What are your indispensible "Hand Waving" tools for coming up with stuff on the fly?

[innerdude]

Real Simple: You're at the game table, and your players want to do something unexpected, like fight an NPC you had no intention of them fighting, or they explore some section of the city / town / dungeon that you really hadn't thought through all that much.

What books / tools / modules / supplements do you use to come up with good stuff on the fly?

(And maybe question #2---WHY ISN'T PAIZO writing a "Make Good S*** Up On the Fly!! for Pathfinder!!" Book right now?)

 

[Dausuul]

Real Simple: You're at the game table, and your players want to do something unexpected, like fight an NPC you had no intention of them fighting, or they explore some section of the city / town / dungeon that you really hadn't thought through all that much.

What books / tools / modules / supplements do you use to come up with good stuff on the fly?

The Monster Manual and sleight of hand. That's about it really. I make up something off the top of my head, grab some monsters that look about right to populate the encounters, and cheat shamelessly to compensate for my lack of planning.

It probably helps that I started playing in the days of BECMI and 2E. When you've had to whip up entire rules subsystems on the fly, a random dungeon isn't so hard.

 

[ArghMark]

Two people/things kick in the door holding guns/crossbows/laser beams. If more are required, so be it. It will point them in the right direction.


If no door is available I use lots of lovecraftian words to describe something I have no idea what it is. The players get their own impression..


If its an attack on an NPC, I generally have another NPC plot giver kick them back on track somehow.

 

[Sunseeker]

I grab some paper and scribble down a map. Perhaps this area is quite large and empty(very suspicious), perhaps it is very bustling when it is empty. Usually something will 'appear' to encourage them back on the trail, otherwise, I work in a new trail.

For fights, i do what anyone should do, roll some dice!

 

[LostSoul]

Random tables.

 

[Stormonu]

I use DM'S Toolkit by AEG for some of my random stuff, and the random dungeon generator that came on a Dungeon CD a few years back. I think this may be the up-to-date version....dungeon

 

[Troll Slayer]

Assuming something doesn't pop up suddenly in the old noggin, I like to have 3-5 encounters prepared that fit the region the players will most likely be in. I'd place the level of prep firmly between a simple random encounter table, and just having extra fully prepped encounters.

 

[Dedekind]

Yup, Random Tables for monsters. For NPCs, Monster Manual. For a new storyline, I steal from books that I've read that I'm pretty sure the players have not. They ended up on a whole quest for the Gonfalon (sp? a flag) of Moradin that happened to be kept at temple in the middle of a warzone. Stolen from Sharpe's Rifles.

 

[Gilladian]

The AEG toolbox isn't a half-bad choice.

The NPC wiki and the DMG 3.0 for Npcs - I'm not sure why, but the 3.0 dmg does a much better job than the 3.5 one.

And fairy tales make for very good plots to steal from.

And a good list of names.

 

[Rel]

I go to the bathroom.

Seriously.

When they do something completely unexpected sometimes you can just roll with it. But sometimes looking in the faces of the players the mental gears just kind of lock up. I go to the bathroom (I probably needed to go to the bathroom anyway - I drink a crapload of Diet Coke.) where I can get a couple minutes to clear my head and ask the question that needs to be asked:

"What's the coolest thing that could possibly happen right now?"

Then I do that.