this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2026
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Been there. Players are so insane with the curveballs they throw. It's why I don't invest heavily into reading/planning on what's specifically in the adventure packs anymore. I just write down a list of the most important rules for the campaign/universe and vibe the rest.
I try to disclose to my players when they've left the track. "Okay guys, I have nothing written here. Anything beyond this point is improvised, so if I make a mistake or forget something, lemme know."
I'll break immersion to tell them when they're reading too much into something, or they've completely ignored information that will save them hours of frustration. I want to respect their time and their intelligence, and in return they've been pretty good about keeping sidequests brief. It's been nice, mature, and very easy to take notes.
That sounds like something for Session 0. Because you never know. You might forget something in Session 1.
My players are the opposite. They seem to probe for the "right" railroad choice and I wish they'd throw me a curveball every so often! I'll improvise if they let me!
You and me both brother/sister. I'm running a more sandboxy game, but most of the players are there for railroad and chill. We (me and the former DM, now PC) are slowly getting them to make self directed decisions.
I see some DMs with their 400 pages of notes going into session 0, and I’m just like “oh honey.” For me, it’s primarily a cooperative storytelling game, and you’re not being cooperative if you decide the story you want told up front.
I think you're being uncharitable. Those notes could be a strict railroad novel, but they're as or more likely to be drop-in encounters, fun characters, interesting places, and so on. Plus like...some DMs just enjoy worldbuilding for its own sake, let 'em cook.
I'm up to 24 pages of notes but in my defense about a third of that is recording what happened in previous sessions precisely because the party rarely does remotely what I was expecting and also I wanna remember the countless NPCs and relationships I came up with on the spot
Notes from sessions are great, notes for sessions will usually leave someone very disappointed.