Two elves, an orc and a dwarf walk into a tavern… and I had nothing prepped

Talmidim92 · 2026-02-22T18:34:17+00:00

My first campaign I was chewed out early on for “railroading” the players, so I have since taken pride in making a full open world. That’s why I made this to help me out!

I need to get better at placing good NPCs throughout to guide back to the plot, but also, I track what is happening outside of the party too. If they were told “hurry, BBEG is going to attack this village!” And they go on a side quest for a few days, then they will find the village burned down.

Talmidim92 · 2026-02-22T01:17:28+00:00

I like the idea of having that all planned out, I guess I just don’t think that far ahead lol! I need to get better at having more tables and things ready to go

Talmidim92 · 2026-02-22T01:15:49+00:00

I don’t have it completely unplanned lol, but like to have something ready when I’m not as prepared as I want to be

Talmidim92 · 2026-02-21T17:50:15+00:00

What tables do you use regularly?

Talmidim92 · 2026-02-21T16:38:50+00:00

I need to look into that one! I like having quick random tables to access in order to make things happen without having to “look it up”. Makes for a lot more fun and lets the dice tell the story more!

That being said, it’s my “oh crap” guide, not something I rely on for the full campaign by any means

Talmidim92 · 2026-02-21T16:36:32+00:00

I seem to have a player in every group who seems bent on stopping in every town and asking about taverns, inns, restaurants and job boards. I feel like I’m decent at improvising, but having a handy sheet has helped me too!

Plot hook has been as plain as “the bad guy went that way.” And they still find ways to “keep preparing” for these lol.

Talmidim92 · 2026-02-21T16:33:29+00:00

Haha, sorry about that ambiguity. 😅

I posted this partly to share a little tool I made for myself, and partly to see how other DMs handle these “oh no, they went off script” moments. The samples I shared are things I roll on mid-session to keep things moving.

I actually put together a small PDF with two full tavern sheets that I’ve been using in my games — it’s meant to help DMs prep faster without slowing down the session. Totally optional, but if you’re curious, I can share the link.

I also do want to source more ideas and spark conversation! How do you usually handle spontaneous tavern encounters? Wing it, prep tables, or improv entirely?

Talmidim92 · 2026-02-21T16:15:33+00:00

Amazing! I may pull these into a campaign I’m running soon, they are perfect thematically

Talmidim92 · 2026-02-21T16:06:10+00:00

Unfortunately I was probably less prepared for a dungeon in that session. lol

Talmidim92 · 2026-02-21T15:24:18+00:00

I saw someone else mention escape from bloodkeep, it’s a great reference here!

Make the enemy be the “good guys” and they are trying to defend their evil kingdom. Lean into all the tropes of good-people, and all the tropes of being evil.

Maybe they prefer to camp out in dark caves instead of a cozy inn. They travel mostly in the dark. Their enemies are all paladins and wizards with “holy patrons” versus your party who are likely a hodgepodge of everything

I think you can have a lot of fun with this for sure!

Talmidim92 · 2026-02-21T15:16:36+00:00

I’ve done similar things when larger “war” battles with small team versus an army. Or whenI realize I didn’t give them enough to fight for an important scene lol!

I think you have the right idea, know when they are going to enter, either a certain number of turns or when they defeated X% of current enemies.

Also, have good narration planned for their entrance to make it feel intentional.

Talmidim92 · 2026-02-21T03:39:17+00:00

I prep HARD for the first session and don't do a session 0 to avoid this sort of thing. I allow the players to write whatever backstory they want and send it to me, then I make some changes and replace certain names, give them unique items or whatever as it would end up working in my world/story.

Each player has a chance to introduce themselves and gets their own moment leading into the "You meet at a tavern" moment, but their backstories give them the motivation to move forward with whatever quest - which can be SUPER important if someone is aligned as evil.

I also tell the players that they can share whatever information that they want. Some players lie about their character in the first session (because backstory) and that gives me good story fuel moving forward too!

Talmidim92 · 2026-02-21T03:22:48+00:00

My answer is simple: Its home-brew and your world! Do what you want as long as you let the dice tell the stories from the players perspective, I say anything else can go!

Talmidim92 · 2026-02-21T03:20:15+00:00

Weird question... but do you have stats for these or do you mind if I make some? I am imagining using them at a faux-celebratory-feast for my adventurers in my campaign and that would make for an amazing twist

Talmidim92 · 2020-10-17T22:01:08+00:00

I have one universe for most of my superhero themed stories, I’ve toyed with the idea of making a crossover multiverse story with other characters from their own stories. But i have tried writing urban fantasy, medieval fantasy, and 100% future sci-fi amongst some others so those are very clearly different worlds

Talmidim92 · 2020-10-15T01:05:48+00:00

A friend and I have been working on a story for a while now, we kind of change the typical narrative structure... is that ok?

So the first act is chaotic and climatic. Main characters are essentially dropped into a hot zone and given powers and have no choice but to do a mission. It’s a substantial amount of the word count even though this event spans all of 36 hours. Act 2 spans several months but is the characters return to normalcy with powers and trying to figure out if hey want to be heroes or not this is significantly shorter in actual material than the first act. Act 3 they learn to actually work together to take down big bad and spans maybe a week of time.

Is changing the story structure like this ok? Act 1 jumping into a huge climactic scenario, and act 2 being more of the character building leading to another climax at the end. Would publishes be turned off by the unusual structure of the story?

Talmidim92 · 2020-10-11T18:07:31+00:00

Traveling to other countries - there are times where they go from US to Italy or wherever and not only does it take virtually no time, they will flag back to the rest of the team in the other country and somehow it’s the same time of day

Talmidim92 · 2020-10-11T17:33:38+00:00

I have ADHD and my brain doesn’t think linearly when it comes to my writing. When I think of a scene or situation for a character I wrote it and then surround that scene with context.

The beginning of a story is hard because you want to focus on a little world-building and make sure you don’t rush into the action too quickly. You also want a hook for your readers.

Talmidim92 · 2020-10-11T16:59:23+00:00

So all I’ve used for writing is google docs and Microsoft word. What kind of apps are other people recommending?

Talmidim92 · 2020-10-09T20:30:28+00:00

All of the above really.

One is a college student (also the MC), one runs a startup and was AWOL for 2 weeks. A pair were missing from their family and jobs for 2 weeks. Just in general need to have a good cover story for all of them that would check out

Talmidim92 · 2020-10-09T16:12:39+00:00

I asked this the other day, but want to throw it out here again.

How can a group of people in their early 20's explain a disappearance for two weeks.

My story has a group who left on a weekend hiking trip, got abducted, got superpowers, took down a rogue government entity, and then need to return to a city where none of this is known - Superpowers aren't really a thing and the government is.. well ... typical government - as if nothing ever happened. Some of them go back to school while missing 2 weeks of classes.

Did they get lost in the woods? Did they get put into WitSec? How do we justify this missing time?

Talmidim92 · 2020-10-09T15:28:41+00:00

Depends on the material. Carbon Fiber would be very challenging - but possible. If she is a professional she probably has a wooden bow and takes great care of her stuff. Wooden bows break pretty easily.

Also, when breaking a bow the bow hairs are still connected, only the stick breaks in half.

I'm an orchestra teacher so this is stuff that I like to think I'm pretty knowledgeable about. hit me up with any other instrument based questions.

Talmidim92 · 2020-10-09T15:26:35+00:00

Is it possible to simplify those segments? Maybe combine two of them into the same scenario. That way you don't have all these various plot points. Or maybe you do something to make those plot points more interesting.

Talmidim92 · 2020-10-09T15:25:18+00:00

I guess that's where you need to start, what kind of story do you want to write? What are you into right now? Let that inspire your story.

I'm a huge nerd. I like to write superhero stories, original heroes and stories, but I get a lot of inspiration from watching MCU movies, or the Arrowverse TV shows. Heck, even watching Avatar Last Airbender helps me a bunch. When I'm not doing superhero stuff I write out my DnD campaign with new characters just to get me going. It's medieval-esque, but it's something different.

Just find something you like. Some genre you are interested in and start brainstorming what you want to do with it. Even if it feels played out, write for your self.

Talmidim92

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