From: sl9b4@cc.usu.edu (Deep Six)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Improvisation!
Date: 17 Aug 92 15:08:11 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

In article <geXgPly00awLM21FJx@andrew.cmu.edu>, 
 wt0b+@andrew.cmu.edu (William Henry Timmins) writes:

> I generally improvise the flow of the game, and prepare the background
> in fairly good detail. (Which often goes unused, but hey) The way I look
> at it, I create the world for the characters to live in. They have their
> own motivations and desires. It's up to us to create characters with
> motivations that are FUN to play!

Well, when I prepare scenarios for the players, I like to think I'm in tune
with their desires. They tell me what they want to do, but they can only
do one thing at time, so I always have time to prepare things for them to
do. Also, they tell me the prepared scenarios are fun, so I must be doing
something right.

>>Yes, but the difference is that you're just making it up here and there,
>>while in a prepared scenario, the characters are discovering things set
>>there for them to discover. Example -- the players are searching a room.
>>In an improv game, there might be something there, maybe not. It depends 
> 
> Well, you generate what makes sense. "SHOULD there be a gem there?" I
> think, based on how built the place, lived in it, etc. Same as I'd do
> with prepared games.

No, not the same as with prepared games, because the players are impacting
the game, and you react. When you prepare your scenarios, you are preparing
a little peice of the players' reality which you will set in motion when 
the players arrive. The players respond to that little slice of their 
environment the way the would if they really were their characters.

See the other ``Improvisation!'' post for more on this.

>> If they do, they are rewarded by finding the prize.
> 
> I don't have 'prizes'. I think that's rather simplistic. The goal is
> not 'find the treasure, kill the monster!', the goals are ongoing
> desires of the party. If a character NEEDS MONEY, finding a gem is a
> prize. If a character needs food and is miles from civilization, finding
> a gem is an annoyance.

You're either trying to start an argument, or you missed the point of 
the original statement. The point wasn't what you find, the gem in the 
example above could have easily been a sandwhich. The matter at hand 
referred to how characters get their rewards. In the improv game, the GM 
rewards the players, in the prep game, the environment rewards the players 
(like in real life). To reality freaks like those in my campaign, that's 
good.
 
>>If they do find something, it's not a reward, it's just some thing you 
>>thought into existance seconds (or even minutes before). See the 
>>difference?
> 
> No. What does it matter when you thought it up?

It matters, because if you are making it up while the players are 
sitting there, they are having an effect on the game. They might find
the gem just because they searched, not because it was there. A clever,
flattering player, or a player who knows the GM really well, can use his
influence to ``run'' the game.

> Now, in response to the rudeness of the 'pro-preparation' people, let
> me state an opinion- people prepare when they can't be clever or
> creative enough, and need lots of time to think things up. When they get
> more intelligent and talented, they improvise more, because
> improvisation is more flexible, challenging, and inherently better in
> every way than preparing.

And people who wing it are too lazy or unorganized to prepare things in
advance. As they get more mature and in control of their lives, they 
find time to prepare meaningful, epic-like campaigns, for which their
players will eternally remember them. 

> Props can be made on the fly, or can be made
> after things come up (ie- scroll they find is shown to them the next
> session)                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  ^^^^^^^

That's preparing, isn't it? I guess you're not intelligent or talented
enough yet. Keep trying. 

> About 30% of what the previous paragraph[s] said is intentionally
> exaggerated. Guess which 30%.

Okay,
+  Chadd  L.  VanZanten   SL9B4@CC.USU.EDU  +
+  ``You know,  I thought this was a good   +
+  idea but this is one weird mama-jama.''  +
+                    -- TV's Frank, MST3K   +
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc