I prep by having all the components in place that will require interaction. That means having a location mapped out (to various degrees), having role play and combat encounters planned, and deciding what reward the players will get from the session.
Yes. Players get rewards in each session. Playing for hours and not getting some kind of reward is a way for them to lose interest in both the story and the game. Give them treats!
I'll use the goblin encounter story arc for my examples here, since I've already built it.
Location
The town is on a plain with one side bordered by cliff faces. A waterfall provides plentiful water and there's farmland outside the town walls. The farms have basic fences to keep livestock from wandering and to set boundary lines but no real defensive perimeters.
Why have I built it this way? To give plenty of opportunity based on what reason comes up for the goblin raids.
Reason
They could want the farm produce. They could want the town to use as a new lair. They could be coming back to ancestral lands to find them occupied. They could be holed up in the cliff face and simply raiding for loot. There's lots of options there both for the raids and the final encounter. Let the role play decide it or pick one and lead the role play there.
You should know what drives your players by now. Tailor the reason for that. If they're a bunch who prefer to deal with loot they're not going to be interested in the scenarios where the goblins are raiding for better living conditions.
Role Play
Let them talk to the town leaders, people in taverns, the shopkeepers, the temples, and anywhere else they go. Let them overhear the NPCs talking to each other and pick up information or misinformation from that. Maybe a group of residents isn't happy with the mayor and have agitated the goblins into making it so they can take over the town themselves. It might just be talk, it might not.
Encounter
This is the more serious raid on the town. They've already had the raid that turned tail and ran at the change in defenses. Now they're back with more and better warriors. Play them smart enough to challenge the players. Split them into more than one group. Have them set fires within the town using fire arrows. Have them complete tunnels into the basements of a few buildings. This isn't the big fight but it's going to be far more than the initial raid.
Resolution
The goblins retreat (leave some alive to retreat!) but there's damage to the town. It may be less than the damage that was being done, in which case the citizens will be grateful. It may be more damage since there was more defense, in which case the citizens will be far less grateful and start thinking they were better off before.
Knowing what the goblins are after now (based on the previous sessions and this one) the final battle encounter can be planned. Defenses set, NPCs enlisted, reward negotiated. Everyone knows what they're up against and it's time for it to stop.
End of Session
So what would I prep here?
- The goblin stats
- The combat plan
- Both sides of how the NPCs react
- The reward from the encounter
- The final reward
That's it. What I've planned is flexible enough to handle what goes on in the game session and keep the story moving along. At each step the players determine how the story progresses. And at each step they can back out of the entire thing without me losing out on hours of planning.
Here's the other advantage. I have things prepped and ready for more encounters while they're at this level. It doesn't take much to increase the difficulty if they players have leveled because of this encounter since I'm not making stuff up from scratch.
I can get away with this because I'm decent at improvisation. That's a good GM skill to have. Not everyone has it and they need more planning. If that's the case then build on each section a bit and have some decision trees ready. Don't try to write a story and expect/force your players to follow it. Let them make the choices based on how the session goes.
And don't forget to write down what they do and don't do so it can continue to build after they've left!
No comments:
Post a Comment