Kareeah_Indaga
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
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posted September 14, 2013 07:53 PM |
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Okay since you asked, advice:
--There should always be something for the players to react to: an NPC asks a question, the hallway splits left and right and you need to pick the next direction, monsters attack. Set events the players have no impact on can happen, but if they do you should continue past them to the point where the players can have an impact again.
Remember when Detritus came through the door in the Mended Drum? That was interesting, but didn't leave much for us players to do. Law officer comes in, gets attacked, resolves fight by his lonesome, leaves. No one has a chance to join in and help (on either side), no one has a chance to suddenly realize 'oh hey I owe that guy money, HIDE!', no one gets a chance to lay bets on the fight. This is something you want to avoid; it works in books but not in a game where other people are interacting with the world.
You do have some advantage in having your game in a setting people are familiar with: things like major landmarks, shops, etc... provide options just by existing, and people familiar with the setting know they exist without you having to mention them, but you can't always rely on those.
--As a general rule, don't wait for the entire party to respond to something unless it's a small party (2-3 people). Even then put a limit of 2-3 days before you move on. This is play-by-post, by its nature it is already slow without waiting on 6+ people who may or may not have real-life commitments. The people who have the time and the interest to play now will not necessarily wait a week+ to continue playing; they will find other things to do.
--Any quest worth dropping a plothook for is worth dropping more than one plothook for. But at the same time, make sure you match the plothook to the characters. We already encountered this at the gates to the city, and you resolved it nicely, but for other potential DMs who might be reading I'm going to mention it anyway. "Rescue the fluffy kitten stuck up a tree" isn't going to appeal to non-altruistic characters unless they'll obviously get a reward for it or they happen to need to sacrifice a kitten for their necromatic ritual. Mytical had a lot of trouble with me and Aleron in Darkness, because Aleron was firmly Chaotic Neutral and I don't believe Mytical realized this when throwing Rightful Heirs to the Throne at me.  When in doubt, ask OoC.
--If someone's been quiet for a while, contact them and make sure they haven't dropped out or gotten stuck. It is, sadly, very common for people to drop out without notice, and not terribly difficult to get stuck either.
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