Focus

In this post, I want to focus on a couple of things having to do with... focus.

SQUIRREL!

But seriously:

Focus on the numbers:

My posting has slipped a little in the past couple months, mostly because my workdays have been getting busier and busier. This is a trend I expect to continue for close to a year at least. This is a good thing, but it does make it more challenging to post to this here blog on a regular basis.

Despite my lapse in bloggage, my page views, seem to be doing quite well. In July, I came within 50 views of breaking 2000 for the month, but slipped back to about 1600 in August. Still, that means each of my posts for the month was viewed 160 times. I know this is really small potatoes -like, nanoscale- in the world of blogging, but it makes me feel good.

Focus on the story:

This is actually more of a re-focus. Last week, as I was struggling with how to plan my next game session, I suddenly had an epiphany. Borrowing from the school of KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) I decided to ask myself the very simple question of, "What is the objective for the upcoming session?" as in, what do I want my players to accomplish? When I set a single, concrete story objective, everything else suddenly seemed to fill in. Ideas for challenges the players could face immediately started to form in my mind, all designed to make the achievement of said objective feel like a worthwhile accomplishment.

It may sound a bit like railroading, but the objective was born of a plan expressed by my players in a previous session. Also, I will merely present the various challenges along the way and leave it up to the players to decide how to overcome them. Choices abound!

Now, if only I can remember in the future that this technique really helps.