This weekend I learned something about myself. I LOVE MAKING UP STORIES ON THE SPOT! Yes, I thrive on it even. I used to think I needed to plan a story out, every inch, letter, word, character, background and so on. But I learned this weekend, that just makes it harder. Some of you may know (okay probably none of you, unless you know me in person, which in that case HI!) that I play Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). Not only do I play D&D but I am the Dungeon Master (DM) for our group. As the DM it is my job to create the story, run the monsters, apply the rules and move the story along.
This weekend was different, I usually spend a few hours on Friday or Saturday morning planning out the story and the encounters and drawing up battle maps. I would even write out some of the things the Non-Player Character’s (NPC’s) would say and the description of some of the places the Player Character’s (PC’s) would visit. This often lead to me railroading the players of my game to the scenarios I spent hours working on, despite the fact that the PC’s wanted to go in a different direction. One example of this is an adventure that started with a General asking the PC’s to check on a lost patrol of soldiers. The PC’s, having just destroyed a pyramid/ziggurat (the topic was debated as to what to call it) that was producing shadow energy to raise the dead, wanted to return to town to check and see if it was okay.
A good DM would roll with it, they go back to town, talk to a few people, find that they have nothing to do and return to the general or go off on some other quest. A bad DM (which is exactly what I did) would say, well you sent your familiar to the town and the general tells you everything is okay there, so what about helping those lost soldiers? It would not be the first time I have forced my players down a path just because that is how I planned it, even though they wanted to do something else. Thankfully my players did not mutiny and rolled with my punches (even after one combat killed two of the PC’s).
This weekend I was going to run a one shot for a few members of my group and a new member. I did not feel like planning out the whole story, or even the encounters but this was going to take place in a new setting. So I came up with the idea of the setting (which is brilliant if I might say so) and a place for the characters to start. Other then that I left it up to the players to decided where they wanted to go. I planned a general feel for the new setting but made the rest up as I went and it was so much fun. My favorite was making up the names for taverns and NPC’s on the spot (though I need to remember to write them down next time) with the drunk bartender Dwarf and his Half-Orc bouncer Orog being my favorite recurring characters. The story ended a bit quickly for me but I feel like everyone had a blast playing the game and I know I had more fun that way then any other way of playing D&D.
This also opens up a whole new world of creative process for me, one where the names and details are not important at first as long as the story is moving along. If I, or in this case my PC’s, want a closer look at something or someone then we can go into the details then. The best thing about writing, and creative writing specifically, is that you don’t have to let anyone read it until you are done. So who cares if the Half-Orc bouncer is named Bob, I can always change it in post, or come up with a fun story as to why his name actually is Bob.
Thanks for reading!
