Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Your approach to session planning?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Rogue Agent" data-source="post: 5720256" data-attributes="member: 6673496"><p>It really depends on the type of adventure.</p><p></p><p><strong>LOCATION-BASED</strong> adventures break down to a keyed map and inhabitants. The traditional way is to include both inhabitants and locations on the same key, but I actually break them up: There's the map, a key describing locations on the map, and then a roster of inhabitants.</p><p></p><p><strong>SCENE-BASED</strong> adventures I prep the scenes and I figure out how the players can navigate from one scene to the next. <a href="http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/7949/roleplaying-games/node-based-scenario-design-part-1-the-plotted-approach" target="_blank">A similar approach explained at nauseous length.</a></p><p></p><p>In either case, each "chunk" of information is prepped using succinct bullet points. (Easy to write; easy to reference; easy to use.) And for stat blocks I'll do my best to use stuff I can plug-and-play as often as possible.</p><p></p><p>I think the biggest thing experience has taught me is to prep situations, not plots. (I used to talk generally about prepping "antagonists and their plots", but <a href="http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/4147/roleplaying-games/dont-prep-plots" target="_blank">this</a> was useful in clarifying the approach in my head.) The problem with prepping plots is that you'll usually waste a lot of time on contingencies that never get used. And even if you don't go in for contingencies, you'll still spend a lot of time prepping stuff that could just as easily be developed organically and spontaneously at the game table.</p><p></p><p>With all that being said, there is no silver bullet I've found. Sometimes I'll prep 20 pages of stuff and I'll get 30 minutes of play out of it. Sometimes I'll prep 4 paragraphs and I'll get 8 hours of play out of it.</p><p></p><p>As you gain experience, you get better at figuring out what is and isn't going to be useful (particularly for a specific group of players). But there are no guarantees. (And I like that.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rogue Agent, post: 5720256, member: 6673496"] It really depends on the type of adventure. [b]LOCATION-BASED[/b] adventures break down to a keyed map and inhabitants. The traditional way is to include both inhabitants and locations on the same key, but I actually break them up: There's the map, a key describing locations on the map, and then a roster of inhabitants. [b]SCENE-BASED[/b] adventures I prep the scenes and I figure out how the players can navigate from one scene to the next. [url=http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/7949/roleplaying-games/node-based-scenario-design-part-1-the-plotted-approach]A similar approach explained at nauseous length.[/url] In either case, each "chunk" of information is prepped using succinct bullet points. (Easy to write; easy to reference; easy to use.) And for stat blocks I'll do my best to use stuff I can plug-and-play as often as possible. I think the biggest thing experience has taught me is to prep situations, not plots. (I used to talk generally about prepping "antagonists and their plots", but [url=http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/4147/roleplaying-games/dont-prep-plots]this[/url] was useful in clarifying the approach in my head.) The problem with prepping plots is that you'll usually waste a lot of time on contingencies that never get used. And even if you don't go in for contingencies, you'll still spend a lot of time prepping stuff that could just as easily be developed organically and spontaneously at the game table. With all that being said, there is no silver bullet I've found. Sometimes I'll prep 20 pages of stuff and I'll get 30 minutes of play out of it. Sometimes I'll prep 4 paragraphs and I'll get 8 hours of play out of it. As you gain experience, you get better at figuring out what is and isn't going to be useful (particularly for a specific group of players). But there are no guarantees. (And I like that.) [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Your approach to session planning?
Top