Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon 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 Next
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
*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!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
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
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Is the DM the most important person at the table
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="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 7926036" data-attributes="member: 16814"><p>You don't have to do any of that, though. You can run in the moment and let the play direct the game. And, this isn't as hard as it's made out to be, nor does it generate less deep play. It's only hard if you bring pre-writing assumptions with you. If you keep everything not already established in play as fluid, and only generate what's needed to continue the direction of play, then the 'making it up on the fly' is actually pretty tightly constrained and follows naturally from the events in play.</p><p></p><p>Now, games that don't give the GM levers make it harder. By this, I mean games that present pass/fail checks without grades of success or failure (or both at the same time) make following the fiction a tad harder, but that can be addressed by moving the point of focus. What I mean by this is that games, like 5e for instance, that do pass fail also tend to have a focus on the immediate action. The game generates obstacles like a locked door who's resolution is to unlock the door via a skill check, and that's either passed or failed. If passed, you move to the next atomic obstacle and repeat. If failed, you repeat the check or do another check, or abandon the obstacle, but that obstacle is the focus. This is enormously hard to ad lib, because it feels, on the GM side, like arbitrary roadblocks with no where to go if you faceplant a few checks -- you have to ad lib a brand new direction after you just did that for this one! Yikes, scary, hard, not rewarding. But, this is how you build these games from prep, where you have the time to consider other routes. You can't do this when running in the moment. You have to change focus to the bigger objective. In this example, the objective may be to get into the castle. You then just have to present a number of obstacles to this -- maybe 3 or 4 -- of which a locked door could be one. Then, on a success, you advance, on a failure, you add a complication. You don't need to have guard routes pre-planned or look at your notes, a failed lockpicking results in a guard patrol (or other thing, whatever fits). By putting the mechanics to work, you don't have to make everything up, or ad lib a complete castle, you just need to to the parts that are needed when they are needed. It's far easier than assumed, if you actually let go of all of the assumptions of prep and the idea that you, as GM, have to present a world that is previously defined for the players to interact with.</p><p></p><p>Now, if you use maps and minis, this does get harder. 5e isn't super easy to have the tactical wargame part mix in with ad libbing. You have to make choices, which goes to my larger point that most of the 'hard' work of 'harder than the players' work in D&D is a choice. You don't have to work that hard to run D&D. You choose to.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ovinomancer, post: 7926036, member: 16814"] You don't have to do any of that, though. You can run in the moment and let the play direct the game. And, this isn't as hard as it's made out to be, nor does it generate less deep play. It's only hard if you bring pre-writing assumptions with you. If you keep everything not already established in play as fluid, and only generate what's needed to continue the direction of play, then the 'making it up on the fly' is actually pretty tightly constrained and follows naturally from the events in play. Now, games that don't give the GM levers make it harder. By this, I mean games that present pass/fail checks without grades of success or failure (or both at the same time) make following the fiction a tad harder, but that can be addressed by moving the point of focus. What I mean by this is that games, like 5e for instance, that do pass fail also tend to have a focus on the immediate action. The game generates obstacles like a locked door who's resolution is to unlock the door via a skill check, and that's either passed or failed. If passed, you move to the next atomic obstacle and repeat. If failed, you repeat the check or do another check, or abandon the obstacle, but that obstacle is the focus. This is enormously hard to ad lib, because it feels, on the GM side, like arbitrary roadblocks with no where to go if you faceplant a few checks -- you have to ad lib a brand new direction after you just did that for this one! Yikes, scary, hard, not rewarding. But, this is how you build these games from prep, where you have the time to consider other routes. You can't do this when running in the moment. You have to change focus to the bigger objective. In this example, the objective may be to get into the castle. You then just have to present a number of obstacles to this -- maybe 3 or 4 -- of which a locked door could be one. Then, on a success, you advance, on a failure, you add a complication. You don't need to have guard routes pre-planned or look at your notes, a failed lockpicking results in a guard patrol (or other thing, whatever fits). By putting the mechanics to work, you don't have to make everything up, or ad lib a complete castle, you just need to to the parts that are needed when they are needed. It's far easier than assumed, if you actually let go of all of the assumptions of prep and the idea that you, as GM, have to present a world that is previously defined for the players to interact with. Now, if you use maps and minis, this does get harder. 5e isn't super easy to have the tactical wargame part mix in with ad libbing. You have to make choices, which goes to my larger point that most of the 'hard' work of 'harder than the players' work in D&D is a choice. You don't have to work that hard to run D&D. You choose to. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Is the DM the most important person at the table
Top