Preparing a Game: Scene Prep

[jeregenest]

Often times there are specific scenes I want to start with. Or think will happen. For these I like to define a few things. First I get the target audience (especially easy for a 1:1 game). Target audience is more than the players that will be directly involved. Sometimes there are scenes that are meant to illustrate specific something to folks not in the scene. And so I want to know that out front.

Then I decide on the specific NPCs that are going to be involved in the scene. Remember for me an NPC is person, place or thing that has importance. When I have a specific NPC and I’m being really good about scene building I like to have before me three things: Do, Say, Resources.

Do are those things I want them to do, either before the scene starts or during it. I’ll usually list some expected contingencies.

Say are the key things, in voice, to remember. They might not get said but it helps me a lot.

Resources are the things they can bring to the table. Usually what the player is after, even if they might not be aware of it at the start.

All of this usually goes out the window in the first five minutes, but if I’ve done it I find that I’m better able to imprivse. The more work I do upfront thinking things through the better capable of improvising I become. This is good because that’s where most of a session happens anyway. These scene preps really just exist to up my confidence level going in and make it easier for me to think on my feet. I probably use about 25% of it even slightly as is. Which is why I get lazy and don’t do it, and when I don’t do it my sessions fall flat. The avoidance of prep is one of the problems I was having last fall and I’m trying a lot harder to get back into it.

Comments

[ivan23.livejournal.com]

That's a good trick, man! ::yoink::

[shiffer.livejournal.com]

jeregenest is indeed old and wise.

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

At least old.

[(Anonymous)]

I tend to arrange mine with two parts, Bad Ideas and Round Holes. The Bad Ideas are the things that the NPC desperately wants to do that will obviously lead to disaster. The Round Holes are the things that they are missing in order to execute the Bad Ideas. The name comes from the fact that the PCs are the Square Pegs the NPC will try to persuade/blackmail/order/manipulate/wheedle the PCs into filling in the square holes. The idea is that the second one ensures I have given the NPCs reasons to interact with the PCs. The first ensures that if they do get what they want, it will be easy for me to make up further plot.

NPCs also have resources, which are things the PCs need for their own plans, but I don't have a snappy name for them. (yet?)

One particularly satisfying moment for me as a GM was during a Nobilis game, when one of the players, having figured out what an NPC was trying to do, cried out in astonishment, "Oh my God. His plan is as dumb as the ones we come up with!"

[neelk]

Er, that was me.

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

Yeah thats pretty much what I do on the NPC sheet.