I am still a relatively new GM. I'm about to start book 6 of my first AP and first time DMing. I want to get to a point where I can roll with any curveballs thrown my way. So, I would like to learn from people that have done this.
If you've run APs and had PCs go off on unexpected and unforeseen tangents, how have you dealt with it? Did you try to get them back on track? Let them go? Did you ask for a break in the session to gather some thoughts?
I want to hear from y'all.
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Over time, if you GM with players who refuse to stay on the cowpath (which you will, if you keep at it) you develop fairly good improvisational skills. It's good to try to anticipate possible wrong turns or tangents the players might want to pursue, and figure out your recourse if that happens in advance, but players will regularly surprise you somehow.
The two golden rules to follow in this situation are:
- If your players are having fun, then whatever they're doing is fine. You don't really need to intervene until they get antsy, so knowing how to read the room is valuable.
- Try to figure out a way to circle back to what you've prepared regardless of what the players do. The players are incapable of knowing the entire world state in advance, so if you prepared a scene to happen in one place or set of circumstances, and the players circumvent that scene, there's probably still a way to work it in somehow. People with their hearts set on ambushing the PCs will try somewhere else if the PCs avoid the initial ambush spot, after all. So this isn't necessarily railroading (try to make the scene change in response to what the players did, to avoid those feelings.)
Book 6 of APs is, from my (albeit limited experience as a player) where things tend to get pretty loose anyway.
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Which AP, just out of curiosity? Might help you get some more specific advice.
For me, I usually let players go off on tangents as they like, but try to plant some more hooks along the tangent to get them back around to the rest of the path...though their tangent might have consequences if they know they're on a timeline for something. For an AP, I would think the players would have created characters that WANT to finish that particular adventure, so that should help a bit.
Being able to think on your feet (for things like new NPCs that they might be meeting, etc.) is good. If you need specific stats, the NPC Codex and Villain Codex are good sources of pre-prepared NPC statblocks. It's also good to have several ways the PCs can get back on the path, just in case they miss a clue or skip an encounter that would have pointed them in the right direction.
Also, make sure all the players are on board with the tangent. If one or two players want to go off and do something else and the rest want to continue with the adventure hooks, you might end up with a split party, which is harder to run.
Worst comes to worst, it's not terrible to just tell them OOC that you weren't expecting that particular tangent and that you'll take some time to prepare and be back next session. Can't prepare for everything, after all.
@Meraki - I'm not really looking for advice for what I'm currently running (which is Wrath by the way).
I'm more looking ahead to further APs. For this one, they agreed to keep things pretty much on the trail since I was new. but, I'd love to get "better". And to hear from others with ideas.
Good job making it to book 6! Many don't.
I've found players are more likely to outright skip sections of high level adventures than end up going on a tangent. Teleport, flying, and invisibility tends to allow that. If they skip something important, you'll want to drop a clue on where they need to backtrack too (easy solution), or rearrange where things are (harder). If they go off on their own, improvisation helps, and there are some things you can do with minimal prep:
- If you're in an urban area, have some NPCs ready to go they can talk to. You usually want some kind of guard captain, a couple of shopkeeps, an innkeeper, a priest or two, a researcher of some kind, and anything else appropriate to the campaign. All you really need is a single line, like "Ginder Firehammer, dwarf fighter 5, guard captain, nobody knows if Firehammer is his given name, or a nickname based he got from using his flaming hammer (use deep tired voice, like he's been working too hard)". It takes you a few minutes to whip up, and the cool part is that if your players don't talk to them, you have them ready for the next city with no prep needed!
- If you're in a wilderness area and they get off track, I wouldn't introduce too much new content. I'd throw in a "random" encounter (decided beforehand). e.g. in a snow mountain region, throw a small pack of yetis at them. That adds some drama, and then let them get lost a bit if they continue to stray. Since they are high level they should have magical or skilled ways to get back on track; if not, give them a helping hand.
- Have some regional or racial names ready to make NPCs on the spot
- Usually by book 6, PCs should know who the final boss is and be pursuing them. If they get off track, you could have the PCs find a sign of their influence. A hamlet where everyone was slaughtered by a dragon. A place where a wizard did some dark rituals. If it's dark and foreboding enough, it should inspire them to go after the true enemy.
Sometimes though, I handle it by just telling the PCs what they are doing is fruitless. Searching mountain ranges or ocean depths that have nothing to do with the campaign? Tell them they search for a long time (a day or two) and find nothing.
In running King Maker my players went off on big tangent in book 6, they never completed the AP. I just ran with it and we ended on high note a few session later.
We pretty much abandoned Shattered Star early on (before the end of the first book!) because the players liked the Magnimar setting and wanted to explore that as a sandbox.
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If you want to redirect your PCs in-game, just have a NPC give them some subtle or not so subtle hints.
You can also just take a break as GM and say "there's nothing in that direction, you need to go back."
And lastly, you can just roll with it and let them walk to the ends of the earth. Nothing yet. Nothing. Still nothing...
If you want to redirect your PCs in-game, just have a NPC give them some subtle or not so subtle hints.
You can also just take a break as GM and say "there's nothing in that direction, you need to go back."
And lastly, you can just roll with it and let them walk to the ends of the earth. Nothing yet. Nothing. Still nothing...
This is what I do when one player insists on splitting the party. "You encounter nothing".
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If your players develop a tendency to wander off-track and not visit scheduled encounters, listen to what they're trying to achieve, then lay down hints that the things they want might be found at the places they're supposed to go to.
People are much better at staying on the rails when they start viewing the train as a handy conveyance that gets them to a place with a fancy shopping mall/loot depositorium.
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I think the APs do an inconsistent job of keeping player interest chapter to chapter. In defense of the APs, they do have to account for a wide variety of playstyles. I think key to a successful AP start to finish is making sure there is always a good reason for the party to stay interested in the path. You can do that with a variety of resources like player choices, NPCs, and story developments. I'd push a session zero and really aim the player's direction at the players guide. This can be key for developing a character that fits the campaign and has reasons to be invested in the adventure. From there, I would monitor player engagement and keep them as excited to play each session as you are to run it.
Book 3 of Wrath of the Righteous got sidetracked when I revealed the location of a certain lost city to the party paladin and informed him that his god wanted him to reclaim it. Apparently he thought that meant "immediately", so now I ditched most of Book 3 and repositioned certain encounters so the important things still happened on the way.
In Kingmaker Book 1 the party Shaman attempted to divine the direction a couple wanted fugitives went and ended up getting sent on a 2-week detour into the River Kingdoms with no real consequences. On the next divination attempt he got the right answer and I allowed a player to call in a favor from a backstory link to catch up. From there I improvised a confrontation and a final fuel with an escaped NPC the group had pissed off, ending the book in a very memorable fashion.
Best advice I can give is to roll with it. Get good at improvising NPC actions and events in such a way that they always the back into the main story and make it clear that detours will eventually wind up back on track. If this happens too often have a chat with your players about what kind of campaign they want and see if they'd be more happy with a sandbox than an AP.
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I usually let them diverge from things and just make up some random encounters. I do however preface them with "You know the princess will die in a week if you're not back" or "Who knows what the thieves guild will do if you walk away from the town for too long".
Making things feel time sensitive is important- but you don't want to suffocate your players. Maybe they just want 2 or 3 sessions of 'grinding mobs' or base building, heck one time they just wanted to help an NPC farmer because they felt sorry for him so the entire session was profession checks and looking up spells related to growing potatoes, I thought it was dumb but the players genuinely liked it and they felt invested into the world. It made the big bad dragon attack all the more attention grasping because the players immediately shouted "Franklins Farm!!" and rushed to protect it.
I usually let them diverge from things and just make up some random encounters. I do however preface them with "You know the princess will die in a week if you're not back" or "Who knows what the thieves guild will do if you walk away from the town for too long".
Making things feel time sensitive is important- but you don't want to suffocate your players. Maybe they just want 2 or 3 sessions of 'grinding mobs' or base building, heck one time they just wanted to help an NPC farmer because they felt sorry for him so the entire session was profession checks and looking up spells related to growing potatoes, I thought it was dumb but the players genuinely liked it and they felt invested into the world. It made the big bad dragon attack all the more attention grasping because the players immediately shouted "Franklins Farm!!" and rushed to protect it.
Something like this. Usually after trying to get where they are going and why. Then try to make something interesting up, and find a way to link back to the plot.... eventually. If the players are having fun after all why hurry?
Right now my WotR player (solo game) just got leadership and wants to "travel across Mendev and set up a network of connections" so we'll be playing that for a session. I actually find it fun as a DM when they diverge.
Edit: Other than that the advice I can give is to try and understand the players motivations, what is each PC getting out of this as best you can (fame, money, a sense of accomplishment), and then you can move the plot back on track, otherwise you end up trying to convince players what the are "supposed" to care about. "The city is raided, innocents will die" will get the group neutral rogue back on track, though not as well as "The city was raided, big bounty on raiders heads".
If you want to redirect your PCs in-game, just have a NPC give them some subtle or not so subtle hints.
You can also just take a break as GM and say "there's nothing in that direction, you need to go back."
And lastly, you can just roll with it and let them walk to the ends of the earth. Nothing yet. Nothing. Still nothing...
This is what I do when one player insists on splitting the party. "You encounter nothing".
I love splitting the party. Why can't you split the party? Played one campaign where we were occasionally bumping into each other. "Ah, the kender I met at that council a month ago. What's your name again? And could I have my stuff back?" Was great.
For the people that have dealt with wandering PCs, did you ask for breaks in order to brainstorm ideas? Or keep everything rolling?
One of the best tricks for keeping an adventure on the path is to use a magician’s choice. A magician’s choice is where you seem to give a choice but in reality there is no choice. Let’s say you have a situation where the party is on a trail where it splits. The party is supposed to choose the left path, but for some reason they choose the right path. Simply rearrange the world so that the paths are reversed and the party is going where they are supposed to. This works best where the party missed a clue or is otherwise lacking information they were supposed to have. Don’t overuse it, or use it in situations where the party made a deliberate choice to avoid something. If used properly the players will never even know you did it.
Also don’t be bound by what is written in the book. Feel free to move encounters around as needed. Just because the book says the encounter takes place while the party is traveling on a specific road does not mean it has to. If the book assumes the party will be traveling by horse back, but the party is flying does not mean they have to miss the encounter that was supposed to happen on the road.
Look at encounters as scenes from a movie. How people get from scene to scene in a movie is rarely important. What is important is the scene.
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For the people that have dealt with wandering PCs, did you ask for breaks in order to brainstorm ideas? Or keep everything rolling?
I will keep rolling because asking for a break might tip the players off. If you get stuck for ideas i'd look at the bestiary of the current chapter to give you ideas or random rolls for encounters for the area the PCs are in at the time. Sometimes there is a lot of room for the PC to wander without losing site of the path, and other times there is no slack to give. When things are tight, i'd go with mysterious strangers "magician's choice" method above.
For the people that have dealt with wandering PCs, did you ask for breaks in order to brainstorm ideas? Or keep everything rolling?
I try keep everything rolling. It's usually good to have a few encounters packed away either in the recesses of your mind or on paper that you can trot out to buy yourself a little more time to brain up a response to the players heading off the beaten track. They don't all have to be combat encounters either. I have been known to draw on previous campaigns for some of those encounters such as a long-retired PC coming back as a guest NPC.
I love splitting the party. Why can't you split the party?
Disadvantages of splitting the party:
1) Normal game encounters become incredibly lethal when half the party isn't there.
2) The players who aren't present for whatever action the GM is running stop being players - they're just spectators. A lot of players don't have the patience for this.
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Over time, if you GM with players who refuse to stay on the cowpath (which you will, if you keep at it) you develop fairly good improvisational skills. It's good to try to anticipate possible wrong turns or tangents the players might want to pursue, and figure out your recourse if that happens in advance, but players will regularly surprise you somehow.
The two golden rules to follow in this situation are:
- If your players are having fun, then whatever they're doing is fine. You don't really need to intervene until they get antsy, so knowing how to read the room is valuable.
- Try to figure out a way to circle back to what you've prepared regardless of what the players do. The players are incapable of knowing the entire world state in advance, so if you prepared a scene to happen in one place or set of circumstances, and the players circumvent that scene, there's probably still a way to work it in somehow. People with their hearts set on ambushing the PCs will try somewhere else if the PCs avoid the initial ambush spot, after all. So this isn't necessarily railroading (try to make the scene change in response to what the players did, to avoid those feelings.)
Book 6 of APs is, from my (albeit limited experience as a player) where things tend to get pretty loose anyway.
PossibleCabbage's advice is solid, but I wish to add that derailing the railroaded story of an Adventure Path is often a good thing.
My long campaigns are Paizo Adventure Paths, because I cannot create the variety of NPCs and other challenges that Paizo creates. I have run Rise of the Runelords (D&D 3.5 Edition version, updated to Pathfinder), Jade Regent, and Iron Gods (2/3 of Iron Gods so far, since that is our current campaign). The APs create a story whose main purpose is that the party can easily follow the story step by step. However, PCs with independent personalities will not choose the easy way. My wife routinely plays such characters. Such derailings of the story railroad usually improve the story, for they weave together the PCs' unique personalities with the plot.
Basing the story on the PCs' goals is harder work, but some techniques make it easier.
- Invest the PCs in the overall quest. One standard method is to emphasize a recurring villain: usually a conspiracy, cult, or criminal organization where each enemy has a boss, because single enemies ofthen die soon. Another standard method is to create a village with some lovable characters who befriend the PCs. Then the PCs will want to protect them.
For example, Rise of the Runelords begins with the Swallowtail Butterfly Festival in Sandpoint in Varisia. That gives the PCs a chance to become acquainted with Sandpoint villagers before goblins raid. After the raid, proper GM followup is for the villages to express their gratitude to the heroes, often with small rewards. Sandpoint has a mixture of good and bad people, but this is a time to highlight the good.
In Jade Regent, my wife's character handled this for me. Ebony Blossom was a Minkaian ninja who suspected that Ameiko Kaijitsu in Sandpoint was a descendent of the nobles that her ninja clan used to serve. She started the party off on the theme, "We are doing this for Ameiko." The adventure path turns into an escort quest to deliver Ameiko to Minkai on the other side of the world, and the party was already on the wagon for this turn of events.
In Iron Gods, the PCs jumped into investment so hard they shook up the plot before it even started. The module starts with adventurers accepting a quest from the town of Torch in Numeria. Three of the PCs took the Local Ties campaign trait: they were not hired by Torch; instead, they were residents of Torch who volunteered to save their town. Even more interesting was the second module, where the party is supposed to confront enemies in Scrapwall, a former bandit camp where the descendents of the bandits and other refugees barely survive by mining scrap. The party disguised themselves and moved into Scrapwall as pretend refugees to investigate the situation first. I had to create a lot of common people as their neighbors and a local beer festival as a mixer to deal with that plot twist. The party became the protectors of the less evil Scrapwallers against the more evil Scrapwallers (no-one in Scrapwall had Good alignment).
- As PossibleCabbage said, "It's good to try to anticipate possible wrong turns or tangents the players might want to pursue, and figure out your recourse if that happens in advance." A well-roleplayed PC displays motivations. Replace the routine motivations in the module, such as greed, with the PCs' own motivations, such as heroism or revenge.
For example, in the third module of Jade Regent, the PCs learn that the distant villain Katiyana had an evil plan. However, my party was so focussed on crossing the northern ice cap to reach Minkai that they passed up the apparent side quest (really a main quest of the module) to stop Katiyana. I anticipated this and let them continue across the ice cap. Too bad that Katiyana was killing every caravan on the ice cap as part of her plan. The party survived her attempt to kill them, and then stopping Katiyana became a personal revenge quest.
In the fifth module of Rise of the Runelords, the party needed to explore the extradimensional Runeforge to find the weapons to defeat their enemy, hacking their way through a lot of hostiles in the process. I altered one group of hostiles into a potentially friendly lost tribe to break up the monotony of hack and slash. They had more fun making new allies and solving a mystery to help those allies than fighting them would have been.
- Even if the GM cannot return the party to the intended path, the modules are great source material for crafting new quests.
In the fifth module of Jade Regent, the party was supposed to go on a lot of little quests in the northwest corner of Minkai to organize a rebellion against the oni-corrupted government. They did not do this because they had a better idea (details here). I salvaged many of the quests, moved them to other places in Minkai, and used them to support the party's new goals. The result as a lot better than the module as written, but only that particular party could have pulled off their particular success.
The party went through the fourth module of Iron Gods with such single-minded focus on their main goal that they finished it at 12th level rather than 13th level. Thus, I returned them to Scrapwall, the setting of the second module. The evil Technic League had taken over Scrapwall after they left. By combining details from the second module, the fifth module, and the Returned to Sky Pathfinder Society Scenario, I created a filler adventure (based on their own motives) to get them to 13th level.
@Meraki - I'm not really looking for advice for what I'm currently running (which is Wrath by the way).
I'm more looking ahead to further APs. For this one, they agreed to keep things pretty much on the trail since I was new. but, I'd love to get "better". And to hear from others with ideas.
Ah, gotcha.
Another fun way to keep players' attention is give them each a sidequest hook or two along the way so they feel like they're still getting something personalized for them in addition to the regular path. Obviously this is a bit more work, and depends on knowing your players and the others' willingness to go along with someone else's sidequest for half a session/a session, but it can be cool under the right circumstances. Working in these kind of "planned derails" can make people more willing to go along with you at other times.
Some examples from my games (both as a player and a GM):
- Wizard/cleric of Milani decided to spend some time after book 3 of Shattered Star breaking a bunch of slaves out of an establishment in Kaer Maga.
- Druid's estranged sister shows up and tells her that she needs her help to defeat a kind of pollution monster (forget what it was exactly, might have been a nucklavee), but doesn't tell her that her plan is to trap the spirit in the druid's body, cursing her. Quest to cure druid and destroy the trapped monster for good ensues.
- Party in Council of Thieves (a rather revolution-inclined party) gets a mission at the end of the campaign to destroy a "research facility" on an island in Cheliax to strike a blow at the Thrune regime.
The basic options for derailing behavior are:
(1) Shut it down. For example, if one player ignores the rest of the group and decides to fireball the queen instead of listening to the quest description, you should probably just say, "Don't be silly. That's not the game we're playing today." And say it quickly, before it ruins the campaign.
(2) Recycle and repurpose existing material to make it fit what's happening. If the players unexpectedly join the bandits to attack the army camp, instead of the other way round, you could use the bandit camp map you have as an army camp map. The evil tyrant the party took a bribe from instead of fighting? A later 'random' encounter in a cave could be a battle with a different looking villain who (unknown to the players) has the same stats, guards and traps.
(3) Roll with it. Improvise new stuff to deal with whatever the party decides to do. Keep some random charts on you to provide appropriate content.
In Iron Gods, the PCs jumped into investment so hard they shook up the plot before it even started. The module starts with adventurers accepting a quest from the town of Torch in Numeria. Three of the PCs took the Local Ties campaign trait: they were not hired by Torch; instead, they were residents of Torch who volunteered to save their town. Even more interesting was the second module, where the party is supposed to confront enemies in Scrapwall, a former bandit camp where the descendents of the bandits and other refugees barely survive by mining scrap. The party disguised themselves and moved into Scrapwall as pretend refugees to investigate the situation first. I had to create a lot of common people as their neighbors and a local beer festival as a mixer to deal with that plot twist. The party became the protectors of the less evil Scrapwallers against the more evil Scrapwallers (no-one in Scrapwall had Good alignment).
This is the kind of thing I'm talking about. How did you handle the situation immediately when it happened? You can't have had all of that figured out on the spot, right? Or maybe you did. Maybe you're that good.
Basically, how do all the good GMs "fake it till they make it"?
There have been some pretty good examples. I'd love to see some more to help me out.
Book 3 of Wrath of the Righteous got sidetracked when I revealed the location of a certain lost city to the party paladin and informed him that his god wanted him to reclaim it. Apparently he thought that meant "immediately", so now I ditched most of Book 3 and repositioned certain encounters so the important things still happened on the way.
Oh, that one is easy. When the Paladin prays for spells, more guidance is given. "First complete the quest you are on, then reclaim the lost city".
Any divine caster can be given similar guidance.
This is the kind of thing I'm talking about. How did you handle the situation immediately when it happened? You can't have had all of that figured out on the spot, right? Or maybe you did. Maybe you're that good.
Basically, how do all the good GMs "fake it till they make it"?
Well, until you feel comfortable improvising a tangent (which takes some time, but maybe you're a prodigy) one thing I feel helps a lot is to just prepare a handful of scenes that can work more or less anywhere (or within a neighborhood of anywhere) and when the PCs throw you a curveball wait for an opportunity to run that scene while you figure out what happens next. It's best if it's the sort of scene that you don't need to devote a lot of mental energy towards, so something that like "the PCs figure out a thing" is ideal.
In terms of actually figuring out what happens next, one thing I always like to do is keep in my notes is a one page accounting of all who the different factions in play are, what their ultimate goals are, what their immediate plans are, and what resources they have available. From there it's not terrible to figure out what's going to happen next as someone's agenda is going to intersect with the PCs eventually.
As for "roleplaying a bunch of different bandits who were intended to be antagonists but the PCs decided to infiltrate their camp instead and blend in" that's just improv, pure and simple. "How things go in the bandit camp" is a thing you can figure out based on what the bandits want, are doing, and can do, but individual NPCs and local culture are often something you have to make up on the scene. Remember, there's no need to completely stat out an NPC if 90% of their stat block is irrelevant to what's going on, so you can just arbitrarily declare reasonable DCs for diplomacy/bluff/etc. checks if you need to.
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In Iron Gods, the PCs jumped into investment so hard they shook up the plot before it even started. ...This is the kind of thing I'm talking about. How did you handle the situation immediately when it happened? You can't have had all of that figured out on the spot, right? Or maybe you did. Maybe you're that good.
Basically, how do all the good GMs "fake it till they make it"?
There have been some pretty good examples. I'd love to see some more to help me out.
The players created their characters in advance in what is commonly called "Session 0," a pre-adventure session to create characters that will work well together. Thus, I had advance warning to adjust the module accordingly. In Session 0, they knew the plot hook, that the town of Torch would hire adventurers to rescue town wizard and gadgeteer Khonnir Baine. John created Elric Jones, a half-elf magus with Numerian Archeologist trait who worked for Khonnir Baine as a field agent. Amy created Boffin, a young orphaned dwarf gunslinger who worked for Khonnir Baine as a technician. Boffin was also a cousin twice-removed of town counselor Dolga Freddert. We decided that Elric had worked for Khonnir for 5 years, and Boffin had worked for Khonnir for 12 years. The module said that Khonnir had not been in town for 12 years, so I simply set the module 4 years later than expected. The only side effect of that was aging Khonnir's daughter Val from 13 to 17. That small change had an unexpected big effect on the game later when the PCs recruited NPC Val into the party! My players taunt me.
Nevertheless, I had to improvise in the first game session. One hour into the game they did something unexpected and jumped ahead to page 42 in the module. I had skimmed through the entire module, but not read that far ahead in detail. I flubbed some details and finally had to ask for a short break so that I could read that section in full detail. Fortunately, players are forgiving when the GM is overwhelmed like this. They prefer to give me a break rather than be forced to stick to a railroad plot. Next, the party decided rather than rushing into the new situation on their own, they would go to the town council with their discovery first. Such behavior is extremely rare among PCs, so I had not prepared for it. I turned ahead to the supplemental section on the town of Torch, looked up the name of the captain of the guard, Aaronlu Langer, ran a brief conversation with her, Dolga Freddert, and another town councilor. Conversation is easy to improvise. I quit the session early so that I could generate Captain Aaronlu Langer's stats before any combat started. I built Langer starting with an NPC from the d20pfsrd's NPC list.
More details are in Iron Gods among Scientists, along with lines such as, "I explained that they had derailed the adventure and jumped ahead to page 42. Amy hooted that she had derailed the adventure in only an hour! This was not a new record for her or John." That chronicle stopped before the end of the first module, because I became too busy generating new characters for the second module!
For the second module, the players made their plan to enter Scrapwall under assumed identities in advance, pretending to all be Numerian archeologists hiding from the Technic League. Thus, I had time to prepare how the NPCs would react to refugee archeologists. In addition, I used an NPC in Torch to given them information on a potentially friendly NPC Dinvaya Lanalei in Scrapwall. I had planned out how the gatekeeper Sevroth of the Steel Hawks would greet them, but then they decided to bypass the gate entirely and climb a wall of scrap metal to enter the town secretly to see Dinvaya first. I had to figure out how Boffin's Mountaineer alternative dwarven racial ability would interact with a mountain of scrap. The preplanning about Sevroth became useless, but I recycled it into their first interaction with other Steel Hawks.
Kirii the strix skald, under her guise as Nightingale the strix bard, decided to hold a concert in Scrapwall. That was definitely roleplaying to character rather than playing like an adventurer. But it gave the party a chance to buy beer and grog from the Steel Hawks gang, giving me an idea for a beer festival there later, and to treat ratfolk like people, which opened a good path to the module-created encounter with Redtooth. Players create opportunities, so take advantage of that.
I like to diagram out a module or AP book before running it -- just bubbles and lines, but showing how all the major locations / people / setpieces relate to each other. This helps me think through the adventure as a web of planned points, rather than a linear start-to-finish plot, so that if the players leave the "intended" path, I can have some ideas as to which other part of the web they might stumble into, rather than trying to force them back to a single path through the module.
When I have time, I also plan some encounters or setpieces that could be "adjacent to" the module, so that the players can sometimes stumble into not-really-related stuff for a session before something puts them back on the scent of the main plot -- players might still find a way to fall off the edge of the world, but there's a little bit of a buffer before you're left giving your players the deer in headlight look. I tend to do these at a sketch level, rather than fully detailed: maybe I'll be prepping a side-quest idea when my players are second level, but I won't need it until they're fourth level; I want to be able to scratch out "orcs" and jot in "bugbears" without having wasted too much effort planning out orcs.
Finally, it's always legit to ask your players what they're looking for. If you can improv your way safely to the end of the day's session, go ahead and say, "Hey, that didn't quite play out the way I expected -- what are you hoping to find out when you investigate the thieves guild? I want to make sure we're starting the next session on the same page." You might worry that letting the players know they left your path will be disappointing for them, but nothing's more frustrating for you and them both than trying to wrestle them back onto the path when you don't understand why they're trying to leave it -- asking them what they're up to will help you satisfy their interests while also helping you figure out how to segue them back into your intended direction.
If you prefer, you may not even need to let them know they're off the path -- try getting into the habit of closing each session with a two-minute check-in to make sure you and they have the same expectations for the next session. "So we're playing again next Monday, right? And are you planning to investigate the thieves guild, or did you want to check the abandoned church?" They'll either say, "Yeah, we want to go check out the thieves guild because of [unintentional macguffin]," which tells you what happened, or else they'll say, "Oh, right, the church! We forgot about that, we should totally go there next time." and you're back where you planned.
Wow, there are some good examples and stories in here. All good stuff.
Some more things you could do to prepare for the unexpected if you have the time:
It can be useful to prepare a few 'minor NPC' personalities you can bring out if they players decide to have a conversation with someone who is not detailed in the campaign. Have a 'retired dwarvish pirate captain now working behind the bar' voice ready, and a 'deaf old woman' character, and an 'alcoholic priest', and a 'dim guard', and an 'annoying child'... Come up with some names in advance.
If you're willing to let the party go outside the adventure, prep a few miscellaneous mini-environments to have adventures in. (You can populate them with 'low-level guard' and similar and then select appropriate-CR statblocks when you have to use them. There are lots of useful statblocks online - google Pathfinder NPCs by CR, for example.)
The sort of thing you might find useful are:
Breaking out some prisoners.
Sneaking around a big building, trying to steal something.
Random wilderness encounter in an interesting environment.
Encampment.
Exploring a cave.
Haunted graveyard.
Alternatively, you can do zero preparation. This can be a good way to get your mind into a creative flow state where you immediately improvise whatever you need. If it works, it feels great. If it doesn't... well, it's only a game.
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Something I need to remind myself to make for next monday:
A one-page sheet with a list of male names, list of female names, list of one-word characteristics you could use to describe a person and a list of motives. Whenever I need a quick NPC, I pick a name, a descriptor and a motive.
But having a list of names ready is probably the most important. Take a moment, find a name generator in the internet with race-appropriate names for wherever your campaign is taking place.
No more players noticing your improvisation when everyone is suddenly called Bob.
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Though sometimes "the GM critically fumbles on coming up with a name" can create some really memorable experiences.
I recall a 3.0e game where the GM couldn't remember the name of the principal deity in the pantheon and said something to the effect of "Sky god, big beard in the sky, Beardicus or something" so for the remainder of a very long campaign you had Paladins exclaiming "FOR BEARDICUS!" with great zeal.
So yeah, when you have to improvise these sorts of things, it's better to go weird than to go ordinary.
2) For AP's I like to have 2-3 modules read before I start the first one for play. (This is the best case and I do understand if it does not fit your group or play style)
I'd go one further and recommend that if you're running an AP, you read the whole thing before running it. I've found it makes it a lot easier to tie things together if there are gaps, or drop certain bits of foreshadowing (since you know what's coming).
Though I know some people like to run APs as they come out, so ymmv.
2) For AP's I like to have 2-3 modules read before I start the first one for play. (This is the best case and I do understand if it does not fit your group or play style)
I'd go one further and recommend that if you're running an AP, you read the whole thing before running it. I've found it makes it a lot easier to tie things together if there are gaps, or drop certain bits of foreshadowing (since you know what's coming).
Though I know some people like to run APs as they come out, so ymmv.
Reading it is one thing, it's a good idea, but do you prepare it all?
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When it comes to sudden curveballs of the 'but I want to explore over here' variety, it's good to have modular pieces you can throw in, but don't be afraid to be honest with your PCs. It's OK to say 'if you guys want to explore the abandoned village over there, I'll need some time to prepare it'; good players would rather have a fleshed out adventure next session than a barebones improvised one now.
That said, if you keep things modular, it gets easy to splice things in. Have a bandit lord you wanted them to face? Looks like he took over that abandoned village when they weren't looking! If you have rough descriptions of the nearby places and keep a few sidequest hooks ready that you can add, improvising becomes much easier.
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You know.Exploration has its own disadvanteges.Some high cr creture might just appear out of nowhere and drag them to a some nasty places.
I as a gm dont think expoloring to the extend of completly going off the rails of the ap safe.I cant punish them for it though.So ı sometimes roll a d100 and if ı roll close to a number in my head by 5 in either direction(ascending or descending) ı throw them a high cr encounter.
Some general tips:
Keep your players on the edge. From time to time, make some dice rolls behind the screen and even take some notes. This is particullary effective when there is a bunch of npc in the area, any rare feature on the scenery or in cities. You don't need to do write anything, just make some scribbles.
This method can be fantastic if they take notice of some npc or event that you can use to sheper the pc in the direction you want.
Another useful method is a crude and old one, but to this day I still believe is the most effective: just steal from them. If there are not on their guard, they do something stupid or reckless, its quite easy to accomplish. Make sure they find some clues, and again, you just led them to the plot hook.
But be careful, don't abuse this trick, because in time they will either ignore it or go to recover or find whatever picked up their interest and then turn their backs.
These are really good helpful tips.
I plan on running Mummy's Mask after I finish up Wrath of the Righteous. I am wanting to push myself as a GM.
In our gaming group we have 2 really good GMS. GMs who can run an entire adventure after only prepping with a single sentence.
I thank everyone who has given some good advice so far.
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2) For AP's I like to have 2-3 modules read before I start the first one for play. (This is the best case and I do understand if it does not fit your group or play style)
I'd go one further and recommend that if you're running an AP, you read the whole thing before running it. I've found it makes it a lot easier to tie things together if there are gaps, or drop certain bits of foreshadowing (since you know what's coming).
Though I know some people like to run APs as they come out, so ymmv.
Reading it is one thing, it's a good idea, but do you prepare it all?
** spoiler omitted **
This is a tough one as it can really depend on your group.
If your group does random stuff then IMHO you should prep the entire module before starting and try and be prepared for not using stuff you have prep'ed. (Which can be a big turn off if you just spent 20 hours doing prep work and then do not use it, but that is the burden of the GM often times.)
If you group generally follows the story line then just prep what you think is appropriate and stop the game if your prep work is not done. Or if you feel comfortable with winging it then just wing it and be ok if you are close to the real numbers and if you do not use all of the extra special "bits and bob's" that creatures and class'es have but you did not prep for. (Again some GM's can wing stuff well and some cannot. It is a neat tool to have in your GM kit but it is not one everyone has. I am not saying that if you cannot do this you are not a good GM or if you can do this you are a good GM.)So in general to be safe, yes you prep it all. Just like you would if you were running a series of 4 hour sessions at a Convention. But I also realize that life gets in the way and at times the ideal solutions to problems do not happen.
MDC
My general AP-running "schedule":
Before campaign starts:
-Read entire path, have a general idea of some side plots to throw in
During campaign:
-Re-read each book of the AP shortly before I expect players will get to the beginning of it (this is when I do my more intensive prepping/actually statting sidequests or extra stuff). Post-it notes are my friend here. That way I'll have the whole thing read in case they skip something I wasn't expecting.
-Have some extra NPCs on hand (NPC Codex and Villain Codex are good for this) in case I need them.
But you can't plan for everything players do, so sometimes you really do just have to think on your feet, or if it's something really big that you didn't anticipate, call the session there and prepare for it next time.
For more minor unexpected stuff, I usually go with the "Yes, and..." improv rule. I like rewarding player creativity.
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You don't need to prep it all, unless you have a excess of time on your hands. Prep anything you have reasonable suspicion that you might use in the next session or two.
Asking what the party plans to do next session helps. Occasionally, they might swerve away from their plans, but most of the time that should give you an idea what to prepare.
If they do surprise you, and there's travel involved, it's time for a random encounter or two. With luck and some inspired storytelling, the random encounter could turn into an entire session's worth of content (after which you prepare the party's new goal).
If that doesn't work? Scribble maps as you go and improv. Don't be afraid to ask the party to take a break while you review the material.
Obviously, being fully prepped for a campaign is great, but the more you prep, the more material you might not use due to the party skipping steps. I also find I have a hard time remembering the details of stuff I fully prepped months ago, so it's actually better if I prep as I go.
But that's just my experience.
As far as reading the whole thing goes, definitely. But more than read, skim to get a general overview, then read the module in more detail when you're actually ready to run it. When skimming, pay special attention to the general sequence of events, locations, and especially NPCS and Bosses. (NPCs and Bosses are your chesspieces for driving a game, and you can have them show up when the party drifts to spice up what might otherwise be filler- just don't have anyone that physically needs to live in order for the AP to work show up.)
Horrible tricks:
1-Figure out each scene and how it advances story
2-Assign them numbers, most modules have some such structure, based the HOW the module should run. note operative word: should
3-next assign a letter for how important a scene is to the plot line, A being my go to. I use a small letter to indicate a solution is ready to hand.
4-Make sure the party can deal with the encounters, no fire proof trolls at level 4
5-If not equipped, see to it remedies are there, like leveling up before the challenge
6-I color code into the steps, the current color plus any undealt with prior details. A crew had no rope and stood around bemoaning the fact and not really scouting the area. I had to resort to a GM character to take them to the nearby village for supplies.
7-Tab the pages you'll need, color, number, letter and have it to hand
8-visuals help. That is why we play with minis. Also use artwork to get the players in the mood. I raid wallpaper sites for these and move them to a special folder for ease.The Elven cities in my world are spectacular 'cuz I only steal the best.
The last game I ran had a 'hermit's hut built into the roots of a tree. A flash of the one from the internet seemed to make the place more real. One of the players actually asked about things in the picture, things I had not noticed.
For more minor unexpected stuff, I usually go with the "Yes, and..." improv rule. I like rewarding player creativity.
I've never done improv or taken any theater classes. Can you describe what you mean by this? It sounds intriguing.