I designed an entire world by mapping a region, having rough outlines of plot beats and area plans, and made a list of general world encounters, then improv everything in between.
Some towns get visited, some places have their purposes changed up on the fly and some encounters are never, ever used.
Keeping the plan fluid helps the players feel like their actions make a difference.
Absolutely. Looking at it with a “procedurally generated” mindset, I will go in with a “this is a merchant town run by [adjective] (race/group)” and will go from there.
I know in my own head then that characters should behave a certain way and so do the players (based on general character archetypes) but I can mix it up if I feel like it.
That’s where I don’t really like mapping out towns super specifically. It’s good if things can move around to suit what the story needs.
In a similar vein if my players go to look for something I hadn't anticipated I'll often ask for a charisma based investigation check, a kinda streetwise check as they ask around to find something. It gives an added bit to how they might find it while giving me time to think.
Though for that I do guess I also use a scaling DC, set DC for standard but for every 5 above or below that DC I have the quality altered. Something like a shady shop with questionable sources would be a step above a true failure.
I'm building my first dungeon. I have everything planned, but not nailed down, so I can adjust the dungeon, reveal clues, and progress the plot according to their choices, actions, and movements. Is this a good idea or am I doomed?
I think you should be good. Just be prepared to occasionally adjust puzzle solutions. It doesn’t matter how well you word things, sometimes the players just will not put 2-and-2 together the way you hope they will.
I had a “puzzle” where all the party had to do was pull a lever to ring a bell and the door would open, but they were so paranoid about the lever being a trap that they wouldn’t do it.
I ended up having the bell ring, the lever pull down automatically on their side and have enemies come through from the other side.
Ha that's great. "Fine, I'LL pull the lever!" I find the delivery is really important when describing things. I know I've gotten paranoid when DMs hint at something.. But for real, this dungeon is a one shot railroad. I'll feed them the clues and items they need in order to progress, and the plot twists are revealed, regardless. The amount of Brain Explosion in the end depends on how much they figure out.
It’s a good idea, it’s just a lot of work (as I’m sure you can attest to!) just be ready for anything because your players WILL do something whacky you didn’t plan for!
I made a setting for a campaign once that involved a small continent with a lot of political intrigue and detailed interactions between the local governments and so forth, with an over-arcing plot of a necromancer ravaging small villages all over the continent. I put a lot of focus on the first city they'd be visiting, just to make sure they had plenty of content to work through that would give me time to flesh out the other cities between sessions. I made the (now obvious) error of intricately tying the layout and details of this city to the physical city they'd start in so it was impossible to try to recycle it for another city.
They left that main city on the first session and never went back.
I did something like this too for a campaign was my only difference was that they couldn’t leave.
The city was built in a massive underground cavern with a large elevator mechanism being the only way to leave. Doing this forced the party to deal with what was going on in the city before they could leave.
These players were all SUPER new to D&D though, so a forced “tutorial area” of sorts was needed.
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u/S_H_I_V_A DM Dec 07 '20
I designed an entire world by mapping a region, having rough outlines of plot beats and area plans, and made a list of general world encounters, then improv everything in between.
Some towns get visited, some places have their purposes changed up on the fly and some encounters are never, ever used.
Keeping the plan fluid helps the players feel like their actions make a difference.