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<blockquote data-quote="The Shaman" data-source="post: 5167589" data-attributes="member: 26473"><p>In the games I run, the adventurers can't "waltz out of the sandbox," because it's <em>all</em> sandbox. The adventurers can't go 'off the reservation' because it's reservation in every direction.</p><p></p><p>I think of my prepration time as 'prepping to improvise.' I can't detail an entire game-world, or game-universe for some games, so I'll detail a few obvious locations then focus my preparation on what I need to know to differentiate the cultural and natural landscape the adventurers may discover in their travels. From this I can draw things like npc characterisations on the fly, and from there I'm simply reacting to whatever the adventurers do. </p><p></p><p>In my experience, successful improvisation comes from knowing the setting well, not in terms of where this city or that river is located, but how the inhabitants of this area differ from the inhabitants of another area, in their outlooks, lifestyles, and subsistence, then bringing that out in response to the actions of the adventurers. </p><p></p><p>To use the example of <strong>MerricB</strong>'s Alliance base, how does an Alliance base on a core world differ from one on the frontier or the edge of the Black? This gives me some guidance on how base personnel perceive themselves and their jobs, what resources they can bring to bear, and so on, which makes reacting to the adventurers much easier. </p><p></p><p>The same is true in the game I'm prepping to run: how does the outlook of a noble with a small estate in Languedoc differ from one in Aunis? I don't need to know every valley of the Cévennes or beach of the île de Ré to create a (hopefully interesting and distinctive) characterisation of each.</p><p></p><p>I also prep random encounters in advance of actual play. For me random encounters are the 'living setting' - I spend time thinking about the origins of the encounter, identifying the motivations and methods of the antagonists, and so on.</p><p></p><p>For example, a randomly generated 'bandit' encounter becomes rebellious Huguenots in the Midi foraging for supplies for the duc de Rohan, or ragged, half-starved mercenaries returning from the Holy Roman Empire and resorting to brigandage in Picardy, or <em>chauffeurs</em> roaming the <em>pays</em> of Normandy looking for victims to capture and ransom. In this way there are no 'generic' random encounters; each is a reflection of the game-world where the adventurers are standing at the moment.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="The Shaman, post: 5167589, member: 26473"] In the games I run, the adventurers can't "waltz out of the sandbox," because it's [I]all[/I] sandbox. The adventurers can't go 'off the reservation' because it's reservation in every direction. I think of my prepration time as 'prepping to improvise.' I can't detail an entire game-world, or game-universe for some games, so I'll detail a few obvious locations then focus my preparation on what I need to know to differentiate the cultural and natural landscape the adventurers may discover in their travels. From this I can draw things like npc characterisations on the fly, and from there I'm simply reacting to whatever the adventurers do. In my experience, successful improvisation comes from knowing the setting well, not in terms of where this city or that river is located, but how the inhabitants of this area differ from the inhabitants of another area, in their outlooks, lifestyles, and subsistence, then bringing that out in response to the actions of the adventurers. To use the example of [b]MerricB[/b]'s Alliance base, how does an Alliance base on a core world differ from one on the frontier or the edge of the Black? This gives me some guidance on how base personnel perceive themselves and their jobs, what resources they can bring to bear, and so on, which makes reacting to the adventurers much easier. The same is true in the game I'm prepping to run: how does the outlook of a noble with a small estate in Languedoc differ from one in Aunis? I don't need to know every valley of the Cévennes or beach of the île de Ré to create a (hopefully interesting and distinctive) characterisation of each. I also prep random encounters in advance of actual play. For me random encounters are the 'living setting' - I spend time thinking about the origins of the encounter, identifying the motivations and methods of the antagonists, and so on. For example, a randomly generated 'bandit' encounter becomes rebellious Huguenots in the Midi foraging for supplies for the duc de Rohan, or ragged, half-starved mercenaries returning from the Holy Roman Empire and resorting to brigandage in Picardy, or [i]chauffeurs[/i] roaming the [i]pays[/i] of Normandy looking for victims to capture and ransom. In this way there are no 'generic' random encounters; each is a reflection of the game-world where the adventurers are standing at the moment. [/QUOTE]
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