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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Orcus" data-source="post: 205057" data-attributes="member: 1254">>Orcus/Clark and yourself seem to be pushing the blanket >suggestion that anyone who isn't doing it completely off-the-cuff >is suggesting write-ups for everythingDont put words in my mouth and then knock down the straw man you set up.I think the happy medium is the best way to play. Outline plot points, create necessary NPCs and events and get them where you want them to go while at the same time feeling they are choosing to go there.Frankly, I overprepare for game sessions. Always have. Regardless of the edition of the game. If 3E takes longer its becasue it is new, not because there is anything more difficult about it. When I wing it, I usually do it from prepared stuff. I have a list of NPC names I keep handy so when they encounter an NPC I didnt create ahead of time, I have a name. I also have a list of single characteristics which I find lends instant personality--a favorite word, a chosen color, a piece of clothing, a facial feature. But you have to be flexible. Some times you spend 10 hours preparing the caravan adventure but the PCs ignore the caravan master's hiring of guards (your adventure hook) and want to go to the brothel instead or they want to go track down some clue you forgot you gave them. Or perhaps a key player doesnt show up and your adventure for that session was going to be driven by that character. So all of a sudden you find yourself making a few rogues and inventing a reason they are after the PCs, break into their rooms, steal stuff, have a chase, go down to their lair through a illusory wall in an alley in the bad part of town, kill a few recover the item they stole, etc.But all this leads back to a central point of roleplaying.Play should dictate rules, rules shouldnt dictate play.If you arent following that rule then go play a boardgame or a TCG.This is a game of imagination. Essentially, an elaborate game of cops and robbers with rules for resolving the age old argument "I shot you" "No you didnt".Rules exist to facilitate our story telling. 3E rules are no more or less hindering than earlier editions.Min/maxers min/max in any system they play. Thats the gamer, not the game. Rules lawyers will be rules lawyers whether you are playing D&D, Risk, Monopoly, Traveller or whatever.The problem with 3E is the mindset it creates: that there is only one "right" way to do things. Remember, this isnt chess where you move your knight 3 forward and the guy sitting across from you says "hey, thats against the rules." Those types of inflexible rules are necessary in a competive game where each side plays by the same rules to determine a winner and deviation from those rules becomes unfair.Funny, the criticism raised here was the same criticism of AD&D when it came out. The same thing. Too many rules. Gygax was telling us "if you arent playing this way you arent playing D&D." Nobody bought it then, you dont have to buy it now. Is 3E more cumbersome? Yes, but mostly because it is new.Besides, and this is the good part, if you dont like it--change it!!!! Its your game. And it is your story.Rules dont limit creativity if you look at rules the way I propose: they are guidelines. Change whatever you want to allow your creativity to control. Remember my mantra: play dictates rules, rules dont dictate play.Now go get those stat blocks ready for the next session!!!Clark</blockquote>

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