Out of Ideas
All eyes turn toward you, eager for the next chapter of the story to unfold. You want to tell them. You ought to be able to figure it out. But you mind is blank.
“You guys go for a cigarette break. Let me check my notes.”
But there’s nothing there. No next encounter. No inspiration. No nothing. So you call game night a little early. Everyone goes home while you’re left to rack your brains, trying to think up an interesting twist, or at the very least an interesting monster for the group to fight next. But you’re fried. The well has finally run dry, and there are no more creative ideas.
I don’t know about the rest of you guys, but this is my worst nightmare as a GM. Obviously it’s an irrational kind of fear. Like the good wolf said, human imagination has no boundaries. The trick is to fight the fear, and to remember that there is always another idea.
There are other tricks too. When faced with writer’s block, I have a few go-to strategies.
- RTFM — We have sourcebooks for a reason. If you’re short on ideas, go back to the manual. Chances are that there’s a random table or an obscure stat block that can spark a brainstorm.
- Confidante — Talk it out with a fellow GM. This can be tough when all your hobbyist friends are also players in your game. (Gotta protect ’em from spoilers!) But if you’re lucky enough to have another experienced GM in your life, bouncing ideas off of them is a great way to gain fresh perspective.
- Steal — We’ve all done it. Anime, adventure films, and obscure novels half-remembered from your childhood are all ripe for the plundering. There are plots and premises aplenty! Just change a few names and reflavor for your genre of choice.
- Write One Line — There’s nothing worse than staring at a blank page. So make it a little less blank. Rather than waiting for inspiration to strike, I like to free-associate as I begin to type. The physical activity of writing kicks me out of my stupor, allowing the ol’ subconscious to get involved and do the heavy lifting.
- Let Your Players Guess — Ask your players, “So what do you guys think is really happening here?” Sit back and watch ’em pontificate and theorize. They’ll feel like geniuses when their guess turns out to be correct, even though they’re the ones that came up with it in the first place!
What about the rest of you gusy though? Have you ever found yourself unsure how to proceed? Do you have any clever tricks for shaking yourself out of writer’s block? Let’s hear all about your favorite home remedies for mind blank down in the comments!
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…Can BBEG even die without some more complex procedures?
He was an undead; he stole the body of a demon lord.
It all comes down to what causes the players the most hassle.
Operating word “was” maybe whatever kept him alive untill this point was consumed when he took over the body. Or pllt magoc, it just wasn’t the time to die yet.
The power of DM apathy can unmake worlds. O_O
I found that frequent breaks of GMing work best for me. I think about my Shadowrun-group as a series. I only GM a season and then go and take a break. And because I communicate that to my players, everyone is fine with that and are aware that these breaks happen and that we will come back to that story for another run.
For short term mind-blanks I usually end the session early, grab a book (a novel with a setting close to mine or a setting guide if that exists ie Forgotten realms or SR-Seattle) and if all fails a rewatch one of my favorite movies. That usually gets me back into the mood.
But if everything fails, I’m just open about it. “Sorry guys this story stays unfinished. I’m done. I played myself into a corner.”
If the story ends then and there depends on my group. Sometimes they come up with an idea to reset the situation, sometimes we just start another round.
Methinks is the place where BBEG finds himself. It can be liberating or depressing depending on your attitude.
From experience, for me it’s liberating. I don’t like to pretend that everything is fine just so that the story can go on. If there is nothing more to do I’m just open about it.
It also shows the mood and character of my players. I knew people that would try to keep me running in a toxic manner. “But you said you had an epic story. Why stop now?” and at the same time refusing to DM themself. (I can definitely see fighter sitting on that table)
But I also have people now who are very understanding. They basically just shrug and say “that’s ok. Let’s take a break and switch it up. maybe we will come back to that one day”
At least the dude is consistent in his shittiness.
One of my favorite idea-creating exercises is something I call “contents of the dead man’s pockets.” I use a random pickpocket loot generator (https://www.d20srd.org/d20/random/#type=Purse) to compile a list of items (usually complete trash, but sometimes things with gp value). Then I group similar items together. Then I try to imagine *who* would be carrying this collection of junk, and why. Knotted rope with bloody gloves? He’s an assassin, it’s a garotte. Knotted rope with a compass? He’s a mariner, it’s his chart for determining latitude.
My favorite example of the “Confidante” option above occurred a decade ago. At game night, my buddies raved and said “great session!” then asked “what’s next?”
I had no ‘next.’ I’d put all my effort into this one. One friend said “Well why don’t you ask [my 9-year-old son]. Maybe he’s got something.”‘
When I mentioned this at a big family breakfast the next morning, my son interrupted by saying “Never eat soggy waffles.”
“What?” I asked.
He gestured with his fork, pointing to each of the cardinal directions. “It’s how we learn the points of the compass. Never. Eat. Soggy. Waffles. A bunch of sauhagin, ‘soggies,’ are attacking an island. You have one combat at each point with something big at the middle.”
With a little tweaking, we worked it into an adventure that I (and now he) have been running for over a decade and through three different editions.
Love that compass story. Kids have wild imaginations if you just take the time to listen. I mean, you ever see those “D&D advice from a five year old” threads? Shit’s wild.
If I’m burned out, I either have someone else run for awhile or I run short term one offs. In my main campaign I require everyone be good aligned. Keeps the interparty conflict down, which is especially important when you are military and having players coming in and leaving all the time. So I run an evil, high level campaign for the group for awhile and let chaos reign. Or I’ll pick up or dust of a series of modules and run a straight AD&D campaign (instead of my homebrew).
That said, if push comes to shove. I’ll just have everyone shelve those characters and start a new campaign in a different part of my world. Resparks my creative juices fleshing out an area that is mainly just a grey tone sketch and introduces elements that the players didn’t know about.
Crazy how the “new campaign, fresh characters” thing reignites enthusiasm. I remember talking shop about Starfinder at the last solar eclipse. Gamers were STOKED to get that underway.
“Have you ever found yourself unsure how to proceed?”
No… because that’s when the campaign ends. Like… that’s because they’ve finished “the story” and anything more would just be epilogue stuff, I don;t have anything “planned” past that… ebcause it’s the end.
.
.
Now, if I’m having issues of “how to get the party from Point A to Point B”, then I tend to do a “let the Players make plans”… which is how everything works anyway, so it’s very rare I have those problems.
And sometimes I’ll just set aside ideas I have because they don’t seem to fit into the flow of the game.
If the Players are having difficulty figuring out how to get from Point A to Point B, I call for rolls and start suggesting things based on the outcomes of their rolls.
I think “that’s how the campaign ends” for BBEG as well. Just not quite in the same way.
Oh I am BAD at making things up on the fly. I have absolutely ended session because I ran out of things to do. My thing is more inclined towards letting my players run wild. After all, they’re the stars of the show, not me.
I think that may be the great unstated OPTION. You aren’t the only creative at the table. Your players probably ought to be steering the ship more often than not.
“Have you ever found yourself unsure how to proceed?”
There’s always another problem that needs solving, even if it’s “How do we get home with all of these minions freaking out all over the place?” or “How do we make ourselves scarce before they’re done with their rousing send-up of ‘ding-dong, the witch is dead’?”
Yeah. It’s all about making that conflict. It is THE useful thing for driving action.
Unsure of how to proceed?
Yes! Almost every campaign I run, I come across one point of “Well, now what?” I have a variety of friends that I can rely on for support in those situations. I give them a run down of what’s been happening, whatever goals I may have for the story, and any other dangling threads/ideas. It’s usually enough to at least nudge me in a direction and I can get something prepped.
On the plus side, I tend to over prepare. So if my party ignores something, I can try to recycle it later. 🙂
Big ol’ binder full of unused story lines, encounters, and antagonists, huh? Boy do I know that feel.
The problem tends not to be in not having ideas; but rather not having ideas for that particular game. And SOME players get upset when their fields and dungeons are replaced by high rise office buildings in twisting urban mazes. Or space and starships.
Or ships in general actually. Players are kinda’ bad about ships…
I soured on ships after Starfinder. Tried to fall in love with ship combat in that system. Just wasn’t happening.
Maybe I should get me some Traveler or some such….
This is where you push that Player with the flair for arranging the Dramatic front and centre to see what storylines they can build…
…Will someone give Wizard a forward shove?
Winners want the ball; divas want the spotlight. XD
Good for you BBEG, maybe I’m jaded but I’m sympathetic to the burnt out husk who doesn’t have the energy to hold the rickety ship together anymore.
Think that’s a bad sign?
ah, it’s probably fine.
To be real for a second, having to DM longer then you’d like because the other players can’t or won’t DM themselves, is something I think we’ve all experienced at some point or another, the decision to put down tools and take a mental health break is one that I wholeheartedly support.
Don’t get so wrapped up in the sauce that you forget the game is supposed to be fun, the perfect session you’ll run after 6 hours of prep is worse then the good, fun, simple game you can play right now.