About Plots, Situations and Owls

[carpocratian]

Honestly I see little correlation between how well I've prepared and how much the players seem to enjoy the session. Sometimes they seem to enjoy the moment when they put two and two together and see how everything ties up. Sometimes they seem to enjoy situations I've improvised that make no sense at all. Sometimes they like to be co-creators and suggest stuff themselves. And sometimes none of the above seems to work.

Then why stress out about it?

 

[PolarBlues]

Then why stress out about it?

Hehe, good point.

 

[MoonHunter]

Just some points that came up from a writing video. They are related to this topic, but not part of the main thrust.

Outlining (or flow charting) are important. They help you think about your "scenario" more clearly. It shows where there might be gaps or places you might need to pad.

Prep of scenes/ situations is not linear and not static. They should be dynamic, changing as your changing situation evolves. They are a strong foundation to leap from, to build from.

The points should be kept to their absolute minimum. This is important. It is the mona lisa rule. A work is useless if it is not released to be viewed.

Also the time spent in prep should be related to the amount of fun you get out of the result. Thus people who spend months writing a scenario (with enough detail and options that it could be a novel) for four to five hours of play (with chunks of that prep being chucked because of actions taken), is not getting a good return on investment (unless they are all about the fun of the writing, not playing).

Be judicious with detail. You have done thinking work about the subject. Don't try to impress us (the players/ the audience) with it. (Unless you are Outlander author Diana Gabaldon or Issac Asimov.) We won't be. That is not what we (the players) are here for. You need to learn the art of "just enough" - just enough so you know what is happening/ exists, but not enough that you can get lost in it.

(Still have dump notes: How certain scenes or certain elements are described. You may have a great idea for a location or NPC's Point. A bit of description or dialog. You want to capture it, so you want it in your notes to remind you to include it.)

 

[GildorJM]

For event-based scenarios, I make a conscious effort to disconnect my prep from specific times and places as much as possible. What I mean by this is that if I come up with a cool NPC for example, I don't decide in advance when or where the players might encounter the NPC, that way I can insert the encounter if, when and where it seems most appropriate during the session (or not insert it at all). Having no fixed time or place in mind for things to happen helps me focus on responding to what the players do in the most natural and interesting way, rather than trying to force them along some predetermined plot.

 

[AsenRG]

For event-based scenarios, I make a conscious effort to disconnect my prep from specific times and places as much as possible. What I mean by this is that if I come up with a cool NPC for example, I don't decide in advance when or where the players might encounter the NPC, that way I can insert the encounter if, when and where it seems most appropriate during the session (or not insert it at all). Having no fixed time or place in mind for things to happen helps me focus on responding to what the players do in the most natural and interesting way, rather than trying to force them along some predetermined plot.

...well, different takes here, definitely. I personally find that, apart from repeating activities, having a time and place helps with the "natural" part.

As for the "interesting" part, I don't estimate specific events, but the session as a whole...especially given how many times players have taken an avid interest in something I intended as a throwaway comment!

 

[Dumarest]

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[Fenris-77]

...well, different takes here, definitely. I personally find that, apart from repeating activities, having a time and place helps with the "natural" part.

It's not that complicated. That tavern keeper you just wrote up is most likely to show up in a tavern, etc etc. Same with a watch sergeant, he'll be patrolling. Sometimes you want a feature attached to a specific place or encounter, other times it's a need a cop take a cop kind of affair.

 

[Fenris-77]

For event-based scenarios, I make a conscious effort to disconnect my prep from specific times and places as much as possible. What I mean by this is that if I come up with a cool NPC for example, I don't decide in advance when or where the players might encounter the NPC, that way I can insert the encounter if, when and where it seems most appropriate during the session (or not insert it at all). Having no fixed time or place in mind for things to happen helps me focus on responding to what the players do in the most natural and interesting way, rather than trying to force them along some predetermined plot.

Yup, a lot of my prep is either floating or semi-floating. That's not to say it's a quantum ogre or anything. Sometimes I'll prep a couple of taverns but I don't want to prep every tavern in Waterdeep just on the off chance the players go to them all.

 

[AsenRG]

It's not that complicated. That tavern keeper you just wrote up is most likely to show up in a tavern, etc etc. Same with a watch sergeant, he'll be patrolling. Sometimes you want a feature attached to a specific place or encounter, other times it's a need a cop take a cop kind of affair.

That's why I wrote the exception for repeatable actions. Patrolling, going to the tavern, going to work...both of your examples do two of those at once. Those are repeatable, they're going to happen multiple times.

The swashbuckler that helps the princess run from her despotic father is only going to attempt that once, though (and succeed 0 times, if you ask the father). Encountering those two during their escape? That should require some luck.
If you don't, you hear that they have escaped and can look for them while they're in hiding. So it's still the event generating content, just not the same way as sticking the swashbuckler and the princess in front of them.

Of course, you can just be lucky if you have them drinking in a place near the route of the two, but I'd give them a chance to spot them or to miss the events even in that case.

 

[Fenris-77]

That's why I wrote the exception for repeatable actions. Patrolling, going to the tavern, going to work...both of your examples do two of those at once. Those are repeatable, they're going to happen multiple times.

The swashbuckler that helps the princess run from her despotic father is only going to attempt that once, though (and succeed 0 times, if you ask the father). Encountering those two during their escape? That should require some luck.
If you don't, you hear that they have escaped and can look for them while they're in hiding. So it's still the event generating content, just not the same way as sticking the swashbuckler and the princess in front of them.

Of course, you can just be lucky if you have them drinking in a place near the route of the two, but I'd give them a chance to spot them or to miss the events even in that case.

Well sure, thinking about what kind of props are needed or reasonable for this session is a key idea. One princess and one princess only.

 

[GildorJM]

Yup, a lot of my prep is either floating or semi-floating. That's not to say it's a quantum ogre or anything. Sometimes I'll prep a couple of taverns but I don't want to prep every tavern in Waterdeep just on the off chance the players go to them all.

"Floating prep", good term, that's what I was describing, and you're right to bring up the "quantum ogre" because that's the pitfall if it's implemented poorly. The trick is to use your prep at the right time, and to tailor it to what's happening in game.

 

[Fenris-77]

"Floating prep", good term, that's what I was describing, and you're right to bring up the "quantum ogre" because that's the pitfall if it's implemented poorly. The trick is to use your prep at the right time, and to tailor it to what's happening in game.

The other thing I'll do is hunt some some specific random tables if I think something like a pubcrawl might be in the offing. Any recurring element is worth finding some good tables for IMO.

 

[opaopajr]

For event-based scenarios, I make a conscious effort to disconnect my prep from specific times and places as much as possible. What I mean by this is that if I come up with a cool NPC for example, I don't decide in advance when or where the players might encounter the NPC, that way I can insert the encounter if, when and where it seems most appropriate during the session (or not insert it at all). Having no fixed time or place in mind for things to happen helps me focus on responding to what the players do in the most natural and interesting way, rather than trying to force them along some predetermined plot.

That's cool. Kismet/Fate/Destiny is a thing as well. You don't need to make a clockwork universe to compose a breathing world.

In other disciplines this part of The Process would be reserved intent: i.e. in artwork it'd be the content and composition, in manufacturing it'd be the design purpose and material composition. Some details may change, but the goal of a portrait and a hammer shall likely retain in The Process unto the end. And further it sounds like you are keeping it loose to allow that call-&-response performance dynamic essential to RPGs -- basically it may not happen exactly there and then as I or my players intended it, but it will happen.

 

[SirFrog]

The Quantum Ogre, or Schrodinger’s Goblin, is not a bad technique. The key is timing.

The key to being a pantser is have a very large bag of tricks. How you arrange those tricks in time and space is how you draw an owl after the two circles. It’s a magic trick

 

[AsenRG]

The other thing I'll do is hunt some some specific random tables if I think something like a pubcrawl might be in the offing. Any recurring element is worth finding some good tables for IMO.

Those have lately become one of my favourites as well.

The Quantum Ogre, or Schrodinger’s Goblin, is not a bad technique. The key is timing.

I beg to differ - and can we leave it at this, please?

 

[opaopajr]

I beg to differ - and can we leave it at this, please?

I actually agree with you here, too. There is a line between reserved intent and illusionism (as I understood Quantum Ogre to be).

Reserved intent still follows The Process, which in a call-and-response performative experience includes the contributions of the players to meaningfully shape outcomes. So there will be a relinquishing of some control from the GM & an unpredictability of the Players on when and where Kismet will most organically occur. Some moments will be improbable impositions on the fiction by the GM, while others would merely be lost opportunities for the Players on their merry way. The GM's restraint and the Players' choices subtly affect the timing of each other 'until the stars are right'.

Whereas Quantum Ogre feels very Illusionism for me: Player choice loses its meaning as regardless of the door you choose the Ogre is wherever you go. At some point in the tightening of granularity it changes from a shared harmonizing -- organic and not fully predictable -- into a decision that excludes that call-and-response Player contribution. It's like many things in life when it feels forced, it feels false.

 

[The Convenient Skill]

My answer to prep is random tables, and lots of them.

I use these for just about everything. Names, motives, appearance, professions, factions, locations etc.

I start with my initial incident (or create one with the tables), create a few characters, factions etc with these so I can drop them in where appropriate or link them to the initial incident and get a feel of relationships.

I love to use the Technoir approach to mysteries which helps.

Finally I create a list of names, appearances and possible professions for potentially inconsequential characters and I'm OK to go.