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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mort" data-source="post: 8219463" data-attributes="member: 762">I Get what you are saying, but I think it can easily swing in the other direction.With no (to minimal) ad libbing the world can feel static and cold. Like the PCs just walk from diorama to diorama that animates when the PCs get there and then freezes when they leave. A living breathing world demands a DM that can go with the flow of the PCs actions and adjust his plans to maximize the impact of the players actions. This often requires ad libbing and junking entire points of a campaign - to add new ones.This is an interesting analogy. A good book is good exactly because the author has crafted a good story and convincingly conveys that story to the reader. But in a good session, the players are the ones crafting the story. Nothing yanks me out of a session faster than realizing that I'm being pulled along the DMs crafted story with my own (and the groups) actions having no meaning. I've walked out very, very few sessions in my time but one of them was when I realized that the DM was literally consulting a novel during the session to dictate what has happening (not a game book, a novel, and everything happened in the order and by the method the novel dictated).If the players take the game in an unexpected direction, ad libbing may be required. Of course, a well prepared DM is rarely truly ad libbing. There are backup scenarios, drop in encounters, side quests - just in case, NPCs kept around, etc.Unless what your talking about is free form story telling without a net (backup world and drop in tools) - Very few DMs could pull that off - sure.</blockquote>

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