So I am a newerish dm. As the last few sessions have gone by, I have decided that all my encounters, situation, and events just seem like there isn't much to them. They have the bones, but no muscles. The over arcing story I feel is well know and developed, so how does on go about with all the little details with in the story, to make encounters seem real. So, how do y'all develop the little details in the world, they may connect the dots to things or just make the bar room seem more realistic. Any help is appreciated
One good step is to give the enemies goals and reasons. Too many games seem to fall nto the trope of having 5 bandits stood in this room waiting for combat to start, lke Skyrim, where in reality they will be performing tasks, gambling, drinking, standing on guard, or perhaps actively doing something like mining for evil gems or preparing to kill some hostages (which is a neat way to gve an NPC and a time limit for planning)
So yeah, Ask yourself why are the enemies there, what are their motives, and if they are relevant to the big plot, how so?
EG, the party goes through a swamp and is attacked by a huge crocodile, which is hungry, so it tries to drag one PC away to eat - that is it's motive, not to stay and kill everyone, nor to stay and be killed - deal enough damage and the croc will back off (for added effect, have that last blow inflict a scarring wound for the croc to re-emerge in the future!). Later, they find a sinking tower in the swamp and there is a group of bandits there, who fight like wild things and try to escape in the direction the PC's came from - they are deserters from the BBEG, and want to get away. Then, encounter the bounty hunters sent out to get the deserters back. That way the journey to the BBEG's place has told a bit of a story about them, rather than just "you hear the BBEG is ruthless and evil", you can experience it yourself.
First of all, remember that you're a new DM. Take improving your combats one step at a time. There's not a ton of pressure for you to be really good early on. But here are a few things that you can begin to focus on, that go a long way.
The first is to give your monsters tactical diversity. Monster tactics are based on not just motive like was said above, but also on how they are made to fight. As a beginning DM, the articles on this blog were invaluable for my monster strategies. Before running monsters, I would look up their tactics on the blog, and eventually you will get the hang of analyzing monster tactics for yourself.
Second, terrain diversity is key. There's nothing my players love more than a fight in a room with objects that they can interact with and use to their advantage. Try a fight in a room with tables and chairs to gain high ground or to knock over and use for cover, for example. Or a forest with dry undergrowth that can burn and restrict movement. If the terrain complicates the fight, especially if the PCs and monsters can change the terrain, that is exciting for the players.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Panda-wat (I hate my username) is somehow convinced that he is objectively right about everything D&D related even though he obviously is not. Considering that, he'd probably make a great D&D youtuber.
"If I die, I can live with that." ~Luke Hart, the DM lair
This takes a lot of practice and is something you get better at over time. To help sharpen you edge I recommend two books. The first is "The Monsters Know What they're doing" https://www.amazon.com/Monsters-Know-What-Theyre-Doing/dp/1982122668. This book gives a great overview of the tactics and character of different monsters, describing what their motives may be how they should be run to "feel like that type of monster". It really helps guide your thinking along the lines of what ThorukDuckSlayer suggested. The second is George Saunders "A Swim in a pond in the rain" https://www.amazon.com/Swim-Pond-Rain-Russians-Writing/dp/1984856030/ref=sr_1_1?crid=PWL977DJYG9J&keywords=a swim in a pond in the rain&qid=1656896165&s=books&sprefix=A swim in ,stripbooks,83&sr=1-1 . This book is a great self contained course on short story writing and has some truely brilliant examples of evocative and descriptive language. Granted D&D isn't a short story (unless you're happy to run a railroad) but some of the same techniques can be applied to set up a scene or create NPCs that fill the players senses and hence "feel real".
I am most thankful for the advise y'all have given me. I shall most definitely look into those areas for the future coming sessions. Indeed I have a lot to learn, and each session I feel that I have give a better feel of things. I definitely will take note on monster motivations and tactics, along with development of the area. My next question is how to develop the happenings of the mission itself, like how does one guide the players along the goal, and still keep the feel of the openess of the world inorder to not railroad them. And so to keep things seemingly detailed instead of cut and bland. (Or at least feel less like it just came out of the gluteus Maximus)
Each NPC that will talk with the people should have a personality.
One trick is to write up a list of 10 personalities and just pick one when you need them. As you use them up, write a name next to it and then add more to the list. They do not have to be complex.
Things like "Loves dogs", "pervert interested in orcs", "Greedy", etc.
If the characters gain importance, fill out these 1 dimensional traits with more personality. Otherwise just remember them.
Can I also add to these changing up the way the enemies act in combat. This follows from and adds colour to the enemy motivation.
For example, there's a dude who is poisoning a local water supply. He's doing this because he's in the debt of someone. Looking at the party they are just as, if not more likely to kill him than the person he owes a debt to. He's therefore going to try and run. If the party manage to engage, he's going to want to talk them out of hurting him. He's going to beg, plead for mercy. In a similar fashion, who is the enemy attacking in the party and why? Did the party's fighter take out an enemy's minion? Is that going to cause the enemy to switch focus and focus their attacks on the fighter? This all takes practice of course, but this starts with knowing what the party has as their basic toolkit. Heck, I've even run an encounter solo before now using Beyond's encounter builder. I did this by 'playing' as the party and enemy actively trying to kill each other. It'll take a lot more time if you do it properly but changes the way you provide encounters (or did for me).
To your next question, don't develop missions or quests that must be completed or checked off like video games. If you've given the party clues and breadcrumbs and they've either missed them, misinterpreted, or worse still ignored them...that's on the party. I have literally before now had parties take the route I didn't plan for causing me to improv NPCs and locations I wasn't prepared for that led them to a place where by the end of the in game day they were back where they started and they found out over their character's breakfast that the person who led them on the quest was killed in the night...and it was their fault. When they got all aggressive with the NPC who told them this, they started to realise that they ignored something they thought was unimportant. So not only did they lose out on an encounter during that session, but they were also responsible for the death of a well loved NPC within that town and were chased out by the populous. In short it's okay for a mission not to be completed.
That said, I like the advice given by Johnny Chiodini during his How to DM mini series on Dicebreaker. There are ways and it's good to plan ways that information can be provided in a different way or place than you planned. So, what I do a lot of is planning out the end goal (the thing needed to complete), the start point or hook (the info needed to get started), and then any other information becomes modular. Are the players taking too long searching just the one room? Well maybe instead of finding and injured guard, they find a scrap of paper with the info needed next? Have players entirely gotten the location wrong? Okay, well you have a choice, they can go to the wrong place and have to backtrack...good for making the players realise they're not all powerful all knowing gods and taking them down a peg or two...or you can have some other piece of information there to redirect them...for example a dumb minion who also misinterpreted the directions but is carrying something that will lead the party in the correct direction.
Work out what's important to complete the mission. Everything else can be modular. A different delivery of info, a different location, even a different enemy if you're prepared enough (grab a box of the Monster cards by the way...super useful for improving an encounter!)...all this stuff can be a moveable feast. The start and end points are the bits I keep as tight as possible. Even then though, allow the players to solve things in different ways and especially allow players to fail a mission. Failing to complete a goal or task can be really powerful for helping the players feel like character actions have consequences and they have choice. If they chose something by getting some piece of info 'wrong' it's going to make them regret their choices. Letting players do something 'wrong' shows them that they can truly do anything...it's just not always going to end well.
The trick to keeping the feeling of openness and that the PC's choices matter is giving them decisions that have consequences.
If the DM has a town of Quest givers and the PC's gain four opportunities for quests, have at least two of the quests have consequences for bypassing them. Start small and harmless so that the players realize that their choice may make a difference as to what they can do next.
Present the PCs with a fetch quest for a n NPC that has power and influence.
Present the PCs with an escort mission in a direction that they may want to travel in anyway.
Present the PCs with an opportunity to gather information on a thing/person (Macguffin) that they have been searching for.
Present the PCs with an obvious mission that will pay well and give XP.
With these four situations the PCs have choices but the choices they make will influence what choices can me made in the future and possibly who will be an ally or how prepared the party will be when faced with certain things.
If they pass on the simple fetch quest they may not make a powerful ally or possibly even make an enemy. This quest may not be available later as the NPC has hired someone else to do what needed to be done, thereby gaining status in the NPCs eyes.
If they pass on the escort mission to research the Macguffin, they may still need to go the direction on their own and not get paid/gossip/make friends. This quest may not be available later as the person/thing is now where it needs to be.
If they pass on the research time to go on the Escort mission, they may be poorly prepared to encounter the BBEG/next challenge. This quest may not be available later or as valuable as the party has already encountered the thing they would have researched. This may not be a big deal if they dealt with the challenge successfully but it may have held the key to a particularly good outcome or made a fight easier (Trolls don't regenerate when hit with acid/fire).
If they pass on all of those and go for the GP & XP then they need to try to do something more to progress the plot.
These quest ideas will also give the DM an idea of which players want what out of the game. Once the DM presents the choices they should listen (and take notes) as to who wants to do what and for what reason. This will give insight into what each player wants and if the player factors in character motivation at all. Then the DM can tailor an encounter for the interests that present themselves in the discussion during the decision making process of the group. Whatever the party decides, have it affect the choices that they didn't choose. These affects can be grand or slight just be sure to point out that the consequences came out of the PC choice. This should get them to make informed choices later and may drive narrative more.
Long speachs can be boring. Important information should be in the form of hand outs. Things like the names of villains, mcguffins (important quest things needed for the mission), etc.
Want the player to find 4 libraries, give them a list of their names to cross out. If an NPC is going to be re-occuring, the players intercept a letter from him.
Do not give out handouts for things like invitations to the ball, unless it has the name of a re-occuring villain. Just because it looks impressive does not mean anything.
I am most thankful for the advise y'all have given me. I shall most definitely look into those areas for the future coming sessions. Indeed I have a lot to learn, and each session I feel that I have give a better feel of things. I definitely will take note on monster motivations and tactics, along with development of the area. My next question is how to develop the happenings of the mission itself, like how does one guide the players along the goal, and still keep the feel of the openess of the world inorder to not railroad them. And so to keep things seemingly detailed instead of cut and bland. (Or at least feel less like it just came out of the gluteus Maximus)
When I prep a session I start with what the players told me they were going to do last session (or where we left off last session) and the goal(s) the players are trying to achieve. These could be the goals of an adventure the PCs have stumbled into or things that their characters just want to do (like go shopping), it doesn't matter. Then I close my eyes and image all the places the PCs need to go (or might try to go) to accomplish those goals and I write down a short (no more than 1-2 min long, 3-5 sentence long) description of each along with any NPCs and monsters they might find at each place. After I start with a description of where the PCs are ("You find yourselves at the shore of an underground lake, a slow drip drop is audible as water leaks stalagtites on the ceiling. ") I want to throw the ball into their court as quickly as possible. ("What do you do?") . Then you pretty much wash rinse and repeat, the PCs should keep making choices and you offer descriptions based on those choices. Its important to note that your descriptions can carry a lot of weight, the more richly you describe an area or NPC (not necessarily longer, just more effort spent on details and careful choice of wording) the more time the PCs will spend interacting with it. This subtle technique can allow you to create a "hotter/colder" sense to where the PCs should go to further their goals.
A campaign I am running has been, thus far, quite "rail-roady" due to the nature of it's beginnings and how everything fit together. Now, after having taken one big step in the overall arc, the world is opening up and they will be meeting people more often. These people, at times, will have problems the party may or may not help with. Maybe a farmer is losing stock to a pack of wolves or some such, maybe the smith is looking for some specific materials, but the spot he used to get them has been taken over by goblins, all kinds of stuff will be going on around them, SOME of which, will have links to the main arc, but a lot won't.
If your arc is a developing situation, the time spent on unrelated tasks will allow progression of events related to the main goal. Instead of finding the workers mining some special ore or stones, they find an empty, newly dug area, with clues as to what had been taken. Some side quests might allow the BBEG to gain power, while others will curtail his plans in some unexpected (by the players) fashion.
You should soon get a feel for what gets your players involved and immersed or excited. Once you have a solid idea of what flips their switches, it's easier to build missions and encounters you are more confident they will enjoy. Bit of hit and miss in the beginning sometimes, but you'll hit a stride soon enough.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Talk to your Players.Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
Thank you all for some more advise. These ideas will definitely be able to help my advance my learning of the game. Link some arcs to the main story and some to other would be something most interesting. Along with making a list of multiple personalities and names for character will definitely help with spur of the moment characters. Things like that I do have a hard time doing, just because I don't like making things that feel pointless at the time, yet it would actually be really help for future things. I thank you all for everything, and I will definitely be looking back here as a go about rereading y'alls advise.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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So I am a newerish dm. As the last few sessions have gone by, I have decided that all my encounters, situation, and events just seem like there isn't much to them. They have the bones, but no muscles. The over arcing story I feel is well know and developed, so how does on go about with all the little details with in the story, to make encounters seem real. So, how do y'all develop the little details in the world, they may connect the dots to things or just make the bar room seem more realistic. Any help is appreciated
One good step is to give the enemies goals and reasons. Too many games seem to fall nto the trope of having 5 bandits stood in this room waiting for combat to start, lke Skyrim, where in reality they will be performing tasks, gambling, drinking, standing on guard, or perhaps actively doing something like mining for evil gems or preparing to kill some hostages (which is a neat way to gve an NPC and a time limit for planning)
So yeah, Ask yourself why are the enemies there, what are their motives, and if they are relevant to the big plot, how so?
EG, the party goes through a swamp and is attacked by a huge crocodile, which is hungry, so it tries to drag one PC away to eat - that is it's motive, not to stay and kill everyone, nor to stay and be killed - deal enough damage and the croc will back off (for added effect, have that last blow inflict a scarring wound for the croc to re-emerge in the future!). Later, they find a sinking tower in the swamp and there is a group of bandits there, who fight like wild things and try to escape in the direction the PC's came from - they are deserters from the BBEG, and want to get away. Then, encounter the bounty hunters sent out to get the deserters back. That way the journey to the BBEG's place has told a bit of a story about them, rather than just "you hear the BBEG is ruthless and evil", you can experience it yourself.
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First of all, remember that you're a new DM. Take improving your combats one step at a time. There's not a ton of pressure for you to be really good early on. But here are a few things that you can begin to focus on, that go a long way.
The first is to give your monsters tactical diversity. Monster tactics are based on not just motive like was said above, but also on how they are made to fight. As a beginning DM, the articles on this blog were invaluable for my monster strategies. Before running monsters, I would look up their tactics on the blog, and eventually you will get the hang of analyzing monster tactics for yourself.
Second, terrain diversity is key. There's nothing my players love more than a fight in a room with objects that they can interact with and use to their advantage. Try a fight in a room with tables and chairs to gain high ground or to knock over and use for cover, for example. Or a forest with dry undergrowth that can burn and restrict movement. If the terrain complicates the fight, especially if the PCs and monsters can change the terrain, that is exciting for the players.
Panda-wat (I hate my username) is somehow convinced that he is objectively right about everything D&D related even though he obviously is not. Considering that, he'd probably make a great D&D youtuber.
"If I die, I can live with that." ~Luke Hart, the DM lair
This takes a lot of practice and is something you get better at over time. To help sharpen you edge I recommend two books. The first is "The Monsters Know What they're doing" https://www.amazon.com/Monsters-Know-What-Theyre-Doing/dp/1982122668. This book gives a great overview of the tactics and character of different monsters, describing what their motives may be how they should be run to "feel like that type of monster". It really helps guide your thinking along the lines of what ThorukDuckSlayer suggested. The second is George Saunders "A Swim in a pond in the rain" https://www.amazon.com/Swim-Pond-Rain-Russians-Writing/dp/1984856030/ref=sr_1_1?crid=PWL977DJYG9J&keywords=a swim in a pond in the rain&qid=1656896165&s=books&sprefix=A swim in ,stripbooks,83&sr=1-1 . This book is a great self contained course on short story writing and has some truely brilliant examples of evocative and descriptive language. Granted D&D isn't a short story (unless you're happy to run a railroad) but some of the same techniques can be applied to set up a scene or create NPCs that fill the players senses and hence "feel real".
-Happy Gaming
I am most thankful for the advise y'all have given me. I shall most definitely look into those areas for the future coming sessions. Indeed I have a lot to learn, and each session I feel that I have give a better feel of things. I definitely will take note on monster motivations and tactics, along with development of the area. My next question is how to develop the happenings of the mission itself, like how does one guide the players along the goal, and still keep the feel of the openess of the world inorder to not railroad them. And so to keep things seemingly detailed instead of cut and bland. (Or at least feel less like it just came out of the gluteus Maximus)
Each NPC that will talk with the people should have a personality.
One trick is to write up a list of 10 personalities and just pick one when you need them. As you use them up, write a name next to it and then add more to the list. They do not have to be complex.
Things like "Loves dogs", "pervert interested in orcs", "Greedy", etc.
If the characters gain importance, fill out these 1 dimensional traits with more personality. Otherwise just remember them.
Can I also add to these changing up the way the enemies act in combat. This follows from and adds colour to the enemy motivation.
For example, there's a dude who is poisoning a local water supply. He's doing this because he's in the debt of someone. Looking at the party they are just as, if not more likely to kill him than the person he owes a debt to. He's therefore going to try and run. If the party manage to engage, he's going to want to talk them out of hurting him. He's going to beg, plead for mercy. In a similar fashion, who is the enemy attacking in the party and why? Did the party's fighter take out an enemy's minion? Is that going to cause the enemy to switch focus and focus their attacks on the fighter? This all takes practice of course, but this starts with knowing what the party has as their basic toolkit. Heck, I've even run an encounter solo before now using Beyond's encounter builder. I did this by 'playing' as the party and enemy actively trying to kill each other. It'll take a lot more time if you do it properly but changes the way you provide encounters (or did for me).
To your next question, don't develop missions or quests that must be completed or checked off like video games. If you've given the party clues and breadcrumbs and they've either missed them, misinterpreted, or worse still ignored them...that's on the party. I have literally before now had parties take the route I didn't plan for causing me to improv NPCs and locations I wasn't prepared for that led them to a place where by the end of the in game day they were back where they started and they found out over their character's breakfast that the person who led them on the quest was killed in the night...and it was their fault. When they got all aggressive with the NPC who told them this, they started to realise that they ignored something they thought was unimportant. So not only did they lose out on an encounter during that session, but they were also responsible for the death of a well loved NPC within that town and were chased out by the populous. In short it's okay for a mission not to be completed.
That said, I like the advice given by Johnny Chiodini during his How to DM mini series on Dicebreaker. There are ways and it's good to plan ways that information can be provided in a different way or place than you planned. So, what I do a lot of is planning out the end goal (the thing needed to complete), the start point or hook (the info needed to get started), and then any other information becomes modular. Are the players taking too long searching just the one room? Well maybe instead of finding and injured guard, they find a scrap of paper with the info needed next? Have players entirely gotten the location wrong? Okay, well you have a choice, they can go to the wrong place and have to backtrack...good for making the players realise they're not all powerful all knowing gods and taking them down a peg or two...or you can have some other piece of information there to redirect them...for example a dumb minion who also misinterpreted the directions but is carrying something that will lead the party in the correct direction.
Work out what's important to complete the mission. Everything else can be modular. A different delivery of info, a different location, even a different enemy if you're prepared enough (grab a box of the Monster cards by the way...super useful for improving an encounter!)...all this stuff can be a moveable feast. The start and end points are the bits I keep as tight as possible. Even then though, allow the players to solve things in different ways and especially allow players to fail a mission. Failing to complete a goal or task can be really powerful for helping the players feel like character actions have consequences and they have choice. If they chose something by getting some piece of info 'wrong' it's going to make them regret their choices. Letting players do something 'wrong' shows them that they can truly do anything...it's just not always going to end well.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
The trick to keeping the feeling of openness and that the PC's choices matter is giving them decisions that have consequences.
If the DM has a town of Quest givers and the PC's gain four opportunities for quests, have at least two of the quests have consequences for bypassing them. Start small and harmless so that the players realize that their choice may make a difference as to what they can do next.
Present the PCs with a fetch quest for a n NPC that has power and influence.
Present the PCs with an escort mission in a direction that they may want to travel in anyway.
Present the PCs with an opportunity to gather information on a thing/person (Macguffin) that they have been searching for.
Present the PCs with an obvious mission that will pay well and give XP.
With these four situations the PCs have choices but the choices they make will influence what choices can me made in the future and possibly who will be an ally or how prepared the party will be when faced with certain things.
If they pass on the simple fetch quest they may not make a powerful ally or possibly even make an enemy. This quest may not be available later as the NPC has hired someone else to do what needed to be done, thereby gaining status in the NPCs eyes.
If they pass on the escort mission to research the Macguffin, they may still need to go the direction on their own and not get paid/gossip/make friends. This quest may not be available later as the person/thing is now where it needs to be.
If they pass on the research time to go on the Escort mission, they may be poorly prepared to encounter the BBEG/next challenge. This quest may not be available later or as valuable as the party has already encountered the thing they would have researched. This may not be a big deal if they dealt with the challenge successfully but it may have held the key to a particularly good outcome or made a fight easier (Trolls don't regenerate when hit with acid/fire).
If they pass on all of those and go for the GP & XP then they need to try to do something more to progress the plot.
These quest ideas will also give the DM an idea of which players want what out of the game. Once the DM presents the choices they should listen (and take notes) as to who wants to do what and for what reason. This will give insight into what each player wants and if the player factors in character motivation at all. Then the DM can tailor an encounter for the interests that present themselves in the discussion during the decision making process of the group. Whatever the party decides, have it affect the choices that they didn't choose. These affects can be grand or slight just be sure to point out that the consequences came out of the PC choice. This should get them to make informed choices later and may drive narrative more.
Oh, one more thing regarding exposition.
Long speachs can be boring. Important information should be in the form of hand outs. Things like the names of villains, mcguffins (important quest things needed for the mission), etc.
Want the player to find 4 libraries, give them a list of their names to cross out. If an NPC is going to be re-occuring, the players intercept a letter from him.
Do not give out handouts for things like invitations to the ball, unless it has the name of a re-occuring villain. Just because it looks impressive does not mean anything.
When I prep a session I start with what the players told me they were going to do last session (or where we left off last session) and the goal(s) the players are trying to achieve. These could be the goals of an adventure the PCs have stumbled into or things that their characters just want to do (like go shopping), it doesn't matter. Then I close my eyes and image all the places the PCs need to go (or might try to go) to accomplish those goals and I write down a short (no more than 1-2 min long, 3-5 sentence long) description of each along with any NPCs and monsters they might find at each place. After I start with a description of where the PCs are ("You find yourselves at the shore of an underground lake, a slow drip drop is audible as water leaks stalagtites on the ceiling. ") I want to throw the ball into their court as quickly as possible. ("What do you do?") . Then you pretty much wash rinse and repeat, the PCs should keep making choices and you offer descriptions based on those choices. Its important to note that your descriptions can carry a lot of weight, the more richly you describe an area or NPC (not necessarily longer, just more effort spent on details and careful choice of wording) the more time the PCs will spend interacting with it. This subtle technique can allow you to create a "hotter/colder" sense to where the PCs should go to further their goals.
A campaign I am running has been, thus far, quite "rail-roady" due to the nature of it's beginnings and how everything fit together. Now, after having taken one big step in the overall arc, the world is opening up and they will be meeting people more often. These people, at times, will have problems the party may or may not help with. Maybe a farmer is losing stock to a pack of wolves or some such, maybe the smith is looking for some specific materials, but the spot he used to get them has been taken over by goblins, all kinds of stuff will be going on around them, SOME of which, will have links to the main arc, but a lot won't.
If your arc is a developing situation, the time spent on unrelated tasks will allow progression of events related to the main goal. Instead of finding the workers mining some special ore or stones, they find an empty, newly dug area, with clues as to what had been taken. Some side quests might allow the BBEG to gain power, while others will curtail his plans in some unexpected (by the players) fashion.
You should soon get a feel for what gets your players involved and immersed or excited. Once you have a solid idea of what flips their switches, it's easier to build missions and encounters you are more confident they will enjoy. Bit of hit and miss in the beginning sometimes, but you'll hit a stride soon enough.
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
Thank you all for some more advise. These ideas will definitely be able to help my advance my learning of the game. Link some arcs to the main story and some to other would be something most interesting. Along with making a list of multiple personalities and names for character will definitely help with spur of the moment characters. Things like that I do have a hard time doing, just because I don't like making things that feel pointless at the time, yet it would actually be really help for future things. I thank you all for everything, and I will definitely be looking back here as a go about rereading y'alls advise.