That said, the session itself went remarkably well (as far as I can remember). Everyone was astonished afterwards when I revealed how much of the adventure I had planned ahead, which is to say, everything up until they landed the shuttle. Almost the entire adventure was entirely unplanned, revolving around only a few key points I wanted to involve into the session: First, I wanted them to visit a hospital so Austin could finally do something, and I wanted that hospital to be in or near the rebel fighting area.
The setting of the city and the events taking place therein were obviously already established (for me), but any and all actions the characters took were completely unanticipated. To be honest, I’m not sure whether this was a conscious decision or just a lack of preparation on my part, but either way it went really well. Through some miracle of cognitive functionality I was able to invent most of the encounters on the fly (I can only hope I am able to repeat this feat) and manage to keep the story on track at the same time. I came up with the Garrigan character/accident approximately 10 seconds before it happened, real time.
On a more specific level, I did tend to strongly hint toward what actions the players should take, such as when (crazy) Ned freaked out when threatened with the Jive. It was quite obvious after a few questions that I wanted Austin to dose Ned. The major plot-moving decisions, however, where completely unsolicited by me. The decisions to visit the bar or to perform reconnaissance out of the hospital were completely original and rather unexpected.
