Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="zarionofarabel" data-source="post: 9774374" data-attributes="member: 7026405">Nope, sorry, don't know that one.Anyone who understands how mechanics in a TTRPG can be used to decide the outcome of things...Well, unless you tell the players beforehand about the bike, it effectively doesn't exist, because they have no idea it exists unless you tell them! If you tell them about the bike, whether you created it beforehand, or improvised it a moment before, then, and only then, does the bike actually exist.I'm sorry that your imagination is limited that way.Uh...okay...Well, just because you personally don't like a particular ruleset doesn't invalidate the ability to use it to decide the outcome of a situation. As for the stats of things and NPCs and stuff, either the game already has those, in which case I use them, or I create something on the fly at the beginning of the chase.Well, unless things that require the players to make choices are actually happening, how would they even know they need to make a choice. You seem to be under the impression that players can somehow have knowledge about what you have prepped without you telling them about it, which is simply not true. Until information is provided to the players that frame potential decision points, the players have no clue. Only when the decision point has been framed, and the players are informed of the need for them to make a decision, can a meaningful choice be made. Whether or not the decision point has been prepped beforehand, or improvised a moment before, is effectively irrelevant. Well, just because you haven't met them doesn't mean they don't exist. I've met them, and I have a fair amount of anecdotal reasons to believe I am one.Well, my games take place in some sort of setting. I admit that I am lazy and usually use published settings or the setting attached to a particular game. Either way, they come with a map of sorts. At the least, some sort of "setting" will be decided during session zero based on the premise of the campaign. The details of the setting can be improvised on the fly, as until the moment a player asks about details of a certain aspect of the setting, they don't matter. Like I said before, until the players actually interact with something, it effectively doesn't exist, whether or not it's written down in the GM's notes. Once the aspect of the setting is interacted with, then, and only then, does it become an existent thing.Or, until the details of something are needed, they don't matter. Like I said before, for me anyway, improvising new content is super easy. I don't need to sit around contemplating things to add detail to the narrative, I just decide something and run with it. Everywhere is, in one way, exactly the same, in that it effectively doesn't have any detail, until the players decide they want detail, or they choose to interact with it. Once those details become required, said detail is added to the setting by improvising said detail on the spot. Once added, the details become an existent thing, and are manipulated as needed afterwards.Don't worry, I've met a lot of prepper GMs that have trouble understanding the idea that things only begin to exist within the narrative once the players are actually aware of them. You can have a huge castle with an intricate map fully detailed in your notes, but unless the players are told about the castle, it may as well not exist. I will admit though, that you are correct about the aspect of someone elses prep making my job as an ad lib GM way way easier, because I do use settings, maps, stat blocks, and other similar things in my games. Honestly, I could improvise all that stuff if I needed too, but why bother when I have a plethora of things available already.</blockquote>

Verification