Using Your Best Material First

If you have a great idea for your next game you are probably eager to present it to your players. Whether it is an exciting plot twist, an enthralling encounter, or a complex NPC, it's a lot of fun to have a great concept to spice up your campaign. Don't store up all your best material in the hopes that you will be able to build up to the perfect climax six sessions later. I have seen too many great ideas wasted because the DM was holding out for that 'perfect moment' and just never got there. It's great to build up to something, but not if the build-up isn't entertaining itself. Don't delay something just to draw things out.

That's not to say that you should force anything into your campaign. Whatever choices you make in a game should develop organically and make sense in the context of the adventure. You don't need to put a chase scene in the middle of an adventure in a haunted castle. What I'm suggesting is that you should have decided early on if the chase scene would have been more fun and then set that up first. If you have three ideas, choose the one that you think would be the most interesting. Don't try to hoard your best inspirations for a rainy day.

Via The RPG Athenaeum

New ideas will come along, your imagination will carry you through and bear fruit. So use it or lose it when it comes to great game-running material. Make sure you start foreshadowing and laying the groundwork for your best quest lines and plot hooks right away. Have a list of the coolest concepts you could think of and start putting them into place. Keep an eye on how your players react so you know what does and doesn't work. Adapt and learn, and grow as a game master. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, after all! So good luck, and happy ventures!