So, I'm struggling having multiple quests prepared. To illustrate, the initial chapter of Rime of the Frostmaiden (I'll put in spoilers just in case, but it's pretty minor)
has 12 quests that are initially available (although 2 of those are intended to be an either/or as chosen by the DM, so it's more like 11). They're meant to be "chosen" by the party, as they choose to go to a town, they get a quest via various methods, so most quests should be available at any given time.
I'm struggling to have all of them prepared. Like, I can run the quest fairly easily, but it's pretty generic because I'm having to read it as I go. I prefer to have it prepared and ready because it's easier to have things run smoother, deal with players doing things differently than I expected, etc, if I'm properly prepared. What I was doing was asking them to decide on what they're doing next session, then if they decide to go to, say, Bryn Shander, I can properly prepare that, and then have a refresher on surrounding towns in case something takes them there.
However, I think this gives an impression of the world being less sandboxy than would be ideal. They're having to give notice, so it feels a bit...constrained. I'm able to prepare enough for the session and then some, but it's not fully spontaneous with the whole of the ten-towns available (at any one time, I mean) and they have to "preorder" where they want to go. I could get a few quests ready but not all of them. So I have a few questions:
Is it normal to struggle to have multiple quests properly prepared like that? How many would be normal to you?
Do you think the method I mentioned would feel restrictive to you as a player?
Di you have any tips on how I can have a larger pool or properly prepared quests so I can offer a more free experience?
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
I always have them tell me where they are going before the session ends. It’s still just as sandbox-y. They can decide what they want, it’s just a timing thing. If they choose at the end or beginning, they are still choosing. Just educate (or guilt-trip) your players about how much work you need to put in between sessions, and how you only want to do what you need to, not prep for every possible option.
This makes me wonder how you are handling travel? How are you handling time in the towns?
So for example, the party finish a quest. Great, don't end the session there. Presumably they need to return somewhere to complete said quest, or inform people that the job is done? Great, well now the party need to decide what they are going to do...a good way to do this is to have the current day be market day with no market open tomorrow (for reason)...prior to resting then the party will need to stock up on whatever provisions they need to travel to the next town. Part of doing this will require them to announce what their plans are, how are they going to travel there?
'Cause here's the thing, there's no harm letting them start out now for a different location and then fading to black as the party make their way to the new location and the session ends. That way, you have a choice to start with the travel in the next session, or you could just pick up at the next town if you aren't a fan of random encounters during travel. The benefit here is that you know where the party are headed, so by fading to the end of session as they make their way there...you give yourself the time to prep the next location.
Is it normal to struggle to have multiple quests properly prepared like that? How many would be normal to you?
Do you think the method I mentioned would feel restrictive to you as a player?
Di you have any tips on how I can have a larger pool or properly prepared quests so I can offer a more free experience?
1. It's normal to struggle. I'd half prep everything and then only fully prep the places where I think my party is going.
2. No. Xalthu's suggestion is perfectly reasonable. I do it too. Not all the time, but whenever I want to without shame.
3. I would say read the module though, whatever it is you're running. You don't have to memorise anything, just familiarize yourself with the material. Get a sense of how the pieces weave together. How is it going to work out if the PCs just abandon the whole thing? How might they influence things? Maybe go through it a second time to make notes on things you expect to change. Get copies of creature stat blocks for encounters if you need them. Then no matter where the PCs go, you just flip a few pages, or scroll, and off you go.
The struggle is normal. :) You don't necessarily want to prep everything and to be honest, there will likely be quests the party doesn't get to anyway.
How to deal with it depends on what you are comfortable with. Here's how I would tend to deal with it.
1) Read/skim the entire set of quests so that you have an idea regarding what they are all about.
2) For each quest - write down a title, the name of the key quest giving NPC and their location, the destination of the quest and its objective, the page number in the book so you can find it quickly.
For example:
Location: Easthaven
Title: Toil and Trouble pg 62
Quest giver: Imdra Arlaggath - Easthaven militia captain - notices party at wizard execution
Quest: Find missing fishers
Quest location: favorite fishing area - north east (?) on Lac Dinneshere shore
Highlights: Boats on shore by cave, fishers dead, Hag Maud Chiselbone and Cauldron of Plenty - see Cauldron Caves
When you run the quest you will need to read the content in the book anyway since few people have a photographic memory. However, a brief note like that should give you most of what you need to remember what the quest was about and where it can be found before pulling out the book to access the details.
3) When the party goes to a location with a quest you can skim details to remind yourself while describing the town or the players are discussing what to do. Having already read it, this could be sufficient to run the characters through the quest.
If you find that you need more preparation then you will need to reduce the number of quests to read in advance. This can be helped by asking the party to decide at the end of the session where they are going next. It doesn't really help if you end a session in the middle of a quest and the party doesn't yet know which way they are going but if you know the quests available and where they might lead that gives you an idea of where the party might go and you can narrow it down that way.
Whenever prepping multiple quests where I don't know which ones the players will go for first, I will just plan out the hook and the first encounter for each quest. Usually by the time those are done with and the players have chosen which quest and started it, enough time will have passed to call an end to the session, and then you can prepare the rest of that quest for next session.
Im about a year into running this book too and you're heads where I started and got overwhelmed. Lots of good advice in here but one other thing (and I had to learn this myself or go crazy trying to prep) is my party at least only ever needed to think about the town they're in and any directly connected towns. They usually want to explore a new town so doing a quest, coming back to do town stuff after, and then going to the next town (with a possible random encounter in between) and it's unlikely they'll also really get into the next quest.
If you do ever find yourself in a bind with the party going way off what you partially prepped for, throw a random encounter in to buy a little time. Combat takes times so that buys you time to adjust. Though it does mean sometimes prepping a tad while also running a combat. Though I would say this is an ace up your sleeve and not something to be used constantly.
I run a homebrew sandbox campaign, so not only do I not have the next adventure prepped, I don't even have it written. I have some quest hooks and vague ideas of what the next possible adventures will be, but they are not fleshed out with monsters and dungeon maps and NPCs and whatnot. Often after one quest, there will be a session where they are "turning in" that quest, and might encounter the next quest hooks, and I try to get them to accept a quest and make a rough plan by the end of the session.
But if everything goes entirely off the rails, or I need more than one week to write the next adventure, I try to keep a "roadside ambush" type of side quest in my pocket. It should be something self-contained that could crop up anywhere, take one session to complete, and won't lead them astray off their planned quest. It doesn't have to be a literal ambush by highwaymen. Other plots I've used are apprehending a thief pursued by the town guard and crossing a haunted bridge. In the first case, though, they ended up murdering some guards, which took them off on a longer side quest for a few sessions, but that's D&D I guess.
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So, I'm struggling having multiple quests prepared. To illustrate, the initial chapter of Rime of the Frostmaiden (I'll put in spoilers just in case, but it's pretty minor)
has 12 quests that are initially available (although 2 of those are intended to be an either/or as chosen by the DM, so it's more like 11). They're meant to be "chosen" by the party, as they choose to go to a town, they get a quest via various methods, so most quests should be available at any given time.
I'm struggling to have all of them prepared. Like, I can run the quest fairly easily, but it's pretty generic because I'm having to read it as I go. I prefer to have it prepared and ready because it's easier to have things run smoother, deal with players doing things differently than I expected, etc, if I'm properly prepared. What I was doing was asking them to decide on what they're doing next session, then if they decide to go to, say, Bryn Shander, I can properly prepare that, and then have a refresher on surrounding towns in case something takes them there.
However, I think this gives an impression of the world being less sandboxy than would be ideal. They're having to give notice, so it feels a bit...constrained. I'm able to prepare enough for the session and then some, but it's not fully spontaneous with the whole of the ten-towns available (at any one time, I mean) and they have to "preorder" where they want to go. I could get a few quests ready but not all of them. So I have a few questions:
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
I always have them tell me where they are going before the session ends. It’s still just as sandbox-y. They can decide what they want, it’s just a timing thing. If they choose at the end or beginning, they are still choosing. Just educate (or guilt-trip) your players about how much work you need to put in between sessions, and how you only want to do what you need to, not prep for every possible option.
This makes me wonder how you are handling travel? How are you handling time in the towns?
So for example, the party finish a quest. Great, don't end the session there. Presumably they need to return somewhere to complete said quest, or inform people that the job is done? Great, well now the party need to decide what they are going to do...a good way to do this is to have the current day be market day with no market open tomorrow (for reason)...prior to resting then the party will need to stock up on whatever provisions they need to travel to the next town. Part of doing this will require them to announce what their plans are, how are they going to travel there?
'Cause here's the thing, there's no harm letting them start out now for a different location and then fading to black as the party make their way to the new location and the session ends. That way, you have a choice to start with the travel in the next session, or you could just pick up at the next town if you aren't a fan of random encounters during travel. The benefit here is that you know where the party are headed, so by fading to the end of session as they make their way there...you give yourself the time to prep the next location.
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1. It's normal to struggle. I'd half prep everything and then only fully prep the places where I think my party is going.
2. No. Xalthu's suggestion is perfectly reasonable. I do it too. Not all the time, but whenever I want to without shame.
3. I would say read the module though, whatever it is you're running. You don't have to memorise anything, just familiarize yourself with the material. Get a sense of how the pieces weave together. How is it going to work out if the PCs just abandon the whole thing? How might they influence things? Maybe go through it a second time to make notes on things you expect to change. Get copies of creature stat blocks for encounters if you need them. Then no matter where the PCs go, you just flip a few pages, or scroll, and off you go.
The struggle is normal. :) You don't necessarily want to prep everything and to be honest, there will likely be quests the party doesn't get to anyway.
How to deal with it depends on what you are comfortable with. Here's how I would tend to deal with it.
1) Read/skim the entire set of quests so that you have an idea regarding what they are all about.
2) For each quest - write down a title, the name of the key quest giving NPC and their location, the destination of the quest and its objective, the page number in the book so you can find it quickly.
For example:
When you run the quest you will need to read the content in the book anyway since few people have a photographic memory. However, a brief note like that should give you most of what you need to remember what the quest was about and where it can be found before pulling out the book to access the details.
3) When the party goes to a location with a quest you can skim details to remind yourself while describing the town or the players are discussing what to do. Having already read it, this could be sufficient to run the characters through the quest.
If you find that you need more preparation then you will need to reduce the number of quests to read in advance. This can be helped by asking the party to decide at the end of the session where they are going next. It doesn't really help if you end a session in the middle of a quest and the party doesn't yet know which way they are going but if you know the quests available and where they might lead that gives you an idea of where the party might go and you can narrow it down that way.
Whenever prepping multiple quests where I don't know which ones the players will go for first, I will just plan out the hook and the first encounter for each quest. Usually by the time those are done with and the players have chosen which quest and started it, enough time will have passed to call an end to the session, and then you can prepare the rest of that quest for next session.
Im about a year into running this book too and you're heads where I started and got overwhelmed. Lots of good advice in here but one other thing (and I had to learn this myself or go crazy trying to prep) is my party at least only ever needed to think about the town they're in and any directly connected towns. They usually want to explore a new town so doing a quest, coming back to do town stuff after, and then going to the next town (with a possible random encounter in between) and it's unlikely they'll also really get into the next quest.
If you do ever find yourself in a bind with the party going way off what you partially prepped for, throw a random encounter in to buy a little time. Combat takes times so that buys you time to adjust. Though it does mean sometimes prepping a tad while also running a combat. Though I would say this is an ace up your sleeve and not something to be used constantly.
I run a homebrew sandbox campaign, so not only do I not have the next adventure prepped, I don't even have it written. I have some quest hooks and vague ideas of what the next possible adventures will be, but they are not fleshed out with monsters and dungeon maps and NPCs and whatnot. Often after one quest, there will be a session where they are "turning in" that quest, and might encounter the next quest hooks, and I try to get them to accept a quest and make a rough plan by the end of the session.
But if everything goes entirely off the rails, or I need more than one week to write the next adventure, I try to keep a "roadside ambush" type of side quest in my pocket. It should be something self-contained that could crop up anywhere, take one session to complete, and won't lead them astray off their planned quest. It doesn't have to be a literal ambush by highwaymen. Other plots I've used are apprehending a thief pursued by the town guard and crossing a haunted bridge. In the first case, though, they ended up murdering some guards, which took them off on a longer side quest for a few sessions, but that's D&D I guess.