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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Malrex" data-source="post: 7794458" data-attributes="member: 6880534">At least for me...Short answer...YES!Shameless plug--this is what I did for my City of Vermilion adventure (kickstarter is live right now). For Vermilion, I have a story arc in place--but this is where the importance of the timeline takes place. Things will happen with the story in the background and the characters can be involved in it or not--it doesn't matter to me, because whatever intrigues the players the most IS the main adventure. Then I have what I call Situations--these are rough outlines or beefed up rumors that can lead to areas that I have prepared (like a Thieves Guild hideout, a creepy mansion, or the jail), then I have rumors...which can lead to those Situations or to dead-ends. So my Situations are sorta like your ideas with the drowned sailor and thieves guild examples.The party gets to decide what they want to do...and the timetable will enact activities that may change the environment that the characters will have to adapt too. For example, with my timetable, the city goes on lockdown as an important person was kidnapped and guards search the city...so when my players got done exploring a creepy mansion, suddenly the streets were in chaos with street fighting, and guards pushing through doors. This may change what they had planned to do next, but also provides another opportunity to get involved with the main story if they want.That's all prepared stuff though. If you aren't prepared, I may have some rough ideas/outlines that I'm able to throw out some adventure hooks and be able to run a session for...the story may start writing itself as the players feed of what you tell them, and you in turn feed off what they are doing. When I know what the party wants to do, then I can prepare for the next session based on their choices. For your vampire lord example--yes, I would have a rough lair penciled out and the vampire statted up. But I wouldn't flesh the whole thing out until I knew that's where the party was headed....because I might have to focus on a cave instead that grabbed their interest. Hopefully this rambling makes sense.</blockquote>

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