Re: (1426) Adventure Generation/Background Generation

 In message 1426, Mark Gellis writes:
 >
 >I recently had a "conference" of sorts with some of my players.  They
 >felt that we needed to change the nature of the game.  For one thing,
 >they pointed out that some of my adventures were "too narrow"--there
 >was only one solution and they had to follow a precise course of
 >events to get things done, or fail utterly.  While I don't think the
 >problem is as severe as some of them felt, I do think they may have
 >pointed out a problem with my approach to GMing and I decided to look
 >into other options.

     It *could* be a problem.  It depends quite a bit on how you handle
things.  Back in the dim and misty past (when dinosaurs still walked the
land and I was a freshman) I played AD&D (yeah, I know--hey, I was a
*freshman*, I didn't know any better) under a DM who practically wrote
a novel for each scenario.  I could live with this, but the real
problem was that if we deviated from his planned plot the slightest bit
he would *yank* us back on his track.  There were other things about his
style (and his personal changes to the game system) that I didn't like,
but that one thing was what I most resented.

     It might be a good idea for you to loosen up a little.  You'd be
surprised how strange things can get if you let your players have a
little freedom.  Be ready to roll with the punches, though.

 >(Other problems are less serious.  They want to have more alien
 >characters.  I am willing to do this; it is just that there are less
 >complications when all or most of the characters are human.)

     More non-human player characters, or NPCs?  Personally, I don't
like having to run with a bunch of non-human NPCs, but I'll let my
players do whatever they want.

 >(I already have some truly funny and disturbed ideas...like an
 >assassination attempt that will involve singing Chip 'n Dale robots
 >who explode after they do their "I'm Chip...I'm Dale..." routine.)

     Nice idea.  I like it.  Has style.  Yeah, you *are* disturbed...
I like that in a GM...  ;-)

 >More important, though, is that the problem seems to have stemmed
 >from overplanning.  At the same time, I do not want to simply leave
 >everything open to chance because I have a feeling that the adventures
 >will simply fall apart if I do.  Does anyone have suggestions, advice,
 >interesting stories, etc. about how to set up an adventure with a
 >general scenario, with enough detail that it will be fun and original,
 >but not so much details that your players are locked into a single
 >path that they must figure out and follow?  What do people plan and
 >write down in advance...what do they leave to chance...and so on.

     Oh, my...  Let me tell you what I do.  I come to an average session
with a fairly clear idea of where the players are at the moment (the
initial state).  I also have two or three vague ideas for things the
adventurers might want to do.  Everything else is up to them.  I use
the question "what do you do?" a lot.  What do I write down in advance?
Not a damn' thing.  Details?  Easy; I make them up as I go (sometimes
I take notes, since my memory fades pretty quickly, and I have to
send summaries to my long-distance player [one of my old roomies] in
Oregon).  What do I do when the players decide to go haring off to
bumbletucky, nowhere near any of my good ideas?  No problem, just make
up something new, *fast*.  If you need time to think of something,
there are several things you can do.  Calling a munchie-Coke-facilities
break is one of my favorites, though I also sometimes stall by getting
the players in trouble with the local law...  ;-)  Heck, one time,
that was how I got things started.  There are very few things that will
make a bunch of players more co-operative than impounding their ship...

     Oh, yeah, if you need just a *little* time to make a decision
(like, "Do I nova the sun for snicks and grins, or not?") roll some
dice.  Look at the number you rolled.  Then do whatever you want,
ignoring the roll.  It's not fudging, since it was a purposeless roll
in the first place.  However, your players don't know that.  Try
throwing random happenings at the players, making sure that they seem
to be things that bear little or no relation to what they really are.
What does this do?  Well, with a correctly applied sense of humor, they
make the game more fun (in my opinion, *everything* goes better with
humor).


- --
     Brent

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