My last article stressed the idea that a simple game is a better game. Well, I guess I have a thing for sequels. So, here’s part 2…
As the dungeon master, it feels like you’re expected to create awe-inspiring settings and epic mysteries. And sometimes, you are. Sometimes, your players want to explore an underwater cave with evil mermaids and puzzles galore, and they expect to get a lot of really bitchin’ treasure at the end. These types of adventures are a lot of work but they pay off immensely. Now let’s return to the first part of that statement. They are a shit-ton of work.
But don’t despair, fellow dungeon master, for there is a reprieve. A veritable loophole, if you will. Your players are crazy, treasure whore, drunkards, who like nothing better than to terrorize the local populace whether through their talent for drawing trouble in an attempt to right wrong-doings or through actual terrorizing.
DMs, have you ever planned a long elaborate adventure only to have your players throw your plans off by hanging out in the tavern for a few (literal, for-realsies) hours? You are not alone.
Contrary to DM belief, players eat up the simple stuff as much as the elaborate stuff. It’s all about variety, and that variety includes at least one session where the characters in your adventure spend a night on the town or enjoy a local festival. If bar wenches or prostitutes are included, you’ve just succeeded in occupying the Y-chromosome element of your table for the next 4 hours.
So, when you have had a really long week and your 8-floor desert tower masterpiece of a dungeon is a little less than finished and your friends are coming over in a few hours and there is no way in hell that this dungeon will ever be completed on time and if you just had one more week it would be perfect and awesome and your players would be singing your praises as a dungeon master for years to come…. Take a deep breath. This is the time when you pull out a filler episode and allow your players to entertain themselves.
When running a filler episode adventure, such as a tavern, keep a few things in mind.
- Keep it loose.
No doubt your players will throw you for a few loops when let loose on an open world. At our table, that meant things like a duel and the abuse of a bard who refused to sing a song about one of the party members. The trick here is to be flexible. Let players create their own adventure for the night and improvise around their desires.
- The DM is just a referee.
If you don’t have an agenda for the night, limit your meddling. For the night, you are a referee in a game with ever-changing rules. Keep your characters in check, but don’t stop them from playing. Rather, inflict consequences on them when they get out of hand and let them learn from there. A player wants to rough up the biggest guy at the bar? That guy lays them out and everyone at the bar buys the big guy a drink. Now, the player can’t score with a single waitress because he got beaten so badly. You’ll get more interesting results by reacting to the actions of players.
- Have a wide cast of characters.
The craziest player schemes will evolve around a colorful cast of characters. My favorite trick is to pull out characters from other campaigns to help populate my world. I usually know these characters well and so they provide a little more depth to the world. Characters with strong personalities work better as love interests, new besties, and nemeses, than a two-dimensional stock NPC ever will.
- But don’t get attached to them.
There is always a chance that your characters will decide to execute an NPC. It’s the greatest danger of living in a fictional world centered around a party of megalomaniacs. Don’t be too attached to any of the NPCs that you introduce into a free-for-all night. And if you are attached, make sure they have a method of escape should the need arise.
- Provide background events.
These events don’t need to be entirely fleshed out, but it is important that the dungeon master understands what is happening in the world around the players. Players will inevitably ask what is happening around them. Who do they see? Does anyone look suspicious? And the always important, what dirt does the bartender know? Any attempts by players to dig into the lives of your NPCs will need to provide fruit (I think I just mixed analogies…).
An easy way to do this is to assign each NPC a reason for being there. Some people may be at the tavern because they had a long day at work, or they’re meeting a friend, or they’re looking for love, or they’re getting together with friends to summon Cthulhu. If players are having a difficult time coming up with their own adventure for the night, this can give them (and you) a jumping off point.
Filler episodes are a great way to let players rest between death-defying adventures, as well as an exercise in improvisation for the DM. Try to plan as little as possible to really test your abilities, and don’t forget to provide some kind of avenue for treasure, even if it has to be stolen off the body of a pirate.
Baby DM out.
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