Populating the RPG Planning Grid, or Filling Your PANTS

Let's imagine I'm starting my new campaign, and to keep prep low and help tie all the emerging plotlines together I'm using my 5x5 grid of Places, Antagonists, NPC's, Things, and Scenes.

Image (cc) AsymmetricButterfly

I need something going on in the background, so I'm just going to roll up a random plot arc:

Crafted long ago by Lizardfolk, from the bones of a gargantuan beast to be wielded in a war against Undead, this is a spear of destiny. It makes the wielder speak in the language of the creator until attuned and is well balanced, or somehow blessed or guided, adding +1 to attack rolls. The wielder must avenge the death of the last hero who fell using it to awaken its powers, when it will become a +2 magic weapon that blazes on contact and deals an additional 3d6 damage to the intended enemies

This might be the main plot arc of the whole campaign, or it may never get any screen-time.  It doesn't matter, it matters that it gives me some elements and a vague idea for a story.  The story can (and will) change, but that's cool. That's the point of the grid.  Quickly I scribble some stuff in:

Places	The graveyard of the Gargants
Antagonists	The massing forces of the Undead
NPCs
Things	The Gargantbone Spear
Scenes

Now what about our characters' stories?

Campaign Planning, Reusability, and Separation of Concern

Some important concepts from my work in computer software can definitely be applied to campaign planning. Let's talk about two of them.

Image (cc) Tim Probert

Separation of Concern

Think of any dungeon* you've seen - or have written - with a map of the layout, lists of encounters for each room, key items and notes on where they are hidden.  How many times have you, as GM, had to skip, rearrange, shuffle or rebuild parts in response to the party's actions? Exactly.

Separating the elements means more flexibility.  Generally, the dungeon map doesn't care what monsters lie within and the monsters don't care what important treasures they guard. So if we plan loosely we can make it easier to change or add things on the fly.

Railroad / Sandbox / Other - The Third Alternative

Image (cc) Dean Peters

There is a sliding scale between the "Railroad" and the "Sandbox" when it comes to RPG campaigns, and between pre-planned and on-the-fly content.

Railroads are pre-set linear story paths that the players can break by deviating from them; this is the main criticism that tends to be levelled at traditional published adventures.  The storyteller in me wants a beginning, a middle, and an end for my campaign "season" just like a TV season, but I don't want to railroad the players. And I don't want to prep it all up-front!

Sandboxes are environments that let the plots be driven by the players; the GM leaves hooks and clues for them to find but the story follows the players' choices.  The storyteller in me loves this, I love to build in player stories, but I don't want to prep a load of stuff that won't get used and I don't want to wing too much

But these aren't the only structure options, these are just the options we see in modules because they are the options that are easy to publish.  I'm looking for a low-prep option 3.

On DMing, or How I Learned to Let Go and Embrace the Chaos

Image (cc) Kridily

Dungeons & Dragons is a bad game.*  Bad naughty.  It's irresponsible in that it doesn't show us how to be Dungeon Masters - my favourite term for which is Apocalypse World's "MC" as we are, after all, Master of Ceremonies above all else.

D&D teaches us to build encounters, but not how to build stories and worlds.  It teaches us to think in terms of probabilities and not stakes.  I learnt to DM on 4e and I've spent maybe a decade unlearning how it was presented to me then.  It took Stars Without Number and Dungeon World to open my eyes to how a game could be run.

Rollin' with it: A place to call home...

First decision made:  I'll be running Pathfinder in Epic 6 mode because at least I know what I'm doing and I know my players like the system.

I'll also be going miniatureless - which is unusual for me, but worked well in Alternity and saves a lot of mini-and-map-related hassle!  Go go Gadget imagination.

Second decison made:  We'll be playing in Freeport, for multiple reasons:

Rollin' with it: Lessons learnt from GammaWorld...

...or: The ongoing Misadventures of Murtt and Bugeye.

My GW campaign is on hiatus - we've rotated DM, which means I get to play. Yay!  We'll be playing Pathfinder, but that's irrelevant...  I've been thinking about this for a while, as GW has been zero-prep for me over the last month, but still satisfying and great fun to run.

SO: What have I learnt from running Gamma World?

Gamma World: session 2... and sandbox world creation

Image (cc) Michael Welsing on Flickr

In which many things go BOOOOOM, and our heroes don't get quite the welcome they were expecting...

Our intrepid young heroes were last seen amidst a giant explosion in Redman town hall - and now was their chance to react. Picking up the unconscious town Elder, they staggered for the door just in time to bump into a shadowy figure fleeing into the gathering crowd. And the arrival of the town guard. Being strangers in town, they were naturally suspects, and were *supposed* to go quietly... but Murtt and Bugeye had different plans!