How to “Kill Your Darlings” as a Gamemaster in D&D and other TTRPGs

[@armorclasshero2103]

Mike Shea has actually recanted his opinion on throwing away things. He now instructs to keep good ones.

[@M.Melnick]

If you watch Mike prepare for his games, he does not always toss out secrets and clues that are unused. Some might no longer be relevant in the game; those are tossed out. However, others he might carry over to another session. The idea is that secrets and clues are not "real" until they are used in the game.

[@TwinSteel]

There’s a great little book called “how not to write” that talks about this with a little beach scene that, while well written, adds nothing to the story - it’s funny that you’ve finally come over to Sly’s method, because in one of his most recent lives, he mentioned that he doesn’t stick to that rule anymore - neither is wrong, and we’re all on our own journey to be the best DM we currently can be - I try to remind myself that most advice isn’t universal, and maybe I, for example, am not in the right place in my journey to receive or utilize this wisdom - repurposing what never came up is extremely important - in the quantum ogre debate, some people seem to thinks it’s a problem, but I think, if the players haven’t actively chosen to avoid that unused material, like how they just missed it in your example, it’s not railroading

[@wizardsling]

well said!

[@TwinSteel]

@@wizardsling many thanks 🙏🏿

[@TheVTTDM]

I should've read this nice, relatively succinct comment before I went off on my ranting comment. Yes. This!

[@TwinSteel]

@@TheVTTDM thank you very much 🙏🏿

[@TwinSteel]

I went back to my bookshelf to find “How Not to Write” and only found “The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes” by Jack Bickham and “A Field Guide to Writing Fiction” by A.B. Guthrie, JR. - neither of them had the beach scene I mentioned (at least on a quick review), but I recall one of these authors (Bickham I believe) wrote a follow up to their book, which may have been where I recall the lesson from - it could also have been “How Not to Write a Novel” by Howard Mittelmark - I recall getting the mysterious book through interlibrary loan almost 20 years ago, because it was out of print and very hard to come by, so you’ll have to take my work for it until I have a concrete source: a guy said not to include stuff in your book that has nothing to do with the story - hard to believe, I know, but it’s true; someone really said that 😄

[@Reimbeutel]

It's also used in comedy, meaning: No matter how funny you think it is, if the audience doesn't think so, throw it out.

[@TheVTTDM]

I agree with kill your darlings and only planning one session ahead BUT... ...not necessarily that there should be absolutely no railroading BUT... ...that obviously any railroading should be kept to the barest minimum and reserved for linear narratives that the players have agreed they want to play. Having said that, like you, I really enjoy prep and don't mind that 70-80% (or more!) goes out the window. And, because of that, yep, I can only plan ahead roughly a session's worth ahead. I do, however, keep a rough outline of the direction I plan the overall campaign to go in. This outline has very, very little detail and is CONSTANTLY changing based off what the PCs have actually done rather than what I hoped they would do. I've had to throw out entire tier-length story arcs, much the same way you mentioned throwing out a dungeon level (I've done that, too) because of player agency. And then I modify the outline... This works pretty well for me for running a (somewhat) "linear" campaign. "Linear" is in quotes because I think that granting player agency makes the idea of going in a straight line through the narrative is almost impossible. Ideally, railroading in a "linear" campaign should only happen at the grand scale of "What's the BBEG's ultimate goal and what are they doing to achieve that?" and that the players will (probably) ultimately confront the BBEG. There are exceptions, though, and they're tied to Mike's secrets and clues and the example you gave of every NPC in a tavern having their own adventure hooks to relay. I don't believe that, in a linear campaign, every NPC should necessarily have adventure hooks to completely different adventures. I believe many of the secrets and clues, which can be an adventure hook or three, can be different secrets or clues about things in the main plot. (I like the comment by M.Melnick below that secrets and clues are not real until they are used in the game.) Is that a little railroad-y? Yeah. But, again, if the players have bought into the main plot and expressed that they'd really like to stop the BBEG from their ultimate goal, then this works great and doesn't feel too much like a railroad for them. Not to mention, a couple hooks can be for side quests that may or may not have to do with the main plot. Different consequences need to be available to make independent choices actually matter. Luke from the DM Lair makes a great point in that it's also justified to ask the players at the end of a session what they think they'll do next. He goes on to say that, if the players suddenly go do something else, there's nothing wrong with reminding the players what they said so you prepped for that and that, if they want a better session, they should stick to their original plan. I don't know if I agree with this completely, but the underlying sentiment is good. And it ties a little to how I use secrets and clues as to help determine what will need to be prepped in the future without having to ask the players what they're going to do EVERY session. Railroad-y again? Yeah. But the illusion of it not being a railroad combined with player buy-in is key. And, of course, giving as much player agency as possible. The players often won't go in the tavern in the first place. Or they might not push the button that was meant to trigger a whole series of events that you painstakingly prepared. Again, I've thrown out entire story arcs and generally throw out 80% of every session's prep because players do, at the end of the day, whatever the hell they want to do. I guess I'm saying, for "linear" campaigns, a LITTLE pseudo-railroading is not outright bad BUT the planned semi-railroad moments are ALSO darlings that PCs might avoid completely. The secrets and clues, much like reskinning that cave wall thing you mentioned, can still be reskinned and used later if they are still needed. Okay, this was pretty rambling and not completely on-topic with your video. I completely agree with killing darlings. It's simply something that a DM has to do, all the time.

[@kurtoogle4576]

Big agreement here with both Jim & the VTTDM.

[@RIVERSRPGChannel]

Yes I prep one session at a time and will come up with new ideas while prepping. Sometimes things can be used later on though.