Stop wasting your ink. I see too many GMs burning themselves out writing pages of linear scenarios that players will trample at the first opportunity. It's EXHAUSTING, it's inefficient and, between us, it kills the magic of the unexpected. If you want your point crawl sessions to have punch without spending your nights on them, you need a SIMPLE system.
Personally, what I use all the time is the TMW method: There is / Mais (But) / When. Three steps, three sentences, and a ton of EMOTIONS as a result.
Note : this method is inspired by this fine video from Black Mantle Studio. Nice one mate !
Why your current prep probably sucks
Let’s be honest: the biggest flaw GMs have is wanting to predict EVERYTHING. We write scripts, we anticipate player reactions as if we were performing a solo stage play. But RPGs are chaos, they are life!
I don’t like excessive randomization (soulless random encounter tables are not for me), but I love it when a situation SLIPS out of control. That’s when you feel the adrenaline. The TMW method is your safety net to improvise with the flair of an old pro, without ever being caught off guard.
The holy trinity: There is / But / When
What’s the concept? It’s reducing an encounter to its narrative ESSENCE. No useless fluff, just action.
1. THERE IS: The visual hook
Here, you describe what jumps out at the eyes. It’s the bait. An object, an NPC in distress, a strangely decorated door. The goal is simple: force the players to make a DECISION.
Personally, this is what I prefer to do: place an element so intriguing that the group cannot ignore it. If your players talk for 20 minutes without moving, it’s because your "There is" lacks spice.
2. BUT: The hidden truth
This is the flip side of the coin. The thing that makes the scene not go as planned. It’s the trap, the betrayal, or the technical complication. It’s what transforms a simple observation into STAKES.
3. WHEN: The dynamic trigger
This is where the magic happens. The "When" defines a change of state. It’s the condition that flips the scene into its second phase. It’s what avoids static, boring combats that last for ages without evolution.
The canonical example (and why it’s great)
Look at this example, it’s the foundation:
THERE IS a golden crown sitting on the edge of a well. BUT it’s an ambush set by bandits hidden in the bushes. WHEN half of the bandits fall, the others flee by jumping into the well.
That’s it. Ten seconds of reading. And yet, you have a complete scene: a temptation, a fight, and a POTENTIAL pursuit that opens onto a new area of the point crawl (the bottom of the well).
That’s why I love this system. It doesn’t force the players to do anything; it simply reacts organically to their actions.
Why it will change your life as a GM
The ultimate Low Prep method
We’re all the same: we have a job, a life, and not necessarily eight hours a week to prepare the next session. With TMW, you can prepare ten waypoints on your map in twenty minutes. It’s SURGICAL.
Ending rigid scripts
I hate GMs who say: "No, you can't do that, I planned for you to talk to the guard." With TMW, you don't have a script. You have a CONDITION. If the players decide to burn down the forest instead of fighting the bandits, your "When" will adapt or never trigger at all. And that’s PERFECTLY FINE.
Creating pure emotion
RPGs are a matter of guts. When the "When" triggers, players feel a shift. Surprise, fear, excitement. It’s that moment when everyone sits up in their chair because the situation has just changed RADICALLY. Without this tension, you’re just rolling dice to do math.
My tips for mastering TMW
Anyway, to make it really work, here is what I do during a session:
- Vary the flavors of the "But": It’s not necessarily a fight. It can be a social truth ("There is a generous noble, BUT he is hated by the people") or an environmental one.
- Be blunt with the "When": Don't wait for the combat to bog down. Trigger the change early. A short, intense scene is better than an encounter that drags on.
- Link the dots: The "When" of one scene can be the "There is" of the next. If the bandits jump into the well, the next scene starts with: "There are bandit corpses at the bottom of a damp cave..."
Summing up?
Stop overthinking it. The point crawl is a fantastic structure because it’s visual and fluid. Don’t ruin it with heavy-handed prep.
Use THERE IS / BUT / WHEN.
It’s simple, it’s effective, and it leaves all the room for what really matters: improvisation and your players' wild ideas around the table. But be careful, once you’ve tasted this freedom, you’ll never be able to go back to your old 50-page notebooks hehe xD