Love of gaming

How far ahead do you plan your campaigns? I used to have a whole arc planned out and write a few sessions ahead, but now, while I have an idea about what I want to happen, I mostly wait and see what the players do and write each session the week I intend to run it.

LOL for planning..

Anymore I just plan the first few encounters of the next session and have a couple of 'generic' encounters ready that I can spring on the players if the opportunity arises. I can still drive them to the ultimate goal of the over-all story, but the path is player constructed.

Nice when the party goes on track...

The last time I planned out a session more than a few hours in advance. My PCs wandered off into the woods for 3 sessions instead, then skipped half of what I wrote up anyway.

Sometimes your players choose to follow your plot, sometimes the plot just catches up with them because they're off faffing about. I try to plan the plot a bit ahead, with an option for player intervention and an option for them going somewhere else. If they're not there to stop The Thing, then the bad guys get their way for a while.

When I run games, I mostly plan out things in a, more or less, skeletal manner, and have plans B, C, D, etc... just in case the group wants to head off in another direction.

I recently ran across this note in a game thread, left as a note to myself.

My IRL game has kind of devolved to me just having like 3 main encounters I hope to have done for the session and then just winging it. I feel like I am not good enough for this style but it seems like when my players back me into the "I have no idea what I am doing" corner, they then mention they really liked that session.

This is my first game GM'ing and I was hoping to have more time for the prep but life happens I guess haha

My IRL notebooks are like that. All kinds of side notes and things that I look back on and have no idea what I was trying to get across. Nothing as cool as "sexy goblin?", though. :-)

You now have my curiosity...

LOL!

I usually have an adventure planned out in outline. What's helpful to me is how far the characters can go physically in a gaming session, and how connected the world they game in is.

Does Haveroc the White (Orc Pirate Captain of the Bloody Dagger) know who these characters are when he boards the ship they decided to sail north on instead of looking for the hidden temple where the Necromancer is hiding out? Does their reputation proceed them?

If they have some experience like say equal to a 5th level Magic User then maybe...if they have experience as a 9th or 10th level Magic User...hell yes he knows who these are and he knows who wants their head on a spike too, they pay well for the capture of one of these PCs.

"Put 'em in irons, naked, and tie that Mages fingers and gag 'im. Beat them silly boys and don't be shy, but let 'em live. We'll water them in two days when we get to port, keep 'em in the gunnels, two watches, one includes me first mate, t'a other'n includes me. Five guards. If they get's riley beat them again till they don't get up anymore. Rotten, filthy do gooders!," shouts Haveroc as he kicks each of them hard and good.

See, they wanted to go fishin' and they got something else! Don't worry, they'll live. I won't let them die, unless they make some foolish mistake. When they return to Happy Valley, the Necromancer will be in control like the prophecy said, and they'll be labeled cowards by the people of the region. Everything has a consequence, at least in my games.

Prep time, sure, I make the outline, put some page numbers where I can find stuff and let the PCs do their thing. If they forget they live near the Pirate Coast, that's on them. They got a map for Orcus' sake!