IMPROVISE
Improvise or Plan? This is my constant dilemma. So many publish adventures are just railroads that, despite most my players saying they’re okay with and just want to jump on and take a ride, insist on derailing at EVERY available opportunity!
As Clausewitz once said: “The best written adventure never survives first contact with the player characters…” (or maybe it was Sun Tzu…?)
What I’ve been trying to work towards is a very flexible plan and be ready to improvise. I try to come up with a timeline of what the antagonists are up to and plan of clues that could lead to the party TO the antagonists or inform them of what they are up to and just let them GO! I try to make it possible for those clues to not be tied to fixed location or at least be moveable - if they don’t find it where they’re supposed to, move it so it’s right in their path. Nothing wrecks an adventure that a vital clue in one location that they don’t go to or miss because of a failed Notice roll. When the players wreck part of the the antagonists plan - make them ADAPT - what would they do if someone starts wrecking stuff - attack? Hide? Ignore them and carry on? I try to think those things through.
Anyway, that’s the idea I’ve been trying to move towards… It isn’t really as simple as it plans and still doesn’t always work out… It’s a process…. I’m still learning.
POOL
I like dice pools. I think my first introduction to them was West End Games Star Wars Role-Playing Game (First Edition). When it came out I snapped it up because I still had warm fuzzy nostalgic feelings about the whole Star Wars universe (or….galaxy, far, far away…?). I did not like them then. Why roll a shit-tonne of dice when a pair of d10s would do (I did love my percentile dice at the time). Since then I have grown to appreciate and, in fact, prefer dice pools.
There's a longer explanation of why exactly that is... but I don't have all day. if you want to hear more about it, ask.
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