Prepping Plots, Part Four: Stringing the Beads

So, you've finally gotten yourself a group of players and are preparing your first session. So, what kind of stuff should you be preparing? In this case, I'll be pulling from my home game, as shown below:

A rough diagram for the first (planned) session of my game, diagrammed using the Anal Bead structure. It's probably gonna end up being two sessions.

One of the key ways to promote player agency and expression is to construct the individual "beads" as mini-scenarios in the Justin Alexander sense. For instance, the Kobold "Ambush" is just a situation where the kobolds seek to ambush our heroes. There's plenty of guidance on building encounters and dungeons and social situations and so forth, so I'm going to put that to the side and instead focus on the string: how you connect each of your beads. 

The three keys to a good string is that you need to mind the G.A.P: Glaringly Obvious, Appropriately Paced, and Respectful of the Players

Via the Pathfinder 1st Edition Gamemaster's Guide, another example (albeit the beads in this one seem a bit tighter)

Glaringly Obvious

After hardtack and copper pieces, the third-most important food group in the average adventurer's diet is crayons. Any combination of things like table atmosphere, schedule of play, or just the fact that something that seems clear to you doesn't mean it will to your players. If something isn't supposed to be missed, there should be multiple ways to find it or it should be so glaringly obvious that it can't be missed. For Investigating the Bride's Room, I had planned either a set of kobold tracks or a ransom not that would lead to the second encounter. Dewclaw the Kobold (a survivor of the ambush) survives because he chickened out of the initial fight, and then loudly snivels and cries. Knowing my players, they're the types who are going to ask questions and then adopt him as a mascot, so he'll be able to give them directions to the third encounter.

From DM of the Rings XV: Riddle me This

Appropriately Paced

Because you as the GM have a lot of control over the pacing of encounters, the throttling of resources, etc, this one mostly comes down to appropriateness: if the PCs are supposed to rest and recover before pursuing their next objective, make sure the string gives them time to do that. If on the other hand you're hoping to put a bit of a choke on them, make the string urgent. This is easier in games like Pathfinder or Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition where there's a more distinct separation of player abilities based on time spent recovering, but it's still worth asking yourself "Do I want my players to be at peak strength against the boss fight?"

Respectful of the Players

This is, to my mind, the most important part of a good string, and thankfully it's also the easiest. A linear plot becomes a bad thing when the players, their agency, and their wishes aren't respected. The obviousness/pacing bits come into play to help make the string more respectful. This kind of thing is obvious, because ideally you're playing with your friends who you enjoy spending time with, but I'm spelling it out regardless because everyone has to start somewhere.

Your players are coming into the game expecting to be engaged and engage in some form of Heroic Action (more on that term a different time). If you need the PCs to do something an NPC ask of them, make sure it's an NPC they like and are willing to do things for. Don't make the things they need to do suck (whatever your group's definition of sucking is). This is why we have Stars and Wishes: to help make sure the things the PCs need to do broadly synch up with what they want to do.

Conclusion: Step by Step

A campaign set up this way can thus be thought of as a string of strings, where you design each session around what kind of information/exciting stuff you want to happen at this time. Is it time for the Count and the Duke to finally have their revenge? Does Sweet Pollyanne need help stopping the ogres from destroying the dam? Structurally, this will resemble less a book than a long-running TV show, with individual problems of the week all feeding into overall arc of the season/campaign.

Having the Rough Outline will help remind you of where you're going, and enable things like foreshadowing, while still giving you the flexibility to pivot if the players suddenly do something you don't expect. It helps ensure prep doesn't go to waste, while also making sure you never prep too much. 

All of this together will help you enjoy the benefits of a linear campaign while also mitigating the harsh vibes that the negative sides of this can bring. I hope this series helped illuminate some of my personal prep process and showed some of the possible upsides of this campaign structure, even as it has fallen out of favor from its heyday.