Planning adventures is Craft and Winging-it is ART?

[tonym]

I know this DM who generally wings his adventures. When I asked him why he doesn’t spend more time planning, he said that winging is an Art and planning is a Craft. Then he provided the following analogy to explain the difference (not an exact quote, but close):

“A primitive painter, when depicting a brick wall on a canvas, will use tiny brushes and will paint every brick and stripe of mortar in the wall. This person is a Craftsman and his painting is a Craft. A true artist, on the other hand, will paint the wall with a large brush, filling in huge areas with quick strokes. He will only paint a few bricks, and yet will still create the impression of a brick wall, and his painting will be Art.”

So he wings the adventures because he is an Artist, not a Craftsman.

What do you people think about his Art versus Craft theory?

Having played in his game a few times, I think his adventures could use a LOT more planning. But maybe I’m a dork who cannot appreciate Art when I see it...

I know there are a lot of Winger-types on EN World. What do you guys think? Are you Wingers because you think like he does?

Tony M

 

[hong]

I know this DM who generally wangs his adventures. When I asked him why he doesn’t spend more time planning, he said that wanging is an Art and planning is a Craft. Then he provided the following analogy to explain the difference (not an exact quote, but close):

“A primitive painter, when depicting a brick wall on a canvas, will use tiny brushes and will paint every brick and stripe of mortar in the wall. This person is a Craftsman and his painting is a Craft. A true artist, on the other hand, will paint the wall with a large brush, filling in huge areas with quick strokes. He will only paint a few bricks, and yet will still create the impression of a brick wall, and his painting will be Art.”

So he wangs the adventures because he is an Artist, not a Craftsman.

What do you people think about his Art versus Craft theory?

Having played in his game a few times, I think his adventures could use a LOT more planning. But maybe I’m a dork who cannot appreciate Art when I see it...

I know there are a lot of Wanger-types on EN World. What do you guys think? Are you Wangers because you think like he does?

Tony M

It's amazing what search-and-replace can do.


Hong "wangs his adventures because he is a wanger" Ooi

 

[Mystery Man]

It's amazing what search-and-replace can do.


Hong "wangs his adventures because he is a " Ooi

RoFL!

Tell your buddy that a true artist is a master craftsman.

Feel free to replace that with wanger if you must.

 

[Pyske]

I'd say that a better analogy would be artistic crafts (painting, sculpture, musical composition) vs. performance art (theater, musical performance).

Then, given that you want more prep, I'd point out how rarely one finds performance art that doesn't rely on artistic crafts (props, scenery, musical scores, instruments).

. . . . . . . -- Eric

 

[Zappo]

What a ridiculous theory. Sounds like a weak coverup for "I don't like planning" or "I don't have time to plan". There's nothing wrong with that, so he could as well be honest. Great DMs can plan AND wing, and there lies the art.

As for the paragon with painting... uhm, that's completely wrong on several different levels. Unless your friend is using a very weird and arbitrary definition of "art" and "craft", that is.

Also:

Tell your buddy that a true artist is a master craftsman.

Ditto.

 

[Arnwyn]

Good grief. That quote is one of the most asinine things I've ever heard in my life. (But, then again, maybe it's because I've never understood "artists".)

 

[the Jester]

Campaign construction and adventure planning is my favorite art form.

 

[Aristotle]

Okay... I agree with the general idea of art versus craft, although the example is sketchy. I think its important to note that neither art or craft is better than the other. Both have strong points and both have failings. I think that is important as I see a lot of people condemn one or the other just because it doesn't work for them, or they don't have the ability to run games well that way.

As someone else said a true master of the game will be competent at both modes of play and will be able to quickly switch from his or her planned adventure into random tangents if the players take the game in that direction.

I don't know that I am good at either style of play (you would have to ask my players), but I like to craft the basic story of an adventure and the key events I want to see come to pass, and then I take that and paint in the rest of the adventure as its played.

 

[reveal]

“A primitive painter, when depicting a brick wall on a canvas, will use tiny brushes and will paint every brick and stripe of mortar in the wall. This person is a Craftsman and his painting is a Craft. A true artist, on the other hand, will paint the wall with a large brush, filling in huge areas with quick strokes. He will only paint a few bricks, and yet will still create the impression of a brick wall, and his painting will be Art.”

So he wings the adventures because he is an Artist, not a Craftsman.

That's one of the weakest excuses I've heard for not planning an adventure. Ask your friend this, if he went to a concert to see his favorite musician and they just "winged" it, would he still like them? Probably not. They have a set list of music that they play and practice, constantly, to make sure the music is sound and people will enjoy it. Using your friends analogy, these musicians are all craftsman, not artists. And that is definitely not the case. Musicians are artists, pure and simple.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

An artist is a craftsman. The statue of David is undeniably a work of art, but it required great craftsmanship to make it. I can take a lump of clay, mold it into a round ball sitting atop a large cylinder, add smaller cylinders to the sides and bottom of the large one, maybe add some things to be ball on top and I will create an "impression" of a human body, but it will look like crap and certainly not be art.

Art is the ability to create something that makes people see or feel things. I submit a definition from Dictionary.com:

Art:

The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium.

A DM combines art and craft to create an adventure. Some use more of one than the other. Winging it is surely more of an art form, and a person who can wing it all the time and produce a cohesive, entertaining adventure is a master, as are those who are able to craft wonderfully detailed, richly described adventures.

And, as with all art, it is still a matter of opinion as to whether you like it or not.