Emacsen
One of the hardest things for me to do as a GM has been to let go of the idea of the maps in my mind.
The simple example is that I imagine the boss is on the left tower, but the players go to the right tower. As a GM, one needs to be flexible enough to put the boss in the right tower.
More complex are deep plot points which I imagined might come out a certain way, but there's no reason they can't come out through an entirely different interaction or encounter.
Emacsen
While "keeping the vision clean" is nice, keeping the story going and adjusting where and how things happen based on player decisions is the way to prevent "flopping around syndrome" as well as making the players feel as if they are always at the center of the story (which they should be!).
Santa Claes πΈπͺππ°π
Emacsen
My players were experiencing a lot of flopping around in the game, and not seeing that the plots I was offering were all tied into one another.
By focusing on the plot points I want to hit and caring less about how, I can improvise better.
If I expect the players to gain knowledge during combat, but they diplomacy the encounter, fine. If they know there's an encounter but avoid the encounter- I still want them to get this knowledge- it becomes my problem of how...
β€ (beardless variant)
@emacsen This flexible approach was how I did it for a long time but I am thinking recently that I wanna try not doing this. Give them clues and plenty of ways to figure out the boss is in that left tower and if they fuck it up, the boss gets to escape to fight another day. If their choice of tower doesnβt matter why even give them the choice?
β€ (beardless variant)
@emacsen Iβm curious what a typical story looks like? Whatβs your prep material ya know? Ultimately, Iβm a βyes andβ improv DM at heart but I am trying to figure out ways to use prep to really push the experience to the next level.
Emacsen
This doesn't mean I artifically place the information in front of them- it might mean a delay of one or two or more sessions, but I know that they'll likely need this knowledge in order to progress with the story.
Because I've started doing this, my players are starting to get payoff for plot points that I laid literally six months ago and can connect to what's going on now.
β€ (beardless variant)
@emacsen yeah, this is kinda the other thing I am wanting to try to change, moving away from prepping plot points and instead just try to build a world with which the players and I can build a plot at the actual table. I dunno, it might not work or the plots might never reach truly great levels of sophistication but I wanna try it. I think itβll work, but who knows.
Emacsen
I purposefully avoided an "epic story" and instead focused on stories that last 2-3 sessions. My sessions are only 2-3 hours, so that's fairly small.
Since there's no power progression in my game (no xp, no items) this has instead let my players gain a different type of power- storylines and in-game contacts, as well as learning to play off each other's strengths.
What this looks like to them are disconnected storylines that then interleave later on.
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