NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6724489" data-attributes="member: 4937">This probably deserves a 'fork' but I don't see  a 'fork this to a new topic' button.You may can bully the noobs with that sort of claim, but I've been around since the first AD&D 1e hardback was published and the OD&D books were still in TSR's product catalog.  Improvisation has been a part of the game since the very beginning.  An irrefutable example is the notion of a random encounter, which in the case of 1e AD&D would have included a percentage chance of being in the lair, which means a DM was expected to be able to improvise a reasonable map of some sort (a ruined castle inhabited by a hitherto unknown orc tribe, a dank cave inhabited by some dragon or fell beast, a sealed tomb containing some ancient evil, etc.) on the spot.  Indeed, a case could be made that their is an implied fully improvised campaign that can be run entirely out of the 1e AD&D monster manuals.  Indeed, there is yet another improvised campaign implied by the random dungeon generator in the 1e AD&D DMG.So what you are actually offended by isn't 'improvisation' per se.  Fundamentally, stuff that is improvised in play by some means is no different that stuff that is improvised before the session by some means.  In both cases, the DM has the full power to specify what you call the invisible board.  And during a game, PC's will always attempt things or ask questions about the environment that aren't fully specified by the notes regarding the map.  That's every bit as much 'going off the map' as actually trying to step into a part of the map not yet drawn.  What you are offended by is the DM improvising in an antagonistic manner, either motivated by his desire to 'win' and keep the players from defeating the scenario, or motivated by some other desire to achieve a particular outcome.  You associate this with 'improvisation' and 'story-telling', and therefore declare those things categorically bad.  But you are confused.  Improvisation can be done in a neutral, unbiased, manner as part of just "running the game".  Indeed, every single D&D game I've ever played in featured improvisation, and I'd be willing to bet everyone you play in does as well.  Moreover, declaring as a DM that the PC's can't walk off the map is such bad DMing, that I haven't actually done it since 6th grade (and then only once) and even as a 6th grader I recognized that I wasn't artfully or skillfully running the game and I needed to develop better techniques.  Those techniques basically are doing in play, under time pressure, what you'd normally do prior to play preparing the session.  And likewise 'story-telling' has been a part of the game since the beginning.  Granted, those stories were often open ended, and I agree should be open ended.  But even something as simple in concept as G1-2-3 is a story and has story elements in it.</blockquote>

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