Okey-doke campers, we're back for round two. Unfortunately, the Eternal GM (i.e. me) is in the middle of a rush at work and a bit of chaos at home, so with a very short deadline I won't be able to give you specific adventure ideas. However, knowing that the editor will sic his weasel on me if I don't cave in and give him something (Editor's note: It's a ferret, dammit), we're going to enter the wonderful world of improvisation.
Theme the First: General GMing. Now I've said it before and I'll say it again: Don't overplan. Detail is fine, detail is wonderful. But don't try to hold your players to a rigid plot. If you've got good players, they won't stay within the frame or will chafe horribly. If your players go along complacently, then they're most likely not good players. However, there's a limit to how much I can beat a dead horse, so I'll digress for now.
Theme 1, Variation 1. My PBEM players know how much I hate to roll dice. In a PBEM you can get away with it, however in a table game the players tend to get restless and hostile if you make decisions without consulting the dice. Thus the usefulness of screens. Some games come with them, such as the older AD&D and Shadowrun, chock full of useful information for the GM who hasn't managed to memorize every sourcebook yet. However, they can be hard to find, or may not have what you want. So, improvise. Take a file folder, or two if you want a 3-sided screen. If two, attach them somehow, tape, staples, etc. Then write up or print out useful information and tack it to the inside of the folders. Quick, easy, cheap, and customized. Once you have it, you can always add info as you find you need it. Now you have something behind which you can toss dice and keep the numbers hidden from your players. Whether you choose to use these numbers is up to you. A warning however, don't ignore the numbers too much or your players will become suspicious and possibly hostile. If you're at a critical plot stage, you can use this technique to herd the players in the direction you want them to, however remember the frequent warnings about rigid plots... don't overdo it.
Theme 1, Variation 2. Your more dedicated (sometimes obsessive) players and GM's will tend to collect sourcebooks for games. Most of us know how pricey that can get. I personally don't keep many, mainly because I went through college on very limited funds and had to choose between books and food. Food won. But I digress, again. I will freely admit the usefulness of sourcebooks for details and rounding out games, or information on a specific locale, character type, etc. However, it's a lot of information to look up all the time. So, if you don't have a photographic memory for information or page numbers, make yourself cheat pages with information you find yourself looking up frequently. If you're using a custom screen, these pages can be added to it. This is not violating any copyright laws, and it will help the game run more smoothly since you won't be looking things up as often. This is especially useful if you find yourself GM-ing several different games and the rules get confusing.
Theme 2, Variation 1. As stated above, I'm not going to give specific adventure ideas this time around. However, I can share some of my inspirations. First of all, let's talk books. Now you have to be very careful with this. It's unlikely you'd get caught violating copyright laws, but the risk is that your players have read the same book and will anticipate where you're going. However, you can draw ideas from small sections and expand on them in directions the book didn't go. Same deal with movies, although again be careful, for the same reason. As long as you don't try to use the entire plot - just small ideas - you should be safe both from players who have read/seen the same book or movie, as well as risk of plagiarism.
Theme 2, Variation 2. Music. Pretty much any type of music that you like, be it rock, indie, classical, etc. Something with lyrics can inspire a plot, something without can set a mood. For example, my own long-running shadowrun PBEM was inspired by the Rush song "Red Sector A". (I don't remember if there is a link to it or not in the RPG Host database so I'll put one here.). Sometimes the whole song is needed to set the scene, sometimes a single line. I'll go back to Red Sector A to elaborate. I won't go into every detail of how it progressed for the sake of space. Eventually I'll do the full writeup for the game's web page, but not yet. Anyway. Lounging around thinking about one of my characters' backgrounds and listening to Rush. The line in the song that started the mess was "I hear the sound of gunfire at the prison gate/Are the liberators here, do I hope or do I fear?" The entire song is themed around that - a person's thoughts in some sort of prison or possibly prison camp. I start to think that this could be an interesting shadowrun. Another line clinched it as I pondered the character's parents. I knew that her father was dead, but what about her military mother? "For my father and my brother it's too late/But I must help my mother stand up straight." Could she have had a brother who died? Why not? Thus the plot was born. I won't burden you all with the details of that plot, you can hunt for it yourself. I have used this on several games, although one I cannot go into too much detail about, because doing so could give away critical plot points to a certain editor.
Recommended listening for inspiration. For a tech/cyberpunkish game such as Shadowrun, Rifts, Cyberpunk, etc., rock and/or metal. Rush of course, and for metal fans Iron Maiden can give some good ideas. Anything that has the vaguest inkling of a plot to it. For fantasy types, believe it or not also Rush, Queen, and again anything that has a plot. Classical themes can inspire for those who know how to hear them, especially opera for the few who can stand it.
So that's that; short and sweet, like me. Well, short at least. Happy gaming.
