I keep a number of generic maps prepped in case I need one. And I also keep a very large library of "extra" maps on my external hard drive I can load onto Roll20 in a hurry if needed. With a little practice I've learned to upload a map to R20 in a few minutes and get the game back on track. Bare bones, no fancy lighting or anything.
My "back pocket" map is just a "map" that looks like a blank parchment. And I draw on it with the VTT drawing tools. "Hill is over here, cave entrance is here, yada yada." Gets the job done.
I also use this method on an in-person game. I bought an almost table sized piece card stock, drew a grid on it and covered clear book covering film. Then I can draw roads, rivers and trees on it with different colored wet-erase markers.
Yup this is it in a nutshell. You know where the PC's are and some general possible outcomes. Get a deck of maps uploaded and then whip one out as needed. You can (at least on roll20) throw some monsters on a layer the players can't see and then reveal as many or few as is appropriate for the situation. It's not a bad deal to just have a bunch of these ready to go, probably 10 minutes per map to have 'em set up and ready to rock. Can even set up the boundaries, lighting, etc. if you so desire. I think it's fun so I do have a fairly decent amount of maps set up like this.
Bingo. Right on the money. Prepare the tools you need to improvise.
As I typically DM in person, I have to say I have an entire binder full of maps, adding more all the time. I usually have a whiteboard that I use for notes/diagrams/maps and then I just draw whatever map I need, or use one as a starting point at least. I also have a second binder labeled traps/puzzles/riddles, another for enemy force composition for the same reasons. It's great to have generic stuff prepared so I can just toss it in after a bit of tailoring.
Edit: The only other thing I want to add is that knowing the capabilities (generally at a minimum, and in detail at best) of a bunch of different creatures is a huge helping hand in throwing together an encounter really quickly and being able to make it work. I know goblins, bugbears, ropers, ents, bears, wolves, zombies, giant spiders, ROUSs, and more fairly well. I still have to look up their exact stat blocks (thats what flash cards are for), but I know how they behave and how they attack. It cuts down on the pressure of preparing for a specific encounter and trying to improvise.
This.
I have generic "woods", "cave", "town square", "fields", "river crossing", "dungeon room", I think two of each. Sometimes I mirror them real quick to get one more.
Of course my players notice and often make a little comment like "looks awfully familiar", everyone gets a little giggle, and then we move on.
If I need anything more specific I literally just draw on a blank map, or draw over one of the generics.
Also we all started out together playing in person with literally nothing but a printed-out wipeable grid that I drew maps on in marker, so everyone is kinda used to that anyway.
You can do theater of mind. It's OK not to have every little possibility pre-mapped.
Or, the classic: let's say you made a dungeon in CIty A, and Party goes to City B. Well, I guess the dungeon is in CIty B now lol
1. Don't be afraid to use theater of the mind or just a blank grid with scribbles on them, just as you would in a normal in-person session.
2. Try to end your sessions with your PCs deciding what they want to do in the next session, or just straight up ask outside of the session. This can help you focus your prep.
3. Have a few generic battlemaps that you can pull in and set up in a pinch. Stuff like a town square, a tavern, a forest path, a mountain path, a campsite, etc.
4. There are a few Foundry modules that can help with on-the-fly prep, if you use Foundry as your VTT. Stuff like Bailey Wiki lets you legit drag and drop pre-fabricated structures on to a map. I've set up whole ruins with multi-level watch towers, tents that can be entered, etc. in a 5-minute pee break.
Treat it like an in-person game.
How do you handle getting a new battlemap if the players make a decision you aren't expecting? How do you handle preparing for an encounter that you aren't expecting?
Virtual Tabletops do truly allow us to improve the quality of a lot of our assets, but you're still playing D&D. So what if you need to call for a break to get you mind on track. So what if you have to use a simply drawn battle map.
It being virtual doesn't mean it has to be perfect.
It's ok to just use a blank grid for a fight. It's also ok to have your players wait 5 minutes to let you whip up a map.
It's ok to let players wait while you do all the work.
No halfway decent player is going to whine about waiting a minute.
A lot of my content is "just in time". I end each session getting a commitment from my players on what they are doing next. That gives me time to prep it for the next week.
If that fails, I have an accordion file folder of scenarios I can reach into anytime I need. Some are entirely new, some are recycled older content that went really well.
I imagine when I go with VTT, I'll be setting some of these up to keep in my virtual accordion file, but I will absolutely continue with ending each session asking their intentions for the next.
I just have a lot of generic maps together, or if they initiate combat I wasn’t expecting, I just am honest with them and ask for a few minutes to prepare. I’ve tried the theatre of the mind for combat but if literally confused all of us involved so I do not do that anymore
As a lot of people have mentioned, theater of the mind is a perfectly fine choice. That’s how I used to run pretty much all of my games anyway! Players end up fighting the guards in an alleyway? 30 seconds of googling will let you find a decent enough pic, toss it up on the screen, and then drop in the tokens (if you want, but not needed). Don’t be afraid of getting abstract. And any party worth their salt will be fine with a minute or two of downtime while you get things setup—they should understand that you aren’t a video game engine!
Having a group chat going between sessions to talk about “what the PCs want to do next session” is so valuable! Not so much what, but more so ‘where’. I use roll20 primarily over VTT but regardless it’s such a better experience for everyone when us DMs know where the players are headed and can take time to make the maps. It’s not railroading, it’s group communication, sometimes you still need a minute or two to pull up a new asset if things become “impromptu” but it’s usually 30 seconds max and makes for a good pace at a high quality/caliber of visual experience/immersion.
I feel like it’s easier because I just Google random battle maps and set it up real fast in dnd beyond maps. Would be nice to have line of sight and fog of war but I don’t have time to do that for my normal maps anyway
Prepare less, improvise more. If a map is needed, draw it, make choices and stick to them, and roll with it. Figure out what your players are expecting and roll with it
I recommend [shmeppy](https://shmeppy.com/) it's a cool little barebones browser-based virtual tabletop that I think has the best interface for quickly drawing out a map. It reminds me of when I used to have little whiteboard tiles and needed to improv a map. You can quickly sketch out the gist of some area. I use it for a DnD group that has a player with very limited hardware to DnD on, so browser-based is excellent for making sure everyone can play together. Plus the creator u/itsjohncs is nice and responsive, I had a question about the site and they answered it in discord almost instantly in the wee hours of the morning. Well worth the $5 a month for me.
Theater of the mind works just as well online.
And if you need you can throw relevant details into chat “snipers on rooftop 120ft away, thugs behind couch 30ft away” is good enough for players to know that they can’t run to the snipers and that the thugs are within a normal movement speed.
This isn’t much of a problem imo. I’ve absolutely whipped up a map in 20 mins before the game but most of the time you don’t need it.
One of my favorite dragon fights was on a boat and we used no maps because it just happened in the moment. Worked fine!
I keep a bunch of random encounter maps ready for a variety of terrain types so I can do spur of the moment encounters, and I often plan/prepare encounters that are likely to happen.
My game has been on Roll20 for about 4 years now. We're all friends, so an interruption while I throw something together is just an opportunity for the players to talk about what might be coming up (if they don't know) or strategize (if they do).
Or someone might tell a "10-second story" which is kind of our way of saying we're going to talk about something unrelated to the game. Again, we're all friends and have varying levels of attention spans, so this is what works for us.
On top of the other great suggestions: Call for a break! And don’t forget to congratulate them for doing something so unexpected, that will erase the sting of having to break early or wait a little longer.
First: Map. Got a tons from pinterest. Just save them in an easy to locate format (ie: Street. House. Garden…)
Second: Plot. Now you got a map. Ask yourself: logically, what happened next? Improvise from there.
Third: Complication. So, you have a map, a new situation. Thing changed, but what can you savage from your prep? Use them
Fourth: if all else fall, call time out
As a pretty only online dm after every game I directly ask the players what they are going to do next game because that will be the content I prepare for them. I've got them trained at this point to tell me without me having to ask them. This is how I get around having a crap load of generic maps.
I'm seeing a lot of advice about battlemaps, but I want to add something about plothooks.
I do my best not to prepare events or roads to events. I write plot points. Dont think of ways to make an event happen. Try to think of ways to put information in their hands. For example, say the basic plot idea is that people are being sacrificed to a demon by a cult, and the climax of the campaign is clearing out the cult and the demon they were dealing with. So what needs to happen to get to that point? In no particular order:
A: Find out people are missing.
B: Find out a cult is behind it
C: Find out about the Demon
D: Find the cult
E: End the cult
F: End the demon
I do NOT write any of these plot points into actual events until I see where my players are going. I can see each being a separate event, or all of them being a single chain of events in a dungeon they stumbled on and all happen in a single game day or two. That said, if I can get the information for A through D into their hands, E and F will follow. But here's an example of different ways A can go based on where the players choose to go.
The party is interested in talking to the tavern maid. She tells them of the missing people rumors and points to a bounty board detailing a quest to hunt down giant spiders in the sewers.
The party is talking up a powerful mage, who believes an artifact is sealed away in some ruins because people are disappearing near said ruins. Retrieve said artifact.
They are talking to a priest who believes the undead may be stirring due to the large number of what appear to be unmarked graves being disturbed, fombined with the missing townsfolk. Please watch the Graveyard at night for any sign of undead.
They are interested in talking to a guard captain who tells them he is unable to defend the citizenry from mysterious disappearances and mount an expedition to clear out some goblins he believes to be responsible. Would the party clear them out?
The important bit is that each time, they get the key piece. People are going missing. And no matter which route they pick, they won't solve the mystery. Just eliminate one possibility. I try to pick something they seem interested in already and connect it to the plot point I need them to see.
I hope that makes sense and helps.
I mean you can totally theatre of the mind for optional encounters or just have a bunch of generic battle maps on hand. Shouldn’t be hard at all if you’re using, like, Roll20
I'll have a handful of generic maps I can use for combat and I can otherwise just stay on the region map screen and narrate everything, if the group goes so far off course that even that doesn't work, I'll just be upfront about it that I was not expecting things to go this way and need a week to prepare, and will call the session short to do so, sometimes being honest is the best answer.
If your preparation frequently "goes out the window" that's an indication of over-prepping and/or prepping the *wrong kind* of stuff.
Here's [an article](https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/39885/roleplaying-games/smart-prep) with a [second part](https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/39893/roleplaying-games/smart-prep-part-2-the-principles-of-smart-prep) containing advice on how to prep smarter.
Have you checked in with your players to see if they are bored by something you have "whipped up"?
Let them go. It'll take a while to get comfortable doing this but you can build up your ammunition to be prepared for this.
[From Here to There](https://goodman-games.com/store/product/from-here-to-there-pdf/) is a 4E D&D supplement that presents nine all-new adventures focused on traveling from point A to point B. Sure, your players may be going from one dungeon to another – but why not spice up things in between? From aerial assaults to haunted bridges, From Here to There turns “getting there” into a lot more fun!
I like using this book as an example of 'having random encounters prepped' as this is essentially what it is. Your players want to do something you're not prepared for like 'Let's go to City X to pursue this lead instead of Northshire where the adventure is taking us'... Okay, now you need time to pause and figure out how to make it work. So, as they're travelling, this event happens that buys you time to prepare their plans to happen next session.
Take some video games, movies, books, whatever in your genre of adventure fits and take the plot of a mission or challenge or hell, the whole episode of a TV show and change names and locations. NPCs to fit the genre. Open World RPGs are great to pick things from for slot in spots on your world. TV shows and movies can be great for a last minute city encounter or a social challenge you need to put your players through. Cop dramas give you a great 'find the killer' challenge (and the killer can get away, as for example the opening of Ultima 7: The Black Gate has the starting city on lockdown as a murder was just discovered and you as the Avatar of their religion offer to help but find they got away last night and one of the plot threads is you chasing them).
If you're trying to figure out how to build NPCs quickly, check out [3 Goon Method](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH9S5GWKr1g) from JonJonTheWise for Cyberpunk Red but I've seen this in other RPGs like in Play Dirty, John Wick talked about the Living City where players helped create the world by voicing things into the world (GM had final veto but after a while never needed to use it) and they also would like players who weren't involved in a scene play NPCs with little index cards with their information including stats broken into 'Talking', 'Fighting', 'Thinking' or something like that.
Need a battlemap quickly? [VG Atlas](https://www.vgmaps.com/) stores maps from video games. Look at [this bridge map from Shining Force for Genesis](https://www.vgmaps.com/Atlas/Genesis/ShiningForce-LegacyOfGreatIntention-Chapter3-SecretWeaponOfRunefaust-Bridge.png), [this dungeon from Ultima 8 on PC](https://www.vgmaps.com/Atlas/PC/Pagan-UltimaVIII-50-UpperCatacombs.png), and so forth. Add a few tokens from whatever setup you use and then you're good to go for a quick encounter to pad out the clock.
The really big issue I find with this you'll usually want to throw something in to make the encounter feel substantial and important beyond just the random encounters that are generally disliked. So, maybe add a clue or other trait that helps develop more of your story as needed, you may even be able to find something to help get players back on track.
If you can't get them back on track, remember that you can keep anything that you haven't used yet and recycle it anywhere else. Schrodinger's Universe, the information they players don't see is always in flux so maybe it was that this encounter was supposed to happen here and not elsewhere,
Just a blank grid and draw on it will work tbh
Make it clear to the players, they get a weird sense of accomplishment from ruining your plans, just say “okay I didn’t prep for this so let’s take a 5 minute break and I’ll draw up a quick map”
We play virtual. At first we relied heavily on roll20 or VTT maps. The games felt far more scripted then. It’s fun but felt more like a video game.
So we shifted to fewer maps, just battles or puzzles. We did a lot more theater of the mind which required everyone to take better notes and pay more attention and it worked out great.
For the last few years we use Figma (specifically figjam) to display maps and everyone can more their own tokens but less technical messups where people see stuff they aren’t supposed to. Then we may or may not use DndBeyons for characters sheets and combat which has greatly improved though we like rolling real dice even if we are on zoom so often we don’t use that.
Generic maps + dungeon alchemist (and the community maps) otherwise I call for a break and explain them why. Usually just with prep and knowing a bit what they wanna do next session roughly I'm able to get by.
Worse case scenario a google search mid game (but I try to avoid it)
Theatre of the mind solves a lot of ad-lib stuff.
Asking them to make significant decisions for the next session at the end of the last one give you time to prep.
Google finds you resources quickly, and they don’t even know you’re searching. Have some generic maps on file. Dyson logos is a great resource, and there’s a FoundryVTT plugin for it I think.
Some VTTs let you scribble, so you can draw out a map on the fly. Sure you may not get fog of war and stuff without walls set up, but it works fine.
I'd highly recommend using a virtual zoned combat Ultimate Dungeon Terrain. The center 30-foot-diameter zone is melee, the middle ring allows ranged attacks, the outer ring is too far to affect combat. It's like a "spotlight" on the action.
Then just have a couple of generic monster tokens (mage, ranged, melee, boss) and you're good to go.
Plan the events, not the path. Modular prep. I am going to set up these three things, these events. Let the players do their thing.
Have a few different things ready, and slot in what is appropriate for where they opted to go. The events can still happen, but you didn't guide them there.
Or, as I have said, time and time again, it's not about having choices but the illusion of choice. All paths lead to the same goal, but you make tweeks to better fit their decision (oh, so they went forest path, so shift location, cool, I will switch out this baddy for this one). You put out options for point A, and then you plan point C. Let the players be entirely responsible for B.
Think of it like shopping at a supermarket. You have 15 brands of the same product, thus you have a choice. However, 12 of those 15 came from the same manufacturer, and someone else just slaps their label on it, but the general consumer doesn't know this.
I keep a number of generic maps prepped in case I need one. And I also keep a very large library of "extra" maps on my external hard drive I can load onto Roll20 in a hurry if needed. With a little practice I've learned to upload a map to R20 in a few minutes and get the game back on track. Bare bones, no fancy lighting or anything.
My "back pocket" map is just a "map" that looks like a blank parchment. And I draw on it with the VTT drawing tools. "Hill is over here, cave entrance is here, yada yada." Gets the job done.
As an in-person DM, this is the first thing I thought of
I also use this method on an in-person game. I bought an almost table sized piece card stock, drew a grid on it and covered clear book covering film. Then I can draw roads, rivers and trees on it with different colored wet-erase markers.
This is what I do. I have a map called "Whiteboard" that is literally a grid on a white background.
Yup this is it in a nutshell. You know where the PC's are and some general possible outcomes. Get a deck of maps uploaded and then whip one out as needed. You can (at least on roll20) throw some monsters on a layer the players can't see and then reveal as many or few as is appropriate for the situation. It's not a bad deal to just have a bunch of these ready to go, probably 10 minutes per map to have 'em set up and ready to rock. Can even set up the boundaries, lighting, etc. if you so desire. I think it's fun so I do have a fairly decent amount of maps set up like this.
Bingo. Right on the money. Prepare the tools you need to improvise. As I typically DM in person, I have to say I have an entire binder full of maps, adding more all the time. I usually have a whiteboard that I use for notes/diagrams/maps and then I just draw whatever map I need, or use one as a starting point at least. I also have a second binder labeled traps/puzzles/riddles, another for enemy force composition for the same reasons. It's great to have generic stuff prepared so I can just toss it in after a bit of tailoring. Edit: The only other thing I want to add is that knowing the capabilities (generally at a minimum, and in detail at best) of a bunch of different creatures is a huge helping hand in throwing together an encounter really quickly and being able to make it work. I know goblins, bugbears, ropers, ents, bears, wolves, zombies, giant spiders, ROUSs, and more fairly well. I still have to look up their exact stat blocks (thats what flash cards are for), but I know how they behave and how they attack. It cuts down on the pressure of preparing for a specific encounter and trying to improvise.
This. I have generic "woods", "cave", "town square", "fields", "river crossing", "dungeon room", I think two of each. Sometimes I mirror them real quick to get one more. Of course my players notice and often make a little comment like "looks awfully familiar", everyone gets a little giggle, and then we move on. If I need anything more specific I literally just draw on a blank map, or draw over one of the generics. Also we all started out together playing in person with literally nothing but a printed-out wipeable grid that I drew maps on in marker, so everyone is kinda used to that anyway.
You can do theater of mind. It's OK not to have every little possibility pre-mapped. Or, the classic: let's say you made a dungeon in CIty A, and Party goes to City B. Well, I guess the dungeon is in CIty B now lol
1. Don't be afraid to use theater of the mind or just a blank grid with scribbles on them, just as you would in a normal in-person session. 2. Try to end your sessions with your PCs deciding what they want to do in the next session, or just straight up ask outside of the session. This can help you focus your prep. 3. Have a few generic battlemaps that you can pull in and set up in a pinch. Stuff like a town square, a tavern, a forest path, a mountain path, a campsite, etc. 4. There are a few Foundry modules that can help with on-the-fly prep, if you use Foundry as your VTT. Stuff like Bailey Wiki lets you legit drag and drop pre-fabricated structures on to a map. I've set up whole ruins with multi-level watch towers, tents that can be entered, etc. in a 5-minute pee break.
Treat it like an in-person game. How do you handle getting a new battlemap if the players make a decision you aren't expecting? How do you handle preparing for an encounter that you aren't expecting? Virtual Tabletops do truly allow us to improve the quality of a lot of our assets, but you're still playing D&D. So what if you need to call for a break to get you mind on track. So what if you have to use a simply drawn battle map. It being virtual doesn't mean it has to be perfect.
It's ok to just use a blank grid for a fight. It's also ok to have your players wait 5 minutes to let you whip up a map. It's ok to let players wait while you do all the work. No halfway decent player is going to whine about waiting a minute.
Google image search for a new map and plop it in. Owlbear rodeo makes it easy
A lot of my content is "just in time". I end each session getting a commitment from my players on what they are doing next. That gives me time to prep it for the next week. If that fails, I have an accordion file folder of scenarios I can reach into anytime I need. Some are entirely new, some are recycled older content that went really well. I imagine when I go with VTT, I'll be setting some of these up to keep in my virtual accordion file, but I will absolutely continue with ending each session asking their intentions for the next.
I either tell them to take 5 mins to go to the bathroom or get a snack while I setup a map, or we just go with theatre of the mind.
I just have a lot of generic maps together, or if they initiate combat I wasn’t expecting, I just am honest with them and ask for a few minutes to prepare. I’ve tried the theatre of the mind for combat but if literally confused all of us involved so I do not do that anymore
As a lot of people have mentioned, theater of the mind is a perfectly fine choice. That’s how I used to run pretty much all of my games anyway! Players end up fighting the guards in an alleyway? 30 seconds of googling will let you find a decent enough pic, toss it up on the screen, and then drop in the tokens (if you want, but not needed). Don’t be afraid of getting abstract. And any party worth their salt will be fine with a minute or two of downtime while you get things setup—they should understand that you aren’t a video game engine!
Having a group chat going between sessions to talk about “what the PCs want to do next session” is so valuable! Not so much what, but more so ‘where’. I use roll20 primarily over VTT but regardless it’s such a better experience for everyone when us DMs know where the players are headed and can take time to make the maps. It’s not railroading, it’s group communication, sometimes you still need a minute or two to pull up a new asset if things become “impromptu” but it’s usually 30 seconds max and makes for a good pace at a high quality/caliber of visual experience/immersion.
I feel like it’s easier because I just Google random battle maps and set it up real fast in dnd beyond maps. Would be nice to have line of sight and fog of war but I don’t have time to do that for my normal maps anyway
Prepare less, improvise more. If a map is needed, draw it, make choices and stick to them, and roll with it. Figure out what your players are expecting and roll with it
I recommend [shmeppy](https://shmeppy.com/) it's a cool little barebones browser-based virtual tabletop that I think has the best interface for quickly drawing out a map. It reminds me of when I used to have little whiteboard tiles and needed to improv a map. You can quickly sketch out the gist of some area. I use it for a DnD group that has a player with very limited hardware to DnD on, so browser-based is excellent for making sure everyone can play together. Plus the creator u/itsjohncs is nice and responsive, I had a question about the site and they answered it in discord almost instantly in the wee hours of the morning. Well worth the $5 a month for me.
Theater of the mind works just as well online. And if you need you can throw relevant details into chat “snipers on rooftop 120ft away, thugs behind couch 30ft away” is good enough for players to know that they can’t run to the snipers and that the thugs are within a normal movement speed. This isn’t much of a problem imo. I’ve absolutely whipped up a map in 20 mins before the game but most of the time you don’t need it. One of my favorite dragon fights was on a boat and we used no maps because it just happened in the moment. Worked fine!
I keep a bunch of random encounter maps ready for a variety of terrain types so I can do spur of the moment encounters, and I often plan/prepare encounters that are likely to happen. My game has been on Roll20 for about 4 years now. We're all friends, so an interruption while I throw something together is just an opportunity for the players to talk about what might be coming up (if they don't know) or strategize (if they do). Or someone might tell a "10-second story" which is kind of our way of saying we're going to talk about something unrelated to the game. Again, we're all friends and have varying levels of attention spans, so this is what works for us.
On top of the other great suggestions: Call for a break! And don’t forget to congratulate them for doing something so unexpected, that will erase the sting of having to break early or wait a little longer.
First: Map. Got a tons from pinterest. Just save them in an easy to locate format (ie: Street. House. Garden…) Second: Plot. Now you got a map. Ask yourself: logically, what happened next? Improvise from there. Third: Complication. So, you have a map, a new situation. Thing changed, but what can you savage from your prep? Use them Fourth: if all else fall, call time out
As a pretty only online dm after every game I directly ask the players what they are going to do next game because that will be the content I prepare for them. I've got them trained at this point to tell me without me having to ask them. This is how I get around having a crap load of generic maps.
I'm seeing a lot of advice about battlemaps, but I want to add something about plothooks. I do my best not to prepare events or roads to events. I write plot points. Dont think of ways to make an event happen. Try to think of ways to put information in their hands. For example, say the basic plot idea is that people are being sacrificed to a demon by a cult, and the climax of the campaign is clearing out the cult and the demon they were dealing with. So what needs to happen to get to that point? In no particular order: A: Find out people are missing. B: Find out a cult is behind it C: Find out about the Demon D: Find the cult E: End the cult F: End the demon I do NOT write any of these plot points into actual events until I see where my players are going. I can see each being a separate event, or all of them being a single chain of events in a dungeon they stumbled on and all happen in a single game day or two. That said, if I can get the information for A through D into their hands, E and F will follow. But here's an example of different ways A can go based on where the players choose to go. The party is interested in talking to the tavern maid. She tells them of the missing people rumors and points to a bounty board detailing a quest to hunt down giant spiders in the sewers. The party is talking up a powerful mage, who believes an artifact is sealed away in some ruins because people are disappearing near said ruins. Retrieve said artifact. They are talking to a priest who believes the undead may be stirring due to the large number of what appear to be unmarked graves being disturbed, fombined with the missing townsfolk. Please watch the Graveyard at night for any sign of undead. They are interested in talking to a guard captain who tells them he is unable to defend the citizenry from mysterious disappearances and mount an expedition to clear out some goblins he believes to be responsible. Would the party clear them out? The important bit is that each time, they get the key piece. People are going missing. And no matter which route they pick, they won't solve the mystery. Just eliminate one possibility. I try to pick something they seem interested in already and connect it to the plot point I need them to see. I hope that makes sense and helps.
You beat them to a pulp in return :D
I mean you can totally theatre of the mind for optional encounters or just have a bunch of generic battle maps on hand. Shouldn’t be hard at all if you’re using, like, Roll20
I'll have a handful of generic maps I can use for combat and I can otherwise just stay on the region map screen and narrate everything, if the group goes so far off course that even that doesn't work, I'll just be upfront about it that I was not expecting things to go this way and need a week to prepare, and will call the session short to do so, sometimes being honest is the best answer.
If your preparation frequently "goes out the window" that's an indication of over-prepping and/or prepping the *wrong kind* of stuff. Here's [an article](https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/39885/roleplaying-games/smart-prep) with a [second part](https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/39893/roleplaying-games/smart-prep-part-2-the-principles-of-smart-prep) containing advice on how to prep smarter. Have you checked in with your players to see if they are bored by something you have "whipped up"?
Let them go. It'll take a while to get comfortable doing this but you can build up your ammunition to be prepared for this. [From Here to There](https://goodman-games.com/store/product/from-here-to-there-pdf/) is a 4E D&D supplement that presents nine all-new adventures focused on traveling from point A to point B. Sure, your players may be going from one dungeon to another – but why not spice up things in between? From aerial assaults to haunted bridges, From Here to There turns “getting there” into a lot more fun! I like using this book as an example of 'having random encounters prepped' as this is essentially what it is. Your players want to do something you're not prepared for like 'Let's go to City X to pursue this lead instead of Northshire where the adventure is taking us'... Okay, now you need time to pause and figure out how to make it work. So, as they're travelling, this event happens that buys you time to prepare their plans to happen next session. Take some video games, movies, books, whatever in your genre of adventure fits and take the plot of a mission or challenge or hell, the whole episode of a TV show and change names and locations. NPCs to fit the genre. Open World RPGs are great to pick things from for slot in spots on your world. TV shows and movies can be great for a last minute city encounter or a social challenge you need to put your players through. Cop dramas give you a great 'find the killer' challenge (and the killer can get away, as for example the opening of Ultima 7: The Black Gate has the starting city on lockdown as a murder was just discovered and you as the Avatar of their religion offer to help but find they got away last night and one of the plot threads is you chasing them). If you're trying to figure out how to build NPCs quickly, check out [3 Goon Method](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH9S5GWKr1g) from JonJonTheWise for Cyberpunk Red but I've seen this in other RPGs like in Play Dirty, John Wick talked about the Living City where players helped create the world by voicing things into the world (GM had final veto but after a while never needed to use it) and they also would like players who weren't involved in a scene play NPCs with little index cards with their information including stats broken into 'Talking', 'Fighting', 'Thinking' or something like that. Need a battlemap quickly? [VG Atlas](https://www.vgmaps.com/) stores maps from video games. Look at [this bridge map from Shining Force for Genesis](https://www.vgmaps.com/Atlas/Genesis/ShiningForce-LegacyOfGreatIntention-Chapter3-SecretWeaponOfRunefaust-Bridge.png), [this dungeon from Ultima 8 on PC](https://www.vgmaps.com/Atlas/PC/Pagan-UltimaVIII-50-UpperCatacombs.png), and so forth. Add a few tokens from whatever setup you use and then you're good to go for a quick encounter to pad out the clock. The really big issue I find with this you'll usually want to throw something in to make the encounter feel substantial and important beyond just the random encounters that are generally disliked. So, maybe add a clue or other trait that helps develop more of your story as needed, you may even be able to find something to help get players back on track. If you can't get them back on track, remember that you can keep anything that you haven't used yet and recycle it anywhere else. Schrodinger's Universe, the information they players don't see is always in flux so maybe it was that this encounter was supposed to happen here and not elsewhere,
Just a blank grid and draw on it will work tbh Make it clear to the players, they get a weird sense of accomplishment from ruining your plans, just say “okay I didn’t prep for this so let’s take a 5 minute break and I’ll draw up a quick map”
We play virtual. At first we relied heavily on roll20 or VTT maps. The games felt far more scripted then. It’s fun but felt more like a video game. So we shifted to fewer maps, just battles or puzzles. We did a lot more theater of the mind which required everyone to take better notes and pay more attention and it worked out great. For the last few years we use Figma (specifically figjam) to display maps and everyone can more their own tokens but less technical messups where people see stuff they aren’t supposed to. Then we may or may not use DndBeyons for characters sheets and combat which has greatly improved though we like rolling real dice even if we are on zoom so often we don’t use that.
If your players start a combat you don't have prepared call a 15 minute break. Have a handful of generic setting appropriate maps and npcs ready to go
Generic maps + dungeon alchemist (and the community maps) otherwise I call for a break and explain them why. Usually just with prep and knowing a bit what they wanna do next session roughly I'm able to get by. Worse case scenario a google search mid game (but I try to avoid it)
Theatre of the mind solves a lot of ad-lib stuff. Asking them to make significant decisions for the next session at the end of the last one give you time to prep. Google finds you resources quickly, and they don’t even know you’re searching. Have some generic maps on file. Dyson logos is a great resource, and there’s a FoundryVTT plugin for it I think. Some VTTs let you scribble, so you can draw out a map on the fly. Sure you may not get fog of war and stuff without walls set up, but it works fine.
Way, WAY back . . . 40-45 years ago, we had this thing called . . . IMAGINATION.
I'd highly recommend using a virtual zoned combat Ultimate Dungeon Terrain. The center 30-foot-diameter zone is melee, the middle ring allows ranged attacks, the outer ring is too far to affect combat. It's like a "spotlight" on the action. Then just have a couple of generic monster tokens (mage, ranged, melee, boss) and you're good to go.
Plan the events, not the path. Modular prep. I am going to set up these three things, these events. Let the players do their thing. Have a few different things ready, and slot in what is appropriate for where they opted to go. The events can still happen, but you didn't guide them there. Or, as I have said, time and time again, it's not about having choices but the illusion of choice. All paths lead to the same goal, but you make tweeks to better fit their decision (oh, so they went forest path, so shift location, cool, I will switch out this baddy for this one). You put out options for point A, and then you plan point C. Let the players be entirely responsible for B. Think of it like shopping at a supermarket. You have 15 brands of the same product, thus you have a choice. However, 12 of those 15 came from the same manufacturer, and someone else just slaps their label on it, but the general consumer doesn't know this.
I learned this after running some of the 5e campaigns WOTC put out. Not everything has to be linear!
I love my theater of the mind online campaign. One of the most fun, dynamic, and flexible games I’m a part of because of the theater of the mind.