From: swann@acsu.buffalo.edu (Stephen Swann)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Improvisation!
Date: 14 Aug 92 00:28:23 GMT
Organization: UB

In article <1992Aug13.144431.58137@cc.usu.edu> sl9b4@cc.usu.edu (Deep Six) writes:
>Stephen Swann writes:
>> Preparation is fine (in fact necessary) for the beginning DM, or for
>> a DM learning a new gaming system. 
>
>Hmm. I have been GMing in various systems since 1982 or so, and I prepare
>a lot. Does that make me a beginning DM? 

I didn't mean to imply that anyone who prepares is an inexperienced
or incompetant DM.  What I should have said is that -I- only prepare
when I'm in the process of learning a new gaming system; one which I
don't understand well enough to make up characters and situations on
the spot.

>I think games that are 99% 
>improvised (by my definition) can get kind of silly. Game sessions tend 
>to start out like ``Well, what should we do?'' 

Guffaw, snort.  I have a ream [not literally, because they're not
written down] of plots, sub-plots and sub-sub-plots that they can
pursue.  The biggest problem they have every playing session is "which
of the 10,000 things we've been "planning to get to" are we actually
going to do?"

I found that [back when I did any] most of my preparation got wasted,
because players don't work from a script, and are bound to do things
in a way that you didn't expect.  That's why I never get much use out
of pre-packaged modules; the players never attack the scenario the way
the module writers expect them to, and so most of the module's writeup
becomes irrelevant.

>Now, some of you might say, ``Well, I've been GMing since Christ was a
>corporal, and I can make up ingenious plots extemporaneously at will.''
>I don't buy it. 

I'm sorry you don't buy it, but I really do make everything up on the
fly.  I invented an entire Drow socio-political system, complete with
descriptions of rebels, dissodents, fanatical cults, political
manuevering, betrayals, power struggles and kidnappings, all because
my players captured a library from a wizard, found a (recent) scroll
on the subject, and decided to read it on the spot.  I always make
notes when I'm doing this, so that I won't forget or change any info
that I've given out, but really, I almost never prepare anything in
advance.

>If you can make up exciting story lines complete with
>intrigue and twists off the top of your head, you're probably in the
>wrong business. 

I've often considered that possibility myself.  :-)

>OTOH, if you have complex plot lines, NPCs, problems and 
>other subtlties floating around in your head ready to use, I think I would 
>consider that preparation, it's just not written on paper.

Well, I have tons of that stuff in my head all the time, but where do
you think that came from?  Same deal - all those loose ends that I
keep bringing up are things that I thought of because the players at
some point demanded a piece of information about something, and so I
made up something on the spot.

>I do make it up as I go along, but I do it before the players show up
>to the game. That way you can forsee problems, make adjustments and really
>be, well, prepared for the game.

See, I never bother, because I never have the faintest conception of
what my players will decide to do from one minute to the next.  So
flexibility is key.  I'm not going to spend hours making up NPC's that
they'll never meet, adventures that they'll never partake in, and
places they'll never visit.  I wait for them to tell me where they're
going, and I take it from there.  It works fine.  Really.

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