Greetings gamers from all systems, places and timelines!
Sometimes you may need or want to run a scene outside of the main campaign. This could be because a player couldn’t make the session, the information being shared isn’t for everybody or even a player is looking for some extra interaction between games. If used properly, this can be a fantastic way to help improve the flow of your game and the engagement of your players.
However, these between game scenes must be handled carefully because it can also lead to anything from WTF moments to the campaigns’ continuity catching fire as it falls off a cliff. This is why we have put together a short guide to ensure if you run a scene separate from the main body of your campaign that it will assist with both building character investment and adding flavor to the story, while not causing the balance of your game and its dynamics to go so far South you will be floating off the coast of Mexico.
Choosing The Right Player(s)
If you are willing to do scenes outside of the game with one player in situations which fit the story, then this must be likewise available to all of the players. And if you don’t have either the time nor the inclination to do so then you are better off not doing it at all. Likewise, some players may have no interest in this option while others will be all over it. It has to be out there and on the table so no one feels like the DM is playing favorites with their time.
Choosing the Right Forum
In a perfect world, you and the player could run the scene in person. However, another and possibly easier option is to communicate back-and-forth via email or by creating a Google doc. A great advantage of this is everything will be in one neat place for you to review while allowing the option to add to it when convenient.
While texting is the low hanging fruit of mediums to use, you might be better suited to create an independent chat for the entire conversation. This can be done using various chat apps such as Discord.
Which method will work best depends on the style of both what you are trying to accomplish and those involved. For example, are you looking to send structured literary style replies with clever imagery and deep character insights? Or rather, are you looking for some back and forth dialog where you just want the DM to just tell you the title of the dusty book your character discovered without writing one yourself? Let your goal decide the best forum for this out of game play.
What Are The Benefits?
The advantage this provides the DM is the opportunity to insert anything from additional world lore to the foreshadowing of a plot twist as desired. For example, suppose an arcane character were to have a private meeting with a mentor of theirs. In this scene, the professor might happen to share information about the existence of rare magical crystals which could potentially add to the power of existing spell casting implements.
This not only adds additional depth to the game, but when these crystals are actually encountered, their existence won’t be totally out of left field. Additionally, it can help you illustrate that the campaign is set in a large world, filled with amazing and mysterious things which the players and ultimately the characters can and might want to interact with.
For the player, this is a great place to build on their character’s personality making them more lifelike. Because now instead of functioning within a group they have a moment in the spotlight where it’s all about them. As now what they feel or how they choose to interact with someone or something is what’s driving the outcome of the scenario.
What Are The Pitfalls?
Avoid scenes which allow a character to return to the next session dramatically more powerful because of their off screen activities. Just trust me when I say there are countless horror stories about how a player and their DM ran a scenario and, the next thing everyone knew, that player came back several levels higher, loaded with gold and new magical items. Which will probably be received by the other players as well as McDonald’s would be for running out of fries. So do yourself and everyone else a favor and clearly establish what you are willing to allow in during these scenes to prevent conflicting expectations.
With this in mind the players are entitled to their individual cool moments throughout the course of the campaign. I mean they are literally the main characters of the story and if they aren’t cool then who the hell is? These moments should definitely take place during the actual game, otherwise, while the player may find the results of the scenario satisfying, it’s a bit of a disservice to the other players who didn’t also get to enjoy this climactic moment.
Final Thoughts
Running scenes outside of the campaign can be a great addition for your DM tool chest while also being a great deal of fun for all those involved. Just establish your guidelines of what is acceptable for these sessions up front and then stick to it. Then keep everything organized with some form of records of what transpires in these scenes. And just be advised these chat logs can get enormous fast so it will be nice to have everything available for review as needed.
Do you use this type of outside the game story building or side quests in your own games? What have been you experiences with them? We’d love to hear about them in the comments!
When a player or three are sick or have other commitments, our DM has those “absent” people do a side quests to balance loot, treasures, and XP. It has been fun & helpful. 2 players Gained a Language… 2 players ‘earned’ a seed that allows a reset of a short rest and 1500 gp… etc.
We use Discord for between-session interactions, be it crafting, research, or one on one conversations with other characters or NPCs. Several at the table love this method for keeping things organized and giving them chances to develop their character, but some are more the type to just show up for session and that be the end of it. It’s also nice administratively, as those conversations are searchable, and with discord threads, can wax and wane and archive as needed.
The challenging part is keeping major developments that affect the main plot from happening outside of session. Naturally, the most lore engaged players at the table are the ones keenest to do between session activities, but there have been a few times where it felt like a shame the others were not around to be part of something happening. While it was never anything central to the plot, it certainly felt like it created multiple tiers of engagement, with those who had all the context completely engaged and those who didn’t just waiting for action to pick up.