There are many systems that you can use to prepare for running a tabletop game that work just fine, and here I will present only one of them. Much of this is inspired by “The Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master” by Sly Flourish and the game master section of “Dungeon World”. Using the guides in this section is of course entirely optional, and there isn’t much that makes it uniquely well suited for use with this game, but I enthusiastically endorse it. It keeps the work light for the game master, and the world flexible for the players.
The most difficult session to prepare for is the first, because most of the tools you’ll build for yourself for session one won’t need to be built anew for subsequent sessions. However it is also the most exciting, because you have the most freedom in shaping the adventure. Below are some tools which make it much easier to fulfil the role of the Game Master and have an engaging game with your players.
In preparation for the first game, prepare the items listed below in this section. If you are having trouble coming up with interesting ideas for your adventure, consider thinking through the plot and world building of some of your favourite medieval fantasy books, movies, or television shows for inspiration.
Prepare: Adventure Fronts
Adventure Fronts represent the important threats facing the players and the people of your world. Having these in the world is important for keeping the action from stalling. When the players aren’t sure what to do next, remind them or have the world remind them of some threat, and something they could be doing to stop it. You’re going to want to make one main adventure front and two supporting adventure fronts for a typical game.
Adventure fronts record information about important and dangerous things that are happening in the world. Here are the things to have written down about your adventure fronts:
DOOM: The bad thing that will happen unless the players interfere to stop it. Stopping the doom permanently resolves the adventure front.
SOURCE: The thing that is driving the doom to happen. Usually this is an enemy VIP (see below).
PLOTS: If enough of these come to pass, then the doom is achieved. Not all of them are pursued by the source at once. Typically the source makes a push to do one plot, and if they achieve it or are thwarted, they move on to another. Usually you’ll want to start with three of these planned for a given adventure front, and you can add more later if you like. When should plots succeed? When enough time passes with the players not dealing with them. This is necessarily a matter of the GM’s discretion.
The main adventure front causes the supporting fronts, and it is easier to resolve the supporting fronts. It will usually have the most plots, and sometimes a plot of the main front will be one of the supporting fronts.
Supporting fronts wouldn’t be happening without the main front, but their source can be different from the main front. If a red dragon is attacking the a nearby kingdom to retrieve a stolen artifact (the main front), a good supporting front could be cyclops looters exploiting the chaos and raiding nearby farms, or a usurper plotting to overthrow the monarch because they think they could do a better job dealing with the dragon.
If the players resolve supporting fronts, have new ones spring up. Ideally tied into the elements of the players’ backgrounds, or elements of the world that they seem to be invested in.
Generally speaking, you want the new adventure fronts to tie into the actions of the players in resolving the previous ones, their backgrounds, and what you take to be their area of interest in the campaign (see the Player Picks section).
Prepare: VIPs (Very Important People)
VIPs are characters other than the players who are empowered by you to change the world when the players aren’t around. VIPs drive the action of the story either as allies or enemies of the players. When starting the game you should ideally have three enemy VIPs (one corresponding to each adventure front) and 1 ally VIP to give the player’s information and set them on their quests. If a VIP dies or ceases to be important to the story, make a new one to replace them.
Here are the things to have written down about your VIPS:
NAME/TYPE/DESCRIPTION: type refers to the style or archetype of villain (sorcerer, spy, monarch, intelligent monster). Description is some adjectives about their personality (one-word to give you an idea of how to role-play them) and appearance.
MOTIVATION/POWER SOURCE: Motivation is why they are doing the thing that makes them a VIP. Power source is what is keeping them in charge/how they are carrying out their ends.
GRUNTS: Grunts are the people loyal to the VIP that act in their name; typically an organization. A VIP might have no grunts, but this would be atypical
Prepare: Secrets/Clues
A secret or clue is a single sentence of information that is potentially useful to players in dealing with the adventure fronts you have made, or change their understanding of the problem they are facing. You reveal them when players have done something clever. Don’t tie learning these secrets to particular locations or deeds; keep them free-floating such that you can reveal them whenever the players have done something deserving of a reward. When they do, give them the secret you think they’d care most about given what they know already. Make sure you’ve got ten of them on a list ready for your session.
Here is an example secret: The prince’s bodyguard has been possessed by the dark spirit Arunax. They might discover this while snooping around the palace, or in a diary. They might overhear the bodyguard performing some kind of demonic ritual which tips them off. They might be told so by an oracle or another dark spirit. You should not write down the conditions under which they could learn these secrets; keep it loose and flexible.
Part of that flexibility is that these secrets will not always be revealed, and when they aren’t revealed they don’t matter. If the players never discover that the princess’ bodyguard has been possessed, then the world should continue to operate as though this isn’t the case. Taking another example, if the players never discover that there is a secret entrance into the lair of the lich king’s apprentice, then there might as well not be such an entrance.
If the players discover a secret, or a secret ceases to be relevant to the fronts the players are facing, then take it off the list, and re-fill the list between sessions.
Prepare: A List of Stock NPCs
This one is simple: when the players run into people in the world, things go a lot smoother if you’ve got a pre-made list of characters dole out when the players encounter a new person. It is a good idea to have at least 10, so you’ve got options when you’re asked to make up a person on the fly. Replenish the list between sessions as it runs low.
These characters should be flexible enough to be whomever you need in the moment (a town guard, someone they’re asking for directions, someone selling silverware at the marketplace) so they need to be suitably generic. Include: NAME/ATTITUDE/PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION.
For example:
Jonathan / Angry about beats / Old scraggly human man
Mildred / Out of breath from running for health / Middle aged dwarven woman
Igor / Looking for child’s lost toy / Short stressed looking man
Don’t put in any more detail than this. With this much information, it is easy to fill in the rest of the details on the fly in context.
Prepare: A Node Map
A node map is made of two things: circles, and lines between those circles. The circles represent locations, and the lines represent terrains. Settlements are places where people or monsters live in groups; they are often towns, but they might be military encampments, or dungeons, or etc. Terrains are great swaths of land that are geographically similar. Think of terrains as bridges which connect settlements: to get from one settlement to another, the players have to cross the relevant terrain on your map. Write in advance only the settlements/terrains that you expect the players to visit during the session, because it is easy to expand your node map on the fly.
For each settlement or terrain on the map, here is the information you should have about it:
NAME/DISTINCTION: Its as easy as that! Regarding distinction, to give every location something that separates it from other locations of its kind. Maybe this town has a lavender festival which is scheduled to be whenever the player’s first enter it, and maybe that town has a horse as its honorary mayor, who got the job after some heroic deed. Maybe ‘The Cairn Fields’ is full of giant fireflies that only come out at night.
Dungeons are a special case which you can read about here. Dungeons are always optional inclusions, and having any on your map or prepared for the first session is strictly unnecessary.
Prepare: Fantastic Backdrops
These are awe-inspiring sights which make the world feel more alive and exciting. Most specific places the players visit are going to be improvised on the fly, but it is a good idea to have a few truly exciting places ready before the session to keep things interesting. Ideally, they can be dropped into a variety of places the players might visit as the need for them arises. How many of these you should prepare depends on how long you expect your session to go. 1 or 2 per hour is appropriate. Here is what to have written down about them:
EVOCATIVE NAME/DETAILS: An evocative name not only piques a player’s interest, but helps you to make up more details on the fly about the backdrop. Having two or three pre-prepared details about the backdrop similarly helps with the improvisation.
Here are two examples:
Potentia’s Potions & Portents/(1) The shop contains a bubbling black cauldron which shoots out sparks and bellows “welcome” as the players enter. (2) Potentia is an elderly diviner wearing an emerald-coloured robe and experimenting with flasks of unknown liquid (3) The shop is covered with posters advertising an upcoming concert - the lead singer is Potentia’s granddaughter.
The Giant’s Leg/(1) A giant’s femur and tibia stick out of the ground, exposed by the erosion of the silt around it. The visible portion is 50m long and the bones are 7m thick. (2) A circular stone sits under the arch of the leg covered in unknown runes, with an offering plate in front of it. It glows bright blue when perishable goods are put on it, and they disappear in a puff of smoke (3) A pack of five coyotes watches the players carefully while they are here. They flee if approached, but return soon after.