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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GMMichael" data-source="post: 7314589" data-attributes="member: 6685730">In a word: improvisation.Off-script would apply specifically to anything not contained in the work of the aforementioned commercial author.Personally, I like a game that falls between spontaneous and fully-scripted/commercial.  I've been assuming as much in this thread, in the hopes that most readers fall between the poles.When I write story in advance, play consists of PCs discovering the elements I've written, and then deciding what to do with those elements.  Sometimes they follow the carrot, sometimes they don't.  When they don't, they're still having a good time because they're pursuing their interests instead of feeling like their stuck on the rails.  However, the juicier storyline would have been down the tracks.One-liner NPCs, as noted by MarkB, are one way to keep them on the tracks."Lightly armored means light on your feet.  Smart."I would use a line related to the NPC or PCs.  But a pitfall behind interesting and applicable one-liners is that they can actually lead to conversation.  An NPC with zero lines is the most likely to keep PCs on track.You've never seen a text-box for an NPC?  Or a list of general knowledge that townsfolk know?  I generally breathe easier when I see these included in...the pre-gen adventures that I never run.  (But I do steal the good bits for my games).One way to smooth the transition away from a one-liner NPC would be to switch from direct to indirect quotation:</blockquote>

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