Carpe GM!
or, An Ode to Improvisation and Story Fudging

First, there's a new D&D podcast up. I can make lame comments like, "It's podtastic!" or "Podtacular!" but I won't.

Second, Jeff Rients asked me to pass along some design advice as part of Worldwide Adventure Writing Month. It would be extremely crass in the ass for me to scoop Jeff and post part of what I wrote, but I did recently leap on to something relating to it.

Basically, I think I have a ton more fun with RPGs when I think less and do more. My current campaign has lots of complex plots and NPCs. Everyone has a story to follow. I try to design everything up front and watch it all play out.

Last night, since we were short one player, I had everyone roll up 2nd level PCs and, with the help of a goblin tribe I had statted up in my archives, sent the PCs into the Forgotten Realms and down to the depths of Undermountain.

It was a ton of fun. I cribbed some simple maps, came up with at least one interesting schtick for each encounter, and gave the PCs two plot lines to follow (a deadbeat dwarf fighter owes Durnan at the Yawning Portal a ton of money, find him in Undermountain; the PCs have a treasure map pointing to a stash of loot in Undermountain; their mortal enemy has the same map).

Part of it stemmed from my willingness to just make stuff up. For instance, in one hallway I decided that a set of traps would drop steel cages on PCs who entered these alcoves on the side passage. I looked over at my bag of minis, saw a bunch of dire rats, and figured it would be fun if a bunch of them ran around the corner when the trap went off. If the rats got close to a cage, they could squeeze in and feast on the trapped PC.

Second example: the PCs are fighting their way across a bridge over a deep chasm. The PCs are on the bridge while goblins fire crossbow bolts at them from the other side. Two goblin warriors man a barricade on the far side of the bridge. It occurs to me that it'd be interesting and fun to give the PCs a reason to run off the bridge and over to the goblin's side, rather than stand there and trade fire. So, a dragon comes swooping down the chasm. It didn't stop to fight (though it did throw cause fear on Brog the half-orc fighter), but it did make the fight a lot more interesting. In one round, all three PCs sprinted toward the barricade and happily suffered attacks of opportunity from the gobbos to get the heck out of the dragon's way.

There's a lot of backlash against DMs who fudge game rules, and I think there are some good reasons for that. However, for some reason I never realized that "story fudging" is a lot more fun, a lot more interesting, and a lot cooler. The dragon took what could've been a dull slog of a round or three of ranged combat and made it fun. The rats amped up the danger in the trap encounter.

When I design too much, I shy away from such improvisation because I don't want to deal with tracking it all. I think that's the key to why some campaigns leave me cold and others get me really excited.

(As an aside, it was also interesting to see the players take on very simple character roles - the dumb fighter, the feral halfling scout, the lofty cleric - and make them all work in a visceral, easy to grok way. We simply didn't have time for anything more subtle. I think it's easy to overthink PCs, too. All the players worked in broad, obvious strokes, and I think that made the game more fun.)