I find that too. I tend to prepare major NPCs, their relationships and goals. The game session events tend to flow on from that, and the PCs choices. I don't like it when things go in a direction I'm simply not prepared for, but that inevitably happens from time to time.
I think the best ballance for me is to have a good idea of the direction things are going in, have a few specific encounters and events worked out in advance, but let the actual flow of the game create itself on the fly.
Sometimes I've had an idea for a situation that I intuitively feel would make a great game, but I haven't had any idea how to plot it out. I just can't work out the best way to actualy run it. The best solution in that kind of situation is just to run it anyway. Necesity is the mother of invention, some say, and I find myself coming up with all sorts of ways out of tricky plotting and scene staging problems just by rolling up my sleeve and having a go at running it.
I suppose you could call it 'Just In Time' scenario creation.
Simon Hibbs
Powered by hypermail