The Dragon’s Breath #12

30 April 2003

Improvisation:
Game Mastering On the Fly

By Todd Secord

You’ve just spent the last week preparing a long and involved segment of your adventure. A short way in, the characters suddenly find themselves stuck on a problem you didn’t anticipate, and next thing you know, their solution sends them off on a tangent for which you have no notes. In order to save the session, you must now improvise. Improvising is a skill that all GM’s must learn to master, and the better you get at it, the better your sessions will be. Improvising, however, is usually associated with quick witted comedians and actors; it is a skill that they continue to practice and hone, and some are better at it than others. For Game Masters, practice does make perfect, and just like with actors and comedians, you will find that some of your best thinking and ideas will come to you "on the fly." I guess the question is, "How do you train your mind to think smoothly and creatively during the pace of an ongoing game session?" Easy, you cheat. Here are some tricks and techniques that I’ve developed over the years ….

Act Natural

When you find yourself in uncharted territory with the players, don’t let them know. You can never say anything like, "Sorry guys, you can’t go to the Town of Mooa-Mooa because, well, I don’t have any notes for it …." You’ve just completely ruined the flow of the session. That’s no fun. Keep going, no matter what; keep your composure. If the players sense that you’re making things up as you go, they may get the feeling that their actions are suddenly not as important to the campaign as a whole, and once they sense weakness, the session runs in danger of becoming a joke. This is where your GM’s screen becomes important: flip your papers looking for imaginary points of fact, roll dice here and there for no reason, and so on. Never stop to think; just react to their actions. Never admit that you’re improvising. There’s no harm, though, in calling for a "washroom" break to quickly collect your thoughts and plan something new. J Don’t laugh, I’ve done this.

Know Your Stuff

When preparing for a session, you have detailed notes for specific encounters, but don’t be afraid to consider elements outside of the adventure’s scope. You can sketch notes on these points, but having them in mind in most cases is good enough. If you at least think about what the Town of Mooa-Mooa is like, then you have a working idea of what to expect from yourself when the characters get there. In other words, expect to improvise.

"Wild Cards"

Having extra NPCs ready to act as "wild cards" in times of need always helps. These NPCs could already be re-occurring characters or ones that are completely unrelated to the core adventure. Attempt to introduce them quickly, using their motivations as a starting point to direct the new tangent. Good source products always include a number of fleshed out NPCs. They’re available to make life easier during preparation, but you can also use them on the fly for emergencies. Green Ronin’s Denizens of Freeport is an excellent product in this respect, because each NPC comes with quick story hooks.

"The Road Block"

Reducing the amount of improvisation needed by "steering" the characters back into what you have prepared is always a good strategy. It’s a simple trick, usually best solved by having a more superior force or monster stand in the characters’ way, forcing them to turn back. An unexpected meeting/ambush by a "Wild Card," an errant dragon, or some really nasty weather all offer ways to stop the characters in their tracks and possibly get them to re-think what to do next. The Wild Card solution is a great one, because an NPC may provide information or clues that can re-connect the characters to what you really need to happen.

"Stall Tactics"

Stalling an encounter or situation is a subtle way of buying yourself time to regroup. Yet stalling also extends the PCs’ time to re-visit a clue that they may not be getting or to catch onto a new path that the GM is hastily building. Some stall tactics may include enlarging the scope of a battle or having a PC captured.

"High Jacking"

The "high jacking" technique is a simple diversionary tactic, designed to "run the clock out" on the session so you can sit down later and rethink matters clearly. The characters go off on the tangent, and you just simply introduce a completely different dilemma that has nothing to do with your notes or their intent. This could mean the characters finding themselves being followed by a mysterious "Wild Card" or a mini-adventure that’s been floating in your head anyway. The "One Hundred Adventure Ideas" sidebar in Chapter 4 of the DMG has a random list of simple adventure seeds to get your brain moving.

"Transporting"

Your dungeon was supposed to occur in one location; the characters decide to go to another. Easy. Move your dungeon over to the new location. With a little modification and a well-placed rumour, you should be back on track. Of course, this strategy assumes site-based adventures. Event-based adventures may be a little trickier, but nothing a Wild Card couldn’t handle (see how handy those suckers are!).

"Exaggeration"

OK, things may not be going according to plan, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have enough to work with already. If the session is going poorly, you might as well go for the gusto and blow it wide open. In other words, bring out the big gun NPCs right away. Have the main villain appear early. Instead of a tribe of orcs, make it an army. The Doomsday Device that the characters were supposed to disarm suddenly goes off — let the aftermath be the adventure. You’ll be amazed how refreshing it is just to let yourself go and have an evil demi-god show up for no reason at all.

Protect the Body!

Sometimes, it isn’t what the characters do that forces you to improvise, but what they won’t do. A superhero game I was running recently involved a perfect example of this situation. A PC was meeting an old friend who came to warn him of an impending evil plot. During the meeting, the friend was murdered by operatives of an evil organization, but on the friend’s person was a clue to move the adventure to the next phase. For some reason, the PC couldn’t understand that he should protect his friend’s body from being taken by the evil organization (which believed the clue was there and wanted it for its own). The PC was too busy saving his own bacon and the other PC’s were oblivious to the situation, so our hero let one of the villains sweep the body up and make off with it. No clue; no clean connection to the next part of the adventure; a potential awkward moment in the middle of the session. What did I do?

First, I didn’t panic. Second, when I began to sense the way things were going, I immediately introduced three more villains into the fray (Wild Cards), one of which was a major NPC villain (Exaggeration). Revealing him early suddenly upped the ante on the encounter, and the PC’s refocused on what was really happening. The PC’s thought, "Why do the villains want the body so badly?"— and then they started to act accordingly. Introducing the three extra villains extended the battle and thus gave the PC’s time to catch on (Stall Tactic). All the PC’s acted of their own free will, and by using these techniques, I smoothly and without hesitation steered the adventure back onto the course for I was prepared for.

For a GM, the key to improvisation isn’t so much about having a quick mind. It’s more about having a good Plan B.

Cheers!

Next Week: In The Dragon’s Breath #13, we know that Scott has something in the works, so stay tuned!

PAST ARTICLES are here.

To discuss this and other articles, come to the Dragon's Breath forum on our message board!