My Monday game hasn't played in a spell. It's been about a month since we gathered for our two hour sessions.
With such short windows of time for play (7pm to 9pm) I have to be very judicious about what and how I bring to the table as dungeon master. Any loose goose gameplay quickly eats up time and if you let folks meander around the shopping mall, chances are you'll have spent the entire session role playing merchants and describing their inventory.
Tonight the story picks up again, with the party having returned to town where I intend to wrap the events of their previous excursion. A lot of details have been forgotten from last session, so a bit of review is in order.
In short, our party has returned from their excursion, having discovered a strange temple tucked away under ground. They encountered some sort of specialist, whom they sighted dead later on. They are at this point, nestled in Jorgen's tavern, enjoying a mug of mead, cup of tea, etc.
The game story is open at this point and to be honest, I'm at an impasse regarding my next branch.
I had an idea of how the Cormyr. storyline would work in the Cloud Spires storyline, but at this point the CSC story is now the story of Torrileans in Spaaaace while the Covenant of Silver or Silverlight Stories, has come to a temporary close (until next time the CoS rides).
The fact is that at this point, the storyline I had written is moot, and I have a hankering go job board style.
A series of quick two hour adventures with clean wraps and bows to finish off with. Save my daughter from the goblins. Take my cargo to there. Needed, adventurers for magical item retrieval. That sort of thing.
Something emotionally simple and effective is on order today. I like my first idea. Save the farms from the goblins... maybe I'll start doing some empire building with them. If you've never played 'The Horde', it was a game where you built a village that was under attack by a horde of red skinned critters. You'd protect the city during action phases, and reap gold for the resources that survived the attack. You'd spend the gold to beef your village with more profit or protection.I'm getting a sense of deja vu writing this, and I feel like I may have done so before :D
So tonight, we'll say..
We'll start with the players being paid by the chamberlain of whatever house that hired them, and lead into an 'afternoon of relaxation' and rumours abound.
They'll learn that the outlying townships have been suffering increased raids as soldiers have been pulled from back country locations to strengthen front line forces. We'll say a member of one such back water town comes into Jorgens to pin up a help wanted sign looking for mercenaries. They're offering resources in place of gold.
This will be of interest to Jorgen who happens to get his alcohols from that region and they're willing to pay in booze, which is invaluable to his bar.
The others will be offered food, shelter and a few gold pieces if negotiations demand it.
Done. Plot hook fashioned.
I'll attack them on the road for a Willow style combat chase sequence, and then we finish the session as they arrive in a down trodden town of tears stained mud.
If we've got time, I'll have a snake oil sales man there for the players to run out of town <3