From: lee@sq.sq.com (Liam R. E. Quin)
Subject: Re: Improvisation!
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 92 23:22:17 GMT

ericg@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (Eric Chris Garrison) writes:
>>I was reading the GMing goals thread, and someone mentioned
>>improvisation vs. preparation, and it lead me to ask this
>>question of GMs in this group:  How much improvisation do
>>you do? 
>>"go off the map"?  Do you improvise 50% of the time, writing
>>up a skeleton for "run time" fleshing out?  Do you improvise
>>even 90% of the time, having a basic premise and just "wing" it?
[sorry, Eric's article has expired here, so I haven't seen it all]

At one time I ran scenarios that I had bought or written, but I never kept
to them.  I discovered that the players couldn't tell when they'd got
beyond the point to which I had prepared.

Here's what I do these days:

* try and have a goal in mind for a session.  For example,
  - the People will reach the City.
  - the People will meet someone.
  - the People will find something.

* try and have a few pictures - at least one of The Goal, at least a couple
  of others that might or might not get used

* try and have the names of some people and some nearby places

* Sometimes I'll think in detail about a Person they might meet.  (I try not
  to say character or NPC because that sounds so artificial)

During play, I try and mention a few details that I can use later.

  `there's an old stone arch to your left, in a little grassy clearing.
   Oh, and you can hear a sort of bubbling, boiling sound, coming from
   somewhere in front of you--'
--`What's in front of us?'
  `Yes, you can see some steam or mist, but it's getting darker now.'

Later, perhaps I might decide to use the Arch, but at the moment I have no
idea what it is or what it's for.  If they look closely, it's got moss and
ivy on it, perhaps with the hint of carvings peeping out from under the moss.
Maybe the other side has recently been cleaned.

Perhaps they'll look at the carvings & I might draw a squiggle or some runes
or something;  later I can put the same sign on something else, and they'll
perhaps go back to the arch...

What I'm describing in dreadful, unwarranted detail is the process of planting
seeds, or hooks, in a story, so that one can use them later without screams
of `cop-out' [or `deus ex machina' from more pretentious players :-)].

Usually I have a map.  Sometimes I show it to the players.  Sometimes they
get to see a locally-drawn and often innacurate one.  For example, in a war,
it might depict the enemy's country as very small and insignificant...

Most of the games I've run in the last four or five years seem to have been
exploration-based, where the People simply explore a new and magical land,
with some other ostensible goal being - or becoming - secondary.
My technique can also work with more detailed plots, but if you get into
historcal politics, whether Deryni-style or Luis-Nth-style, you'll have to
keep careful records of everything and do a lot of planning.


Lee

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Liam Quin, lee@sq.com, SoftQuad, Toronto, 416 239-4801; the barefoot programmer
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