I am running a home brewed campaign and I feel like I get bogged down too much in things to do in a location because I think it’s a cool thing to do.
For example, my party is about to make it to their first big city (I’ve been saying that for months now) and I keep thinking of quests that could go there and wanting to put them in. The biggest problem is each of these quests I can tie into the big overarching plot, which itself would move the game along. I guess... I want to move the narrative along AND explore the world, but right now I’m only moving the narrative along. Does anyone have any tips on how to limit the amount of quests given in a certain location while keeping the story flowing?
Why do you need to restrict the scope of threads? Maybe I'm missing what you are concerned about, but i feel that if you have many threads to go off of then the players will be the ones to choose what they feel their characters would want to pursue and achieve. You can always recycle ideas that are never used.
Let the players do it themselves. Connect each quest to an NPC, location, event, etc. and spread them throughout the city. The players will probably not discover everything, so you can focus on the quests they pick up
My players are really easy to lead by the nose. If I show them anything in any amount of detail, they’ll chase it down and get to the bottom of it. And they don’t have any urgent quests to make them leave a place, so they just sit there enjoying the scenery and quests until I shoo them out.
So you can tell them about something cool to do up in the mountains, or in the hills or in the next town, which may bring them back to the city or not if you wish. I keep remembering when I played Elder Scrolls V and wanted to work on five quests at once to make the most of my traveling around the map.
Oh, I need to go to Riften, hold up a sec, I need to return this Sword of Freda to the smith, and I gotta run into the White Phial.
This was an issue for me while I am in the middle of my first ever homebrew campaign. Had all kinds of ideas and things to do in each city. Just got bogged down with it.
I finally found a nice medium where I set up a quest for each of my PC's arc and one quest for the overall arc of the campaign. This way it lets me write a fair number of quests for each city along with keeping the players engaged. Then I came up with a hook for each city. Like one of my city is the only place my fighter can get a certain type of armor or have one city where my rogue can train her alchemy.
Probably not the right way to do it but it seems to be working so far and keep from getting lost in the weeds so to speak.
Your players should have an idea of what they want to do with their characters, they have an idea of the narrative you've been putting together, and they've had a chance to interact with the world. You've done your job at setting up the foundation of the game. Now, stop telling them what to do and let them decide. The various plots in your world will continue to progress to their eventual end, and your players may never involve themselves with some of those plots. It's entirely up to them to figure out what they feel is more important at any given time.
You keep coming up with ideas, you keep throwing the plot hooks out there, that's what we do as DMs. However, just let the players choose what to do and when. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.
I am running a home brewed campaign and I feel like I get bogged down too much in things to do in a location because I think it’s a cool thing to do.
For example, my party is about to make it to their first big city (I’ve been saying that for months now) and I keep thinking of quests that could go there and wanting to put them in. The biggest problem is each of these quests I can tie into the big overarching plot, which itself would move the game along. I guess... I want to move the narrative along AND explore the world, but right now I’m only moving the narrative along. Does anyone have any tips on how to limit the amount of quests given in a certain location while keeping the story flowing?
Why do you need to restrict the scope of threads? Maybe I'm missing what you are concerned about, but i feel that if you have many threads to go off of then the players will be the ones to choose what they feel their characters would want to pursue and achieve. You can always recycle ideas that are never used.
Having fun trying to rp more.
Let the players do it themselves. Connect each quest to an NPC, location, event, etc. and spread them throughout the city. The players will probably not discover everything, so you can focus on the quests they pick up
My players are really easy to lead by the nose. If I show them anything in any amount of detail, they’ll chase it down and get to the bottom of it. And they don’t have any urgent quests to make them leave a place, so they just sit there enjoying the scenery and quests until I shoo them out.
So you can tell them about something cool to do up in the mountains, or in the hills or in the next town, which may bring them back to the city or not if you wish. I keep remembering when I played Elder Scrolls V and wanted to work on five quests at once to make the most of my traveling around the map.
Oh, I need to go to Riften, hold up a sec, I need to return this Sword of Freda to the smith, and I gotta run into the White Phial.
The life of a DM. So many ideas and so little time.
This was an issue for me while I am in the middle of my first ever homebrew campaign. Had all kinds of ideas and things to do in each city. Just got bogged down with it.
I finally found a nice medium where I set up a quest for each of my PC's arc and one quest for the overall arc of the campaign. This way it lets me write a fair number of quests for each city along with keeping the players engaged. Then I came up with a hook for each city. Like one of my city is the only place my fighter can get a certain type of armor or have one city where my rogue can train her alchemy.
Probably not the right way to do it but it seems to be working so far and keep from getting lost in the weeds so to speak.
Stop driving.
Your players should have an idea of what they want to do with their characters, they have an idea of the narrative you've been putting together, and they've had a chance to interact with the world. You've done your job at setting up the foundation of the game. Now, stop telling them what to do and let them decide. The various plots in your world will continue to progress to their eventual end, and your players may never involve themselves with some of those plots. It's entirely up to them to figure out what they feel is more important at any given time.
You keep coming up with ideas, you keep throwing the plot hooks out there, that's what we do as DMs. However, just let the players choose what to do and when. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.