Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
For DMs, define "winging it" and give examples
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="skippy_the_witch" data-source="post: 1794266" data-attributes="member: 18980"><p>My entire current Campaign is mostly winging it, at least the actual running of it. The Campaign background is highly developed, as it is a heavily modfied Technomagic pseudo-post apocalyptic D&D 3.5 world. I am still not done tinkering with everything to get it just right, but my players have been very patient with me on that.</p><p></p><p>No, except for pre-prepared monster stats and items, I don't even bother to really do any long term detail for the various game sessions, for two reasons. First, I run for a college game group, so I am never sure who is going to be there week to week. Second, the players keep surprising me, either through their own initiative or through their rolls. This game has been heavily influenced my d20 rolls of "1" and "20".</p><p></p><p>Here are a few examples:</p><p></p><p>The initial 1st level adventure was your basic treasure hunt idea. One of the characters goes into the House armory and picks up a pistol which was owned by an Idiana Jones style adventurer. The pistol was one of the few things that returned to civilization when the guy disappeared in the great swamps. Inside, he finds a datachip, goes to another player to de-code it. The other player, a gnome technomancer (modified artificer) with hacking capabilities, first rolls a 20 to build a special chip reader (chip out of date). Then rolls a 20 to COPY chip (which she was NOT supposed to do), which means she got a perfect copy. Being paranoid, she never lets on about the copy to anyone, and so when the spooks come in to grab the original chip, they think they have covered their trail. Later, she rolls yet another 20 to decode. It went from what was supposed to be the decrypting of a partial map and maybe a few journal entries about swamp goblins to this detailed journal that may point to a long term plan to overthrow the government of the Federation (the high tech area of the Cursed Earth).</p><p></p><p>Later, this same gnome rolls a 1 on Computer Use to open a email sent to her by her smuggler uncle on safe routes out of Federation. This leads to file being corrupted and unreadable, and since uncle is on the run himself, party has to cross the border without his instructions (i.e. which guard is bribable etc). Again, this session went from "you cross the border using uncle's instructions" to me having to come up with a scenario and players having to create a cover story and fake documents to get accross, leaving a trail that the spooks could easily follow (and giving me more potential villians to throw at party later).</p><p></p><p>Glitch, the gnome, has also accidently blown things up while trying to figure out how they work, which has become a running gag (so much so, that she actually gets a sizable bonus to Disable Device skill rolls to sabotage anything she has accidently blown up). I know I don't have to let the players 1's and 20's influence the game so much, but it has lead to a very rich and detailed Campaign. What was a simple treasure hunt has now become a chance for one of the players to redeem the honor of his ancestor, another to save his House (he is a noble man) from ruin, another to save his race's savior (an angellic like being), and possibly even save the Federation (although with this party, they are more likely to start a civil war by accident).</p><p></p><p>skippy</p><p>GM of The Cursed Earth</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="skippy_the_witch, post: 1794266, member: 18980"] My entire current Campaign is mostly winging it, at least the actual running of it. The Campaign background is highly developed, as it is a heavily modfied Technomagic pseudo-post apocalyptic D&D 3.5 world. I am still not done tinkering with everything to get it just right, but my players have been very patient with me on that. No, except for pre-prepared monster stats and items, I don't even bother to really do any long term detail for the various game sessions, for two reasons. First, I run for a college game group, so I am never sure who is going to be there week to week. Second, the players keep surprising me, either through their own initiative or through their rolls. This game has been heavily influenced my d20 rolls of "1" and "20". Here are a few examples: The initial 1st level adventure was your basic treasure hunt idea. One of the characters goes into the House armory and picks up a pistol which was owned by an Idiana Jones style adventurer. The pistol was one of the few things that returned to civilization when the guy disappeared in the great swamps. Inside, he finds a datachip, goes to another player to de-code it. The other player, a gnome technomancer (modified artificer) with hacking capabilities, first rolls a 20 to build a special chip reader (chip out of date). Then rolls a 20 to COPY chip (which she was NOT supposed to do), which means she got a perfect copy. Being paranoid, she never lets on about the copy to anyone, and so when the spooks come in to grab the original chip, they think they have covered their trail. Later, she rolls yet another 20 to decode. It went from what was supposed to be the decrypting of a partial map and maybe a few journal entries about swamp goblins to this detailed journal that may point to a long term plan to overthrow the government of the Federation (the high tech area of the Cursed Earth). Later, this same gnome rolls a 1 on Computer Use to open a email sent to her by her smuggler uncle on safe routes out of Federation. This leads to file being corrupted and unreadable, and since uncle is on the run himself, party has to cross the border without his instructions (i.e. which guard is bribable etc). Again, this session went from "you cross the border using uncle's instructions" to me having to come up with a scenario and players having to create a cover story and fake documents to get accross, leaving a trail that the spooks could easily follow (and giving me more potential villians to throw at party later). Glitch, the gnome, has also accidently blown things up while trying to figure out how they work, which has become a running gag (so much so, that she actually gets a sizable bonus to Disable Device skill rolls to sabotage anything she has accidently blown up). I know I don't have to let the players 1's and 20's influence the game so much, but it has lead to a very rich and detailed Campaign. What was a simple treasure hunt has now become a chance for one of the players to redeem the honor of his ancestor, another to save his House (he is a noble man) from ruin, another to save his race's savior (an angellic like being), and possibly even save the Federation (although with this party, they are more likely to start a civil war by accident). skippy GM of The Cursed Earth [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
For DMs, define "winging it" and give examples
Top