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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7721675" data-attributes="member: 4937">Now that's just disengenious.  Your opening comment in this exchange was:"I suppose, but that also makes the term "preparation" fairly meaningless, if not redundant with being a basic human. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/erm.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":erm:" title="Erm    :erm:" data-shortname=":erm:" />"You even made sure you included the emoji to make sure it was understood in what emotional sense you were making the comment.   If you decide to make that sort of drive by attack motivated by a desire to denigrate someone else's ideas open rather than honestly understand them, why are you mystified that the rebuttal is strongly worded?  And if I don't give you any emotional context, don't presume to know that I am not calm.  Seriously, IRL I'm known much more as a person that never displays any emotion, and that is always overly rational, rather than as someone that flies off the handle.   Your statement that I need "to calm down", is the actual rude insinuation in this discussion, and the only well-poisoning going on is what you are doing.If you are actually uninterested in discussing this, please don't.Ok, sure, I get where you are coming from.  Then I still disagree.  Because this studying of the Roman baths allowed me to draw a map from memory and describe the rooms of that map from memory.  The moment that I took that studying of ancient architecture and used it to create a dungeon which had a caldarium, a frigadarium, changing rooms, and all the other details that make an environment seem alive.   It was a map, one of many, that is in my head and available for use.  Had I not engaged in that research and study, the process of making that map would have either been impossible or taken much longer, meaning that I would have been unable to effectively improvise that map during the session.   In other words, although I had no idea when I would use it, I was preparing when I put that map in my head, and that preparation had a direct impact on how the game went.I don't know what you mean by the term "basic human being", but not everything I do in my life or everything that I learn ever informs any RPG I GM, much less a specific game.  But, if I'm running a loosely historical game, then all the stuff I do to study the history of that era ('the middle ages', for example) does (or at least can) become preparation for running that game the moment that I use it create content for the game.   I would not count my whole life as preparation to run a game, although ironically running a game became preparation to do all sorts of other things I never imagined (but that's another story).   This process of stuffing your head full of stuff is what I meant about "preparing to improvise", and preparing to improvise is a powerful way to get ready for a game.   Improvisation occurs most effectively when you've already done the preparation needs to create new content in a flexible manner.   It includes things like having random lists at hand, having random maps at hand, having deep understanding of the game you are running, having deep understanding of the genera you are running, and having a quiver full of unused ideas to use or reuse (with a new group).  No one is really creative in a vacuum.   Creativity is something that comes out of the strength of your preparation.   Jazz is a musical style that encourages improvisation, but you can't actually improvise Jazz effectively without a ton of preparation.   The same is true of your gaming.   If I am going to run a sea faring campaign, loosely based on the great age of sail, then I might go to the university library and check out a dozen books about ship construction and the history of the great age of sail.   All of that is I think obvious preparation to play.  That research and study lets me draw from memory ships of multiple classes, and even see in my head the basic outline of the rigging in case players are fighting "top side" against a young blue dragon.  It lets me know what sort of professions and even what sort of characters might be aboard a ship, and so helps me imagine NPCs and create a lively life aboard a ship.  The same might be true of knowing genera fiction like 'Treasure Island' or 'Master and Commander' well.   I don't think you would deny that if the PCs wanted to become pirates, and I spent the next two weeks doing the above research, that it was preparation.   So why do you deny that it was preparation if the PCs want to become pirates, and I've already done all that research and can immediately put that knowledge to use?</blockquote>

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