In the current table top campaign I am running, I am using the Cormyr area from Forgotten Realms (circa 1367 before the Spellplague, Shadowvar, and all that other nonsense which destroyed the setting in later editions.) I initially chose this over homebrewing my own world for a myriad of reasons. The players are all familiar with the Realms, so I don't have to spend a lot of time on exposition, but the primary reason I chose the setting is because it would be simply easier to use a pre-generated campaign setting rather than make one on my own. I didn't have to worry about making a pantheon of gods, creating a map, history of the races, etc. All of that information is available to me through the boxed campaign setting. On the surface it sounded easy enough, but there was one fatal flaw in my plan; I tend to overprepare.
To some, overpreparation is not a big deal. For me, spending countless hours pouring over royal lineages, history and current state of the cities in the setting, etc. is a time draining affair, and while I enjoy it, I'm no longer a teenager with limitless time to devote to the hobby. In getting ready for the first session, I spent a great amount of time mapping out a sewer system for the city of Tilverton, and fleshing out important NPCs and solid adventure hooks within the city, all with the thought that the PCs will be spending a decent amount of time adventuring in or around Tilverton.
If you've read my previous entry on the first session of our game, you already know that most of that preparation was for naught, at least for a little while. The PC's botched a raid on one of the thieve's guild warehouses, and had to escape under the cover of darkness in the back of a cart. Hell, one of them actually got caught, and although he doesn't know it yet, he's about to be framed by the guild for the murder of a high ranking Purple Dragon officer in the city. Needless to say, I don't expect them to return to the city, at least out in the open, any time soon. Even now, they are out in the Stonelands area searching for a tunnel which links to the sewers of Tilverton, but they are only doing so in hopes of catching a certain shipment of supplies exiting the city rather than using it as a means of going back in unnoticed.
I have no one to blame but myself for this conundrum really. I knew going in that there was a very high chance that the party would deviate from certain paths, and as a DM who encourages a sandbox style campaign, I was prepared for the consequences, but that doesn't make it any less irritating. Not because they deviated, but because I can kick myself for pouring so much time into a campaign only to have much of it go completely unknown to the players. They'll never figure out, for example, that there is a death cult operating from the sealed crypts in the sewers, or that the true leader of the guild is actually a beholder. Sure, I could throw in some means to force them back into the city because "that's what I prepared them for," but I can't do that as a DM in good conscious. Actions have consequences and there is a world working around the PCs, whether they exist there or not. If they chose to never return to Tilverton, I'm not going to railroad them into going back.
A long time ago, I read through dungeonmastering.com's e-book "The Instant DM," and while there is a lot of really great advice in there on how to create a good campaign with minimal effort, they mainly advocate using pre-existing products (free maps, etc.) available on the web. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but I've never been a fan of using other people's works in my own campaigns. Using a published campaign setting is bad enough, much less resorting to using pre-made adventures and maps. That is not to say there is anything wrong with that, it just always feels as if I'm playing around in someone else's imagination when I center much of my campaign resources on stuff other people made up. Part of the fun, for me, is crafting a campaign custom suited to the players in my group. I want them to have a personal investment, and not just crawl through the Caves of Chaos because "that's the adventure we're playing tonight."
So, as has been the case in numerous games I've DM'd over the years, I spent much of the first session of our campaign simply winging it. Not all of the time spent researching and building plots was lost, however, because it gave me a good base of knowledge from which to draw in order to wing the session. So, do you tend to overprepare? Do you often find yourself underprepared? How do you effectively manage your time as a DM in campaign preparation? I've found keeping around maps I've drawn which can easily be incorporated into the game as a nifty tool when caught off guard. At the very least, it allows me to buy some time to think of something directly related to the adventure. I try to keep a few of these handy with some very brief notes in case things go awry. In addition I usually have several "regional plots" going on in the background for different areas, in case the PC's manage to find themselves in another part of the realm.
What are some steps you take to maximize the amount of time spent in campaign preparation, and do you, like me, feel that sometimes you spend too much time on it?
I tend to agree with the Instant GM's formula of 1 hour of prep for 4 hours of gaming. Anything more than that, IMHO, is overpreparing. You need to have good maps of the wilderness, towns, and dungeons you may be using, but don't go overboard on detail. Do your players really need a neat name for every blacksmith, supply store, and other vendors in a town? I don't think so.
ReplyDeleteI think it all comes down to focus on/remembering why you and the players are there: having fun! For me, if I have some good maps, some random monster encounters prepared, some random NPCs prepared (which don't all need to be completely statted out and seamlessly integrated into the campaign, mind you), and develop a frame of a main plot with several side potential side plots, the characters/players can take it from there. With these plots I mention, they are skeletal, nothing more. So that if the players run with it, I can make things up as I go along, and if they deviate, then I’ve lost nothing. If I ever fall into the trap of creating an intricate storyline, if the players miss out on it I use it as fodder for another place in the campaign (with tweaks as needed).
Then you need to be sure to use some of the special abilities of the characters in the game. Try to throw in some situations that call for certain players/characters to step up and take a shot at success/failure. Engage the players. They will appreciate all this more than the fact that you have the campaign world details perfected all the way down to minutia. Unless you have players that actually demand this level of detail, but how often is that really the case?
That's some good advice, Drance. My players really get into engaging storylines and intrigue and the like, which is why I have always liked the Realms. There's so many of these secret organizations running around and its very easy to develop good stories and create some good villains for the campaign. Don't get me wrong, I try to work within a skeleton of a story, as you mention, and there are various ways in which I can work those into the campaign even when the players seem to deviate. I try to throw things out there, and if they bite, we keep going. My players also love really getting into their characters's history and backgrounds. Many of them have personal goals for their characters, and I try to work those into the campaign as well.
ReplyDeleteI suppose my biggest problem is that I enjoy the game so much, I end up spending more time than I have to in preparation. Its not necessarily out of a feeling that I need to, I just enjoy coming up with ideas and fleshing them out, and I'm curious to get other perspectives on it as well.
Overprep is only cool when you're designing your own monsters, world, and classes from scratch or converting them over. It's kind of the 'game within the game' for me. I spend a lot of time on it, but I love it. It will all pay off when the PCs blunder into that TPK because they had no idea what I had cooked up.
ReplyDeleteI guess my thought is that you have to let those engaging storylines grow organically from those skeleton frameworks, with the participation/input from the player’s actions. That last part is another key to player buy-in to the campaign as a whole. And the more investment the players have in the game, the less they worry about/look for railroading. It’s a cycle of goodness.
ReplyDeleteNow, you may worry that all those plotlines, as they develop, become unwieldy. But you just have to take some decent notes, and then leave the rest up to your players to remember. If they’re really into the game, they will do most of the remembering for you! The game becomes self-sustaining to a point. You still need to work on making sure existing aspects of the adventures don’t become stale, and make sure you have new skeletons to tack on as needed.
Trust me, I am the same way as you: I could go nuts and get so detailed in my development. But you just need to keep your focus as best you can, and not kill yourself! I definitely find myself slipping all the time toward the overprep zone! I really enjoy the creative process, too, since gaming is now my primary creative outlet. I don’t write fiction anymore in the traditional sense. It takes too much time and I never seem to finish. But developing adventures for a campaign gives me the chance to share “stories” in a way, so I get some quick fulfillment every week that scratches my storytelling itch. But I balance this urge in order to avoid railroading, so the PCs are not just captives of some interactive novel.
@Ohio - Yeah, that's the thing that bugs me too. Spending so much time fleshing out things in a pre-made campaign world, but most of the stuff I use could easily be incorporated into a homebrew world easily enough.
ReplyDelete@Drance - Yes, anymore DnD is my main creative outlet as well, and I never want it to seem as if I'm telling a story and the players are just characters in that story. Most of the time, I ask that they include some sort of brief background so I can incorporate certain events into the campaign as it helps give them somewhat of a personal stake in it right off the bat. But I never try to railroad them in one particular direction. Whatever they do is whatever they do. And thanks for the words of encouragement as well!