D&D 5E How often do you fake it as a DM?

[Umbran]

I wing it all the time. Not out of interest, so much as out of necessity. I have a group who will, when presented with that is pretty obviously a train heist scenario, instead make the session into a session role-playing forgery, scamming people for paperwork, and sabotaging telegraph lines to, in essence, get goods delivered to the wrong place and name rather than physically steal it.

I love my players, but their choice of course often makes any preparation I do largely worthless.

 

[Halivar]

Sometimes, when I have prep notes or a prepub adventure, and I am following it, I have a vested interest in my players following, also; and subconsciously I think I end up railroading to keep all my prep work relevant. But when I chuck the notes, or close the adventure book, I am free to indulge player whims, and they end up having more fun.

Now, would it be better if I could just run a planned session and let it go off the rails if the players choose? Absolutely. But I think it's better to play to your strengths, not your weaknesses.

 

[the Jester]

Do you ever do this? If so, do your players know and how do they receive it?

No, I am never too lazy to pull out the MM or my notes. On the other hand, I often improvise. Since I run a hardcore sandbox I often don't know what the game will hold until the pcs pick a direction/quest/task/whatever.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

I wing it as needed. There are nights when I'm "off", and sometimes those lead to something interesting or a forgetful night where I decide I need to improve, and sometimes, take a break from DMing for a week.

 

[tgmoore]

I don't call it faking. I call it improvising. I often use classic 1st ed adventures which I modify and convert to 5E and build an over arching story line.

 

[Riley37]

I've never started a session with *zero* prep.

When players want to explore something MUCH more thoroughly than I had expected, I choose between these three responses: (a) go with it, improvising as needed; (b) tell them that I'll have answers the next session; (c) tell them that there just isn't anything interesting in that direction.

Recently, I went to a session with one thing clear in my mind, planned as either a foreshadowing or maybe a ten-minute non-combat interaction spotlighting one PC, and some vague ideas about what would happen after that. The player whose PC was spotlighted, used that interaction to raise some sandbox-style ideas about the current state of Campaign City, and pushing for certain changes. It went way longer than ten minutes, and we found ways for the other players to get their PCs into the conversation, and the conversation expanded into *almost the entire session*.

In the process, the guy playing the dwarf barbarian shows more interest in the setting, than ever before. Usually he's all about raging in combat, then having his PC go get drunk. Now he's a master planner!

So I dunno if my lack of other prep was a causal factor, but it was a great session.

The characters then left the NPC's place, and I had one of them get attacked on his way home... which took about ten minutes to resolve, but it established that someone's out to get him and is sending disposable minions.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Having certain materials always prepped means never having to be at a loss for "stuff" just because players went in an unexpected direction.

1) Ye olde list of generic stat blocks. Typical beasts, NPC types, and a few genericus maximus monster types work fine.

2) Ye olde list of names. For characters, small towns, taverns, ships, books, etc. There are lots of generators for these out there and building some stock lists is a snap.

3) Ye olde list of plots/motivations. Some general things going on with the principals involved left blank. Example: X needs money to fund something. It is a secret and he/she is stealing from Y to get the money. A good mix of good guys, bad guys, & greedy guys that want something and are attempting X to get it.

4) Ye olde stack of generic maps. Caves, small dungeons, villages, forts, taverns & other typical locations likely to come up.


Once you are well stocked with these items, there is very little that can't be cobbled together to get through a session sans any other prep. The only other thing needed is scratch paper to jot down what elements you used to maintain consistency. So if the players decide to suddenly visit the next village to see if they are experiencing the same problems as the one village you have lovingly detailed (AND THEY WILL!!), using your store of material you can come up with a named village, a map, a named tavern, and various named NPCs (with stats ready if needed) that the characters can talk to and it will seem like you had the place designed already.

Never throw anything out. Always recycle and keep building your store of generic material. The more you save and organize this stuff the easier campaign prep gets.

 

[Halivar]

[MENTION=66434]ExploderWizard[/MENTION] Absolutely. I keep #2 and #4 on hand at all times. When I use a name, I scratch it off and note it on my scratch sheet for inclusion in my "campaign bible" (a Google Doc with a cast of NPC's and current events).

 

[phantomK9]

I'm used to running mostly Fate and Fate Core games now, but in truth I "fake it" about 85% of the time.
I come to the table with some vague ideas of scenes that I would like to run and more specifically things that the PCs will need to do to get some valuable information or other goal but then the rest I usually make up on the spot or let the players infer from what they already have and run with it.

For me the most important thing to have prepared are the motivations of the opposition. Being a bad guy for the sake of being a bad guy is not enough in my book and I have to start with the motivations. Once all that is worked out, the rest of the pieces just fall into place.

Now, having said that, my 3.5e days were filled with page after page of encounters mostly consisting of monster stats and treasure lists. That got old real quick, so once I start running 5e I will probably try to find a happy medium with my current Fate style. It helps that there are really only 2 or 3 numbers in 5e that I have to track.

 

[Blue]

How often do you "fake it" as a DM?

Three times last night. Quite an adventuresome party.