisory suggesting any BLX owners do a full memory wipe. However, we don’t really expect anyone is going to act on that advice, since most of them have spent decades building up valuable work experience.
How can we reach the pump control room?: There is a staircase on either side of the pump control room, then it’s about 50m across a catwalk. There is a third stair case about 100m to the right of the pump control room. All three catwalks link up at a balcony. There are two entrances, each reinforced and blast protected. The doors though I’m told have no locks – the primary concern here seems to have been employee safety – they didn’t give much thought to security besides theft and even then, not too much thought even for that. As one of their employees put it, “Who is going to steal sand?”

, Typical Industrial Worker: DEXTERITY: 2D, Brawling Parry: 3D, KNOWLEDGE: 2D, Survival: 3D, MECHANICAL: 2D, Operate Machinery: 4D, Sensors: 4D, PERCEPTION: 2D, STRENGTH: 2D, Climbing/Jumping: 3D, Brawling: 3D, Lifting: 4D, Stamina: 4D, TECHNICAL: 2D, Repair Machinery: 4D
Equipment: Hydrospanner, torque wrench, sonic probe, hard hat & coveralls (+1 armor vs. physical)

“Blacks 12”, Typical BLX Labor Droid: DEXTERITY: 2D; Running: 3D, KNOWLEDGE: 1D; Bureaucracy: 2D, Business: 2D, MECHANICAL 2D, Operate Machinery: 4D; PERCEPTION: 1D, Command (Droid): 2D, Persuade: 2D, Search: 2D; STRENGTH: 4D, Lifting: 6D, Stamina: 6D, TECHNICAL 1D, Repair Machinery: 4D
Equipment: Hard hat & coveralls (+1 armor vs. physical)

“Blinks 5”, Concrete Encased BLX Labor Droid: DEXTERITY: 2D; Running: 3D, KNOWLEDGE: 1D; Bureaucracy: 2D, Business: 2D, MECHANICAL 2D, Operate Machinery: 4D; PERCEPTION: 1D, Command (Droid): 2D, Persuade: 2D, Search: 2D; STRENGTH: 4D, Lifting: 6D, Stamina: 6D, TECHNICAL 1D, Repair Machinery: 4D
Equipment: Hard hat & coveralls (+1 armor vs. physical)

“Blocks 7”, Modified BLX Labor Droid: DEXTERITY: 2D; Blaster 4D+2, Dodge: 3D+2, Melee: 4D+2, Melee Parry: 4D+2, Grenade: 3D+2, Running: 3D; KNOWLEDGE: 1D; Tactics: 2D+2; MECHANICAL 2D, Operate Ground Vehicle: 4D, Operate Machinery: 4D; PERCEPTION: 1D, Command (Droid): 3D+2, Search: 3D+2, Sneak/Hide: 3D+2; STRENGTH: 4D, Brawling: 5D, Lifting: 6D, Stamina: 6D, TECHNICAL 1D, Sanitation Worker: 4D+2, Security: 3D+2
Equipment: Riot Carbine, Hard hat & coveralls (+1 armor vs. physical), code cylinder, pipe wrench (+1D physical)
Riot Carbine: Damage: 4D+1, Range: 3-20/60/250, special: +3 bonus to hit at close range


BLX names: 1: Backtalks 2: Bailiwicks, 3: Baldricks, 4: Baulks, 5: Blowbacks, 6: Bluebooks, 7: Ballparks, 8: Beanstalks, 9: Blackjacks, 10: Blecks, 11: Blinks, 12: Blacks, 13: Blanks, 14: Blocks, 15: Bullocks, 16: Bulwarks, 17: Bootblacks, 18: Boardwalks, 19: Bollocks, 20: Bootlicks, 21: Bullnecks, 22: Battleaxes

Combat with Blocks 7

Things Blocks 7 will try from within the pump control room:

1) Drop a cantilever on the walk way:

a) Player must make a Search check. 11+ success gives 2 actions, 6+ success gives 1 action. Apply penalty Dice if the players are taking complex actions at the time and are thus distracted.
b) Players can attempt to dodge the falling beam but are at a 2D penalty if surprised. A 16+ dodge dodges the beam completely, putting the player out of danger. A 11+ dodge means the player is caught near the beam and must make a 16+ running check to keep their feet, as the catwalk vibrates and distorts under them. A 6+ dodge means the player is caught in the broken part of the catwalk. They take 2d6 damage, and must then make a 16+ climbing/jumping check to hang on and avoid falling. Falls are effectively 12m to the ground below taking a further 4d6 damage. No dodge and the player is crushed by the falling cantilever, taking 10d6 damage before plunging to the ground and taking a further 4d6 damage.
c) A falling cantilever automatically creates the effects of a burst pipe in the area, but without the initial explosion effect.

Once Blocks 7 has dropped the first cantilever, it takes six rounds to pick up and move the next one. Players can destroy the crane with pin point blaster fire, but the crane is Walker scale and has 3D effective hull. If destroyed, it collapses with similar effects to a dropped cantilever but players get +2D bonus on the dodge.

2) Blow up a pipe: Blocks can turn on a pump and then suddenly shut off a valve, bursting it.

This creates a small explosion doing 3d6 physical damage over a 3m radius, and spraying the characters with gel, goop, or concrete mix. Characters suffer a 1d6 penalty on all actions until they can be adequately cleaned. There is a 1 in 6 change that simply standing in the rain will wash enough of the material off to reduce the penalty. However penalties are cumulative. After blowing one pipe, it requires 4 rounds to build up enough pressure to blow up a second one. A total of 3 such pipes can be exploded before the system suffers enough failures it can no longer be operated.

Exploded pipes continue to spew material, creating an obstacle of high pressure fluid squirting and falling below them and/or near them. This obstacle is 50% likely to be cross the nearest catwalk. The obstacle can be navigated around with a DC 16 running or jumping/climbing check, or simply barreled through with a 21 lifting check. Failure covers the character in some heavy sticky liquid as well any other penalties. Barrel through it causes the character to take 2d6 damage, and always covers the character in goop. On failure, they simply don’t make it to the other side.

3) Order a binary load lifter (a CLL-8 droid) to move with a pallet of material across the path of the character if they are on the ground. Blocks 7 only has one palette carrying Droid near the site to work with initially, though a second one will arrive 10 rounds after the first. The Droids will be ordered to carry a stack of pallets that obscure their vision. Although they have flashing lights and warning beeps that make it impossible to surprise a character, they will rather single mindedly steer themselves toward a player as Block 7 will continually update their orders. Avoiding a CLL-8 droid at close range is a contested Running check versus Blocks 7 3d6+2 Command (Droid) check. A trampled player takes 6d6 damage. Players can also simply take double moves to move away from the droid, as the droid will refuse to move faster than speed 16 carrying the load due to built in safety protocols Block 7 lacks the skill to override. Alternatively, the player can attempt an easy command check to tell the CLL-8 droid to halt because a person is in the way. This stops CLL-8 for one round, but Blocks 7 can regain control of the droid with an easy command check. In case of ties, Blocks 7 wins as he’s using a supervisor frequency to communicate with the droid.

To stop Blocks 7 from doing these things, someone must get into the Top Hat Plasticrete, LLC network and lock Blocks 7 out of the system by identifying the hijacked code cylinder he’s using. Getting onto the system requires either a DC 31 Security check and appropriate tools, or a supervisor handing a code cylinder to you. Figuring out Blocks 7’s access requires a DC 6 investigate check. Locking him out of the system requires a DC 11 security check. Blocks 7 will try to get back in, but lacks the skill. At that point, he’ll consider fleeing in the direction with the most cover and fewest enemies, hoping to evade and hide.

The doors to the pump control room are blast resistant, and to open them requires beating a 6D roll. The locks aren’t however particularly complicated and can be opened with a DC 16 security check.

Once Blocks 7 is destroyed or disabled, the body can be investigated. All the components appear to be normal for a BLX labor droid (Technology: 16+). There is odd scoring as from a sharp instrument around the droid’s access terminal in the back of its skull. (Investigate: 16+) If the Droid remains are accessed with appropriate repair tools, it’s possible to determine that the Droid sentience personality matrix has been recently brutally overwritten by invasive software. (Computer programming/repair: 11+). Anyone with at least 4D of droid repair, inspecting this software finds that it is obviously designed for a class 4 combat droid (Technology: 11+) and there are large parts that are copied from a BX commando droid (Technology: 21+).[/quote]
 

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@Celebrim OK, I guess I can see how you it is possible to have such amount of text. And if you like writing it, then it of course is perfectly fine. But I doubt you actually need most of it, nor there is practical reason to write things in complete sentences instead of just summarising the key facts. It is aesthetically pleasing though, like from some published source book.

I literally gave you some of the most irrelevant prep I do.
 

This is one encounter from another adventure. I haven't even read it to see if is readable or complete (please be kind, posting my art makes me very nervous), but I happened to open the file because I needed some world building information out of it and thought I'd give another example:

Top Hat Plasticrete, LLC

You arrive on site at Top Hat Plasticrete, LLC, a sprawling operation of perhaps 100 acres near the edge of the city, wedged between other industrial sites and the beginning of the suburbs that have grown up beyond them. A chain link fence surrounds the site, and two BSS ground speeders with flashing lights are set up to either side of the entrance directing traffic. Several large air cars with markings of local news agencies are parked nearby, with a cloud of camera droids hovering just above the fence. One crew is apparently live broadcasting.

The interior consists of huge mounds of piled sand and other particulates, massive holding tanks, feed tanks, cranes, and miles of piping, most of it running overhead on pylons leaving the ground covered with a deep layer of mud and wet sand except where there are large casting floors – plasticrete slabs naturally – for precasting large forms. Water from the continual rain is dripping over everything. You see a large number of employees wearing hard hats and coveralls sheltering beneath an elevated office building. Some are smoking stimulants of various sorts. Mixed in among them are a number of blue humanoid droids, scratched and weather-beaten. A bit beyond this point there is a BSS armored air car, and an unmarked air speeder with concealed flashing lights. Several BSS security people wearing riot gear are sheltered behind the armored air car and a large holding tank, scanning the scaffolding and walkways beyond. A man in a brown trenchcoat and broad brimmed hat, smoking a cigarette, is watching your vehicle arrive.

Benelux Security SWAT Squad (4): DEXTERITY: 2D+2, Blaster: 4D+1, Dodge: 4D, Brawling Parry: 4D, Grenade: 3D+2, Melee: 4D, KNOWLEDGE: 1D+1, Survival: 2D+1, Tactics: 2D+1, PERCEPTION: 2D, MECHANICAL: 1D+1, Search: 2D+1, STRENGTH: 2D+2, Brawling: 4D, Climbing/Jumping: 3D+2, TECHNICAL: 1D+1, Blaster Repair: 2D
Equipment: Riot Carbine, Medium Armor, Stun Baton, Manacles, Gas Mask, 2 tear gas grenades

Riot Carbine: Damage: 4D+1, Range: 3-20/60/250, special: +3 bonus to hit at close range

Benelux Security SWAT Squad Sniper: DEXTERITY: 2D+2, Blaster: 4D+1, Dodge: 4D, Brawling Parry: 4D, Grenade: 3D+2, Melee: 4D, KNOWLEDGE: 1D+1, Survival: 2D+1, Tactics: 2D+1, PERCEPTION: 2D, MECHANICAL: 1D+1, Search: 2D+1, STRENGTH: 2D+2, Brawling: 4D, Climbing/Jumping: 3D+2, TECHNICAL: 1D+1, Blaster Repair: 2D
Equipment: Blaster Rifle wt. Sniper Scope, Medium Armor, Stun Baton, Manacles, Gas Mask, 2 tear gas grenades

Dannen Barneto, Benelux Security Detective: DEXTERITY: 2D+2, Blaster: 4D, Dodge: 4D, Brawling Parry: 4D, Melee: 4D, KNOWLEDGE: 2D+2, Bureaucracy: 3D+2, Intimidate: 3D+2, Law Enforcement: 3D+2, Scholar: 3D+2, PERCEPTION: 2D, Command: 3D, Investigate: 3D, Search: 3D, MECHANICAL: 1D+2, STRENGTH: 2D+2, Brawling: 4D, TECHNICAL: 1D+2, First Aid: 2D+2
Equipment: Blaster Pistol, Stun Baton, Manacles, Gas Mask, 2 tear gas grenades

Who are you: I’m Detective Barneto, Benelux Security Services. You must be the Hunters sent from the Guild.
What can you tell me about the situation?: BLX Labor droid blew a diode and killed it’s supervisor, then disappeared. We’re pretty sure we’ve reacquired it here. So far as we can tell, it’s holed up in a pump control room located about 15 meters off the ground, about eighty meters the other side of this tank. SWAT exchanged fire with it when we arrived but we haven’t seen it since.
What can you tell me about the BLX?: It’s a general purpose labor droid manufactured by Serv-O-Droid, Inc that’s been on the market about a hundred years now. When it was first introduced it was highly controversial because it has very little firm programming aside from a personality matrix and a rather sophisticated learning module. The idea was that instead of having a fixed function set, different buyers could instruct the droid to perform a variety of tasks the way they’d train an organic laborer. Industry watch dogs complained that with that open ended of programming, Serv-O-Droid was guaranteeing a product that would eventually go haywire and which couldn’t be repaired with routine memory wipes. However, apparently the designers really knew what they were doing with the personality matrix, because the droid has been remarkably stable with very few friendliness failures. The BLX got to be really popular. They’ve sold eight billion of them, and I could only find 18 cases going over 80 years where they attacked anyone – only three of those fatally counting the incident with AAA Waste and Recyling.
Any idea what went wrong with this one?: Not a clue. No one seems to have noticed in problems with “Blocks 7” before he bludgeoned the operations chief to death. Whatever happened either happened really fast or Blocks 7 was keeping his infatuation with violence really secret for a long time. Everyone is really touchy about it though. Serv-O-Droid has representatives on the way from the Core Worlds to investigate the situation, and the Moff’s office has issued an advisory suggesting any BLX owners do a full memory wipe. However, we don’t really expect anyone is going to act on that advice, since most of them have spent decades building up valuable work experience.
How can we reach the pump control room?: There is a staircase on either side of the pump control room, then it’s about 50m across a catwalk. There is a third stair case about 100m to the right of the pump control room. All three catwalks link up at a balcony. There are two entrances, each reinforced and blast protected. The doors though I’m told have no locks – the primary concern here seems to have been employee safety – they didn’t give much thought to security besides theft and even then, not too much thought even for that. As one of their employees put it, “Who is going to steal sand?”

, Typical Industrial Worker: DEXTERITY: 2D, Brawling Parry: 3D, KNOWLEDGE: 2D, Survival: 3D, MECHANICAL: 2D, Operate Machinery: 4D, Sensors: 4D, PERCEPTION: 2D, STRENGTH: 2D, Climbing/Jumping: 3D, Brawling: 3D, Lifting: 4D, Stamina: 4D, TECHNICAL: 2D, Repair Machinery: 4D
Equipment: Hydrospanner, torque wrench, sonic probe, hard hat & coveralls (+1 armor vs. physical)

“Blacks 12”, Typical BLX Labor Droid: DEXTERITY: 2D; Running: 3D, KNOWLEDGE: 1D; Bureaucracy: 2D, Business: 2D, MECHANICAL 2D, Operate Machinery: 4D; PERCEPTION: 1D, Command (Droid): 2D, Persuade: 2D, Search: 2D; STRENGTH: 4D, Lifting: 6D, Stamina: 6D, TECHNICAL 1D, Repair Machinery: 4D
Equipment: Hard hat & coveralls (+1 armor vs. physical)

“Blinks 5”, Concrete Encased BLX Labor Droid: DEXTERITY: 2D; Running: 3D, KNOWLEDGE: 1D; Bureaucracy: 2D, Business: 2D, MECHANICAL 2D, Operate Machinery: 4D; PERCEPTION: 1D, Command (Droid): 2D, Persuade: 2D, Search: 2D; STRENGTH: 4D, Lifting: 6D, Stamina: 6D, TECHNICAL 1D, Repair Machinery: 4D
Equipment: Hard hat & coveralls (+1 armor vs. physical)

“Blocks 7”, Modified BLX Labor Droid: DEXTERITY: 2D; Blaster 4D+2, Dodge: 3D+2, Melee: 4D+2, Melee Parry: 4D+2, Grenade: 3D+2, Running: 3D; KNOWLEDGE: 1D; Tactics: 2D+2; MECHANICAL 2D, Operate Ground Vehicle: 4D, Operate Machinery: 4D; PERCEPTION: 1D, Command (Droid): 3D+2, Search: 3D+2, Sneak/Hide: 3D+2; STRENGTH: 4D, Brawling: 5D, Lifting: 6D, Stamina: 6D, TECHNICAL 1D, Sanitation Worker: 4D+2, Security: 3D+2
Equipment: Riot Carbine, Hard hat & coveralls (+1 armor vs. physical), code cylinder, pipe wrench (+1D physical)
Riot Carbine: Damage: 4D+1, Range: 3-20/60/250, special: +3 bonus to hit at close range


BLX names: 1: Backtalks 2: Bailiwicks, 3: Baldricks, 4: Baulks, 5: Blowbacks, 6: Bluebooks, 7: Ballparks, 8: Beanstalks, 9: Blackjacks, 10: Blecks, 11: Blinks, 12: Blacks, 13: Blanks, 14: Blocks, 15: Bullocks, 16: Bulwarks, 17: Bootblacks, 18: Boardwalks, 19: Bollocks, 20: Bootlicks, 21: Bullnecks, 22: Battleaxes

Combat with Blocks 7

Things Blocks 7 will try from within the pump control room:

1) Drop a cantilever on the walk way:

a) Player must make a Search check. 11+ success gives 2 actions, 6+ success gives 1 action. Apply penalty Dice if the players are taking complex actions at the time and are thus distracted.
b) Players can attempt to dodge the falling beam but are at a 2D penalty if surprised. A 16+ dodge dodges the beam completely, putting the player out of danger. A 11+ dodge means the player is caught near the beam and must make a 16+ running check to keep their feet, as the catwalk vibrates and distorts under them. A 6+ dodge means the player is caught in the broken part of the catwalk. They take 2d6 damage, and must then make a 16+ climbing/jumping check to hang on and avoid falling. Falls are effectively 12m to the ground below taking a further 4d6 damage. No dodge and the player is crushed by the falling cantilever, taking 10d6 damage before plunging to the ground and taking a further 4d6 damage.
c) A falling cantilever automatically creates the effects of a burst pipe in the area, but without the initial explosion effect.

Once Blocks 7 has dropped the first cantilever, it takes six rounds to pick up and move the next one. Players can destroy the crane with pin point blaster fire, but the crane is Walker scale and has 3D effective hull. If destroyed, it collapses with similar effects to a dropped cantilever but players get +2D bonus on the dodge.

2) Blow up a pipe: Blocks can turn on a pump and then suddenly shut off a valve, bursting it.

This creates a small explosion doing 3d6 physical damage over a 3m radius, and spraying the characters with gel, goop, or concrete mix. Characters suffer a 1d6 penalty on all actions until they can be adequately cleaned. There is a 1 in 6 change that simply standing in the rain will wash enough of the material off to reduce the penalty. However penalties are cumulative. After blowing one pipe, it requires 4 rounds to build up enough pressure to blow up a second one. A total of 3 such pipes can be exploded before the system suffers enough failures it can no longer be operated.

Exploded pipes continue to spew material, creating an obstacle of high pressure fluid squirting and falling below them and/or near them. This obstacle is 50% likely to be cross the nearest catwalk. The obstacle can be navigated around with a DC 16 running or jumping/climbing check, or simply barreled through with a 21 lifting check. Failure covers the character in some heavy sticky liquid as well any other penalties. Barrel through it causes the character to take 2d6 damage, and always covers the character in goop. On failure, they simply don’t make it to the other side.

3) Order a binary load lifter (a CLL-8 droid) to move with a pallet of material across the path of the character if they are on the ground. Blocks 7 only has one palette carrying Droid near the site to work with initially, though a second one will arrive 10 rounds after the first. The Droids will be ordered to carry a stack of pallets that obscure their vision. Although they have flashing lights and warning beeps that make it impossible to surprise a character, they will rather single mindedly steer themselves toward a player as Block 7 will continually update their orders. Avoiding a CLL-8 droid at close range is a contested Running check versus Blocks 7 3d6+2 Command (Droid) check. A trampled player takes 6d6 damage. Players can also simply take double moves to move away from the droid, as the droid will refuse to move faster than speed 16 carrying the load due to built in safety protocols Block 7 lacks the skill to override. Alternatively, the player can attempt an easy command check to tell the CLL-8 droid to halt because a person is in the way. This stops CLL-8 for one round, but Blocks 7 can regain control of the droid with an easy command check. In case of ties, Blocks 7 wins as he’s using a supervisor frequency to communicate with the droid.

To stop Blocks 7 from doing these things, someone must get into the Top Hat Plasticrete, LLC network and lock Blocks 7 out of the system by identifying the hijacked code cylinder he’s using. Getting onto the system requires either a DC 31 Security check and appropriate tools, or a supervisor handing a code cylinder to you. Figuring out Blocks 7’s access requires a DC 6 investigate check. Locking him out of the system requires a DC 11 security check. Blocks 7 will try to get back in, but lacks the skill. At that point, he’ll consider fleeing in the direction with the most cover and fewest enemies, hoping to evade and hide.

The doors to the pump control room are blast resistant, and to open them requires beating a 6D roll. The locks aren’t however particularly complicated and can be opened with a DC 16 security check.

Once Blocks 7 is destroyed or disabled, the body can be investigated. All the components appear to be normal for a BLX labor droid (Technology: 16+). There is odd scoring as from a sharp instrument around the droid’s access terminal in the back of its skull. (Investigate: 16+) If the Droid remains are accessed with appropriate repair tools, it’s possible to determine that the Droid sentience personality matrix has been recently brutally overwritten by invasive software. (Computer programming/repair: 11+). Anyone with at least 4D of droid repair, inspecting this software finds that it is obviously designed for a class 4 combat droid (Technology: 11+) and there are large parts that are copied from a BX commando droid (Technology: 21+).


Right. I would never bother writing most of this down. Like names and and perhaps some summary of mechanical details if I was afraid I would forget them. Like I would know most of the stuff, but I don't see need to write it down, and definitely not long sentences of descriptions and dialogue. I see no need and and relying on pre-written text might make my delivery stiff.

My written prep has just stuff like: "Zorak, spellwarrior, orc f" or "poison trap, r15, 6d6 con15, DC20." They are just reminders of facts, but I have not written down who Zorak works for what her motivations are etc, I just remember those. I have not written down where the poison trap is, what activates it, I just remember that. And same with all sort of description relationships and whatnot. Just in my head.
 

Blend. I have key things written in note form but the key part for me is knowing the characters and keeping track of the timelines. I can run stuff off-the-cuff, and am damn fine when I have to. In this biz, you gotta be able to run things that way .... but prep and notes and pre-built NPCs and baddies are always going to help you do that.
 

Read the comments on the word count. I'm a former professional writer, and frankly, IF the claim is true, the word counts one poster made are insane overkill [40,000+ per module/session?] or false.

I checked one "module" I wrote, and with stats, loot, and notes for the NPCs - 10 of them - I had 11,000 words. Again, most of that are stats.

This would be 31 words:
Sticks (F1)
Half-elf - at castle
HP: 14 (12->14)
Spear (3)
Two whistles, different frequencies
Basic bush training
5 sp/3 cp
Herb: Velor; Eudor's Root (purify water)
WIll try to escape

That's it. (I run out of Obsidian, so also keep track of hit points digitally when dealing with large groups.)

The leader was a former military vet. There were clues leading to a room in an upscale hotel. The party found letters from the dude's commander, medals and citations. 1,100 words.

This entire "smuggling ring" arc - which chewed up ten game sessions - maybe (MAYBE) 11,000 words.

I checked a pdf of an old pre-built module.
11,000 words.

The module I am about to run is going to take multiple sessions. It involves the kidnapping of an Oracle the party is quite fond of. I know the motivations of the players, who they work for. The entire module - including stats like the above - is 1,200 words and that includes spell lists for spellcasters.

So, frankly, I call BS. 45,000 words? That's a novel, not a module.
 

So, frankly, I call BS. 45,000 words? That's a novel, not a module.

Ok, since we are being frank here, let me put in my frank thoughts.

I am increasingly finding it a total waste of my time to buy gaming content because of the entirely unprofessional and low standard of slop that I usually find on display when I buy something prewritten. I backed two kickstarter projects this year. The resulting products that I paid good money for look like and are generally no more useful than my random brainstorming. Unfleshed out. Unusable as written. With no real sweat, effort or creativity put into them.

Your notes are by your own account:

Sticks (F1)
Half-elf - at castle
HP: 14 (12->14)
Spear (3)
Two whistles, different frequencies
Basic bush training
5 sp/3 cp
Herb: Velor; Eudor's Root (purify water)
WIll try to escape

Why would anyone pay for that? That's like mistaking something jotted on the back of a napkin for the final script of Toy Story or Ratouille. An idea is worth less than a penny. It's the effort of turning an idea into something where all the talent, creativity and work is exercised. Can you work with that? Probably so. But that communicates nothing to me. And it's increasingly the level of effort I find in "professional" products.

So much garbage out there. I want to love work like "Monster's and Other Childish Things". But something like "The Dreadful Secrets of Candlewick Manor" (which I own) is just empty brainstorming with none of the work put into to make it interesting. It's just a kitchen sink, a laundry list, the expected first draft of everything. First thoughts only. And I'm not particularly here even picking on Baugh whose actually interesting enough I spend money on. The decay of value is like all over the industry. Hundreds or thousands of pdfs out there with no real effort put into them. Just lists.

I love terseness. It's great. I'm continually impressed by the page counts of 1e AD&D modules. But let's not mistake brevity for quality. Those modules were good and terse. But not everything that is terse is good.

I consider my own notes to suck. I think they are too half-finished. Too haphazard. Leave too much out. Leave up too much of the game to the hope that I will remember everything I brainstormed about. They have spelling errors in them and syntax errors and I'm embarrassed to share them. But, for all that, I'm still trying my best to be the GM I'd want to have if I was a player.

Because well, I probably wouldn't want to be a player at your table.
 
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@Celebrim sure, if you are selling the stuff, you need to put the information on the paper, because you need to communicate it to someone else. But most of us are not doing that (and you are neither.)* So we do not feel the need to write down the stuff we already know because we are the ones who invented it in the first place.

* Though you probably should. Like you said, way lower quality stuff gets sold.
 

[REDACTED]
Don't take this the wrong way, but if your example notes are a decent reflection of your consistency in error while writing, you could publish without edit. I've seen worse gramatical, punctuation, and spelling errors in academic works, let alone gaming products. Also, the amount of history and other "fluff" in your prep is interesting. I'm very curious to know if that ever gets used in game? Also, I think it's awesome that your still doing SW with WEG, for some reason I assumed (despite you mentioning WEG) that you would be running SW using the new system. 🤪
* Though you probably should. Like you said, way lower quality stuff gets sold.
Yeah, no kidding. The example prep is more thorough and imaginative than most "example" adventures I've read in a long time. I'm not super familiar with much published adventures, but I would put their potential to produce a product similar to Masks Of Nyarlathotep as even odds.

Seriously Celebrim [I don't know how to tag people] you should look into perhaps turning some of your stuff into PDF and drop them on DriveThru, you might make a few bucks. Double seriously, quality wise you are far too harsh of a critic or your own work! Give it a shot mate!
 

Your notes are by your own account:



Why would anyone pay for that? That's like mistaking something jotted on the back of a napkin for the final script of Toy Story or Ratouille.

Dude. As a former professional writer, if I were writing something to sell, it would look like it were worth buying.

But hey, if you're going to criticize the note for a first-level bandit that was one of 10, knock yourself out. If I had to flesh out a background, I had generic backgrounds ready to roll. You wanna write a 500-word backstory for cannon fodder, maybe that's why you're feeling stressed. My Main dude had a character, as did his sidekick. I had those dudes fleshed out.

Because well, I probably wouldn't want to be a player at your table.

Which is unfortunate, because I spin a hell of a tale.

You have made the grave error of making several assumptions. Let me spell them out:

1) That you are a good DM.
2) That because you write novels for a module, anyone who does not is not a good DM.

Now, I agree with you: most of the published stuff I've seen is .... not good. A lot doesn't work for me because I homebrew the ever-lovin' snot out of things. But even then, most of the plots are garbage.
So I write my own stuff.

And if you dismount your high horse for juuuuuuust a second, you might see that I've got a pretty decent system in place.

Example #1: I used fantasycalendar.com to track party events. I also use it to track behind-the-scenes stuff - sandbox events. I know, for example, that a major hurricane will slam into the Octran/Sylvan coast later in the year, cause widespread flooding, landslides, yadda yadda. It's nothing more than a note that says "Widespread storm: Affects far-south Octran lands. Sweeps into Sylvan lands. High winds, flooding."
IF the party is in the area, then I can prepare for what might happen to them - and the surroundings. If they are not there but go there in the future, I have a mapping program that flags major events (Obsidian again) and the aftermath. I can figure out where things are when they get there. Or if they are far away, it might be nothing more than an odd bit of gossip in a far-away bar.


Example #2: Last session, the PC spirit warrior (samurai) decided to go calling on the baroness. Now the baroness knew the PC's name, because the PC was involved in knocking out a smuggling ring, and that very day, received potions she had ordered to later give to the party as part of a private dinner to thank them all.
So when the spirit warrior showed up, she gave an audience. PC went on to tell about the kidnapping of an oracle, who has visions she paints - and the paintings (if one can interpret them) are accurate. You just gotta interpret them.

I had no freaking clue that anyone in the party would try this. But it happened. OK. So ... I'm off into terrain I hadn't prepared for .... but I'm not lost, nor am I ad-libbing, because I have notes about what makes the Baroness tick; her mannerisms, her description, her primary protector, etc. I hadn't made a map of her chambers - but I knew what they would look like: functional, with just a touch of understated elegance. Wood and stone. Nice enough but not gaudy.

I didn't need a novel to give me the if/then/else/but flow of things. All I did was quietly pull up the baroness in Obsidian - told the PC that I had to do that to remind myself of who she was - and move on. 15-second delay, if that.

The session ended with essentially a lot of lore and knowledge being learned. The party now has an idea of who the BBEG is - and is realizing that some of the seemingly disconnected events they've either participated in or witnessed are actually intertwined. They left energized, planning what to do next week as they lingered in my driveway.

Example #3
A personal messenger - an army Lieutenant the party knows - was tasked with delivering messages personally to each member of the party. Didn't help that the party upped and went to a neighbouring barony .... but I tracked (ahead of time) the efforts this dude would take to find the party (and how), thus able to nicely sandbox his arrival where the party was, and deliver his messages. The note in the calendar app reminds me who is with him. Golber is a well-fleshed-out NPC, but I went and peeked at his notes before the game just to refresh myself on how to portray the guy.

This is Golber's entire existence in note form.
Zoi Golber is a Lt. in the regional army of southern Wyddin. He's was promoted after the goblin encounters in Beresford and south of it.​
[Stats]​
Golber is a bright, upbeat individual with a quick wit, open smile and odd way of phrasing the macabre in down-to-earth fashion. As in "right, ho. Give me your names so we know where to ship the body if things go bad."​

That's it. But that's enough for me to remember how to portray the dude. He will be a recurring NPC, quite likely. The calendar note I had was enough to assist me in making a fairly long talky-talky session happen.

Calendar note:
Golber: Arrives evening. Has two companions.

  • One is a human woman you're pretty sure you've seen her before. "Scout Sgt. Selene Vaughan," Golber declares. "She's here to keep me out of trouble. Unfortunately, there's only one of her, so she's got a little help keeping me from doing things I ought not to."

    Golber then points to a fairly well-dressed young man, "Squire Nikandros Llewelyn. He's here to make sure I use the outside fork first when dining, and don't say the wrong things in front of the wrong people."
  • Golber explains that he's been sent directly by Camrys to deliver messages to yourself, Shi, Aldora, Nancael and Grimmdark, and ensure each is delivered personally.
I had the messages crafted elsewhere.

I don't need to script 20 lines for Golber, because I have built the character.... I only need to glance at those notes or some calendar entries to figure out how he speaks. I know he's being prepared for bigger things, so the squire is trying to push him to drink wine, rather than beer or cheap distilled booze.

Were I crafting a module for someone else, I would provide a whole lot more context and content. But this is for me. It's all I need. Do not assume that because it wouldn't be enough for you that it won't do for someone else.

That's kinda what I'm hinting at. It seems I need no more than 1/4 what you do. That doesn't make me bad, but it might - might - make me more efficient, which is perhaps something to ponder.

The lesson here is a simple one: what is the story the characters are co-authoring, and what do I need to adequately carry out my responsibility in crafting that story? Where are the NPCs, who are they, how do they act? How do they behave, what are their personalities, how do I portray them? (Ie: what accents am I using?? If it's Maireth, I'm being shy, stuttering a lot, looking away from the party. If it's Norris, he's got a Cockney accent and a bad habit of running his hand through his hair - especially when he's not being entirely truthful. If it's Viiri, the well-meaning Charisma 9 Dwerf, he's going to be quiet for extended periods of time and then speak overlyloudveryrapidlywithouttakingmanybreathsorpausingbetweenwords {INHALE} whichisreallyannoyingjustasalowcharisacharactermightbe.

Do I need 1,000 words each to breathe life into these creatures?

Nope.
So ask yourself - will my way work for you?
 

Which is unfortunate, because I spin a hell of a tale.

You have made the grave error of making several assumptions. Let me spell them out:

1) That you are a good DM.
2) That because you write novels for a module, anyone who does not is not a good DM.
3) That every great GM is great in the same way
4) That everyone takes notes the same way

The notes provided look either superb or terrible as game prep depending on how much space there is for player agency. But they seem like a nightmare to prepare from for a third party due to the sheer volume and quantity of actual dialogue to memorise.
 

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