Question: Detail in preparation?

[majette]

Hey, I just got the game rulebook recently. I've never played any sort of tabletop RPG before, but since nobody else I know has the game, the role of gamemaster is falling to me. I'm starting to figure out a story idea for my first session, but how much detail do I go into? How many different outcomes do I have to plan for? Do I have to plan out every general step of the story? I want there to be freedom for the players to make their own choices, but I want there to be a direction. Feeling kind of lost here.

In case it helps, here's a general synopsis of what I have so far: The doctor and his companion land in a research facility on a planet that's covered in ice. There are a few human scientists and a couple of guards. The scientists found an alien they couldn't identify frozen in a chunk of ice, and are melting the ice so they can study the alien. When it melts, it exibits mind control on the person who touched it, then ran away and hid somewhere in the facility. Its people are sleeping in the ice, and the excavation the scientists are doing is waking them up too soon, and the alien wants to scare the scientists off. The person it mind controls transfers through skin-to-skin touch, and eventually it decides that they're not getting scared off quickly enough, and controls somebody to kill another NPC. And at some point it's probably going to try to control one of the player characters. A flash of bright light breaks the control. How much detail do I need to fill in? I figure I'll probably have to make character sheets for each of the NPCs, but what about plot details?

[da professor]

What you need varies with individual style, you'll get a better sense of yours with practice.
I tend to start with a timeline of what will happen if the PCs don't intervene, a layout of the location(s) and stats and motivations for the NPCs.
The first few times out, you may feel more comfortable preparing more than you actually need, particularly until you become more experienced at the sort of on-the-fly thinking a GM needs to do in the face of those contrary creatures generally known as players.

[Escher]

Check out this free official adventure, it will give you an overview of how much detail you might need, also read the 'designing adventures' parts in the GM's section of the book.


Bear in mind you are not writing a script. You are setting the scene, filled with mystery, danger and adventure to entertain a group of people. Set scenes, places, goals and what might/could happen. You need to provide hooks for the players to catch onto. Prepare to improvise.

Bullet-point the important parts you have listed. Design the NPC's. Give the adversaries a firm need/goal. Give the players plenty of opportunities for adventure.


If this is your first time GM'ing, then don't worry about making mistakes. We all do it, even after 20 years.

Keep the game moving. Have fun.


To quote from another game:


• Portray a fantastic world
• Fill the characters’ lives with adventure
• Play to find out what happens

• Draw maps, leave blanks
• Address the characters, not the players
• Embrace the fantastic
• Give every monster life
• Name every person
• Ask questions and use the answers
• Be a fan of the characters
• Think dangerous
• Begin and end with the fiction

[Stormcrow]

When looking at published adventures, don't take their lengthiness as a model for your own adventures. You already know what will go into your adventure; just write up the characters, locations, and gadgets that will go into it. Only write as much as you will actually need; don't bother with full character sheets and so on unless they are needed.