Players: do you feel cheated if DM improvises?

[Turanil]

As a DM I have become lazy, so I improvise most of my adventures on the fly. Until then I did prepare NPCs, but now I have discovered that also improvising creatures and NPCs stats was cooler for me. Of course, I am unable to improvise everything, and will have to have a few notes vaguely written on some scrap of paper, plus having a fairly good idea of what should happen during the adventure. Nonetheless, and despite this system gives good results (better than when I used pre-made adventures - pre-made by me or someone else), I always take a great care in having the players believe that everything is planned, written down, etc. I believe that should they discovered I am improvising almost everything, they would feel "cheated" / deceived. In fact, it would be me as a player discovering the DM improvises, I certainly would.

What you think about this?

 

[Darth Shoju]

Generally, as long as everyone has fun I don't care what the DM does. I know our DM improvises a lot of the action, but he does plot out what will happen ahead of time and just write down some brief notes. I do the same thing, although with a little more detail. I like to try and have something written down as I'm paranoid things won't work out if I just wing it. But I know some DMs who can pull it off nicely. Really, a good time is all that matters to me, doesn't matter how we get there.

 

[welby]

I generally like to know that the DM has a long term plan (or several that might happen) for the PCs. How we get there makes no difference as long as we're having fun.

Now, if I found out that you don't know my long term goals for my character, or don't have any ideas on what you're going to do to allow them to happen or not happen, then I'd feel cheated.

For me, DMing isn't about statting out characters so much as it's about making sure people are having fun, long and short term.

 

[nopantsyet]

Speaking as a DM, I have settled on a combination. I used to improvise nearly everything, but as a player I have felt that there's a sense of "fair play" that comes about from knowing that certain matters are pre-planned and immutable. I think that if you are very consistent, this won't be a problem. But for those of us (me) who are not superhuman DMs, we need to put some planning in to create a consistent framework in which to improvise.

 

[Umbran]

Cheated or decieved? No. I recognize that different GMs have different styles. I also recognize that every session calls for at least some improvisation. And some call for more than others.

That being said, I personally don't find total improv all the time to be the best way to build a coherent, interesting story. Improv tends to wander with the whim. It tends to emphasize short-term thrills for long term effects, and so on. But that's just my own observations, as it relates to my standard play-style. YMMV.

Also, there's a common feeling that an improv DM isn't really interested in "challenges", per se. If you're improving everything, then perhaps the results fo the combats and challenges are more a matter of GM whim than of the player's skill and character abilities andluck. And that doesn't sit well with many players.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Well, if the game is fun and is coherent, then I would not feel cheated, I would be impressed (but then again, I would love to be able to do that as a DM myself), but I had a bad experience as a player in an improvised campaign. Years ago I played in a group that was my longest running campaign. The DM was the father of one of my friends. For years we had a great time and the adventures were excellent, but then the DM stopped preparing and started improvising each game. The problem was that he lost a sense of the overall game. Things became disjointed, encounters seemed to be totally random, the game lost a sense of purpose and it stopped being as much fun. That is the only reason I get concerned with a DM improvising, and why I'm very hesitant to try it myself (maybe once I get more experience DMing I'll slowly start to incorporate it in).

 

[Thanee]

I don't like if the DM is totally making up stuff and totally ignores the existing rules (some is ok, as long as it is reasonable, of course), but improvisation is great otherwise (as long as it fits the whole picture, that is).

Bye
Thanee

 

[Patman21967]

I agree with you...I have general ideas where I want the game to go, and have notes about the adventure, but the guys I game with, we have been gaming together for 16 years, you never know what their going to do. We have an ongoing joke about how we hate having to " find the ride ". Like a roller coaster, or better analogy, being railroaded in one direction....Being able to improvise is a good thing.

 

[BSF]

Interesting question. I improvise a lot. Most of my prep work is a skeleton of what might happen. I gave up trying to anticipate everything that the PC's might do a long time ago and now I focus on what the interaction with the PC's will be. Then, when they go off on a tangent, I have a reaction that is in-line with the NPC's/environment.

I also try to drop possible story arcs out there that the PC's can pick up and pursue. If they aren't interested in that particular story arc, then I will either drop it, or I will turn it into background information that they will hear about.

My involvement with individual character backgrounds is kind of a seperate deal. I will pick up elements for a character, mull them around and present them as a possibility that the PC can run with, or not. It's just another opportunity in life and the PC can embrace or ignore it. But, I try to have actions with consequences. So, something the PC does today, might have repurcussions tomorrow, or next week, or next year. I don't necessarily plot out how the PC will achieve long-term goals (Heck, I would be happy if all my players could give me pretty solid long-term goals), but I will plan the opportunities I will probably present that would help the PC on the road toward those goals. As I said, the PC's may or may not seize that opportunity.

I do try to work with my players to keep things interesting and to keep the game moving where everyone is having a good time. In many ways, I use improvisation as one of the tools toward achieving that.

 

[reveal]

In our last d20 Modern session, two of my players became Wererats. The session prior, they had turned and everyone thought they were done since the characters had no idea that, beyond the full moon, an afflicted lycanthrope also turned when damaged somehow.

Well, the plan for the night was to go the Crete and get a boat to an island off-shore for a plot reason. The players got to Crete, with the 2 infected ones acting like major buttheads since they were now CE, and the 2 decided to go bar hopping while the other two prepared for the trip to the island the next day. One things leads to another and one of the two bar hoppers ends up killing someone and walking home in their clothes, blood soaked and in full view of everyone.

The entire session, all 5 hours of it, consisted of me improvising everything, from the bar fight, to the murder, to the ensuing police investigation, to the help from the Americna embassy, to the PCs finding a Shadow creature willing to help, to the local priests finally curing their diseases.

My point is, my players had a blast, as did I. I told them afterwards that the whole thing was improvised and they didn't mind at all. They had fun and really didn't care.

Edit: As a player, I feel the same way. If I'm having fun, I could care less if it was improvised or not (as long as it fit the rules already laid out of course).