I have sometimes faked it, or as I prefer to say winged it. This is usually because the group took a different course to that expected. Sometimes it is due to pressure on time denying time to prep. Luckily my group enjoy combat therefore that has been a useful get-out. Certainly prep helps a lot so when time allows I over prepare in general ways to give me material when needed.
D&D 5E How often do you fake it as a DM?
- Thread starter Halivar
- Start date
I always try to have an interesting story in mind, and make that my focus. The actual mechanics don't matter as much to me. As someone stated previously, does it really matter if a mob has +3 or +4 to hit? If I gave him +4, he happened to be an elite version of that mob!
That being said, I do try to follow the RAW, but I am not going to obsess over every detail since I think keeping the game moving is more important than spending 5 minutes looking up whether Lizardfolk can inhabit an arid temperate zone.
Most of my prep involves a rough idea of the 'scenes' involved in the adventure and details around NPC's, events, or items. Most of my notes regarding a combat encounter are nothing more than a monster list and a treasure list.
That being said, I do try to follow the RAW, but I am not going to obsess over every detail since I think keeping the game moving is more important than spending 5 minutes looking up whether Lizardfolk can inhabit an arid temperate zone.
Most of my prep involves a rough idea of the 'scenes' involved in the adventure and details around NPC's, events, or items. Most of my notes regarding a combat encounter are nothing more than a monster list and a treasure list.
airwalkrr
Adventurer
I don't need prep aside from describing the setting for the campaign, which is usually a published campaign setting or variant thereof (over the last 10 years it's been My Eberron or My Greyhawk). I get to know the setting well enough that I can improvise stories and NPCs to my players' delight. One of the first things I get to know intimately in recent editions of the game is that table in the DMG that shows approximate AC, hp, to hit, damage, etc. for each CR so that I can recall this table off the top of my head to create reasonable challenges for my players off-the-cuff. Although I usually don't do it out of a sense of laziness as the OP describes. Rather, I see the players interested in pursuing an aspect of a story that I hadn't anticipated. This happened to me often enough that the details I wrote up for dungeons and adventures ahead of time became more and more vague as time went on. I focus now on a cast of characters, an NPC villain or two, and some sort of climactic event (which is mutable depending on what direction I feel will be most exciting for the story).
In my current campaign I've been dropping hints about various incarnations of triad cults that have something to do with a doomsday scenario, something that fits into the draconic Prophecy. And it seems many factions are working to try and manipulate this event to their own ends. So far all the PCs know for a fact is that they witnessed an earthquake which caused a scar to open up in Xen'drik and that some terrible claw momentarily lashed out of that fissure before it closed back up. Something has awakened in Khyber, but they don't know what and are trying to figure it out. The truth is, I don't know either. It could be an Overlord, a Rakshasa Rajah, Tiamat, maybe the Tarrasque. But as we get closer to Doomsday, certain things will get ruled out until I have a pretty good idea of what I want it to be. And along the way, I run a lot of the campaign from the seat of my pants. But my players don't actually know that. I pretend like I've got every contingency planned out and ad lib as necessary.
So yea, I fake it all the time.
In my current campaign I've been dropping hints about various incarnations of triad cults that have something to do with a doomsday scenario, something that fits into the draconic Prophecy. And it seems many factions are working to try and manipulate this event to their own ends. So far all the PCs know for a fact is that they witnessed an earthquake which caused a scar to open up in Xen'drik and that some terrible claw momentarily lashed out of that fissure before it closed back up. Something has awakened in Khyber, but they don't know what and are trying to figure it out. The truth is, I don't know either. It could be an Overlord, a Rakshasa Rajah, Tiamat, maybe the Tarrasque. But as we get closer to Doomsday, certain things will get ruled out until I have a pretty good idea of what I want it to be. And along the way, I run a lot of the campaign from the seat of my pants. But my players don't actually know that. I pretend like I've got every contingency planned out and ad lib as necessary.
So yea, I fake it all the time.
S
Sunseeker
Guest
I prefer the term "wing it", and I do it a lot. Often because players chew through my prepared material much faster than I can create more. Most of my sessions are about 25% prep and 75% off the cuff.
Rabbitbait
Grog-nerd
I run with two groups. With my main group who have been playing for over 30 years, I now have well prepared campaigns with a selection of overarching plot arcs that give me options for giving the players real choice. Even then, the campaign can skew off in odd directions. In the last game, which was the 4e version of the Tomb of Horrors by Ari Marmell, a big part of the game became the overthrow of the Church of the Silver Flame - which has absolutely nothing to do with the printed adventure. I often just make monsters up on the spot, but not too often and they are always mooks.
With my other group - which is just my 6 year old son - I make it all up on the spot with just a small idea. The last game my prep work was " I think I'll send him to the dungeon near town where he will fight some goblins, skeletons and zombies." Other than that, all made up on the spot. He loved it. The great thing about playing with a six year old is that you can be as cliched and simplistic as you like - for him everything is new.
5e is much easier for making it up on the spot.
With my other group - which is just my 6 year old son - I make it all up on the spot with just a small idea. The last game my prep work was " I think I'll send him to the dungeon near town where he will fight some goblins, skeletons and zombies." Other than that, all made up on the spot. He loved it. The great thing about playing with a six year old is that you can be as cliched and simplistic as you like - for him everything is new.
5e is much easier for making it up on the spot.
pming
Legend
Hiya.
I'm pretty much a 50/50 DM. I don't need much in the way of descriptive stuff, detailed NPC's or plot lines. I like to have random encounter tables, maps (LOTS of maps!), and bare-bones room descriptions like this:
"Room #11 - The Study. (dusty, ragged tapestries, candle stubs, cobwebs, cool breeze whistles through broken windows; lost of mean rats that attack if attacked themselves first, lead by three giant rats; magic scroll hidden somewhere)."
That's all I need. I can "wing" everything else as needed. This way, if players are in room #10, next door, I at least have some info about what may be in there...like a small hole in the wall that rats run through, maybe the PC's can hear the whistling air from room 11 if they listen closely, perhaps there is a stack of books on a table in this room, 'borrowed' from the Study, etc. In short, I like just enough info that, at a glance, I can let my imagination run to fill in the blanks. I can tone stuff down if the players need a break from mechanics, or I can bump things up a notch if they are itching for a fight, or I can play on their fears if they seem to be getting into the 'spooky atmosphere' of the abandoned mansion, etc. The modules with write ups of every little thing in the room, a page of monster stats, and another half page of "what will happen..." crap is useless to me. You know, the "Fellworth will first cast Mage Armor, then he will agitate the rats, if he has time he will...etc...etc...etc"; and, a half page later, his write up is done. It is at this time that the PC's use Wizard Eye, spy on him, then sneak around to the back room and use Passwall to open up the wall behind him where the thief tosses a Rope of Entanglement on him so they can question him. ... ...and that half-page of "tactics" goes out the window. Wast. Of. Space.
So...yeah, "winging it with point form inspirational notes" is how I roll.
^_^
Paul L. Ming
I'm pretty much a 50/50 DM. I don't need much in the way of descriptive stuff, detailed NPC's or plot lines. I like to have random encounter tables, maps (LOTS of maps!), and bare-bones room descriptions like this:
"Room #11 - The Study. (dusty, ragged tapestries, candle stubs, cobwebs, cool breeze whistles through broken windows; lost of mean rats that attack if attacked themselves first, lead by three giant rats; magic scroll hidden somewhere)."
That's all I need. I can "wing" everything else as needed. This way, if players are in room #10, next door, I at least have some info about what may be in there...like a small hole in the wall that rats run through, maybe the PC's can hear the whistling air from room 11 if they listen closely, perhaps there is a stack of books on a table in this room, 'borrowed' from the Study, etc. In short, I like just enough info that, at a glance, I can let my imagination run to fill in the blanks. I can tone stuff down if the players need a break from mechanics, or I can bump things up a notch if they are itching for a fight, or I can play on their fears if they seem to be getting into the 'spooky atmosphere' of the abandoned mansion, etc. The modules with write ups of every little thing in the room, a page of monster stats, and another half page of "what will happen..." crap is useless to me. You know, the "Fellworth will first cast Mage Armor, then he will agitate the rats, if he has time he will...etc...etc...etc"; and, a half page later, his write up is done. It is at this time that the PC's use Wizard Eye, spy on him, then sneak around to the back room and use Passwall to open up the wall behind him where the thief tosses a Rope of Entanglement on him so they can question him. ... ...and that half-page of "tactics" goes out the window. Wast. Of. Space.
So...yeah, "winging it with point form inspirational notes" is how I roll.
^_^
Paul L. Ming
I used to do it all the time. i stopped with 3e, partly because I had burned out, partly because monster creation in 3e was more complex and there was rules for it that I kind of felt oblighed to follow and I never really had a feel for what level appropiate monsters were. Not enough opppoutunities to run it, i guess. I burned out of 3 fast though as a DM cause i found it unfun to run, especially the combat. I never did it 4e, just ran published stuff and the delve format meant every thing was there in front of me. i could see myself doing it in 5e if i get enough time in to get familar with the monsters.
wedgeski
Adventurer
When it comes to my own DM'ing, there is no truer a statement than this. Going in prepared makes me relaxed and confident, and relaxed and confident is when I do my best improv.
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