For DMs, define "winging it" and give examples

[WizarDru]

Have you ever had a game where you planned an adventure, made notes on every conceivable encounter you could imagine, planned for every contingency, then had it all fall apart because the players decided to turn back?

No, because I stopped plotting that tightly in, oh...1983.
No plan survives an encounter with the enem....er, party. D&D is an interactive story, and the players are equally responsible for the crafting of it (often moreso).

I "wing it" constantly, if you mean that while I have monster stats, some maps and 'talking points', I don't have a true ironclad plot, per se. It was easy enough to guide the party at 5th level...it's ridiculous at 23rd. I'm more concerned with knowing the NPCs and their motivations....for me, that drives the plot. Knowing that Chavram d'Chandangac has a specific goal in mind for himself AND the party means that I know how he'll react, at least in general, when one of the characters seeks to mutilate his own body in an act of defiance. I understand what Iuz will do if the players hunt down the evil druidic sects he's been waging a war on, or which way Orcus will jump if the players assualt his undead kingdom.

Different DMs have different strengths. Some DMs can run an entire game out of his pocket, with little or no preparation. Others can't function without all the details commited to paper. One of the potential weaknesses to 'winging it' is that of inconsistency and a lack of focus. On the other hand, such a DM, if he's good at it, can allow his players a huge degree of freedom. I generally thinking winging it, on a limited basis, is fine....as long as the DM is comfortable doing it.

One thing that's great about having a story hour is that I have a record of previous games, to help keep me honest on days when I wing it more than not.

 

[reveal]

I've got no problems with GMs "winging-it" to fill in unaccounted for "gaps". But I do have problems with GMs who just waltz up to the gaming table and run an adventure pretty much "off the top of their head".

I feel so insulted. I feel like the GM hasn't even bothered to think about the adventure. Instead, he insults the player's intelligence by just "driving" them through a game based on whatever whim he comes up with.

I think a GM should consider his campaign and think about the plots he shall weave before a session. You are entertaining and your friends are counting on an intelligent, well-considered session. Sure, it can go off the beaten track, and the GM doesn't have to pick out every detail, but it's nice to show you've thought about *some* things before you run.

If the player are having fun, it shouldn't matter what the GM is doing. Some GMs are VERY good at "winging it" and the players never realize it. Some GMs really suck at it and the players hate it. It all depends on what the players want.

 

[The_Universe]

I don't really think I'm winging it unless the players are doing something that I didn't prepare for, in the slightest. As such, the only times (in this group) I've ever truly been that out of my element was when they were tossing around Wishes. It was great fun (and has had a lasting effect on the plot of the game) that I had no way to prepare for, but that I am generally quite happy with.

 

[MetalBard]

Yet usually if I wing something without the benefit of knowing what I WANT to do, I find myself struggling to find something to do, and spend the first hour of so of the game looking for direction. So the moral here is when you know you have to wing it, at least pick out some goals/objectives/plot points/activities you want to cover, i.e., if you are going to wing it, make a flight plan. It makes all the difference.

Yes, absolutely. I ran a rather long FR campaign with various branches to it. At almost every point, the group had to decide which direction to take to deal with a variety of loosely allied evil groups working in different ways to a combined goal. What I found was that with the use of a rather extensive and dangerous portal network (which was central to the plot), I had to be willing to wing it to give the players the freedom to pursue the various branches. Knowing NPC motivations, goals and objectives as well as some of the details of what the groups are doing was essential to this "winging." It gives you and your players a lot of room for creativity, but there must be some solid ground or basics that the DM has firmly in their mind for it to be a really fun gaming experience.

 

[Warden]

The first adventure of my current campaign involved the PCs being transported to a land where an undead gold dragon and her lizardfolk subjects were warring against a fiend and his goblin forces. While the bulk of the adventure was going according to plan, I had intended and predicted that the PCs would side with the undead gold dragon (who was actually good-aligned and became undead so that she could fight her enemy, the fiend, with more power and for an eternity), and so I had written an ending with that concept in mind.

Nope, didn't happen. The fiend seemed to make a better argument.

So I had to completely scrap the ending, in which the PCs fight alongside the lizardfolk (meaning that I didn't bother writing up stats for them -- why would I need them, they're the good guys?), and turn it around so that the goblins would help the PCs escape from the island.

From that night on, I never write down anything more than two pages of notes and improvise for the entire session.

 

[Wombat]

Last year I had the One Sentence Game...

This was mid-campaign, really in the swing of things. The party needed to get some information from vulgar nobleman in a large city and then do a lot of follow-up with this info. I had a three-page write-up on the adventure, including possible ambushes, travel info, etc. The bit about talking to the nobleman took up one whole sentence in my write-up. Most importantly, however, they needed to keep a very low profile, as there were others searching for them, trying to stop them on their greater mission.

So, Player A was able to make contact, on his own, with the nobleman. However, he became convinced that this couldn't possibly be all of the info. Since he was sure the nobleman was hiding something, he didn't tell the party...

So the Great Noble Party Screw-up ensued.

For the next five hours the party, with no information from Player A, spun out wilder and wilder theories of what was going on. They became determined that they had to get closer to the vulgar nobleman. While doing so, I had to create a family for him, determine that one of his children was having a birthday, set up people trying to stop them from getting to the party, set up shops where they could get costuming material, and then watch as they got into the weirdest party get-ups (ask them about the rouged nipples of the barechested male characters sometime) and make such a huge display that they were taken for major elven nobility entering into the city.

During this massive show (hardly Low Profile), they finally got the same info as Player A got at the beginning -- who immediately blew up: "THAT'S ALL???" Everyone turned to him. "I already knew that! There's got to be more!"

"Wait, you mean you knew this?"

"Yeah, Wombat told me at the start of the session!"

"And you didn't TELL us?"

"Well, I knew there had to be something else!"

"You mean we did all of this for NOTHING? And we were supposed to be keeping a low profile?"

"Nah, this guy's holding back! There's got to be something more!"

Needless to say, the party broke up...

The group quickly got out of town, with 2 ambushes set for them as they tried to leave (no deaths, but 2 out of 5 players down to 0 hit points or less) and a total blown cover.

All of this off of one sentence

 

[Aust Diamondew]

I'm lazy and I like to think of things as the PCs bring them up so I wing things quite a bit. I have a general story out line and try to at least think of (but generally not write down) all the things the PCs are likely to do. Sometimes I'll map out a dungeon. I usually write up stats for villains and always for major villains. But generally I wing details and sometimes whole dungeons and minor adventures.

 

[iwatt]

I wing random encounters into somehow having some bearing on the campaign. I roll all the encounters of the day first, and try to set them together into making sense. For example, I rolled on the table and got one encounter involving a party of elves. I rolled for later on the day and got a pack of trolls. On the spot I decided the party would run into the tracks left by the elves who were a couple of hours ahead of them. Then I saw them find tracks showing the Troll ambush.

PC heroes been what they are, they tracked down the trolls and killed them. Since I didn't feel like having them have to save and babysit some pansy elves, I decided on the spot that the elves were Fey'ri who had just been digested by the trolls.

Of course, the Spirit Shaman decided that this encounter was meaningful, and used Speak with Dead on the Fey'ri. Which forced me to come up with a reason for the Feyri been there in the first place ANd then I had to write up her travel journal, on the spot.


Then there was the time they saw some elves entering the Moonwood (another random encounter) and tracked them for 5 days before giving up.

Must be my poker face I guess, they can never tell if I'm making things up or not.


I also wing Locations. Since IRL I'm an engineer, I don't have much trouble with just coming up with floor plans (just use the current building I'm working on as a basis )

But my greatest winging tool are my players themselves. They invent plot hooks with their off-hand remarks, modify Dungeon architecture with improptu search checks, create memorable NPCs out of their own expectations. I'd rather have a fluid and interactive world, albeit somewhat inconsistent, than a strictly ordered pre-defined setting were players can only interact with some creatures and places.

 

[Timeboxer]

I've winged it a few times, and I agree with those who point out that winging it can be done to various degrees.

But here's one example that I've always liked:

Give your characters some sort of riddle or puzzle that you don't in fact know the answer to. Once they've stumbled upon an answer that seems plausible, well -- that's now the answer to the riddle.

Often your players will do a lot of your work for you. Bit Judo-like in that respect.