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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Primitive Screwhead" data-source="post: 5119526" data-attributes="member: 20805">To me, "winging it" has more to do with having a story prepared than anything else. The rules system intrudes as you need to have prepared or mastered the mechanics of whatever you pull out of the evolving story that needs dice rolled to resolve which turn it takes. So, which editions/game system/rules set is best suited for winging it? whichever you have a solid grasp on either preparing for or have mastered for true off-the-cuff work. What do I mean by 'preparing for'?  You identify 4 to 5 possible tangents and do the minimal work to prepare encounters based on those. Sometimes this means grabbing a Dungeon article or just scribbling some notes... do a shorthand of the monsters. What do I mean by 'mastered'?  You have an intuitive grasp on the required crunch and can run an encounter against a set of monster X based on what feels right.For me, I have reached that point with a number of rule sets; 1e, 2e, 3.x, CP2020... and I am working on mastery of 4e. For now I have to be content with preparing a bit more.And a side note: There is nothing wrong with stopping right at the call for initiative and saying "hey guys, I didn't prep this one.. take a break while I set this up"Now, some rule sets have a wider swing to combat... meaning your encounter balance needs to have more care than others. IMHO, that is what made 2e much easier to 'wing' than 3x... it was easier to master encounter balance. I think 4e has lowered the difficulty level of mastering encounter balance and, with reskinning, made it alot easier to wing than 3x.Final note: Winging it also requires player buy-in. They have to be willing to trade the risks of an ill-prepared encounter for the freedom of manuever in the plot/world. I have had many players who wanted that freedom... but were vocal about some of the encounters that resulted when they went 'off-path'. Flip side, I have had players with which it was a joy to toss the module off the table as the PC's chose a completely different path.</blockquote>

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