These days, I don't have the free time to spend working on Felltower that I did before.
So when the players approach new areas, if they're merely tag-ends left for future development, or planned areas that require a lot of game prep (assembling minis, possibly painting the same, planning, reviewing, etc.) I ask for word ahead.
Much like in our Gamma Terra game, where we can't just hop in our Warbot, Softie, and fly off to Ottawa or over to Boomtown to see things are going or go fly up and strafe some Purist encampment. It's not possible for the GM to keep everything ready to go at once.
With that in mind, here are some things I'm prepping for Felltower:
- the Forest Gate area. Eventually, they'll go in. Right now Quenton Mudborne's player wants to run his other PC, so without a druid the PCs don't wish to try a "forest" area. They'll need to scry it, first, or Quenton won't even try to go. Still, this keeps coming up on the list.
- the "area beyond the golems." Now that the obsidian golems up near Phase Snake Junction have been destroyed, there is at least one door the PCs haven't been past. That's high up on the to-do list, so it's high on my list of places to be ready for.
- the area past the other golems, in case the PCs dare them again.
- and I'm doing general detailing on areas much deeper, since eventually they'll get there.
All of this takes time, but I may have more of that in the future thanks to some schedule re-arrangement. My goal each game is to prep enough for the game, plus some extra so Felltower keeps getting filled ahead.
in my megadungeon I need to fill in a few levels. I think a few weeks of solid work (when I get the patience to sit down and do it) from me and I'll have enough DFRPG for the next ten years.
ReplyDeleteAnd this is why I don't like to run mega-anythings (dungeons, hec crawls, plotlines). Too much prep up front, too much prep between games, too much fretting that "that area/plots I haven't gotten to yet is where they want to go".
ReplyDeleteOf course I also never have games last more than a year or two before they sort of come to the end of their lifecycle (be it ending the major plotline or just fizzling).
In my case, it's actually easier to have the megadungeon. I don't have to prep very much. If it was dungeon of the week, quest of the week, etc. I'd have so much more to prepare. Most of what I'll need next session is already done, and has been for years. Some of it just needs expansion and details and review, and some places they may go after that need writing.
DeleteI'd rather have a majority of re-use than fully writing for each session. That re-use is probably a key reason why we've played in the same place for years.
There is minimal prep between games in my mega dungeon.
DeleteThere is no way I could GM every two weeks for any game other than a mega dungeon.
I have this problem too. Currently I see 3 ways the players in my game can reasonably go, which means they'll probably pick #4. My solution is that if ever place they can possibly reach isn't fully prepped, I ask which way they're planning to go, so I can at least prep one session ahead in that direction. Seems to work okay.
ReplyDelete(I've only used an artificial "you can't go that way" once so far in Castle Whiterock. A door to an area that was converted to GURPS but not fully mapped in Roll20 became Gnome Locked. They had to come back the next week with a gnome to open it.)
That's clever. I've put in places you can't enter without keys/passwords/etc. the PCs don't have. It's not always to stall for time, but it does that well, too. And it's a classic of dungeon exploration - key and door must be matched to get to special areas.
DeleteHa! I didn't know that that was the strategy behind that door. It wasn't transparent at the players at all I think.
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