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To put it simply, I have a problem.

It has been many years since I had run a game that lasted more then a few hours and wasn't just messing around.

I had forgotten most of the rules, but I am slowly remembering the more complicated ones. I was able to run a game with a decidedly cinematic feel but had forgotten how that was done, I am getting it back slowly as well.

I am also very creative and able to put my ideas down on paper, but I have hit a snag in this area. I have completely forgotten how to create a fully fleshed out scenario/adventure and am having trouble finding information to help in this regard.

Most of what I had been doing so far was improvisation and general shooting from the hip. That's not bad but I don't really like just making things up as I go all the time, that's the players job. I want to have structure, I feel like I have no real control over the direction the game can go, no resources (tables, encounters, etc) to be able to make adventures more full, and no real way to describe/present the adventure to the players without getting bogging myself down thinking things over.

The GM guide's and Adventure guide are very capable in telling how a well done campaign is done, but not in how it is made or run. How to make use of those adventures you write down or read and how to appropriately use them so as to not muck things up for yourself.

Can anybody help me please.

What game are you running?

Batts

It is a Heroes Unlimited campaign, with a bit of TMNT thrown in.

I should have made the original post more simple. looking back at it, it comes off a little strangely. What I need is page numbers for random tables best suited for enounter generation.

OK, with HU2, get a hold of the GM guide. It's a ....good... product for the job you want, quick roll villains and quick roll crimes. Century station and Gramercy island have (each) 100 plot ideas listed in the backs (though you Do have to put up with the rest of the book just for 4 pages of solid gold).

Otherwise, grab a copy of After the bomb. the random encounter tables are pretty adequate, though obviously fairly game specific.

That said, you will need to become a little more proactive. Get your self a metaplot for your game. I find that having events occuring 'off screen' work as perfect triggers for the Player Character portions. If you know, in the back of your mind, that The Emerald avenger, a 1940's superhero, has become Baron Von Jade, and he is assembling parts so he can recreate the Pluton reactor, and thus recreate the accident that gave him his powers in the first place, then you can use a little foreshadowing with every single pertinent incident. even missions and adventures that have nothing to do with your metaplot can be tied into it incidentally.

I also suggest writing up six villains on index cards and holding on to them for future references. The first should be a generic thug, the second a talented professional thug. this way you always have generic goon stats within easy reach. The remaining four cards should have villains on them that actually relate to the Player characters. They exploit a weakness or vulnerability, or present a moral dilema when fighting and so on. these guys for a core of a rogues gallery and they can come and go with the frequency you need.

Lastly, go rent an old action movie. something you haven't seen or hasn't been made in the last 15 years. B grade if possible. Do this once a fortnight. The campy and silly ideas will remain bubbling in your brain and can be pulled out in an emergency.

Lastly, fun with animals. in a pinch, for villanous monsters, I'll add one to two minor powers to a regular beast and change it's name. A lion is hardly a challenge for some parties, but a lion with Hardened skin and a spare pair of tentacles can make for a fun encounter, especially if the PC's have to hunt it through the local sewer system. also, that can in and of itself make for an adventure hook ("so this thing is a mutaded feline, after being poisoned by radioactive waste? let's find the polluters and sick the EPA on their asses")


Batts