From: swann@acsu.buffalo.edu (Stephen Swann)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Improvisation!
Date: 25 Aug 92 23:19:17 GMT
Organization: State University of New York at Buffalo/Comp Sci

In article <1992Aug25.011821.58379@cc.usu.edu> sl9b4@cc.usu.edu (Deep Six) writes:
>
>1. Improv GMs cannot create detailed maps, written portions and physical
>props.

Can't argue with that.  Although, I've already stated my disapproval of
most props of the non-map/non-written variety, so I won't bore this
thread's regular readers by re-stating my reasons.  :-)

>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).

Ok, well, I can say for a fact that I have seen more "bad improv" DM's
alter the scenario the other way - toughening up opponents after the
fact so they put up a better fight.  I don't change things either way,
once I've generated a character in my mind, he is a fixed entity, and
I would no more change his abilities/attributes than I would tell the
player that there's a door here one minute and it's gone the next.

>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?

I know what's going on in my campaign.  I have about 100 NPC's of
varying importance whose actions and whereabouts I keep track of -
even to the exent of including them in my DM's record.  I keep track
of weather patterns, population movements, political developments and
important individual events.  But I'm just "deciding them" (read that
"making it up") as we play.  As the players "do their thing", I keep
track of what the rest of the world is doing around them.

If I decide (as it's happening, of course!) that this winter is
particularly fierce, then I may also decide that the humanoids and
barbarians from the northern wastes are liable to invade the north
borders of the character's home kingdom, seeking food stores and
milder weather.  I would then rule that the King would dispatch a
small (or maybe large) army to secure the borders, and either impress
or (more likely) hire mercenary adventurers to back up his infantry
divisions.  That's great, and can lead to all kinds of interesting
adventures, especially if the barbarians turn out to be under the
leadership of an exiled wizard, who was once high in the King's favor.
He could be the one who came up with the bright idea of gathering the
scattered peoples of the north into a huge army, and "taking the
fertile southlands away from the weaklings", probably his way of
settling his vendetta against the kingdom that cast him out...

>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.

I'll worry about that eventuality when I start having bad days.  I can
recall having 2, and both times it was because I was tired and stressed
out, which is a bad time to try -anything- that's intellectually 
challenging.

>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.

Any detail you throw out should be based on one of two things:
(1) something that already exists
(2) something that you can create later to match the detail you just
    threw out

Either way, there should be no confict.  I can't remember a single
instance of this sort of conflict occurring in my campaign.  I suppose
it's possible that I've done it and I just haven't been caught, but my
players are pretty fucking sharp on those things.

> This has been one cool thread, and I am not going to ruin with any 
>flames if I can help it.

I have to confess, I'm getting a little tired of people making false
assertions about the nature and effects of improv GMing, largely based
on supposition.  Although some have gone so far as to say "my cousin
Jim once played a session of improv, and it sucked!", I'd still guess
that most of the nay-sayers have never ventured to try it, and are
simply peeved at the rest of us who seem to be having all the fun,
without doing our "fair share" of sweaty hard labor first.  ;-)

-- 
Steve Swann                 |    Speak to me in many voices; make
swann@acsu.buffalo.edu      |      them all sound like one...  -BOC
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc