New Adventure, New Approach

May 4 2006, 10:01 am

Several odd pieces of paper sit in my backpack, tucked between rulebook pages, atop bookshelves, and unsorted among various gaming materials. They contain the fodder for the adventures I'm soon to host. Maps, NPCs, plotlines, and the odd detritus of fantasy that I committed to text have all been bleeding together to constitute this summer's gaming sessions. Only the fear of revision can hold me back from proficiently utilizing these things.

I could easily have taken old plans for an encounter of ancient Egyptian flavor and said it was incompatible with the current game world. That would have been a mistake. A campaign's subtext should never be exclusionary to anomalies when they can invite such intriguing circumstances. People and objects out of place and time are the bread and butter of fantasy adventure. Creating a homogenous landscape with routine creatures and events quickly loses the attention and interest of players (unless they're level hungry munchkins, perhaps). I'm sure most of us have run into that pitfall.

As DMs, we can't be afraid to impart some incongruence every now and then. Players love being caught off guard, so long as a rational behind the situation becomes unveiled in due course. This is where forward thinking becomes so useful. Can anyone argue that it wasn't brilliant to show Ben Kenobi's hesitation when Luke asked about his father, even though the crux of that discussion wouldn't be revealed until the second movie? Staging information, often incidental, in one segment of the adventure that illuminate a later segment is a regular and effective component of good storytelling.

It's a difficult task, finding ways to make your players' synapses fire on cue and ensuring the enjoyment of their gaming experience. Sometimes you have to beg, borrow, and steal to offer consistent entertainment. I find more and more, it is through humility and dedication that a DM succeeds and prospers behind the screen. Here's to keeping your ears open and your imagination on. Rant off.