In the days where the Rona wolves savage our lands for their dark Viddo bat-kings by attending family Thanksgivings, my play-groups have boiled down to close and familiar friends. I haven't had the chance to lay bear-traps at conventions where hapless attendees get dragged into my events, giving me the exercise of dealing with strangers and invigorating my somewhat shotgun-pellety creativity. Before of late. I have been a guy that often writes entire worlds for single shots as well as campaigns. Since then, my notes for a scenario in practice has turned into a the background for entire campaigns.
Using other people's systems, like our ICONS groups, is advantageous for this. Before, I compiled pretty complicated "Yes/No" charts to follow as to not be narrative-driven but to maintain a pace for the session. Screw pacing among friends, my friends will wonder if I have a fever. Well yes, I do, but not yet hallucinating. I am kind of sitting back and letting rules and PC tangents take up sessions. People arguing about mechanics has allowed me to single-line in a few NPCs, some vocabulary (items, groups, and external factors).
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| Is it all X-Mas Fudge? Naw. But there is cocoa. |
What I worry about is the tone of the events of the session not the action per se. When my players get to some place when some narrative is required, that is when I bother to do the bedazzlement. I just go into more detail on my one-line entry in my notes, often typing the new details into the notes at the breaks in play. Still pacing is important, despite what OSR fans say, the convention tried and true form of "Intro-Event-Recoup or Event-New Obstacle-Climax-Outro" works just fine.
Efficiency from experience; or expedience because of exhaustion? That is the question and the answer is both. But a good game is still it's own reward for me as a GM and the players around me.
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