this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2023
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Why have I never had that issue?
Do people really just write their adventures as a list of predefined conditions and consequences and if players dont meet the condition, the consequence just never happens?
I would go mad. Just write what you want the PCs to learn, who the bad guys are and what they want to do, and what the players get as a reward for stopping them.
All the rest just flows from there?
If your players walk away from your hooks then they don't want story, just throw random encounters from a table at them.
As a GM of exclusively pre-written content, I find this terrifying but intriguing. I would love to be able to totally homebrew an adventure, but the amount of planning and prep beforehand seems daunting (which feels ironic, given my experience as a GM lol). Is it often an illusion of choice, where you may lay out a handful of hooks that, over time, lead to the same destination?
Not who you responded to, but I can't follow a pre made campaign as a DM. My current campaign started as a pre made, but prepping for it felt too much like homework so we hopped the rails and I've been my own story.
To answer your question from how I operate, I have a rough idea of what the conclusion of the campaign looks like and a rough odea of how the party might get there. I only really know the specifics of what the party is currently doing or what they might encounter in the next months. At this point in the campaign the the players know who the big baddie is, what they're up to, and know of means to stop them. It's up to them to figure out a plan to stop the big bad. The party has taken some of my hooks to solve their problems and have gone completely off the rails at some points to solve their problems. There are some points in the campaign that are pretty linear (like right now, they need a macguffin from a particular place) and some where they're given set pieces, a location, and a good luck slap of the ass.
As it pertains to the meme up here for me personally, sometimes I'll build an encounter/boss/set piece and the party will completely fucking skip it. That's okay though, now I have a partial idea for later. I hope that gives you some insight into the other side. I'm also interested in other DMs that make their own, what methods they use.