My groups last session was maybe the best in the 15 month campaign we’ve been playing (they just hit level 7 at the end of it) and I feel like I did a few things that really helped.

First, some general advice. I knew that this session was kind of the crux of several plot elements. I needed to introduce them to the next arc of the campaign, wrap up a missing NPC, and deal with the fact that one PC was being held captive.

I started my planning for the session by writing a list of the different factions involved - the players, the orc tribe who’s fortress the session would take place in, the Astral sages, a group of wizards who pull the strings of government using their divination abilities (the missing NPC is an important member, and was being held captive by the orcs), and the cult the players have been dealing with (2 factions really, since the cult is breaking into 2 sides).

Once I had these listed out, I specifically wrote how the motivations of each group applied to the situation. In my case, one side of the cult wanted the missing NPC to thwart the rival side, the rival side didn’t need him so they didn’t care. The orcs feared his power so would be happiest if he died, and the players fear him, but know his value, so they hoped to save him.

Having these motivations figured out for this situation made it much easier to role play any NPCs that had a part in the session. It also made sure I wasn’t missing anything as I gave out information about the next arc throughout the session. Finally, it made the next piece of advice much easier to implement.

Going into the session, the party was split. One PC was being held captive, 2 were inside the fortress, confronting the orcs, and 2 were stuck outside the fortress after a troll and a cave in split them up from the other two.

In the past I have struggled with handling a split party, but some matt colville advice has changed that for me. In fact, a split party is an awesome tool to maintain pacing throughout a session, and is now one of my favorite conditions as a DM.

For this session, I prepared by listing a sequence of scenes that could happen for each group of players. Having an idea of the motivations for the different factions was really helpful here. For instance, one side of the cult was coming to the fortress to negotiate their taking of the missing NPC. This gave possibility to multiple scenes for the group outside the fortress. The missing NPC was being interrogated by the orcs, which gave some scenes for the captive player. Even the idea of a scene with one group of PCs inside the fortress as the 2nd group made their way inside was nice to have in my back pocket.

Having these scenes listed out served a few purposes. First, I listed with each scene a piece of information to deliver during the scene. Second, I knew I had several important scenes that I needed to deliver - having a physical list allowed me to quickly find a scene and cross it off when it was initiated. Third, anytime I wasn’t sure what to do next, I had a list of scenes I could pull from to make sure story kept moving forward. The last, and most fun for me, was regarding pacing. I would let a scene play out with one group until it either lost momentum, or until it became very tense. In that moment, I could move to a scene with a different group of PCs. This allowed me to build and release tension as the information was delivered and the PCs muddled their way through confronting the orcs, joining them, replacing the cult party who came to negotiate, reuniting most of the party, finding the NPC and PC who were held captive, killing the orcs, and releasing the captives.

I’m certain that having these two preparation tactics will make future sessions more exciting while helping me to feel more prepared. I think it can do the same for your table!

Tldr; make sure you know the motivations behind your factions for any big encounters, and come up with a few scenes for each group of a split party to allow you to switch back and forth easily and maintain pacing during a session.