From: millerl@wharton.upenn.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Improvisation!
Date: 26 Aug 92 03:19:29 GMT
Organization: Newt World Order

In article <1992Aug25.011821.58379@cc.usu.edu>, sl9b4@cc.usu.edu (Deep Six) writes:
> Not so fast. The player influence argument is only the most recent one. I
> have watched several good argument go unanswered by improv GMs. Among them:

Okay, I have a few answers which were what I got out of the thread. Hope
you don't mind if they're point by point.

> 1. Improv GMs cannot create detailed maps, written portions and physical
> props.

Guilty as charged. Except for one GM who has the Government Warehouse in
his office :-) most "improvising" GMs can't do this stuff on the fly. On
the other hand I don't think props are all that important. I've GMed
with and without neato props and find for the players I've played with
that props don't enhance the game, nor do maps, they only distract
players from the game. As GM I can get around maps by using mapmaking or
similar skill rolls to see if the PCs get lost, or by a million other
workarounds that take less time than laborious dungeon mapping used to
take me back in the days of dungeon crawling. Props are completely
useless in my games; I can describe things faster and better than I can
make them or find them in second-hand shops.

> 2. Players dislike the feeling that the GM is altering the scenario to
> make the party successful. The ``spoon feeding'' argument (players have
> posted about this).

Again, this is only a problem if the "spoon fed" scenario is a bad one.
If it is entertaining and holds together then the players can't tell how
recently I decided on the details, if it isn't then it doesn't matter
whether I wrote it down the previous day or this minute, it's still
poorly developed.

> 3. Players dislike the feeling that they are bouncing around in a world
> which is unplanned by the GM -- if the GM doesn't know what is going on,
> who does?

If the GM doesn't know what's going on the GM isn't up to par. This can
happen with prep GMing or with improv. Have you never played in a game
with a GM who read the whole adventure out of a module or out of notes
and didn't know what was going on? That can leave players feeling just
as victimized by random decisions and/or hidden criteria as an improv
GM. So can railroading GMs, who in my experience write down their
railroading decisions so they can point to the module if something
stupid happens (like a no saving throw random death) and the players
object to it as capricious.

The improv GMs in this thread actually stated that the only work that
they do for their campaigns is background development, since the only
development they do consciously is on a macro scale they probably "know
what is going on" better than most prep GMs, who merely know the hit
points of the opposition rather than the politics of the three orc
tribes in an area. They also said that they know the games they play
well enough that they're not likely to be surprised by PC abilities.
This doesn't sound to me like they're unprepared, but rather that
they're so well prepared that they can handle anything the players
throw at them. That to me is the strength of practicing improv GMing,
you become ready for anything the players can throw at you, and you can
handle absolutely anything that happens.

Anyway, as I have a full time job, a real life, and other interests, I
don't have 3-6 hours to plan scenarios every week. When I do have the
time I work on the campaign world, but I don't draw maps or do props or
any of that unless I expect to use a "Dungeon" type setting. If I write
scenarios I make them rough plots involving a few NPCs and the PCs that
should take several sessions to get through.

> 4. Improv GMing is vulnerable to the capriciousness of the GM -- GM has a
> bad day, players have a bad day. With prep, the sceanrio is planned over
> time, which has a leveling effect on the GM.

How many days of prep does a "typical" prep GM go through? Is it more
than one? I don't think the problem is with prep or improv GMs, I think
the problem is that "improv GMs" who haven't practiced improv GMing much
aren't very good at it. It isn't too hard to pick up prep GMing as a
skill; but you have to already be a good prep GM to do improv GMing.

> 5. Improv GMs are more likely to throw in an insignificant detail on the
> fly with could come back to haunt them as a logical hole in the game world.

Again, this is a mistake which anybody can make, not just "improv GMs".
I've made some mistakes with improvised decisions, and some mistakes
with pre-planned decisions. The players seem to enjoy both kinds of game
equally, and I prefer the improvised ones because I can avoid tedious
preparation, so guess which kind I emphasize?

--
whoah,
+++++++++++++++++++++++23
Loren Miller                           internet: MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu
The more corrupt the government, the greater the number of laws -- Tacitus
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc,rec.games.frp.advocacy,rec.games.frp.dnd