Clint_L
Hero
Follow-up: my plotting owes a lot to Stephen King's book On Writing, where he describes his usual process as coming up with a story hook, creating a central character with a detailed personality and history, and then repeatedly asking "what would make sense for them to do next?" According to King, he never plots out his stories in advance (exception: The Dead Zone), but basically just has an idea of where the story is headed and then often winds up surprised by where the protagonist's choices take them.
I really enjoy using a similar model for my games, because I get to be entertained as much as the players. That hag storyline was super fun and wound up leading to some significant consequences for the party, including helping one character fulfill a core need, but I never knew it was going to happen, so my creative juices were going the whole time. It wasn't a game of me entertaining the players with my creative genius (debatable!) but us entertaining each other. I stay away from dictating outcomes, so the player's choices are real. This also means staying away from Tolkien-style "save the world" storylines. I don't like those because I feel like the outcome is generally pre-ordained.
I really enjoy using a similar model for my games, because I get to be entertained as much as the players. That hag storyline was super fun and wound up leading to some significant consequences for the party, including helping one character fulfill a core need, but I never knew it was going to happen, so my creative juices were going the whole time. It wasn't a game of me entertaining the players with my creative genius (debatable!) but us entertaining each other. I stay away from dictating outcomes, so the player's choices are real. This also means staying away from Tolkien-style "save the world" storylines. I don't like those because I feel like the outcome is generally pre-ordained.
Last edited: