Session Prep really is turning into a four letter word, but I'll get back to that.
Last night marked the return of one of our group's original players to the group, which puts the current number of PCs at five. It also adds a cleric to the mix, which is the first healing that they'll have that doesn't come from potions or rest.
There was a crapload of in between session stuff - the usual mix of spell acquisition for the casters, equipment shopping for the fighter and thievish folks and gladiator games for the gladiator in the party. Well, not FOR him. He just spent all of his loot arranging for, putting the purses up and throwing the general party in the surrounding town area for the gladiatorial games. A fun time was had by all.
As I've mentioned in the past, I'n running my current ACKS campaign as a sandbox style, or sandboxie, game. I'm not so sure it's the purest sandbox out there, but it works well for it's purposes so far.
One of my players hit me with a ton of inquisitive emails prior to the game session. Thankfully, one of players had some thoughts on where he felt the party should be heading to during the night's game play. Literally minutes before the game (as I was out most of the day) I reread some adventure info the party was likely to stumble upon while making the trek.
I use a combination of adventure sources for my sandbox. I have some megadungeons planted, some smaller ruins of my own design, and handful of story hooks and dungeons from one sheets and the like. I've been a big fan of adventure seeds and such since my early days of DMing, when i ran a sandbox styled campaign without even knowing that was the label.
So, forewarned with a probable route and destination for the party, I pulled out my notes and refreshed myself. The Gnomes from Christian's 000 Hex Series made an appearance, as did one of the NPCs. I had already planned on using a One-Sheet in the area where they planned to cross a large river - I just didn't expect it to be yet. No matter, they are doing well, especially as they have the extra body in the party now. They've already fought and defeated a handful of ghouls, including one that was "cut" in half by a coffin lid that the party's warrior was intending to use to pin her to the side of the coffin (natural 20 with 18 strength. ouch!) eat, I think it's playing out well so far.
The problem is the prep. Prepping for a sandbox isn't like prepping for the next installment in a 12 adventure chain. It's more like having the chain's links scattered across a board and watching your players randomly assemble it. Knowing and preparing for everything they could possibly do is an enormous, and probably futile, task. Conversely, not being prepared enough can lead to silence at the gaming table as you try to recall, remember, create or stammer your way through the next encounter.
I'm very thankful I'm pretty good at improvising in general. That being said, my party is definitely keeping me on my toes ;)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Tenkar's Tavern is supported by various affiliate programs, including Amazon, RPGNow,
and Humble Bundle as well as Patreon. Your patronage is appreciated and helps keep the
lights on and the taps flowing. Your Humble Bartender, Tenkar
Blogs of Inspiration & Erudition
-
-
Create Servant abuses - Someone asked about abuses of the *Create Servant* spell in Here a few things people used *Create Servant* for that I did allow: - touching basically anyth...9 hours ago
-
Arneson Gaming - For whatever reason, this little game I wrote has suddenly become of interest around the world. Creators has translated the game into Portuguese, Czech, I...12 hours ago
-
New Release: Myths & Monsters Vol. 3 - Lilith & Lilim - Walpurgis Night has given way to Beltane. But Walpurgis Week continues. Today I return to my roots in AD&D and bring the next in my Myths & Monsters ser...19 hours ago
-
Planets of the Foross Sector: Sarhat and Kion - The Foross Sector is located near the edge of Known Space, at the outermost point where the regions of vhen and enkai colonial influence meet, and give way...1 day ago
-
Victorious Rpg & Wretched Epoque rpg campaign Session Report One - Franco Prussian War Legacy - "Gaslight street lamps pour fitful illumination through the fog-shrouded streets of Victorian cities. Menacing figures lurk in darkened alleyways. Despera...1 day ago
-
Danse Macabre - By Luiz Eduardo RiconHexplore PublishingOSRLevels 3-5 There’s something strange in the neighborhood of Duskenville. Suddenly, not only are people not dying...1 day ago
-
Background Mutations for Paranoia - After last week’s holiday I’m taking a little break from Mythic places, but I’ll return to that series at some point. Let’s go back to Alpha Complex. ...2 days ago
-
Meta Monday: Psychedelic wizards, living on Earth-Prime, and the D&D Cartoon - Fr. Josh has continued to indulge me in working his way solo through my first Monstrous Matters campaign. At some point I'll probably get it in my head th...3 days ago
-
T-26 Beutepanzer - This is my 1:100 scale model of one of the myriad WWII German conversions of captured equipment, in this case marrying the Soviet T-26 light tank hull ...3 days ago
-
Companion Chronicles #14: The Adventure of the Thunder Knight - Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition and the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, The Companion...3 days ago
-
Adventure Writing Session Turns Into a Hex Crawl - Last Thursday I got on to do another Adventure Writing Session and Paul Turner joined me. We decided to use his zine, Critical Hit to roll up a hex flowe...5 days ago
-
How many editions of D&D, Part II - Back in July of 2022 I made a frivilous post on my thought regarding how many editions of D&D there really were. I came up with 8. Since then I have ent...5 days ago
-
Hexcrawling for Ethyria pt 3 - d100 Treasure - This is some Greek-themed petty non-magic treasures Will do a weirder magic list next My players are robbing a tomb no...5 days ago
-
[BLOG] News on the March! Episode VII. - This post continues the series of brief play reports I have been posting on Discord. This does not cover every single session (sometimes, recon and setup...6 days ago
-
-
Are Artists Even Human? (False Machine News!!) - Ordinary humans have literally zero idea of what it takes to develop and create an image, meaning they treat it as a kind of magic, and adopt towards it ...1 week ago
-
A Brief History on the Development and Design of the Planar Cosmology in AD&D - I was reading a good discussion a couple of months ago (in February 2025) about the nomenclature for the power levels of different types of demons over on ...1 week ago
-
Blogs on Tape season 6 has begun! - Hi everybody! Its been a minute. How are you? Everything is awful all the time? Horrors never cease? You’re being driven mad by the weight of the unfathoma...1 week ago
-
More Beautiful Development Sketches for The Great North - Tom Kilian continues to excel himself with the artwork for *The Great North*, now heading towards completion. As an Easter present, here is a work-in-pro...2 weeks ago
-
Tariffs, CanCon, and You - In 1972 the CBC asked listeners to complete the saying "As Canadian as...", to match "As American as apple pie." The winner was "As Canadian as possible ...2 weeks ago
-
Should you PAY your GM? - Let's start with the conclusion: GM-for-pay is okay. In other words: there is nothing wrong with paying someone to run a game for you, or charging people f...2 weeks ago
-
Noodle Bar & Industrial Scatter Terrain - This past weekend I got a couple of solid hours to paint when I wasn’t dead tired, and decided to spend it on the 3D printed Flatline City Noodle Bar tha...3 weeks ago
-
A Surprising Look at Murderhobos... - So I asked a question on Facebook this week. What did people do with the humanoid women and children in the Caves of Chaos, among similar adventures, persu...4 weeks ago
-
36 units sold on day one - Not big Kickstarter-type numbers or anything but still pretty personally gratifying to me, because 1) it'a more copies than the first book sold on its fi...4 weeks ago
-
Praise for Songs of the Dying Earth - Among my favourite works of fantasy fiction are the *Dying Earth* stories and the *Lyonesse *trilogy by Jack Vance. I’ve read the *Lyonesse *trilogy three ...4 weeks ago
-
Gary Con XVII - I attended Gary Con this year. Last year, I was supposed to go, but something came up and I had to cancel. This year, I ran a scenario I created called The...5 weeks ago
-
On the Success of the VOTE - You voted for it, and it's here! All the prices on the books I sell on DTRPG will be rising in price, 40-50% so I can maintain the same margin as now! ...1 month ago
-
Lexicon of Klarkash-Ton, Hierophant of Atlantis: Lupanar - This time, we follow the good High Priest to the far future, to the final continent of Earth, Zothique, for a a tale of ennui and love: Morthylla. Witho...1 month ago
-
Fight On! number 16 is out. - The new issue of *Fight On!* has been out for a bit. You can get copies via drivethru or lulu. I haven't finished reading my copy, but I'd like to reco...1 month ago
-
Wandering through the Majestic Fantasy Realms - It's time for another Bat in the Attic update! I am halfway through the first draft of my upcoming project, Into the Majestic Fantasy Realms, the Northe...2 months ago
-
The Hungering Dark - Go into the earth, and reality will walk alongside you. Walk further, and you will eventually be walking alone. The world is plastic down there. Tar Lat...2 months ago
-
Hobby Bingo 2025: January Progress - Welcome back to the Vault! I've painted a few bits and pieces in January and made a dent into my Hobby Bingo card! First up is a Chaplain in Terminator ...2 months ago
-
NTRPG Gaming Weekend - [image: NTRPG Gaming Weekend] This weekend was a "game day" for North Texas RPG Con, held at the same hotel the con is held at. I haven't slung dice since...3 months ago
-
Into the Wild Blue Yonder: A Journey Through Blackmoor's Dark Realm - *We have been thinking about you.* *We know what you want from Rob Kuntz.* You want more than another brand-new RPG module. It has to be a *First Edition ...3 months ago
-
Articulations - Creating house rules, custom rules specific to a local group or campaign, has been common throughout the history of D&D. What makes an effective house rule...3 months ago
-
A Fiftieth Anniversary Year - The 50th anniversary year of *Dungeons & Dragons *is drawing to a close. A number of projects I'd been planning for this year finally came out, and I ...4 months ago
-
A Quick Look at The Wizard’s Scroll II - October of this year saw the release of The Wizard’s Scroll II, the second issue of a White Box Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game (FMAG) zine whose first ...4 months ago
-
Writing playlists for all occasions - Hello again! Going off the idea of inspiration elaborated on by the prior post, I also have music playing while I write my various games and fiction pieces...4 months ago
-
The Tarot of Pips - Somewhere in your dice collection is a die like this one, the humblest of dice. Although you don't know it, this small white die carries with it a secr...4 months ago
-
Pirates and Necromancers, a Play Report - Over the Thanksgiving weekend we did a lot of gaming ranging from “off-table” domain level stuff to some solo adventures to spell and magic item rese...4 months ago
-
Welcome new Greyhawk Fans! - With the publication of the new Dungeon Master’s Guide, there are doubtless going to be a lot of new D&D players interested in my favorite setting, the Wor...6 months ago
-
It's been a bit - Hey everyone, I hope you are doing well! I've had a lot going on and haven't had much time to blog lately. Heres a recap of gaming events and other st...11 months ago
-
*'s in SpaaaaaAaaaace - A lot of SF (including a certain 2D6 RPG grandaddy) deal with ancient aliens taking humans from Earth and dropping them, fleas and all, on one or more w...1 year ago
-
Last move - to self-hosting! - As my vote regarding Substack in the “marketplace of ideas”, I’m moving to self-hosting. I’m now at (and hopefully staying for a long time at) Blog: ht...1 year ago
-
Osamu Tezuka (1928 - 1989) - [image: Osamu Tezuka - Shonen Magazine Cover, 1970]Shonen Magazine Cover, 1970 [image: Osamu Tezuka - Shonen Magazine Cover Illustration 1970]Shonen Maga...2 years ago
-
This is an Important Game Mechanic - *"That's the GM's Regional Map from my AOWG. And it's a damned good regional map. It's not a good map for a Simple Homebrew Campaign. It does some s$&...2 years ago
-
Clean Your Room - Looking back at my little blog here. That last post… wow, I was having fun playing WOW Classic! That was August of 1999 and I was having a blast… it was ...3 years ago
-
-
Steve Jackson Interview - James Maliszewski recently did an interview with Steve Jackson over on his Grognardia blog. Steve chats about the beginnings of The Fantasy Trip and upcomi...4 years ago
-
The Hero’s Journey 2nd Edition, Campbellian roleplaying at its best! - (this review done using the reviewers own purchased copy) I have been a James Michael Spahn fan since he wrote his Swords & Wizardry Companion. His writing...4 years ago
-
ToAD Monster of the Week: Crocoman - Now that I'm back doing the blog thing I thought I would use Tome of Adventure Design to create monsters for The Black Hack. Using the monster tables in th...5 years ago
-
More Arden Vul Art - Another great piece from Del, this one's the Forum of Set: a place that the PCs may spend quite a bit of time within.5 years ago
-
OCHRE SAND - Init +0 Ranged Atk • fire burst +3 (1d14+1, 20') AC 17 HD 3d6 MV 60 Act 1d24 SP 'breath' weapon, sideslip, perfect silence, morphing Fort +5 Ref +8 Will...5 years ago
-
Strange, Dangerous, and Inhuman: The Fey and Fairie - When I was a boy I loved fairy tales. Jack and the Beanstalk, Puss in Boots, Rumpelstiltskin - I devoured all of it. My fascination that there was a strang...5 years ago
-
New Map of the Elf Empire and Southern Isles - I’ve been having fun developing a new map-drawing style that I think is finally reaching a certain level of maturity. And yeah, it owes a lot to Matthew Ad...5 years ago
-
The Faithful - An Optional Archetype for Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells Revised Edition - Work on the revised edition of Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells is moving along. This will be a hefty tome, with a LOT of tools and new options to customiz...5 years ago
-
Dungeons & Dragonmead Fall Schedule - *As you know, I run public classic Dungeons & Dragons games at **The Loaded Die**/Metro Detroit Game Night's Board Game Nigh at **Dragonmead**, in Warren...5 years ago
-
Fiction in Airhde - On a whim this weekend, I picked up some fiction off the TLG store. *A Houseless God & Other Tales* and *The Mirrored Soul & Other Tales*, both by the T...5 years ago
-
-
Ravensburg Reboot: Streamlined City Map - I mentioned in my last post how I was tweaking and reworking parts of my Ravensburg setting. Today I streamlined the city map. The old map had lots of redu...5 years ago
-
And Now the News Draft Download on Patreon - It's self-styled Throwback Thursday and *having just released the 34-page draft booklet of Hill Cantons news to my Patreon backers* I am going to indulge m...5 years ago
-
The Withered Crag available now - I just enabled the sale of the PDF version of The Withered Crag at DriveThruRPG a few minutes ago, and the custom print version will be available startin...5 years ago
-
Annihilation Rising Goes live - The latest in Fail Squad Games’ Quick Kick projects has gone live and needs your support!! This project is only running 11 days and ends on 5/28/2019! ...5 years ago
-
James's Celebration of Life - We could not have asked for a prettier day for James's service. It was a bit chilly and windy but gorgeous. A heartfelt thank you to all that joined us tod...6 years ago
-
Trap Tuesday: A step back - I will get back to Tomb of Horrors soon. I found a topic that was interesting enough to take a break. While interacting in a 5E group on Facebook I talked ...6 years ago
-
Let's Talk About Pacing! - The idea, I think, is that the RPG is ultimately about the long game. Even rolling back to the early days of Basic & Expert, the goal of the player was...6 years ago
-
Profane and Profound Prep Part 2 - This is part 2 of my work to edit my magic items for a DMsGuild release, along with adding cursed items along the way. Here is part 1. Bone of a Saint 8000...6 years ago
-
MIDDLE DUNGEONS LEVEL FIVE 158 STAIRS. - 158 STAIRS. These stairs descend thirty feet to Area 79 on Level 6.6 years ago
-
Please, I don't do paid advertisements - don't ask. - A little note since people have asked me about this. My video channel's *not* an advertising platform, so I'm not available for hire if you want to promote...6 years ago
-
New website! - Slowly but surely, all the content here will make its way — in updated form! — to my new website: timbannock.com. For fairly obvious reasons, that site wil...6 years ago
-
Please Update Your Link! - If you're seeing this, it means your link to the Greyhawk Grognard blog is out of date. Please update your link to www.greyhawkgrognard.com (RSS feed is h...6 years ago
-
Total Sales for WB:FMAG - Hi Folks, It's been a long time since I provided an update for the sales of White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game. *LULU* Print: 396 PDF: 433 *OBS*...6 years ago
-
How can We Destroy this Campaign World? - d12 1. You must trick a bard into strumming the *Chords of Fate* on the *Lute of Annihilation* 2. Legends tell of thermonuclear weapons beneath megadunge...6 years ago
-
Mord Mar - Session 5 - We had another successful delve into the dungeon yesterday. The delvers: Moira, the Magic-User Radovan - Human Cleric (of Odin?) Khazgar Stonehand - Dwarf ...6 years ago
-
Yodeling For Yokels or The Further Misa(d&)dventures - This is the one of those posts that points out the lack of current posts. Over the last week or three, there has been postponed Labyrinth Lord (twice, one...7 years ago
-
Bundle of Fantasy Age - Bundle of Holding: Dragon Age/Fantasy Age: Available until March 12. PA Presents: Fantasy AGE Freeport live play Green Ronin in 2018 The Fantasy Age RPG ma...7 years ago
-
New Free PDF Module: The Hyqueous Vaults - A new dungeon module—written in celebration of OSRIC's 10th Birthday—by Rebecca Dettmann, Allan T. Grohe, Jr., Jimm Johnson, Matthew Riedel, Alex Zisch, a...7 years ago
-
Session XCIII: One Pissed Off Dragon! - Our ongoing Swords and Wizardry sandbox campaign... *Current Player Characters:* *Thenus* (Ranger) *Wang Du* (Monk) *Wolfheir* (Viking) *Arg* (Half-orc) ...7 years ago
-
Swords & Wizardry Light: Session # 6 - Two months after our last session (thanks to things like 8th grade finals, a 4 year-old's birthday and party, Father's Day, etc.), we finally had our next ...7 years ago
As the pain in the ass with the emails referenced above, I definitely share your pain man. :) My PnP game is today with my LOTFP group, and unfortunately they triggered something at the end of the last session that could go way way bad for them today. In fact, nothing good will come from today, its just a matter of how bad. And that is going to be determined by a series of dice rolls, like 5-10, near the beginning of the session. I have no idea how it will turn out, and I have been preparing mentally for about 10 different outcomes in my head all week. Ultimately it is all futile, because one thing is for certain with my players---those 8 motherfuckers constantly do what I do not expect and fuck my shit up beyond belief. :) That's what makes it fun!
ReplyDeleteIn general, on sandbox play as a DM, I've been struggling to find that fine line, the balance between being not prepared and over-prepared. The one thing that helps me, is that I have a sense of the whole world, map and general countries and power structures. And I have a sense of the regional conflicts. And I make use of the AD&D DMG Random Monster tables liberally. That, plus the ones in the old Judge's Guild Ready Ref Sheets. Those tables and charts can be brutal, but hey, I'm playing lamentations of the flame princes. So far in 9 months I've managed to kill off 22 of my players' pc's and/or npc's. And the fuckers still keep coming back!
ReplyDeleteOnce you have the bigger picture in mind, geographically and politically, and the regional conflicts and power groups, I try to develop a mini-story about each area/section. "Over here is the half-demon v the paladin kingdom war. Over there is the city ruled by a lich, in conflict with his cousin the archmage who formerly competed for the affections of a woman---who just so happens to look like one of the party members." That sort of thing. You can do that right down to the town level. Then when the pc's enter into an area, they get the wandering monsters, but they also get to be part of the local story. Every area has a local story, from the town to the country to the continent, to the inn-keeper. It's just a matter of the players, who are creating their own story, or list of deeds--so I don't sound like some Forgie here---interacts with what is going on in that story-line.
All the rest, the layout of a town, the inn's menu, the names of the local big-wigs, i usually make up on the fly and write down for future reference. Same with their personalities.
With that structure in place, I've found I can handle most of what they throw at me.
Of course, that being said, now I'm off to the game, to see how they're going to fuck my shit up this fine Sunday. Cya!
last night was fun once we got going (next time, remind me to do my shopping between sessions; we don't need to drag everyone around town while I try to find a warhorse).
ReplyDeleteSlamming the lid on the ghoul felt pretty good. It seemed an appropriate action, and it worked better than expected. Nice 'goddamn right I can take you' feeling.
As for sandbox prep, it looks like I'll be posting a series at Troll in the Corner about sandbox construction, so I'll be talking at points about just that.
Last night rocked, my only regret is how long it took us to start racking up XP, as I think I won't make it to level 3 on this session's bounty. :(
ReplyDeleteI probably did, if I'm allowed to level away from town. I was only 250xp shy of third level.
ReplyDelete+1 damage per attack and a new combat proficiency, nice. Now, as long as I don't pooch the hit point roll...
Group emails or individual emails to the dm are the key to the getting the BS out of the way like buying the horse, etc. That's the only way I can swing it with the campaign I run.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, i began thinking about and sending erik emails on a million things 6 hours before the next session when he was out of town. Sorry man, will do it better and earlier next time.
lol
ReplyDeletejoe, not a problem in the least. alls good. besides, i needed time away from the bday party ;)
And just as a followup to the earlier post, we went from 22 deaths in 9 months to 29 deaths as of today. 7 more pc's died today. it was fucking brutal. And it was due to their own actions. They wanted a shot at the brass ring, when they knew the chances of success were low, and failure means death, and they knowingly took the shot and failed. oh well
ReplyDeleteoh, and all those semi-contingency plans were blown to shit. they ended up where i never ever would have predicted in a million years. both party changing and world changing events happened, the repercussions of which i will have to think about on the bigger picture for days to figure out what is going to happen next. fun!
oh, and i'm up to 10 players in my group. talk about chaos. now i know why the old books talked about a caller.