Andrew Seiple's Blog: Transmissions From the Teslaverse - Posts Tagged "game-preparation"

So, in our Wednesday game, it was my friend's turn to run. He had an idea, we had characters built... but he had to postpone. Needed more time to work on stuff.

So I stepped up to run something, and we ended up going with Star Wars.

I had a simple scenario in mind to start with. Started the group off with three of them in the Imperial prison spice mining complex on Kessel, seeking a way out. The fourth one, who hadn't gone deep into debt to build her character, was an inspector called in to check out the prison's records.

I didn't have much beyond a vague plan, and experience with how secure facilities are run. I detailed a few key players among the prisoners, including three gangs with their own characters and outlooks. One of them was made up of the enslaved wookies working the mines, and two of them had a political power struggle going on.

My PC's romped through there, didn't follow any of the script, had a blast escaping, and completely ignored the wookie politics.

And y'know what? It's cool. I had it on hand if I needed it, but I didn't, and that's okay. Life goes on.

I guess what I'm saying, is that... it's better to have enough notes to keep up with the players if they decide to jump a particular direction and not have to use them, then it is to have nothing on hand when they go that way.

It's a pity, though, man. They totally could have played peacemakers and unifiers to a group of angry tree ape dudes. Ah well, maybe another session...