Hope you all had a good Christmas! (where applicable)
Welcome to this week’s blog club. This week we are looking at “Don’t Prep Plots” from 2009 by Justin Alexander (The Alexandrian).
Next week we’ll take a look at “Dispelling a myth - Sandbox prep” by Michael Shorten from 2009 (ChicagoWiz’s RPG Blog).
You can see a list of previous blog club posts here.
This is sound advice, isn‘t it? However, he also contradicts himself. He starts by saying, don‘t prep plots, then explains how to prep plots in a better way. Avoid narrow contingencies, but still have contingencies. Seed multiple clues, but still expect the players to act on this information.
I feel like he‘s not exactly advocating sandbox play.
The thing with Alexander is you have to look at him through the lens of Trad play. He assumes the heroic fantasy D&D is now, and the implied railroaded set-piece encounter play style. His advice is solid, but usually requires re-contextualization to fit OSR play.
Either way, I think this is some of the best foundational advice a DM can get. I remember starting out and how I assumed prep worked; this article really demystified it for me.
I agree with the above points.From the lens of 5e adventure modules, this approach to design and prep allows similar adventures that seem to be the modern trend, while being less fragile. He isn’t taking the point to its logical conclusion of actually abandoning plots, common in sandbox and faction based play. Along the spectrum of plots to sandbox, this balance point is in some cases ideal, especially for a new GM, as it allows almost all prep to see table time and for players to feel like they are making meaningful choices while in reality being railroaded. Consequence along the way can still provide meaning and feedback instead of players being spectators to a novel narration.