Players: do you feel cheated if DM improvises?
- Thread starter Turanil
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Calico_Jack73
First Post
Actually I prefer games where the DM improvises as long as it's not the rules he's improvising and even that is okay with a bit of explanation. I find that most games flow better if a DM has a rough plot overview in his/her head and just improvises the rest of it. It is easier to adapt to unforseen things that the players do when you are just winging it. I do it that way and I haven't heard any complaints from my players... in fact they all seem to enjoy my games and tell me that they can't wait till the next session. I'll read a module for the basic idea but then I'll run with it. For the most part I might read the text descriptions for specific locations and I'll use maps for specific encounters but everything else is fair game. If they go someplace totally off the map I won't try to railroad them into following the module... I'll make it up as we go and steer them in the general direction of the plot.
Arctic Black
First Post
Improvisation is obviously one of the main skills that a GM must have. The problem is that no matter what the GM plans out, the players will do thier own thing - and more often than not, something completely out of the blue. I've had to improvise entire sessions because of some wild (but believable) tangent that my players have gone on. I presume that this is a moot point for most, as it seems most of you have already agreed with this view.
For my own part, during my Star Wars and Call Of Cthulhu sessions lately, I've been taking to improvising elaborate consequences to rolling a natural one on skill checks. A few examples come to mind:
1. In COC, my players were trying to escape a sealed cemetery filled with the walking dead. One of my investigators wanted to throw a rope over the wall to another player on the other side and climb out. Well he rolls a one, so I decide that it means he threw too hard and the whole rope goes over the wall. It be came a running gag, because as it turned out, he rolled ones on two subsequent Rope Use rolls in the coming weeks.
2. In star wars, my rope using player from above plays a low level jedi who has begun to try to train himself during the rebellion era. He's on some back water world and wants one of the small training bots, like the one Luke uses on the Millenium Falcon (the litte round orbs that shoot at you). Well he rolls a one on a gather info check, and essentially says to a shop keep "Do you know where I can purchase an orb droid for Jedi Training?" As any SW GM knows, it's very dangerous to be a Jedi during this era. Sufficed to say, some undesireable people heard him, and what ensued was 2 - 3 hours of a completely improvised sub plot involving keeping those who had heard quiet.
3. Last night, the SW campaign again, same guy (boy is he unlucky!), botches a search check in the ruins of a giant ship that crashed on Dathomir long ago. He's poking through the dark and sees a small, round, oval shaped object. He ponders it for a moment when it cracks and out pops the head of a baby Rancor. Unfortunately for him, he didn't see Mommy and Daddy until it was too late and he ended up being propelled across the room.
There are more examples, but these are the best. Frankly, I feel that the best moments in my sessions are the improvised moments, and would not only want the GM to improvise, but i would expect it. If a GM plans too much, there's a possibility that he can force the characters into a situation over which they have little control - which isn't much fun at all.
For my own part, during my Star Wars and Call Of Cthulhu sessions lately, I've been taking to improvising elaborate consequences to rolling a natural one on skill checks. A few examples come to mind:
1. In COC, my players were trying to escape a sealed cemetery filled with the walking dead. One of my investigators wanted to throw a rope over the wall to another player on the other side and climb out. Well he rolls a one, so I decide that it means he threw too hard and the whole rope goes over the wall. It be came a running gag, because as it turned out, he rolled ones on two subsequent Rope Use rolls in the coming weeks.
2. In star wars, my rope using player from above plays a low level jedi who has begun to try to train himself during the rebellion era. He's on some back water world and wants one of the small training bots, like the one Luke uses on the Millenium Falcon (the litte round orbs that shoot at you). Well he rolls a one on a gather info check, and essentially says to a shop keep "Do you know where I can purchase an orb droid for Jedi Training?" As any SW GM knows, it's very dangerous to be a Jedi during this era. Sufficed to say, some undesireable people heard him, and what ensued was 2 - 3 hours of a completely improvised sub plot involving keeping those who had heard quiet.
3. Last night, the SW campaign again, same guy (boy is he unlucky!), botches a search check in the ruins of a giant ship that crashed on Dathomir long ago. He's poking through the dark and sees a small, round, oval shaped object. He ponders it for a moment when it cracks and out pops the head of a baby Rancor. Unfortunately for him, he didn't see Mommy and Daddy until it was too late and he ended up being propelled across the room.
There are more examples, but these are the best. Frankly, I feel that the best moments in my sessions are the improvised moments, and would not only want the GM to improvise, but i would expect it. If a GM plans too much, there's a possibility that he can force the characters into a situation over which they have little control - which isn't much fun at all.
Kalendraf
Explorer
A DM needs to be able to improvise. No matter how much preplanning he does, there's still the element of unpredictable players to deal with. A good DM can foresee many of the actions and likely plans for those, but even that likely won't cover every possible outcome.
IMHO, if I was a player and I wanted a DM that never improvised, I'd just play NWN on the computer w/o one. Sure that's still fun, but a real person makes things more dynamic and more fun...
IMHO, if I was a player and I wanted a DM that never improvised, I'd just play NWN on the computer w/o one. Sure that's still fun, but a real person makes things more dynamic and more fun...
rogueattorney
Adventurer
Improvisation is necessary for the DM. Really, there's only so much that the DM can prepare ahead of time. The players will always try to do something in an unexpected way, travel an unexpected direction, or otherwise screw-up the best laid plans of the DM. Which, in my view, is the sign of good, creative players. To me, the mark of a good DM is how he handles the unexpected. Creative improvisation is the best way to go. Railroading players into doing things they don't want to do or simply telling them, "you can't do that" or "you can't go there" is the most annoying thing players ever hear and is mentally lazy on the DM's part.
R.A.
R.A.
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