Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Minimizing Prep Time - Forked from "DMing: from fun to work "
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 5167002" data-attributes="member: 8835"><p>I think what Celebrim is describing as bad improv-DMing is really "Oh-yeah-ism"</p><p></p><p>The trap doesn't exist until a PC looks for it.</p><p>If the PCs look for assassins, there's one there to be found.</p><p></p><p>Part of the improv behavior of creating complications to player actions is standard "writing" and DMing technique. </p><p></p><p>If the player said he wanted to run for Sheriff in the next election, a bad GM would say time passes and announce the election results (possibly randomly determined).</p><p></p><p>A good GM creates some complications to the goals so as to make it a challenge (and memorable).</p><p></p><p>Where that goes wrong in improv, is the PC sees a pretty simple and obvious goal, announces it, and suddenly the way is fraught with obstacles and ninjas. All because the player chose to go that way, the DM applies this principle in over-drive and makes the simple become hard.</p><p></p><p>this is "thwartism", where the GM can't let a single thing be simple, because that's how he generates his game content. It's over-doing it that's bad.</p><p></p><p>I use this technique. but I generally don't improv. I figure out the PCs goals (usually by asking the session before), and then I write content to present the opportunity that I expect the players to pursue, and that opportunity has challenges and such on the way.</p><p></p><p>The adventure then becomes how the PCs learn about these obstacles and overcome them. I don't generally make up new obstacles on the fly, so if the players have a really good idea, the task becomes simple. I may shuffle or re-use an obstacle if I feel it makes sense when they have simply chosen a different direction.</p><p></p><p>Thus, I may have a guard patrol in the main halls, so regardless of if the PCs go left or rigjht, they may run into the guards. Technically, I'm thwarting a left or right decision, but I maintain that wasn't a real choice anyway.</p><p></p><p>What I don't do, is bring in the guards when the PCs specifically take an action that would prevent alerting the guards.</p><p></p><p>So if the PCs go Left and tromp loudly, they'll run into guards. Even if they went Right instead. But if the PCs go quietly Left, they'll sneak past the guards. I might roll all this, or just determine it, it depends on the actual situation.</p><p></p><p>While I'm talking about Celebrim's point, this also touches on how I reduce prep-work. I try to deploy challenges that I have some leeway to redeploy differently in the session. This means less writing of "IF" blocks and planning, and fewer overall encounters I need to prep up.</p><p></p><p>Ideally, I figure out the players goals, and figure out how an Opportunity to pursue the goal is revealed (usually the first encounter or so in the game).</p><p></p><p>I then figure out all the people/monsters that I think will be encountered to pursue this goal, and the places I'll need.</p><p></p><p>I use random NPC, Monster, Treasure, Dungeon, Town generators as much as possible for this. So it's copy/paste or hyperlink (many of these tools use a Seed value, so you can hyperlink back to that exact roll-up).</p><p></p><p>With all this in place, I usually have enough notes to run a session off of Word on my laptop.</p><p></p><p>For my group of friends, we have the general meta-game rule that the party will bite the plothook. We also have a corollary, that the plothook must make sense for the party to bite, and must respect that the players have shortcut the process to reduce complexity for the GM. In short, I can't screw them over because I know they HAVE to bit the hook, whereas in a more sandboxy game, they'd have a large menu of choices.</p><p></p><p>The plus side is, I only need to prepare 1 solid plothook/opportunity (though sometimes I'll present multiple smaller hooks, and the bigger hook, because I think some multi-tasking make sense). I try to make each hook directly applicable to what the PCs goals are, so it is very natural for the PCs to choose to pursue it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Janx, post: 5167002, member: 8835"] I think what Celebrim is describing as bad improv-DMing is really "Oh-yeah-ism" The trap doesn't exist until a PC looks for it. If the PCs look for assassins, there's one there to be found. Part of the improv behavior of creating complications to player actions is standard "writing" and DMing technique. If the player said he wanted to run for Sheriff in the next election, a bad GM would say time passes and announce the election results (possibly randomly determined). A good GM creates some complications to the goals so as to make it a challenge (and memorable). Where that goes wrong in improv, is the PC sees a pretty simple and obvious goal, announces it, and suddenly the way is fraught with obstacles and ninjas. All because the player chose to go that way, the DM applies this principle in over-drive and makes the simple become hard. this is "thwartism", where the GM can't let a single thing be simple, because that's how he generates his game content. It's over-doing it that's bad. I use this technique. but I generally don't improv. I figure out the PCs goals (usually by asking the session before), and then I write content to present the opportunity that I expect the players to pursue, and that opportunity has challenges and such on the way. The adventure then becomes how the PCs learn about these obstacles and overcome them. I don't generally make up new obstacles on the fly, so if the players have a really good idea, the task becomes simple. I may shuffle or re-use an obstacle if I feel it makes sense when they have simply chosen a different direction. Thus, I may have a guard patrol in the main halls, so regardless of if the PCs go left or rigjht, they may run into the guards. Technically, I'm thwarting a left or right decision, but I maintain that wasn't a real choice anyway. What I don't do, is bring in the guards when the PCs specifically take an action that would prevent alerting the guards. So if the PCs go Left and tromp loudly, they'll run into guards. Even if they went Right instead. But if the PCs go quietly Left, they'll sneak past the guards. I might roll all this, or just determine it, it depends on the actual situation. While I'm talking about Celebrim's point, this also touches on how I reduce prep-work. I try to deploy challenges that I have some leeway to redeploy differently in the session. This means less writing of "IF" blocks and planning, and fewer overall encounters I need to prep up. Ideally, I figure out the players goals, and figure out how an Opportunity to pursue the goal is revealed (usually the first encounter or so in the game). I then figure out all the people/monsters that I think will be encountered to pursue this goal, and the places I'll need. I use random NPC, Monster, Treasure, Dungeon, Town generators as much as possible for this. So it's copy/paste or hyperlink (many of these tools use a Seed value, so you can hyperlink back to that exact roll-up). With all this in place, I usually have enough notes to run a session off of Word on my laptop. For my group of friends, we have the general meta-game rule that the party will bite the plothook. We also have a corollary, that the plothook must make sense for the party to bite, and must respect that the players have shortcut the process to reduce complexity for the GM. In short, I can't screw them over because I know they HAVE to bit the hook, whereas in a more sandboxy game, they'd have a large menu of choices. The plus side is, I only need to prepare 1 solid plothook/opportunity (though sometimes I'll present multiple smaller hooks, and the bigger hook, because I think some multi-tasking make sense). I try to make each hook directly applicable to what the PCs goals are, so it is very natural for the PCs to choose to pursue it. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Minimizing Prep Time - Forked from "DMing: from fun to work "
Top