I figured the crew in this group had some interesting things to say on the topic, so if you have any advice or an anecdote, please tell me about it 🙂
Originally shared by Kasper Brohus Allerslev
How many of you have GM’ed without any prep? How did it go? What worked? What didn’t? What system did you use? Lengthy anecdotes (as well as short ones) are greatly appreciated. 🙂
If we disregard the fact that I find the above questions tremendously interesting in and of themselves, then the point is that I’m gathering some data for some blog posts on playing without any prep.
So far, I’ve only written the why: Why I think you should try it out. I’ve yet to write anything about how to do it properly.
So far my prep for 5 sessions of DW has been for last weeks exorcism. Which really was more a if it’s a conditional sucess it will be these choices, if it’s a failure lowest 2d6 roll is getting possessed. I have made a similar one for tonights game.
It is a big part of why I like *world and Transneptune’s games. The fiction tends to unfold without a lot of preplanning.
As a GM I tend towards a sandboxy mode you tell me what you want to do and I figure out how to shake it up. So obviously for some people this way of interacting with the game, system and/or setting would be cringeworthy.
Eric Duncan Interesting trend I’m seeing; the GM’s that can make low-to-no-prep GM’ing work tend to do it consistently, while the other GM’s have had some horrible experiences with it, and cringe when it’s brought up.
Also; seems like it’s the PbtA and FATE crowd that seems to be more successful… I’ll have to investigate that further…
Back on topic; How does this GM’ing style affect the game for you and your players? Do you experience any kind of trouble? Don’t you have any problems? And have you worked out some of the problems? What was your solution? What is your do’s and don’ts? Lots of questions, I know 🙂 I’m taking what I can get 😉
I have the ideal situation. One person out of my 5 players has ever played TTRPG before this. And he took to the fiction shapes action shapes fiction of DW really strongly. The others have never played so they are digging going for what seems cool to do. What they would want to see in a movie/TV show. So they really embrace the liberty to move as they want, towards their own goals. I have one who hasn’t figured out her characters immediate goal but she is getting more comfortable and I hope it will come out soon. If not we may have a brief conversation; but only make changes if she is not having a good time not having a personal goal.
I would say that this particular situation works strongly in my favor.
Well, I’ll be GMing my first DW game tomorrow night, and all I’ve got going into it is about five questions prepped. My own background and my group’s background is primarily with DnD, and generally, highly planned sessions. I’m excited to see what happens and I’ll post a report in a few days.
A while back I was trying to run a story game with my cousin and his wife. Neither one of them liked the prepless approach. Or, more precisely, I don’t think they liked that level of agency. They are both firmly ingrained in the roll-playing game style. It may be that the higher level of agency means it’s much harder to min-max, which is typical of people into that style of game.
At first I thought it was because I was just a horrible GM. But, recently, I’ve been running an AW game, and my players love it. (Vincent Baker wrote a good series of articles on, what he called positioning, the choices (moves) available at any given time… I would link it, but his sites down atm.)
The helpful thing I could say to someone who is wanting to run a prepless game would be to relax. Relax, and ask questions. Lots of questions.
Lists can be helpful as well. Name lists are indispensable, and this random generators of all kinds can be helpful. Vornheim is a good book for prepless play, as is AW and DW.
The biggest problem I’ve had running prepless games has been, players will do things you had never even considered. Like stabbing a tree with a gun (admittedly the trees weren’t normal trees… still wouldn’t have thought to do that though…). There have been a few times were I just sit there looking at them dumbfounded.
Links!!!
Vornheim:
http://www.lotfp.com/RPG/products/vornheim
AW NPC Generetor: (Even if your not playing AW this could be usful to get you started in a pinch)
http://benjaminrosenbaum.com/images/AW/npcs.html
Ish Stabosz I’m looking forward to hearing about it! Also, please write down your prepped questions and add them alongside your report! 😀
Joshua Bailey Yeah, random generators can be a lot of of fun 🙂 When I played with Misha Polonsky and James Savko, James used a random generator to make up NPC’s on the spot. The amount of detail was a little creepy sometimes, but it was awesome!
“Relax” is a good advice as well. Don’t expect that you don’t have to take time to think! 🙂