TheRPGSite

You know...I'm finding that the more I approach GMing with a lack of detail-oriened prep, and focus instead on broad goals for a session and general ideas, the more fun I have as a GM.  

For some reason, I've been more actutely aware of this, lately.

Take f'r'example my bi-weekly D6 Space game, which I run at my friendly local.  Most of the time, I walk in there without NPC stats (hell, sometimes even without NPC names), without maps, without anything more ambitious than "Tonight, the players get to raid that seemingly-undefended star-liner, only to get attacked by giant bugs".  

And I end up making stuff up as I go along, grabbing NPC names off a list (or sometimes from new wave music), jotting down stats, inventing "color text" on-the-spot and just generally winging it.  This is all driven by the feel that I want for my game and my setting, and what the players do with it.

It's a kind of reactive GMing, letting the players take the driver's seat. It's my world, but they're messing with it.  Very collaborative.

And, some nights, with no net.

Does anyone else do this?

Been doing this for 20+ years, Doc! Welcome to the Seat-of-the-Pants Club! :D

-clash

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!Does anyone else do this?

Not as much as I'd like, but I totally agree.

I think the thing is that the more prepwork you do, the more restricted you feel / are.  If you just have a vague outline, you're free to adapt more to the players and riff off of whatever comes to mind.

The downside is that you can sometimes get caught in a continuity trap.  At least, the risk is a lot more than if you had well-planned groundwork done.  However, most of the time it's really worth it.

The other downside is that some games require prepwork for certain things.  It's hard to pull a high level D20 character out of your ass, for instance.  So that's a different kind of restriction than the prepwork itself can give you (i.e. you avoid things that are hard to do freestyle, rather than avoid things that you don't have prepped).  Obviously in some systems (D6, natch) this isn't really an issue because the game itself lends well to on-the-fly creation.

My best gaming sessions are the one's where the players wandered off the map, so to speak, and pretty much forced me to improvise on the spot.  The great thing is that much of the time the players didn't know that I was winging it.

!i!

Yeah, that's exactly what I do.

It's why I tend to choose games that don't require the prep.  It's harder to have a bad guy on the fly in Exalted than in, say, SotC.

It is a mix for me. I find having nice maps makes a big difference. I can run everything else off the cuff even to the point of running different adventures from the same maps. However, for me, the map is central. You can gather the group around it, use it as a prop, even help in tactical planning.

However, I have also gone the other way. I have meticulously planned NPCs, locations and monsters. I tend to work from plot points (your general goals) and  do not sweat it if the group goes off in another direction. I tend not to make it "Group must go to Point A in order to make it to Point B" kind of strict plot layout but more "The Group will encounter an NPC that knows Item A" kind of thing.

Bill

Over the years I've discovered that when I have (and use!) lots of time on prep, I tend to spend it on things that are not the most useful in game.  For example, I used to spend extravagant amounts of time on maps, backgroud details, and characters that would end up being merely footnotes in the actual story.  I also found myself with less and less time available, so that I had to make some choices on how to spend what time I have most effectively.

Now I've resigned myself to the fact that the bulk of my notes is going to be written the night before a game.  Instead of stressing out about it and promising that next week I'll spend more time, I've been working on "improving my improv" -- acquiring or improving techniques that let me run a game where people are having a good time with less prep work.  In my case, that means:

• Favour systems where NPCs can be statted on the fly.
• Prepare some stock characters and locations I can pull as needed.
• Encourage players to ad-lib and create scenes (my group likes that approach anyway.)
• Write my notes as outlines with movable scenes and parallel plots lines.
• Brainstorm a lot of what-ifs when prepping: what if they decide to talk the villain down instead of fighting?  What if they decide not to accept the friendly NPC's help? Etc.
• Keep a running list of hanging plot threads.
• Use the tricks from Robin's Laws of Game-Mastering, such as lists of names I can use and cross out when creating an NPC on the fly.
  
• Listen closely to the players' reasoning about what's going on and use their good ideas, changing the plot mid-story if I have to, as long as it makes the game more fun for the group.

Quote from: flyingmiceBeen doing this for 20+ years, Doc! Welcome to the Seat-of-the-Pants Club! :D

-clash

What Clash said, only for less years!

Use your instincts and feel The Force flow through you, padawan.

Quote from: AnemoneFor example, I used to spend extravagant amounts of time on maps, backgroud details, and characters that would end up being merely footnotes in the actual story.

[...snip...]

...I've resigned myself to the fact that the bulk of my notes is going to be written the night before a game.

Using NPCs as a primary example, in my experience, I've found that players often respond with disinterest to finely-crafted NPCs over which I've slaved.  One of the cool things about just sketching NPCs off the cuff is that, once you've found an NPC your players really seem to like (or whom they love to hate), you can fill in the details later, tailoring the character to meet the abilities and aspirations of the player characters.

!i!

Anemone, those are awesome ideas.

I always kinda feel a little guilty when I've done this. Now I know its 'The way things should be done'. Thanks!

Or, use my prep time to empower better zigs when things zag, then let em zag!

I like this style. But don't you need to write down notes after the game to keep it consistent?  I know I forget stuff otherwise and then the world becomes less believable.

Quote from: howandwhy99But don't you need to write down notes after the game to keep it consistent?  I know I forget stuff otherwise and then the world becomes less believable.

Yeah, this has been my experience. I do a rough outline at the beginning of the campaign and create as the players interact with the setting. After game notes are used to create further adventures and npcs. Whether it was totally improv - which I used to do before - or half planned/half improv which is what I do now, there is some paper work involved. I just can't keep track of stuff otherwise.

My OtE campaign for instance has now got 23 plot threads going on and about 30 important npcs in play. That's a hell of a lot of paper work. It's a good thing we are all having a lot of fun :D

Regards,
David R

Quote from: darI always kinda feel a little guilty when I've done this. Now I know its 'The way things should be done'. Thanks!

No no no!  It's a fun way to do things.  It takes skill, confidence and a degree of reckless abandon seldom seen outside of daredevils, action heroes and Margaret Thatcher*.  

There is no one way, and anyone tells you different, you kill them in the face with a flaming shovel.


*WTF?!

After 25+ years of GMing I'm still unsure which one I personally like better: mad prep or no prep. I dunno, I just can't make up my mind. :D Usually, I let the group decide, not by asking them but by gauging their preference.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!Margaret Thatcher

"Please no, Iron Maggie!  Not the Iron Mace of Privatization (+3)!"

"DEATH TO YOU, FOUL SPAWN OF SOCIALISM!"

DOOM!

For the record, I choose the name "Margaret Thatcher" at random, but thanks, fonky!

I prefer games without a need for a lot of prepwork--it gives me more time to flesh out the personality, description, plot-elements, and so on of the game. It also means I can shoot from my hip secure in my ability as a GM, if I have to go without notes and wing it, I'm very comfortable doing that.

Prep work is mostly a degree of free-time. I actually like to do it, because it feels like I'm getting elbow-deep in the game. It's an issue when the players walk 'off the map', so to speak, so my prep-work is actually pretty intense.

Mostly, it's composed of generic work (generic NPC, both non-combatant and other and some locations), key NPCs (they're all killable. Anyone who'd take serious effort typically gets custom stats at some point), and lots of setting. I don't feel comfortable running games unless I'm secure in my knowledge of the world. I typically have Gather Information or Knowledge check DCs made up, for instance, if players are interested in things in D&D. In WoD or Exalted, it's Success levels.

WoD's off-the-map circumstances are typically easier and faster to do, but in the games I like (Mage, Exalted), the players frequently go everywhere because they've got the power to, so ultimetly it's not much easier.

Some of my most memorable games have been off the cuff.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!No no no!  It's a fun way to do things.

THERE IS ONLY THE ONE TRUE WAY!!!... uh... sorry...

For the record, I agree.

I think there is also a distinction between doing prep before the game to support an improv style and doing little or no prep at all and improvising because you HAVE to.

Either way, I've had great times doing both.

all that prep stuff is good for gaining familiarity with the system; that said, my best stuff was running megatraveller "back in the day" by the seat of my pants.    my players seemed to like the freedom they had to go anywhere & do anything.

Quote from: howandwhy99I like this style. But don't you need to write down notes after the game to keep it consistent?  I know I forget stuff otherwise and then the world becomes less believable.

I also find it easy to ask the players to refresh me and each other one what happened last game before we get to playing.

This also helps tell me what jazzed them about the past sessions too.

Wilderlands.
´nuff said.

I would love to do lots of prep, have details coming out of my ears from copious, well organized notes.


Of course, I'd also have liked to have done homework in school instead of skating by on brains, balls and the ability to wreak havoc in the classroom via lightning powered Smiting (tm) if shit didn't go my way.

In other words, for roughly 20 years myself I've had to fly by the seat of my pants. Monster statblocks are nearly always right out of the manual, NPC's drop after the PC's have wacked them a few too many times, dice are rolled and actions are called all without a god damn clue what the hell that number was supposed to actually mean.

And my players? Haven't heard a complaint yet.  Of course, the bloody head of the last player to bitch  about things hanging over the fireplace might have a thing or two to do with it....



EDIT:::: oh, and Iron Maggie is so very very going to appear in the next game I run.  This I do swear.

I have a hard-on for Ms. Thatcher.

I still owe her the poll tax.

Only British persons will remember what that is/was.

There is something to be said for the warm glow you get when something you have spent some time preparing goes really well and is enjoyed by everyone.

I still say this is one of the benefits of a long term campaign; All preparation is incremental and addititive.

The only time I do intensive prepearation is usually before the campaign. (So.. March of 2005 for my current one).

Otherwise I just go over the campaign book and my directory of files about an hour before start, and maybe make a "special" encounter or two.

This is by no means a 'new' way to do anything either. Has anyone ever wondered how guys like Rob Kuntz or Gygax were creating things like dungeons with 1200+ rooms before anyone even had a word processer?

For a lot of them, they were improvising what was in the rooms, or the details of any given thing going on. It got recorded later, but it was the GM and the players improvising as they went.

Quote from: PakaI also find it easy to ask the players to refresh me and each other one what happened last game before we get to playing.

This also helps tell me what jazzed them about the past sessions too.

I usually do the recap myself, but I think your method -having them do it- might be better.  Hmm...I'm gonna try that.

Quote from: Abyssal MawThis is by no means a 'new' way to do anything either. Has anyone ever wondered how guys like Rob Kuntz or Gygax were creating things like dungeons with 1200+ rooms before anyone even had a word processer?

For a lot of them, they were improvising what was in the rooms, or the details of any given thing going on. It got recorded later, but it was the GM and the players improvising as they went.

Once I started figuring that out, I got more comfortable doing it. Plus, it clued me in to the origins of all those random tables in the 1st Ed. AD&D DMG, and we all know what I have to say  (http://xbowvsbuddha.blogspot.com/2006/11/you-have-one-right.html)about that particular tome...

Quote from: Ian AbsentiaUsing NPCs as a primary example, in my experience, I've found that players often respond with disinterest to finely-crafted NPCs over which I've slaved.  One of the cool things about just sketching NPCs off the cuff is that, once you've found an NPC your players really seem to like (or whom they love to hate), you can fill in the details later, tailoring the character to meet the abilities and aspirations of the player characters.

!i!

Generally I throw a bunch of NPCs at the party, I've long since stopped trying to guess which they'll take to and which not, it's utterly unpredictable.

So yes, this is what I do.

Quote from: Abyssal MawI still say this is one of the benefits of a long term campaign; All preparation is incremental and addititive.

I think this is true also, over time detail accretes and you get a very rich and living gameworld.

Quote from: BalbinusGenerally I throw a bunch of NPCs at the party, I've long since stopped trying to guess which they'll take to and which not, it's utterly unpredictable.

So yes, this is what I do.

I have had that happen as well, I introduce a potential love interest--it flops, I introduce an NPC support cast who grabs the eye of a PC, and becomes a love interest, its all cool. I'm glad for my players not to take the bait I set out, or take it with gusto. For me Its the ride I'm after, not my specific "train" of thought.

Quote from: SilverlionFor me Its the ride I'm after, not my specific "train" of thought.

Instant mantra's gonna get yoooooooo...!

Nice one, Silverlion!

I prefer running games this way but the prepwork for me as a GM comes imagining scenarios that can be used on the fly.  For my upcoming campaign, I'm using the player's character sheets as a way to generate adventure ideas.  I'll have a notebook full of ideas that center around the capabilities of each character along with notes to remind me how some of their abilities work.  After that, I'll write out a quick skeleton for the basis of the adventure and generate a list of evocative names that I can draw from.  I also like to write little reminders to myself how things work in the system (traps, combat, magic, etc...).  If I was running a more familiar system, I can do this much easier.  I'm running Warhammer when I'd prefer to be running Rules Cyclopedia.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!Does anyone else do this?

Yeah. I stat only the major players, then chill with a list of names and generic NPC stats.

Seanchai

I like to do some prep. But its mostly free form. Like in the tramp steamer campaign I'm running. I knew the charcters whre going to encounter pygmys and gorillas. So I quick stated them out. I drew up a couple maps of so places I knew they would be. Like the bar they start the senario in, and the pygmy village. One of the prep items for this game I really like is the rifles. Which is something I put some time into. None of the characters have firearms. But when they when to the Ape island. They were issued rifles from the ship gun locker. I handed each player a small peice of paper with the rifles stats, picture, and a little fluff text about the rifle. So it was like each character was really issued a rifle. Then when they return to the ship. They will give these peices of paper back. As the rifles are put back into the ships gun locker.

Quote from: RoninI handed each player a small peice of paper with the rifles stats, picture, and a little fluff text about the rifle. So it was like each character was really issued a rifle.

I did something similarfor a space pirate game: I made up thedse little cards with illos, stats and text, then laid them out in front of the players.  "You all have x many shares in the ship's treasure," I said. "How many shares are these worth to you?" And the bidding commenced.

I used to write pages of notes for a game.  But over time I noticed that the majority of the notes I made never got used.  Wouldn't you know it?  Those rascally PCs like to wander off on their own, rendering carefully planned notes useless.  In addition, I noticed that the free-wheeling I did during those sessions were more interesting and less railroad-y than anything I came up with.

So now I just jot down a few things I'd like to happen during the game and roll with it.  I also vastly prefer rules-light systems since they tend to have less shit to remember and lend themselves more to that style of GMing.

Let me also say that 3x5 cards are perfect for generic PC stat blocks.  Also, try putting monster stats onto 3x5 cards and shuffle them up and draw your own random encounters, table-free!! :D

Ya know, we do this thing in software, sometimes. We write what I call (as many do, I believe) throw-away code.  That is, you know you're writing something that you will throw away at some point. Likely it will not make it into production, or will only see limited time in production.

Why?

Usually it's to plug a gap.  Client A needs something.  Quick and Dirty gets into their hands while, in the mean time, people figure out the long-term best practice solution. Oft times, the writing teaches you something about the issue you're addressing. Sometimes it's even liberating, letting you pull some experimental shit you might not try in code you knew was going into production.

I wonder - how would that fit into the equation? Is it relevant?

In RPG terms, do you mean -- create details you're not gonna need, KNOWING you won't need them, just for the fun of it and/or potential future use?  If that's what you mean, then...yeah, actually, that's something I do.  Hell, in my D6 Space game, I've introduced a plot hook based on a movie trailer I dreamed up over 10 years ago.  

Ta-daaaah!

This is an interesting issue: "Throwaway code" in RPGs would seem to apply to prep done to "cover all the bases," to provide some fleshed-out detail for every direction the PCs might go. SO they start in Town A and you don't know where they're gonna go next, so you sketch up Towns B, C and D. You don't know where in town you'll go, so you've got three shopkeepers, four interesting pub patrons, a couple of street encounters, and the two most influential folks in town plus their henchmen and family. If nobody goes to the creepy backalley shop in the slums, you'll never use Shopkeeper C and his unusual wares, but he's there if you need him.

A lot of folks of course will get enjoyment to varying degrees from the act of prep itself--from coming up with ideas, mapping areas and statting NPCs, whether it gets used or not. Though I'd think the person would be pretty rare who wouldn't want to use their ideas (even just to share them with others, quite apart from getting a payoff from the work involved). Generally speaking, I'd say most folks want to make use of their hard work, so the issue of "throwaway code" becomes a balance between the work involved in prep and the probability of using that prep. Working out a dozen NPCs and only using four of them isn't bad when we're just talking about a name, a personal tic, and a couple of dice-rated traits. When it's a full stat block with character levels, skill ranks, and equipment lists, it starts to be a more daunting chore.

I've personally found this "throwaway code" factor to play heavily in my Over the Edge prep. To facilitate the experience of exploring an open-ended, bizarre and colorful city environment, I had to come up with (whether culed from the OtE bok and supplements or invented myself) a pletheora of people and places the PCs could encounter, only some of which would get used and even then, only some of which would become impprtant to the players. It was a matter of throwing a whole bunch of NPCs at the wall and seeing which ones "stuck." if they really engaged the players then great; they're now ain important part of the plot. If not, then hey, they're just aprt of the local "color." Fortunately statting in OtE was a breeze, so this kind of prep was pretty painless. The hardest work for the GM becomes keeping track of al the characters.

Peace,
-Joel

Quote from: MelinglorFortunately statting in OtE was a breeze, so this kind of prep was pretty painless. The hardest work for the GM becomes keeping track of al the characters.

Precisely.  Now that I've admitted to myself that I'm not actually going to spend appreciately more time prepping "next time" (and that if I did I'd probably spend it on stats no one cares about!), I try to stick to systems that allow to stat NPCs on the fly: Over The Edge, Truth & Justice, Castle Falkenstein, etc.  So when my PCs decide they're going to go talk to Old Whatsisname, I can just create him as needed, even if it never occurred to me before the game that they might talk to him.