Forums of the Megaverse®

Are you writing a new game because you felt it would be fun? Or are you writing it because your a few adventures in and there's an expectation that it'll continue, so your expected to write more?

It can cause a brain block when you try and write it because your expected to, rather than because it felt like it would be fun to do it.

Actually, in regard to that, if you felt it wasn't fun to write up the session, could you just...not do it, and that'd be okay?

Well, getting the jones for it doesn't necessarily mean its fun - someone can get the jones for a coffeee - doesn't mean its fun for them, means they are addicted.

But if you want to do it and can't, I dunno, I'm at a loss.

Did you want to do it because you thought of something and suddenly went 'OMG, cool, I want to game that!'? Or did you just think "I wanna play?"

Either way, it's probably good if you start at all by starting because some cool thing sprung into your head and you wanna game it.

To be honest, I watch tv, read a book, possibly even flip through a hook line and sinker book. And, typically I will take one idea that will spawn out the rest of the ideas.

Munchkin Slappin GM wrote:

Specter wrote:To be honest, I watch tv, read a book, possibly even flip through a hook line and sinker book. And, typically I will take one idea that will spawn out the rest of the ideas.

I do similar things, also coming here on to the boards helps me to keep motivated. I just have'nt come up with that one idea to spark the rest. In fact my mind is already turning on the rest, it's the begining I can't find.

Well, perhaps stop trying to make a game and just make up a whole bunch of junk. Eventually you might find something compelling in 'the rest' that your making, that becomes the start of something else. You know what I mean?

In regards to that

Part of my problem is pleasing myself with the adventure, my players will like just about anything I do, but I can't just throw some random stuff together. I need to be happy with my work, otherwise it's no fun for me.

Well, if you feel you can't compromise then you need to wait however long it takes to get that - whether that be months or even years.

You really can't have both - you can't have it right now AND have it up to a standard that pleases you. They clearly don't come together.

I've never suffered GMs Block (writers block yes, but not GMs block). There was always something in the books that I could toss my players way. The problem was if I have done something very similar before, or if the players would survive. "Meh" either way...

If I'm really stuck for something, I basically do a Mad Lib. I'll make some lists of various things:

- locations (village, castle, mountain pass, inn, etc)
- NPC types (knight, wizard, peasant, merchant, etc)
- motivations (love, revenge, greed, honor, etc)
- items (scroll, chalice, necklace, weapon, etc)
- goals (restoration, retrieval, salvation, destruction, etc)

I'll then randomly pick one of each, and try to figure out what they have to do with each other. So say I end up with Village, Wizard, Revenge, Necklace, and Salvation, I then have to look at this collection of words, and create a story based on them. Maybe a rival stole a necklace from a wizard in revenge for some past injustice, but the wizard requires the necklace for in order to save his village from some kind of dark forces. In that case, perhaps the wizard hires the players as assistants to aid in recovering the necklace. On the other hand, maybe an evil wizard is threatening a village, in revenge for having been kicked out. The village sees the players as their salvation, as they're the only ones powerful enough to steal the necklace that is the source of the wizard's power. Or perhaps, while visiting a village, the party finds an massively valuable necklace belonging to a powerful but cruel wizard. When he finds out, they can return the necklace to him and save their own skins, or keep it/give it away/sell it and suffer from his minions repeatedly attacking and harrassing the party in revenge. Many possibilities from just a couple words!

I avoid GM's block in much the same way I avoid writers block.

When I've finished a chapter that I've been writing, I immediately start the next one while I have the flow going. I'm always finishing up writing in the middle of the next segment.

This is how I apply that strategy to GMing. When I finish writing one adventure, I immediately start on the next. I find it's easier to start up writing again when I'm in the middle of something and know where it's going rather than start entirely fresh. Getting started is often the hardest part.

There's another writing trick that I apply to GMing. When I get an idea for something, I write it down as soon as I can. Even if it's not anything to do with my current projects. Then I'll tinker with it over time, setting it down and coming back to it when the urge strikes. Eventually the idea can blossom into an adventure or even a full on campaign. In a couple cases, they've formed whole new campaign worlds. I do this even when I'm not currently running a game so I always have something on file to run.

These strategies make it very easy to keep gaming.

Oh, there are a couple of other things I like to do to keep ahead of the players.

Floating encounters. These are encounters that can happen anywhere or nearly anywhere or the details are very malleable. So if players don't go in expected directions, the game doesn't come to a halt.

A drawer full of generic NPC's. The PC's can encounter the same sherrif in every town and never know it. Just change things like name, sex, appearance, alignment and dispostion and presto! As far as the PC's are concerned, they're meeting new people in each town! Just be sure to keep track of what you named them in each town. Having a list of first and last names for both boys and girls handy helps a lot. If you're really keen, you can jot down their name meanings to add depth to your NPC's. (I want this sherrif to be unyeilding, like a rock. His name shall be Peter!)

One session in every direction. I try to plan my encounters and game world so that the players can travel in any direction and be occupied for at least one session. That buys me time to adapt and plan out new stuff for the next session should they go in directions I didn't anticipate. Floating encounters from above help with this as does having a general idea of what is located where, even if it's not planned to come into play on the current arc. A drawer full of generic NPC's is also useful.