improvisation vs pre-planned
- Thread starter flykiller
- Start date
I rely upon Sun Tzu and Dwight D. Eisenhower: in war (or games), plans are useless but planning is essential.
In my experience, no scenario outline has ever survived contact with the PCs. This is a feature of RPGs, not a bug; once you realize the Zen of this, you can plan with the confidence that all your hard work will pay off the first time the players blindside you and totally wreck your lovingly-crafted plot... and you just roll with it, pulling some plausible-yet-improvised-on-the-spur-of-the-moment new plot point out of hard vacuum totally nonchalantly, subsequently convincing them that this angle was your plan all along.
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I do a LOT of planning when I ref (my sig has some of the things I've done) but my players sadly took the easy way out and I believe almost wanted to be railroaded (they are used to D&D and 'there's a dungeon - go kill things along the way'). But while I give a pretty good overview of the world and work up the key people they may meet, I always thought we'd ad lib the actual play and let things unfold with a few plot points they may take. They never took. Having two fairly passive players (hmm, something I will bring up in the ref lounge) made play a little more slow and probably not as exciting (I will take half the blame, but that's it)
ShawnDriscoll
SOC-14 1K
Half planned. I got my characters. The players have theirs.
baktegon
SOC-12
I plan out the general story beats, but how the players get from beat to beat is improvisation. sometimes beats are skipped entirely and I'll just adapt to that situation, so far it seems to be working well.
We're also playing a more episodic campaign where "stories" are only taking 1-3 sessions. My player group is fluid so it's difficult to run an epic campaign when some players are coming and going.
We're also playing a more episodic campaign where "stories" are only taking 1-3 sessions. My player group is fluid so it's difficult to run an epic campaign when some players are coming and going.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
You're given objectives and goals.
I voted some planning in that I work up some hooks the players can grab, but it they don't grab them, that's fine. Sometimes the planning is "this adventure module is here on this world" and if the players go there, they have a chance of engaging the adventure. Right now I've got one group engaging in Shadows, though they drove an ATV across land to get to the ruin.
Gray Lensman
SOC-13
Like most, my plans rarely survive contact with the enemy (PCs 
).
I plan out plenty of Patrons, Rumors, and Locations. I generate lot's of NPCs and Random Encounters. The player's always seem to find a place to go/thing to do that leaves me scrambling though (making my plans :toast
.
I always include a few things that get me some measure of revenge :CoW:.
It all good though. I live on :coffeegulp:, and have plenty of energy.
I also keep EVERYTHING, so most times I can pull something out to twart their evil desires
.
).I plan out plenty of Patrons, Rumors, and Locations. I generate lot's of NPCs and Random Encounters. The player's always seem to find a place to go/thing to do that leaves me scrambling though (making my plans :toast
.I always include a few things that get me some measure of revenge :CoW:.
It all good though. I live on :coffeegulp:, and have plenty of energy.
I also keep EVERYTHING, so most times I can pull something out to twart their evil desires
.I used to plan everything. I also used to get very frustrated since the players never did what I planned. Now I will have a few notes and maybe some patrons/thugs or encounters jotted down and just roll with it.
My blood pressure has gone down dramatically since I made that change.
My blood pressure has gone down dramatically since I made that change.
Same here. I like to have a planned adventure to use when describing to my players, but also as a base to improvise from when my players react to it in their unexpected ways.
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