Planning adventures is Craft and Winging-it is ART?

[Faraer]

The term is 'self-aggrandizement'.

 

[Michael Tree]

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 whose styles look like they were 'winging it', like Picasso or many abstract expressionists, put a lot of thought into the simple lines and combinations of colors they paint, and often draw sketch after sketch before painting the final artwork.

There's nothing wrong with improvising, but trying to glorify it over 'mere' preparation is ridiculous. If he prefers improvising, and it works well for him, that's great. I prefer improvisation to meticulous planning too (within limits - I need some ideas and structure to improvise with). But improvising doesn't make him any more of an 'artist' than GMs who do a lot of preparation.

 

[shilsen]

Even artists whose styles look like they were 'winging it', like Picasso or many abstract expressionists, put a lot of thought into the simple lines and combinations of colors they paint, and often draw sketch after sketch before painting the final artwork.

True. The art is to conceal the art.

As for tonym's friend, Hong nailed it dead-on.

 

[Zappo]

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.

This is a good analogy.