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Don't. This is something I started to do in my campaigns. When the players derail the plot, I build a new one for them to follow. If they want to focus on how the bad guys have tech that isn't public knowledge, they can. They're ignoring the larger problem of "oh crap, zombies" while doing so, however, so simply let the rest of the world go on into decay as ...

Keep asking your wife :) Really though, that is your best option. You will always overlook things outsiders to the game will notice, simply because you might have an X number of ways of how the story could develop in your mind. So your best option is to work with someone who is outside the game and whose imaginations on things like that will not be limited ...

You have an active engaged player. Run with it! I can tell you from experience that if you railroad them back onto the tracks, they are unlikely to ever be as engaged about your campaign again. If you want to tell a story without outside input, write fiction. Dungeons & Dragons is a Role Playing game, the player should be allowed to agency to control ...

What if the technology were developed by the corporation as part of a black budget program that was funded by the Department of Defense? The technology was developed in secret, then for some reason the project was scrapped. The government stopped funding, but the corporation was 90% of the way to fully functional technology. As a calculated risk, the ...

Developing new products in secret is what corporations are supposed to do. If they have something and you don't, it might just be time to put more resources into R&D. Remind them of that. Also remind them that, in the face of the zombie apocalypse, this story would be a minor footnote in the media and ignored by nearly everyone... if there's even a ...

Here are the steps I would take: Make sure you understand the group's current goals. Get together with just the new player and work together to design a character that has at least one common interest with the other characters. Still with the new player, design a scene where the new player meets the party. On your own, design a scenario where the new ...

Remember: no one is perfect. Your major NPCs rely on henchmen, contacts and contractors to do what they do. Things get messed up. This is where the PCs generally enter the fray and mess things up for the NPCs. Thus some plot holes are perfect there. Second, remember that no NPC know what everyone else is doing with perfect knowledge. Sure, Sauron ...

I am currently running a long term Pathfinder campaign (just passed three years) where the PCs are all pirates called Reavers on the Seas of Fate. Let me discuss how that campaign has been motivated. Survival At first, they were just random goons trying to make a living by working on board a merchant ship. They determined that sucked and that unlawful ...

You answered your own question, I just think you need confidence enough to follow your own advice. I'll address your points a tad out of order. First off, you're going to have to write the protest scene. This is one of the downsides to red-herrings ... they're there to distract your PC's, and occasionally they do the job too well and turn into main-plots. ...

You have a few options here to consider. While the answers will be geared towards your NPC example, it is not hard to extrapolate the style of each into other types of potentially miss-able plot hooks Let The NPC Live You could have ran into this issue if the PC in question had decided they had a problem with killing the NPC and went for more non-lethal ...

As a general rule, don't create plots, create people. If you focus on the plot, then you end up with things like how did the flag get on the mast. If you create people first, and then step through the events in sequence, the characters you have created will dictate what actions will be taken when and by whom. The additional advantage to this is that when ...

What can I use to drive the PCs from petty theft to something more interesting from a plot point of view? Drive is another word for motivation, my friend, and like a few television commercials say "What motivates you?" I am going to attempt to lay out some basic motivators that correspond to the Human Psyche with that slight fantasy twist as evidence. You ...

For me this is great opportunity to add something to the game. Here are a few off beat ideas: Aliens: The Umbrella-clone did find some remains of technology in several landing sites. They started to retro fit them and before they could go public, those pesky zombies ruined everything! Now, that opens up the question: are the zombies just advanced troupes ...

Good question. There's usually a deeper motivation behind going out and stealing things. Your characters will probably fit into one of the following three buckets and this will give them a reason to start. Greed A greedy character often wants to use money as a way to keep score. Thievery is an easy way to get it AND bring somebody else down a level. This ...

If you weren't deliberately stealing ideas from Silent Hill already, I'd recommend you do that; while plagiarizing is a very bad idea when producing content you plan to sell or turn in for a grade, it's a huge time-saver for making home campaigns and settings. I recommend Silent Hill because you've got some major similarities to it already; I'm recommending ...

The easiest way to answer plot holes is to listen to your players. Players always hint before hand at the plotholes they see and will tell you how they hope they will get solved. If its something that I haven't thought of, I usually do one of two things. I either go with what the player thinks is happening or I do the exact opposite. Both of them validate ...

I think it best not to tightly script the long-term. 4th Edition really encourages GM's to involve the players in plot creation. What I do, instead, is come up with interesting characters with some basic motivations and put them in the path of the PCs. I roll up a prince who is planning to overthrow the king, a servant girl who is mute and a dragon who is ...

To quote HP:MoR: "You wouldn't go along with that and neither would I," said Harry. "This is our world, we don't want to break it. But imagine, say, Lucius thought the Conspiracy was your tool and you were on his side, Dumbledore thought the Conspiracy was my tool and I was on his side, Lucius thought that you'd turned me and Dumbledore believed ...

As a player, I hate being forced into an adventure. As a GM, my answer is nothing more than just decades of experience. Roll with it. If the adventure is fun, and you've got it well detailed in your head, you can find other hooks to lead the party back. Make up stuff as you go and provide them with other opportunities to take the bait - mysterious letters, ...

You will always be a frustrated GM, with frustrated players, if you constantly impose your own idea of the story on your player(s). I recommend the excellent answers to How to get out of a story deadlock which basically describes similar situations and asks "how do I make the story happen" - there are some answers to wiggle around it, but the general tenor ...

What I usually find works for me, is when the heroes are going to move through an area, I keep notes on what the culture is like. Is the area rural? Then I put down 2 or 3 example names to give me some inspiration in game just in case they ask "hey who is " I adapt quite a bit from other books, sometimes bits of things from movies or things I see. I take ...

It's always best to have as much material as possible ready to go, but as your question suggests, that's jut not always possible. For one thing, no matter how much prep you do, the players will do things that surprise you. Wherever possible I use existing material and repurpose it with the current situation in mind. For that reason, I never get rid of old ...

Your players will notice some things that get by you and whoever reviews your plots. In these cases, you need to think fast. The players will complain about three things, mainly: Continuity errors NPCs acting out of character NPCs being irrational To avoid continuity errors, use a wiki. Document everything. To keep NPCs acting in character, you need to ...

This makes me think of the Alexandrian's "Three Clue Rule". http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118/roleplaying-games/three-clue-rule That's a long blog post there. Long story short; if you want to ensure that your players will get to a specific spot in your plot, then make sure that there are three ways to reach it. That way there is a decent chance that ...

How about this: For the psectadron to gain power from the players it need them to actually perform a ritual themself. So while all other creatures in the forest are out to get them (maybe to kill them to prevent the psectadron from growing stronger) one single creature/human are the psectadron itself. It tries to trick the players into performing a ritual ...

I stopped sketching plots for campaigns a while back, because my players never follow them anyways. As for holes in the plot, our games certainly have (quite) a few. I quietly brush them under the rug while no one is looking, thus solving the problem forever. Remember, as the GM you have final word over what's a hole. If the players insist on an ...

As with any other writing, you might try writing it down and reading it aloud to yourself. Not every detail, but the main plot points and how the story progresses. It's easy to let your brain take shortcuts when going over things in your head or jotting down notes to yourself, but when you sit down and write it out like a short story you force yourself to ...

The simple answer is Risk:Reward ratio. When you are a lowly bum, the best you can do is pick pockets. Sure, some will keep picking pockets and will always go to bed hungry, but look at real-world examples: Why does the Mafia Don run a vast organization instead of running a car-valet scam? Risk:reward. If you are the guy boosting the cars, your risk is ...

I think that if your player is investing in any part of the plot, that's a huge sign, and you can try and roll with it to make your vision converge with a storyline of the player's choosing. You'll have a much more impressed player when he discovers that the direction he wanted to go led to whatever cool thing it led to. The clock idea is certainly a neat ...

If you decide you still want the NPC killed, rather than rewriting your plot... Have someone go stop the PC on the way to the meeting and express his concerns about the NPC. It could even be somebody the PC respects such as a mayor or town representative... "He's hiding something. I tried to visit him and he run me off with an axe. He also has a big dog or ...