Planning adventures is Craft and Winging-it is ART?

[Talmun]

...Great DMs can plan AND wing, and there lies the art.

Exactly.
You plan the adventure, and wing that which you did not plan for.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

All art includes an element of craft. Hong is right, your buddy is a wanger.

 

[Talmun]

I have known DMs who were very good at winging a game (not so good I couldn't tell...), but I am firmly of the opinion that if you can run a good game winging it, you could run a great game with some planning.

And any planning is better than none. I tend to use the 'fog' analogy: I can see (plan) the major plot points and other occurrences from a long way off (say months or even years), but the smaller events, like smaller objects in fog, I see (plan) only after they are much closer (weeks or even in the middle of a session).

I hope that isn't too muddled, it's always the way I've thought of planning a campaign...

 

[Bendris Noulg]

Having played in his game a few times, I think his adventures could use a LOT more planning. But maybe I’m a dork who cannot appreciate Art when I see it...

When a GM runs a game where he is able to instantly respond to everything you do, without a moment of hesitation or befuddlement, as if he had forseen every choice you would make, then he's an artist.

 

[joshwitz]

I think the painter/craftsman analogy is not quite valid. I like to see DM'ing as something akin to a Jazz musician. A good Jazz musician has to know the basic chord structure of a song cold, as well as spend tons of time practicing scales and riffs. Once he starts performing however, he's improvising his parts based on what the other musicians are playing. He's not just playing randomly, but listening to what the other performers are doing and using all the skills he's practiced to make art on the fly.

That's what I aspire to as a DM. I spend about an hour of prep time for every hour of play, sometimes more, sometimes less. Once we start playing tho, it all depends upon what the players do. They always surprise me, and I love them for it. It never goes as I planned, but having done all the planning, I'm better able to extrapolate how an NPC would react or a giving situation would pan out. While it doesn't always turn out as interesting as a John Coltrane performance, it usually turns out fun. And sometimes, when everything goes right, it's art.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

“A primitive painter, when depicting a brick wall on a canvas, will use tiny brushes and will paint every brick and stripe of mortar in the wall. This person is a Craftsman and his painting is a Craft. A true artist, on the other hand, will paint the wall with a large brush, filling in huge areas with quick strokes. He will only paint a few bricks, and yet will still create the impression of a brick wall, and his painting will be Art.”

So he wings the adventures because he is an Artist, not a Craftsman.

Wow. That's...pretentious.

think the painter/craftsman analogy is not quite valid. I like to see DM'ing as something akin to a Jazz musician. A good Jazz musician has to know the basic chord structure of a song cold, as well as spend tons of time practicing scales and riffs. Once he starts performing however, he's improvising his parts based on what the other musicians are playing. He's not just playing randomly, but listening to what the other performers are doing and using all the skills he's practiced to make art on the fly.

Ahh, now THERE'S how I run. Structure + basics, build off of what others do.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Gods I hate agreeing with Hong...

So, Grandma Moses isn't an artist? Primitive art isn't art? Theater using scripts instead of improv is not art? Keeping track of your plotlines instead of just writing a novel an old how is not art?

Your friend is a dimwit. (And yes, Hong is indeed right in regards to what else he is...) Feel free to let him read this thread.

The Auld Grump

 

[Nifft]

My proudest moments come when I can take something random (that a PC did, or that I rolled, or that I just wasn't thinking about), and somehow make it look planned, through inspired interpretation of what has come before.

-- N

 

[alsih2o]

All good art is a lump of spontaneity (winging it) sitting on a monstrous pile of planning, preperation and toil.

He is, imho, full of stuff that makes beans grow.

 

[Henry]

Art is not "winging it." Art is Michelangelo; art is lots of little tiny brushes and candles, painting on your back squinting for months, attention to every tiny detail, and breathing life into one of the most beautiful interiors known to man.

Even artists know how to draw bowls of fruit.



To be a good DM, do you HAVE to plan every step of the way? No, but you should be ABLE to. I can personally tell when I make a good adventure or not; if I don't put the requisite time into background plots, NPC's, and actions/consequences, then I and the players can tell it; I still have to wing each session in some ways, because no adventure survives contact with the players intact - but having done all the groundwork still frees me to be improvisational with my elements and take liberty with the story itself. In my experience that planning the setting leads to good storytelling, because you know the elements well and can mute them to your purposes.