archolewa wrote: ↑Mon Jun 17, 2024 7:29 pm
I work best when all I have is some background, and NPC's prepared and a vague problem or two for the players to engage with.
Full transparency:
The 'what if' scenario I thought would be fun to explore was:
What if a magic-user lost their spellbook?
At the time, I didn't know:
- Anything about the magic-user,
Who or what took their spellbook,
Where the spellbook was,
Etc...
I came up with a few ideas (including the mountaintop idea, where a mating pair of birds used the spellbook as one "ingredient" to build its nest), but I never did settle on that starting point to set the game off.
For me, I prefer to have the rules (and house rules) firmly in place before I start a game. All the character creation questions: I like to have as many of them already thought out and answered ahead of time.
I like to have some idea of the place in the world where the game will start. For instance, there's a cleric in this game, and I hadn't given any thought to any deities or pantheons available. That's kind of a big deal.
The expanded list of equipment was shared. I love that kind of detail! I would feel much better about this game if I had remembered that list ahead of time, and customized a list of "what's available" for the players to use to equip their characters. No questions about pricing, availability, one handed versus two, etc...
The more I type about this, the more I realize that the "preparations" I like/need to have in place center about game details. Not necessarily the adventure itself.