Seven Deadly Game Master Sins - RPG Philosophy

[@elfmonster1476]

4:08 "How is the door ajar?" "It is slightly open." "I climb into the jar." "No."

[@timothydavidcurp]

Automatic inspiration points!

[@180msdavid]

you have brained my damage.

[@ohiograssman1564]

Your head gets stuck

[@filipl234]

Companions of Xanth

[@0x777]

Reminds me of the story of Eric and the Gazebo.

[@computerpluh]

I actually have an NPC wizard in my game who's my "excess world building" fountain. The PCs were told ahead of time not to let this old hermit wizard get talking because he will not stop, because no one else in town lets him ramble on. Whenever they get him to identify something or brew them up something, I sneak in a bit more world building XD

[@thenda8]

computerpluh such a clever idea!

[@azarinevil]

My world has existed as a living campaign world for roughly 20 years, I like to use legends that are ridiculous or half-true (if part of serious plot). I like to intrigue players to seek out world lore and many of my returning players have come to enjoy looking up what effects they had on the world between campaigns. One of my worst all time players (a flaw addict/rage monster) spawned a kingdom ruled by a hamster monarchy , even new players find the idea bizarre enough to dig into how that happened. I use their own curious nature to insert the more irrelevant lore and if they don't want it.. they end up being lore in the next campaign lol.

[@krispalermo8133]

@Carey Roberts , ever thrown in a cow that was Baneful Polymorph into a huge flash eating Hamster ? I ran a game of a goblin tribe turn into "Bunny/ Rabbit" people. Love it or hate it. TMNT Yo'shi Yo'jimbo samurai ronin bunny. If left tunnels and sallow pit traps every where. Openings just wide enough to drop to your arm pits and get stuck with their feet kicking in air under ground.

[@luketfer]

To be fair if someone told me that there was a kingdom run and inhabited entirely by intelligent hamsters I would be like "oh yeah funny...yeah tell the rookie something stupid so he looks like a jackass for believing you..." when they get confirmation that no, honestly, it really does exist, watch as they ask the librarian for the book about the history of Hamstaros (Queue kazoo game of thrones opening music) and simply get handed a book, I would totally be all over delving in to that and wondering if we can go questing in the hamster kingdom. Also I love the idea of the overly talkative wizard NPC who you are informed of before hand to "just don't let him get talking, you'll be there for HOURS..." because working in retail I've encountered several people who use the fact I can't leave the store as an excuse to talk to me, at length, about stuff they clearly care very deeply for but I don't.

[@kateturner8169]

That's genius and I'm stealing your idea.

[@MrIzzy5466]

Me: "barmaid, tell me about the town" " our town is dying, we have an old castle. Here's your drink, I dont have time for chitchat"

[@MrIzzy5466]

Also, Oracle: "You are the chosen one boy, you will free us from the curse" Chosen one fifteen minutes later: "Hey pretty lady, wanna see me climb this Tower?" Gets to top, I 'accidentally' break the bottom of the tower. Tower collapses, chosen one dies. I become the most hated elf in the land. It worked out in the end. I redeemed myself by sacrificing myself to send the demon lord back to hell. My character still resides there, waiting for the day we eventually go there.

[@ohiograssman1564]

I'm not a maid, I'm a man...

[@oz_jones]

@@ohiograssman1564 "garçon means boy..."

[@ClaireEClairePoole]

i remember a GM of mine had been playing the first resident evil game, memorized the map and tried to run a game that was exactly like the RE...man was he mad when we started shooting locks and taking doors off of their hinges...lol

[@Kylesico912x]

Seems like they were the true masters of unlocking.

[@billpowell6131]

The ability to do stuff like this. Is why I absolutely love table tops.

[@Plaugue1122]

That's something my players would do and I would adore it

[@codypatton2859]

That's when the DM shouldve made the key doors arcane locked. Then only the key can open it

[@christophercombs7561]

If its not carved out of and mounted in adamantite its going to be disassembled and taken and better believe that adamantite is getting taken too

[@GrumpyOldGuyPlaysGames]

It seems #7 is less "Don't overbuild your gameworld" and more "Avoid infodumps." I've been constantly building my gameworld for close to 35 years now, and just because of campaign longevity have by necessity accumulated massive amounts of info about it, most of it trivial. Its there for the player to discover if they want, or not, at their discretion. But the trick is to not shove it down their throats.

[@TheBaronvonTito]

I agree. Instead of having one info dump, split it up into little tidbits. Plus it adds to the mystery and growing story of an element in the lore.

[@waywornwyrm8135]

I think this applies more to starting a campaign/early campaign. Most of the time when prepping for a game there is a rather low threshold of when world building stops being the best use of your time for the best amount of fun.

[@guntisveiskats6053]

+Mack D, PbtA games deliberately go that way, at least Dungeon World. And improv is made easier by the option of GM asking questions to players, so *they* get to invent stuff in the game world: "So, Oroma, what do you see in the cave?"

[@waffielz3106]

35 years?!

[@phaedruslive]

Do you have info about your setting online? I'd be curious to see what 35 years of world building looks like.

[@kereminde]

Or, to sum up (time codes included) #7 - "So you want to be a novelist..." 0:52 #6 - "Oh I've been working on the railroad..." 3:25 #5 - "How Fable 2 works" 5:43 #4 - "They killed Kenny, so what?" 7:22 #3 - "The more the merrier, right?" 8:22 #2 - "Whose Game Is It Anyway?" 10:00 #1 - "What is this called? Fun? I don't like it." 12:06

[@benvoliothefirst]

You have provided a valuable service this day. I salute you.

[@UltimateDrDoom]

You explain things well. I'd def wanna play in your games.

[@johntunney1864]

Is that another mf doom fan i spy on the horizon? Lol

[@KickyFut]

THERE'S NO ROOM!!! 😅

[@Johnny-vi7oq]

Speaking of villains getting killed in 1 hit, I have a way to stop that. I use a different health system for the big bad's. I write out how many hits they can take, not how much hp they have. Then you assign each hit a min and max damage limit. say 15 to 35 just for the example. if the player hits below that threshold they take off 1/2 a hit, if they hit above it, they take off 2 hits. That way you can't horribly misjudge how many hits a guy can take. You just say 'I want this guy to last, say 5 rounds' and just give him enough hits to take a few hits each round

[@SSkorkowsky]

I like that.

[@guybrushthreepwood503]

I'm not a big fan of twisting the rules to fit your narrative. If the players kill the big bad in 1 hit, so what ? Just make another big bad that's even badder (if you're into big bads, that is...). And what do you need the 5 rounds for ? If there's something happening, make it happen faster. And if you really need the 5 rounds, just give the guy a shielding device that conveniently last for 5 rounds. And if nothing works, congratulate you players and roll with it, killing an "end-level boss" doesn't have to be the climax of your scene. Just my 2 cents :)

[@Johnny-vi7oq]

You do have a point, but in my experience when the big bad goes down in 1 hit, it's not a party wide effort, usually it's one guy. And that guy tends to be the only one who has fun with that encounter. This way the one guy who has a huge damage output still makes a big difference, but it still allows the rest of the party to at least get a hit in.

[@guybrushthreepwood503]

I understand what you mean, but again the fight doesn't have to be the end of it. This to illustrate what I mean: at the end of "The Wizard of the Firetop Mountain", the fight is pretty meh (or nonexistent if you use a certain item) but it doesn't end here, there's the chest to open and the devious lock to beat. So if your local munchkin kills your baddie in one blow, have something up your sleeve, a chest, a collapsing temple, an angry mob or whatever to make sure the whole party has its fun.

[@Johnny-vi7oq]

Those are some good ideas, and definitely better than a boss fight in some dungeons, but in some cases you might just want to end with a boss fight, and in those cases I've found an alternative health system to be useful. It's just a tool, and one for a very specific situation. I'm not trying to say you need to use it, or that you have to use a boss fight, just trying to provide more options

[@gurtana]

That world building skit was epic.. tbh, I'd love to hear that to a degree but agree on the general point of course!

[@CorwinC73]

Ifyou enjoy listening to it... then it's possible you have the makings of a GM yourself. Building, and being enthralled by world building is one of the first symptoms... er... signs.

[@georges-antoinebourassa7698]

I would listen to it all.

[@DoctorSpacebar]

Maybe put that info in an actual in-game book. If and when someone wants to know something about the world, they hoof it down to the library and read it. This adds a potential adventure hook when Duke Assface IV tries to forbid commoners from the library.

[@cadian101st]

I think giving a brief history is fine, it was right after the foundation info where it started getting too long.

[@NoActuallyGo-KCUF-Yourself]

Just spread it out. A snippet at a time and 4-8 sessions in, the plot comes together.

[@luketfer]

One of the mistakes I made is thinking a player isn't taking a game seriously when they've actually done more research than I gave them props for. Had a game set during the wild west and one of the players created a character who was a veteran 'mammoth hunter' who acted as the parties guide out into the wilderness, he'd never actually bagged a mammoth but he knew they were out there, somewhere and the years he'd spent out there trying to track them down actually made him incredibly useful to the group. I first called him on this saying "Really, mammoth hunter, come on man try to take it seriously..." he then went, "no, look this was a thing people actually did back then, here is an article on the guy I based my character off of...". At which point I had to go "huh, wow, reality really IS stranger than fiction, fair play, keep at, it, sorry dude, my bad." Unfortunately the dude he based him off of is so obscure that I honestly can't find the info on him now. Edit: Found him, Henry Tukeman, he has no wikipedia article but there was publish a fictional story about him hunting and shooting the last wooly mammoth which, apparently, mammoth sightings and hunting was a common thing at the time so the story had some basis in reality.

[@williamshafer1996]

Me and my brother grew up in the country, also in the Bible belt, during the late 70, early 80's.there we're very few shops in town, however, one of them was a hobby shop that sold rpg's. We received the first edition d&d set for Christmas one year. No young people lived around us, so we started playing rpg's by ourselves. He was 5 year's older, so he was always the DM. I have been watching your videos and I love them, however, I realized that we broke every rule you have discussed. Heck, he often played his own character while he DM'ed, we even played while we did chores on the farm, without books or dice. He would just make it up as we went. It probably wasn't the "right" way to play, but I didn't care, it was the most fun I ever had. We started getting other games, and played a lot of Call Of Cthulhu, although that one was "different", we played it by the book, and always at night. Role Playing Games really helped us through some hard times, and I wish everyone had the chance to play them growing up. Thanks for your channel, and for everything you do.

[@MonkeyJedi99]

If you and everyone else playing (in this case, one other person) had fun, and have great memories, you were playing it right.

[@Leshantra]

For the "not preparing enough" part... I remember a situation where it hasn't been the GMs fault that she hadn't prepared enough. It was a module that should take 4 hours (based on what not so roleplaying charakters would do), but we spend more than 24 hours in this "campaign". The very first thing we did was derailing the game. What we had to do was going straight to the castle by the town. What we did... Well... let's say, the module didn't expect people to visit the town, so the module gave close to no information about it. Still out GM managed to lead us through. She improvised a whole fucking town! I am really amazed of how she managed to present it without us seeing she improvised. Best GM I could imagine for our chaotic group.

[@guybrushthreepwood503]

About over/under-preparation and railroading, I really like The Alexandrian's approach "Don’t prep plots, prep situations" thealexandrian.net/wordpress/4147/roleplaying-games/dont-prep-plots

[@golvic1436]

Every great GM was once a shit GM that has made all of these mistakes at least once. It's why we became great GMs. We learned from our past mistakes. After all, great GMs are not born. They are made through lots of pain and embarrassment.

[@c99kfm]

I think I was too young when I started GM:ing, I never understood the railroading part. I complained along with my players that the adventures didn't contain alternatives to the printed-adventure-rail, then filled in the "gaps" with improvisation, whenever the players delved too deeply.

[@hunterkarr]

Maybe you’re right. I keep avoiding trying it because I’m intimidated but maybe I should just start and improve as I go.

[@firstname4382]

I love your skits

[@DeGreyChristensen]

I 100% agree with #2. It doesn't mean you can't improv, it just means you have to have an idea of what you are going to do and do any necessary prep for it. At least have bullet points of what needs to happen to move the plot along and scatter those things in wherever your players decide to go if they are unpredictable. If they make it a point to ignore plot hooks (however juicy you make them) have the bad guy win a victory, let them see consequences of their inaction and make sure they know that if they had only stopped those cultists in the small ruined temple, maybe they wouldn't have summoned the demon that killed everyone in the village, including the enchanter who was working on that sword the fighter wanted enchanted and had already paid for. Point being, you can improv and sandbox all you want, but you should have some sort of a plan that carries weight and if ignored, and players should still have the freewill to ignore them, have devastating consequences in the world where the characters live. In the future, they will see that following the hooks that you put out there will be in their best interests and if you are good at planning, will lead to a great story that you will all end up telling together.

[@StutleyConstable]

One of the worst sins a GM ever committed back when I was still gaming was focusing on combat. There was no problem solving in his games. It did not matter if we were playing a Sci-Fi adventure or a Fantasy. Within the first fifteen minutes the party would be plunged into a battle and even if we won the fight, we only faced more battles. The other bad thing about this GM was his habit of throwing out the rules regarding damage and hit points. A handheld blaster was just as powerful as a laser cannon so we had storm troopers blowing holes in our ship before we could even start the engines. The ship's hit points were too limited for us to compensate in any way and we never got off any planet he put us on. After four sessions with that guy I stopped playing unless I was the GM.

[@SSkorkowsky]

That sounds like a chaotic hell. I'd have stopped playing with him, too.

[@TKFKU]

Gee Bob, no one forced you to come over.

[@Shazzner]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who stacks dice when they're bored.

[@benvoliothefirst]

"If you're bored, then you're boring" - Harvey Danger, Flagpole Sitta

[@lifelongstudents233]

I stack dice even when I’m into the game.

[@davewilson13]

People who never played RPGs stack dice. I think it’s a sign of intelligence.

[@futurelink8]

How I would personally handle the 1st sin. “The tavernkeep keeps going on and on, roll con check to stay awake”

[@darthsidious6380]

futurelink8 Lol, but staying awake means hearing what the tavernkeep says. How about make the tavern keep know what a tavern keep would reasonably know. Information from 800 years ago would be information known only to a select few, not random tavern keeps. Tavern keeps shouldn’t even know about things with accuracy from more than 100 years ago lol.

[@warman]

Once i did a Vampire: The masquerade game that was top to bottom John Carpenters Vampires. Of course, it was a different take as players experienced it on the side of the vampires and they themselves were the ones who attacked the "Sungod motel". The big NPC villain was Jack Crow (James Woods) but as soon as the assault started, one of the players set up as sniper from the distance. She rolled so freaking high to hit that Jack Crows head simply exploded. I was sooooo stunned by that. My star NPC for which the scene revolved arround died in the first seconds of combat.

[@thecteam4395]

Barkeep: *five hours later* ... And there have been many advances-- Warrior: *unsheathes sword* Sword: STRAIGHT THROOOOOOOOUGH THE NECK!

[@blazetheplaneswalker]

Barkeep: hey is that the bonesa...*gets decapitated*

[@ArkRiley]

Seth: "If you don't prepare anything for the game, you're not a Game Master, you're just a PHONY!" Also Seth: "Dude, chill"

[@godofmath1039]

You mean "Todd"

[@MaxWriter]

LOL. This is great. I've made all of these mistakes at some point or another. DAMN, you really feel strongly about preparing for games. I agree with you on it ... mostly. I tend to over-prepare for my Call of Cthulhu game, often doing a great deal of research on things like what train line the pcs will take to get from state to state, downloading photos or drawings of npcs and printing them out, and making sure my props look really good, as well as reading, rereading, annotating, and marking up scenarios, as well as taking little notes in the margins and making little reminders to myself. I also make sure if there are things from earlier games that might come into play, I type up that information to have it handy (like J. Edgar Hoover bursting in on the local Federal Agent in his hospital room after his last scenario to berate him for not keeping his boss up to date). However, I have a second game that I call Deadworld and others call Drunk Game. It's kind of experimental gameplay, wherein everyone has a few drinks before the game and, though I have an idea of what is going to happen, I prepare very, very little for it. It's a present-day zombie apocalypse BRP game (with triffids and feral ghouls thrown in for good measure ... so far) and, for a game that is, for the most part, unprepared, it goes very well and we have a lot of fun. I would NEVER do that with Call of Cthulhu though - whew. No way! I try to have fun. I've had villains die way before they should have if that's what the dice say should happen (that's one of my main things - I never fudge dice rolls). That's one of the things I find most fascinating about gaming - when the story doesn't go where you want it to. One last note about the over-preparedness. When I used to run D&D, I would write up each permanent magic item with it's Stats, Appearance, Weight, Powers, Known History, and Deep History. During my campaign in Ohio some years ago, once the player characters learned I knew the history of each of their items, they would search out bards because they wanted to HEAR said histories (which were usually only a paragraph or two, actually). Those were fun to write (especially the items crafted by a certain mage named "Biniak the Sane" who was anything but). Ah ... good times.

[@SSkorkowsky]

When we do our 1-shot zombie apocalypse games I do most of it on the fly. I setup the opening act, give them 1-2 goals, and then that's it. Those work great usually, but since they're 1-shot games we don't have much invested if something goes wrong and they all die. It's a big break for all of us since we're all playing off the cuff.

[@Monstercloud9]

I feel like the common creed of "It's ROLE playing, not ROLL playing" flies directly in the face of #1 - alot of people seem to forget the "G" in "RPG"

[@TVlord5]

Now Tolkien is a HUGE abuser of the info dump but the scary thing is he could do way more. I remember reading somewhere that part of.why the Silmarillion is so hard to read is because that was never meant for us. By all means overprepare, it's super fun after all! Just don't force it. It's really rewarding to have all the backstory so there's never a question you can't answer. Basically Tolkein wrote all the extra stuff that never made it into the stories so he could have a world that felt real and that really does show.

[@shikatsu]

I call it Stephen King disease,but the thing to remember is that there is a time and place for any trope or technique, know your tools.

[@johntunney1864]

@@shikatsu lmao Stephen King disease. That's the funniest thing to make me snort in a while.

[@kentrench2726]

Excellent stuff Seth! The dramatic interludes are very well done, hysterical & really make the point 👍🏼( the world building one...and controlling - the car blows over 😂)

[@SSkorkowsky]

Thanks.

[@Terestrasz]

8:07 "Players are not going to play as hard or play as smart..." They'll actually be taking a LOT more risks this way - specifically because they will come back. One RP I'm in has multiple DM groups... and since the DMPCs always come back (Somtimes with almost no consequences whatsoever) everyone out of character just goes "oh my god they killed Kenny. Yep. Killed kenny they're bastards."

[@willowm3055]

#7: Avoid excessive worldbuilding Well, crap.

[@JoeR-cd9jg]

Reilly M yeah

[@ArtoMSaari]

Really good video and well illustrated tips! Your point #2 on prep and improvisation is much better than general celebration of "just listen to your players and go with the mood"

[@fireinthedust]

First: "the moment is my muse" is the best thing ever. Ah, the beatnik GM. Second: Controlling GMing is my pet peeve. Hate it. I try to design locations with possible event triggers, but not set events: you can go in however you're able, if you get to room X then you see these objects, or NPC Y is sleeping there and could wake up. I think I'm more likely to over-build, or be frozen by the vast possibilities so that I can't get anything done. But yes, all of these are things I've thought about.

[@SixWingZombi]

I once improvised a whole Star Wars campaign once. It wound up being hilariously entertaining for everyone involved. Also I want to hear more about Dean Doro's Water-Powered Ballistae. Sounds fascinating and completely unnecessary.

[@krispalermo8133]

My game shop Dragon Lance campaign setting book for Star Wars. Replace the dragons with Hutts.

[@MrLazEBones]

God, letting PCs be the main character. And letting different Players have more importance would be so nice. One of my Players brings his fiance to the games because she'll chew his ear off if he doesn't, then just has her character ride on his character's back. Literally doing nothing until he says "Hey, do this." She doesn't engage at all. I've even split the party multiple times, given her rogue things to do and she STILL just turns to him and asks him what to do. She just, does not engage if she doesn't have to. Yet if he tries to do anything without her, she cries and acts like he's abusing her. The guy himself however is awesome. When he finally reached a big bad, he chucked his sword and the guy caught it by the blade. Villain: "Really? Who throws a sword?" Player: "I do! *casts witchbolt using the sword to conduct the electricity* He also once defeated a weakened villain after several scrolls had been used and half the party was down by grappling him and jumping off a tower that was over 100ft tall with him. And I'd planned for the villain to flee. Cleric had to patch him up a lot after that one but it was so awesome. Love that Player. His bride-to-be... not so much.

[@kevinbarnard355]

If you still play with them and it's still an issue, I'd talk to the group about it. She may not have the courage to think of her own ideas yet. If it's just you that's bothered by her participation, remember that casual players are a thing at tables, and we shouldn't discourage them. They may blossom into a different style of gamer after some experience, but even if they don't it's ok to be a casual player. If her participation does bother everyone else, try suggesting a small game with just her and her fiancé. It might be just what they both need to have quirky fun, and it won't matter as much if she doesn't come up with her own ideas. You can also ask that she not be involved in the bigger group if the group finds her participation a problem. It's very reasonable to expect that partners have time separate from each other. It's healthy and should be encouraged. TL;DR: Talk to the couple separately, and talk to everyone else also if this situation is still an issue. Hope this helps.

[@Twosocks42]

I have a one-hit kill big-bad story. Put together a major "dungeon" of sorts--an underground maze in a thieves guild that winds through all the lieutenants before you can reach the boss. It took two sessions to reach the boss. The maze was a challenge and all the lieutenants were unique and difficult in their own right. Everyone was wondering what this final guy would be like, since he is the one who led all these tough under-bosses. They get to his room, he comes out of nowhere, putting his exceptional dexterity on display. The party archer, who has a custom made prestige class of sorts called "sniper" (sacrifices some other aspects of fighting to be better at called shots and getting damage bonuses) rolls a 20 and gets triple damage, in addition to the bonus sniper damage, and does just enough damage in one blow to drop the guy in one hit (despite his rather high armor class). Took him in the throat, and the guy dropped. So much for that fight. >.> Fortunately, I have a good group, and the other players were happy for the player who got to have an epic moment. Sure, it would have been fun to have a harrowing boss-fight against a hard to hit opponent, but there is something to be said about someone one-shotting the big guy. :P

[@tmcgorge]

How did you leave out falling in love with your bad guy? I've sadly been I two long running games where this happened and it just destroyed the game because no matter what we did the main villain was always one of more steps ahead of us, had a counter already or beat us to the goal.

[@kevinbarnard355]

Agreed. Although used sparingly, this trope can be fun. Once, maybe twice should a major NPC do this. Rarely, if ever should they "one up" the PCs after clever planning or good RP. Lucky dice rolls? Sure. That's the time to use it. Just because a PC was lucky, doesn't mean the NPC wasn't lucky also. Another good time to use the "she gets away" trope is if introducing your villain early while the PCs are young. Better in my experience to allow the PCs a victory. Then make the victory taste a little bitter later on. Maybe they realize an underling who got away animated the NPC as an undead, or the cultist managed to summon a demon/raise their boss for a brief reprise. If it makes sense and adds to the dramatic tension, it's fine to allow your NPC to still be a thorn in the party's side. If it's just you as the GM using GM fiat to say "nope, she's super smart and gets away", then don't do it. Better to let them be defeated and modify a lieutenant to become the new big bad as they take up the boss' mantle.

[@cyberdaikaiju]

One point of contention. You are implying that improv and unpreparedness are the same thing. That is simply wrong. I have ran modules and I have ran improv campaigns. My players unanimously prefer the improv games. In reality I find those easier to run as well... but there is still prep. I prepare by figuring out what story I want to tell. Who did what and why. Then I give the players an adventure hook, and improv based on their actions and the motivations of the characters they are interacting with. That means I have to KNOW the motives of the major movers and shakers. Basically if you think you can literally wait till the players are sitting in front of you then decide what kind of story, that's unpreparedness and poor GMing. If you know the bullet points and figure out the details as you go, that's improv.

[@Cricket101382]

This is my exact GMing style. Any game I have actually tried to sit down and fully plot out has always ended up being kind of boring for both the players and me. It just kind of felt like I was running my players through a theme park and it actually made the parts that I had to improve more difficult since I wasn't on my toes as much as I am when I run an game that's made up mostly of improvised interactions.

[@AmityvilleFan]

I think the point is: make checkpoints for the story, and try to approach it from different directions in case the players come up with something not-in-the-original-story. You must prepare all the clues necessary for the campaing, and the maps, and the list of possible enemies, then take consideration of your players how they used to approach problems, also their current mood adding/taking away from the hordes of darkness/light, adapt the nitbits to that, and improvise flexing the story to how they actually manage to build it. Change the details, keep the story. Take the Open World approach instead of some linear list. The funny thing is, this with good GM can work through with an Unfitting Character too. Best campaign I had during a Vampire: Masquarade campaign, and we all got used to use rich, established, fighter-riented characters. But I made a Malkavian who could not fight (not by vampire-abilities I mean), but could get all kinds of lore and torture (Dementation) and was poor (prime source of blood: larping gamers in games organised by its RPG-shop, lol). It resulted in all kind of unexpected turns, served as a good plot device if the party got stuck, and amused the others when for the lack of non-weapon fighting abilities suffered major damage. Like for half a session walked along with 3rd degree burnings. Fortunately it is bloody hard to die as a vampire :)

[@stevenschnepp4816]

Natalie Just Natalie No, that's exactly what he said you should be doing. What he's warning against is no prep improv.

[@CorwinC73]

There's a massive difference between unpreparedness and improv... homebrew campaigns are, in my experience, superior to modules made by someone who isn't the GM. But, while homebrews are always in a state of less "preparedness" than a fully fleshed out module from somewhere else, they are far better, far more intimately understood by their creator. And yes... any GM situation involves a *lot* of improv. But knowing the basics of the setting... having some NPC's ready to pull out whenever (random barkeep number 5, "Thalen", ready to sell information, being different than random barkeep number 4, "Osgodde", minds his own business etc) are necessary. Plot hooks that you can leave strewn about, all eventually leading to the main campaign somehow, and knowing HOW they lead there, are all important. Knowing how the sidequests relate to eachother... knowing who the big bads are, and why they do what they do, and to whom they do it lends a level of depth that can make a campaign go from a jumpled chaotic mess of stumbling from one encounter to the next, into a seamless whole, a tapestry that leaves the players thinking you aren't just good, but impressive. Even when you had to seat of the pants most of the last two sessions to get them back on track.... they may never know. it. Winging it totally is what Seth was referring to... and while that can work for a one shot (One of my groups will never forget the Purple Hash Dragon...) it's a terrible way to run a campaign.

[@CassidyShadewing]

I agree Improv can be great great, a game I'm currently running was planned at the last minute by me, a module built more or less from the ground up to serve the story, and it mostly runs on a mix of improve and adapting things, and surprisingly self-correcting game play that keeps things at a fun but challenging level of the players. Being unprepared, unplanned or refusing to have a plan going in is not the same, as that's just completely random and making shit up. Even actual improve comedy is never purely random, there's some core idea or theme that gets used to set everything up. So Improv can work fine if you actually know what your doing, have an idea of where things should go, and have at least SOME structure going in that you and the players can build on, otherwise you're just fumbling over everything.

[@killerkitsune5425]

#3 a prophecy of a hero "When nlack fear plauges the land a hero shall rise from the masses to save us all" cheesy but in the same manner as Harry and Nevile its ambiguous and the longest suriving player or one who steps forward and fills the role becomes the hero of the tale

[@OlDirtySam]

I began my career as player in a well oiled group of 8 to 10 players. What realy helped a lot was that this group was heavy on the roleplaying side. Most of the time they cared, at least to some parts, for them self and the other players. This way it was very rare that the amount of players became a problem. In my experience 3 players is the worst common number. Most of the time one was the third wheel on the bike ...

[@SgtSnug]

The one thing my GM repeatedly sins is not keeping to a schedule, naturally people only have so much time what with jobs and education to be around, so games are a few hours in the evening once a week, but my GM just can't keep a schedule, he'll blow off sessions with little more reason than not being in the mood, for me getting to play an RPG puts me in a good mood, even preparing for it gets me excited and eager, so I don't see it as a valid excuse. Only having this rant really cause it's happened again, tonight on our D&D session, he's a good GM when he plays but It's so infuriating spending only a few hours every couple of weeks doing something I'm utterly dying to do with my friends just to have it blown off for seemingly little reason or poor planning. So many campaigns of his have died cause multiple sessions get skipped and everyone loses interest.

[@SSkorkowsky]

Yeah, scheduling the game is a never-ending chore. But it's a GM's job per the Social Contract. Back when my group started in college, it was easy to have weekly games and it was great. Then as we graduated and got careers and spouses and kids and just busy lives, it started getting harder and harder. We kept it up (monthly instead of weekly now) but GMs simply not scheduling games is the #1 killer of groups. They sort of fade off and it's just heartbreaking. I hope your GM finds their balance and can keep a schedule.

[@raylea72]

My play group (we play at FLGS) has a rotating group of GMs, because the original GM has to work sometimes on our game night, so a few other players have started to do it, every GM has their own game, so we try to trade out weeks and have now added in another day each week and yet another game (it is a wonderful problem to have - lots of games and gamers who want to play them all). We now have two games that get played on rotating Sundays and are about to split our Tuesday group up and add in a "last Tuesday of the month" thing where D&D isn't only what is played - it will be Star Wars for some of us and a new Pirate campaign for the other half. Like I said, it is a wonderful problem to have. But, for your group, instead of abandoning the GM who is lagging, maybe just move on to something else when he can't make it...it might even spur him to be more conscientious about playing - no one ever wants to feel left out.

[@vlanoik]

So in your GM's defense flimsy excuses like "not being in the mood" are common excuses for people who have depression or are stressed out. However 1) if doing it every week is too much for him to keep up maybe bring it down to every other week; while this sucks for those who are up for it every week but if he's able to guarantee that then there's still that hype build up you get before a game. 2) He should some times just try to push himself to power through a session, it's not the best thing to power through every time but sometimes if you push yourself a little bit you do get into it and have a great time

[@SgtSnug]

I did consider in foresight that phrasing the excuse as 'not in the mood' may give the impression of depressive behaviour, but I'm fairly close friends with the GM in question and it's usually less pressing issues than stress or depression, more superficial mood such as 'this one guy upset me earlier, my mood is ruined all day now' kind, it's more he can't shrug off negative vibes and is easily influenced away from productive behaviour.

[@JD-lj4gt]

SgtSnug you have a GM who does sessions once a week? No wonder he blows off sessions! You're burning him out. Maybe offer to run a quick one shot campaign or a module like strahd to give him a week off. Maybe he wants to play once in a while. I think maybe you ought to sit behind the screen once and find out just how much work it is

[@hammond1994]

In college, I had the unusual pleasure of having a genius for a DM. The six players, who were all pretty intelligent, spent 2 years trying to match wits with the GM. We lost at every turn. He was always 5 steps ahead.

[@munderpool]

Great video as always. You are quite the character! Getting some laughs after a long day at work is rewarding. Thank you!

[@SSkorkowsky]

Thanks.

[@Star-Commander-Vong]

I do excessive world building, but I don't info dump. Yeah, no railroading. That's... No fun, for anyone. I currently find myself guilty of the Essential Character sin. However, I have no plans to bend over backwards to keep her alive. Death is final. Yes, even for the players. I can actually handle quite a few players at once, myself. Only for a oneshot, though. A big campaign is maxes out at 5, just due to scheduling. I do 50/50 preplanning and improv. I will never not have fun as a GM. It's just too much fun sharing, and taking part in, my worlds and stories with the players.

[@CorwinC73]

Actually... if you are playing D&D... death is only a minor inconvenience anyhow. Unless you've homebrewed the rules regardin ressurections, only low level characters need fear death, really...

[@Star-Commander-Vong]

Playing D&D, Homebrewed setting. There is only three forms of return from death in this setting: Revenants, Liches, and Rebirth (that is, the Cycle of Rebirth, not the Druidic ability). Revenants and Rebirth are entirely in the purview of the gods of Undeath and Death, respectively, and Liches are hated by both as a complete affront to the Cycle. There's also Zombies, but they lack any form of free will, and therefore don't count.

[@tach5884]

"Death is final. Yes, even for the players." GM: "The kobold slings a metal ball at you." Player: "I dodge." GM: "You fall off the rope into the acid lake. Your full plate drags you under." Pulls gun from DM screen holster. Bang Other Players: "WTF!" GM: "Find a smarter friend."

[@awesomechainsaw]

Eh I tend to mix a 30 preplan/70 improv and it works fine. It leads to fun messes to clean up. Such as in curse of strahd. Rictavio’s initial research pointed towards the where ravens being allied with strahd. Only for the last moment him realizing it and stopping the party before they killed their allies. It implied that the old vampire hunter’s edge was slipping, and created a “oh what have we done.” Moment.

[@lazanho]

As a madman, I can always bullshit my way out of things while running a campaign

[@5oundOfVictory]

I give my worlds enough depth so that I can easily keep things consistent. Region names, a region map (that I keep hidden from the PCs until they get a map in-game), maybe a big historical event that happened (such as the Divergence in Critical Role), then a year, and I give months and the days of the week names, because time keeping is something I like, and it makes references to what happened when much easier. Everything else I write as I go along.

[@jacobsargent6963]

this is an awesome philosophy and really well explained. I still end up commiting one or more of these sins even after 15 years. Improv is awesome but without an outline or structure you can end up with an anticlimactic mess that leaves everying wondering what was the point of the game.

[@hunterkarr]

Haha yes. That’s what I’m afraid of. I’m intimidated to create and run a scenario because of this.

[@MonarchsFactory]

Super useful content very entertainingly presented - thanks for making this!

[@rowanheyd1200]

I find I get railroady when I prepare. When I have no clue how my player bros are gonna solve the problems, I am more open to suggestions. Also I love the feeling of improvisation.

[@jsilver9700]

I really liked this video, and I really like your voice and the tone of your message. You're so experienced and knowledgeable!

[@matta5498]

Love the dice stacking.

[@jackeldridge4225]

I had a 15 year Marvel Heroes Campaign that spanned 6 different groups before they blew it up. So yeah it can be daunting. Sometimes a player from one group would carry over into the next and would make that easier. I also inspired by Robocop did news dumps Headline style on a page of paper... before I owned a computer. The players would research because they learned I left easter eggs.

[@Tomohiko_Tatsuno]

In regards to a critical player character in my first ever d&d campaign one player was the main character. It never really effected us too much aside from the player having more NPC interaction which wasn't too bad. What made it bad was when we got to the end of the campaign we were forced to split the group to handle two objectives. The group that didn't go with the main character ended up doing nothing important. We were faced with three strong enemies mean to counter each of us and it was supposed to be a big fight to get past them to complete our objective, but the party with the main character wasn't able to do their part yet and since what they did held such significance having the main character what we did had to be halted and we literally sat there chatting with our enemies while the real final fight went on at the top of a spire and we did nothing.

[@humbletreestump8134]

That actually sounds funny. Like all the side characters and villains realize they don't actually matter and instead of fighting, chillax together and talk shit as they watch the final fight.

[@CitanulsPumpkin]

The tavern guy in the excessive world building example should be added to every game. But after he gets out 2 or 3 lines of his rambling mess of an exposition dump the DM should tell the player, "And he goes on like this for 6 hours. You try to leave but he keeps pulling you back in with his incredibly boring monologue. Your character is forced to take a long rest while the rest of the party tries to get useful info from the less chatty hooded old man in the other corner of the tavern." Is that another DM sin? Having one or two NPC's in each tavern that seem to be there to give the players hooks but are really just elaborate social encounter land mines.

[@crazyeyes8962]

Definitely good for a laugh if nothing crucial is going on in the campaign at the moment.

[@Ζήνων-ζ1ι]

5:53 Wow you jumped to Riddick? That's rare, I like that character a lot too.

[@julemoorlag4748]

Great vid! I am new to playing and hope to GM someday, these are fun to watch and have good insight!

[@GnarledStaff]

For the plot armor point, I suddenly have the urge to make a player the exiled prince, and the campaign about restoring them to power… and then kill them off and let the party figure out how to deal with that.

[@jadrakteofurupa7729]

I havent prepared scenario in well over a decade, but i do know the world like a back of my hand.

[@curtisbrown547]

lol. in that over controlling scenario. "I drive my car through the back door!" GM: ...FUCK!

[@jacobserna4142]

I didn't know 100% how roll20 worked before I tried running a game on it.

[@saltysergeant4284]

You're a fantastic DM. I can tell by your presentation of everything in your videos. From the characters, to your explanation of your points, I can tell a campaign with you would be SUPER fun!! Love the videos, brother! Keep it up!

[@itmademesignup9508]

What would Seth think about the guy playing the flame throwing electric guitar in the latest Mad Max?

[@TheOmegaDMM]

Fun thought: The sin of having a critical character that can't be killed can be a good plot if you know there are players who self-sacrifice or are masters of disguise! See, you need to let the character get killed by fault of the players so they realize that either the campaign is over (not really) or they will have to make it up so to speak (think either Weekend at Bernie's or a player goes as the critical character and has to play them!). This path can lead to some refreshing role play options! Edit: Never make a player character a critical component! ALWAYS make them EARN it!

[@MariahSyn]

So the Barkeep used to be a Maester! lol

[@TrackerRoo]

I run Forgotten Realms so zero world building needed. The world already exists and all the major characters and places have detailed information already prepared for me.

[@mordokai597]

#7 Ed Greenwood ACCIDENTALLY created "The Forgotten Realms" as his own custom dragonlance campaign, and flooded TSR mags with "Elminster's 'Realms-Lore'" till TSR was finally like "screw you, man, just sell it to us!" he walked into their office with a full case of "realms-lore" and they were like "holy crap... we didn't know there was THAT much..." Ed Greenwood laughed in their faces and said "there's SIX more cases in my car... can someone give a hand :)"

[@johntunney1864]

The forgotten realms were classic dnd for me. Still are. I cant keep up with the times. Im 23 and still stuck on Thac0. Thats what happens when your uncle loans you his collection from the 80's and 90's. I actually prefer it to dragon lance but even then there's always home brew.

[@RIVERSRPGChannel]

Maximum number of players? I’m at 10, I think that’s it Takes a lot of preparation Good list

[@stephaniecuellar3192]

Excessive players can make for great NPCs. I've ran some legendary one offs just because soneone showed up one night.

[@simonprod1001]

I'd love to GM a fallout game, but I have a problem with sin #2. I've been sorta prepping it for a week or so now, but I just can't keep myself focused on it. I hadn't even thought about how I was failing my potential players till this video. Thank you for reaching through the interwebs and digitally bitch smacking some sense into me. I'm gonna give myself another week to get my shit together. If I can't, I'm not gonna make my friends suffer while I try to wing it. Your videos are super helpful. Thanks again for the reality check!

[@johntunney1864]

Always wanted to run a fallout game. Just was scared to over think it.

[@OhioMan1854]

World building is the mistake I make most often, that skit was me lol

[@paolof.6899]

Hmm I always make general quests and building lay outs for my games with like a single set piece at the end for the big boss that way it's flexible and there is still the cinematic fight, but I think having a general lay out is far different from just trying to wing everything.

[@moonkingdomify]

To make player death actually feel like it could happen in my monday game, the GM started throwing soul eating creatures at us so we couldn't just pay for a resurrection or true resurrection if we died to them, it meant we really had to play safe and not die to these creatures.

[@krispalermo8133]

Did one game type a few times, years ago. It also spilled over into other groups at the game shop playing in the same campaign setting. One part went out after ghost specters and half the group fell to the energy level drain . Now the specters are chasing after their still living party members one by one. These haunted hunted men become will known in the setting. Some try to lay the undead to rest, only to join their ranks, most refuse to help these men on the run. The great final to this party's story arch , was the Last Survivor made it into the strong hold of the warlord that these men went out adventuring to stop. Revenge is best served cold with many of your friends joining you.

[@BrianWalker93]

Liked for the angry rant about game masters that refuse to prepare their game and actually put in the effort. Passion for being a Game Master is important. I'm a brand new Game Master and I've fallen in love with it. Running my game tomorrow and putting my players through a dungeon I've spent almost a month on. The love and time I've put into it makes it all the more exciting for me and so much more satisfying when I see how they like it

[@Raymond13557]

you really opened my eyes, I'm just a rpg game developer, my main program is Smile game builder (despite the name the program is amazing to make turn based rpg games). I usually give the players freedom to wander about and I add npcs that may join the party for the rest of the game or just join for like a little while and leave, and i try to make it immessive as best as i can, I am not the best game developer but i can say that i am persistent in making maps and worlds look pretty great

[@leighmercer9393]

I played briefly in a group where a husband & wife were in the group - the husband GM-ed and the wife was a player. Every adventure focused on her. She played a paladin and the GM had a pair of adult Gold Dragons give the paladin their newly hatched offspring to "take care of." Every time the baby dragon got killed, the parents would pop up and rez the slain wurmling. It was a total dog show.

[@michaelhird432]

In my very first game of dnd i completely derailed the dm's world plan by trying to drink the soul of the god of war. That was fun.

[@littlefaithbuilders]

My GM is so worried about number 7, he doesn't really build it. My rouge wants to know if she needs to fights these vampires or not, so I finally found an person who used to live in the town. So she asks "So what are the goals of these vampires? I mean, why did they take over the town?" The npc quickly said "I don't know, why don't you ask them?" And I was getting really mad cause another npc said THE SAME THING! So my character yells. "I CAN'T!! I WOULD DIE!" and the npc reply's, "No, you die to the minions before you got to the front door to ask them. This is really makes me mad, and ideas what I can do?

[@theredazazelle6185]

My player limit is 8, but I tell my group it's 6 because when everyone thinks my limit is 6, it makes my players feel special when I "overmax" and let in a 7th or 8th player.

[@theredazazelle6185]

Also, much like Hamon, improvisation is meant to be used as a rapier not a sledgehammer

[@SSkorkowsky]

Like Scotty in Star Trek 2, you know how to ensure your reputation as a miracle-worker. Respect.

[@korvo3427]

"Hello internet" This guy knows his shit.

[@jeanne-emerycoleman214]

One of my favorite things about #7 Your darlings do a lot for the verisimilitude of your game or novel, but only in the way of presenting with confidence. Those small details allow for some amazing moments that exist within real world conversation and thought processes. Appendix information is helpful when it isn't given to the audience, but providing tons of scaffolding that supports things behind the scenes.

[@flixmanager]

how come you don't get invited to play with the authors of all these other KZbin advice channels - you are definitely one of the best

[@mandos6145]

GOOD LORD YES! holy wow was it annoying when we had a "main character" in our campaign, super cringetastic story reasons as to why they were MC too

[@Heliux15]

Forgive me...for I have sinned. ;_; 2 years into a campaign and I've learned all of these the loooong way around. -solid advice. thanks for the +1up

[@the42ndgecko21]

I always have to scratch my head when people say complete improv is bad, because my absolute far and away best campaign was literally, "Alright, everybody make a superhero!" "I'm a blind swordsman who can cut through buildings." "I'm a Spartan, not the loincloth version." "I manipulate rocks." And then I threw them against an Anime villain (none of my players watch), and they had so much fun that this intended one shot took over all my campaigns, and literally all of my prep work was "Pick an anime villain for today's session. Let's go with one of the angels from Neon Genesis Evangelion today." Looking back, I can pretty directly correlate how successful each of my campaigns was with how much I improved. The meticulously planned worlds were universally disasters. The "here's the bullet points and important movers and shakers" prep for an hour before we begin games usually went ok. And the "I grabbed a villain from a Penny Arcade strip" and the like were all my player favorite games.

[@DeGreyChristensen]

Andrew Meyer did you do any prep for any of your sessions after the first one?

[@the42ndgecko21]

Beyond occasionally thinking to myself, "Oooh, I should steal this bad guy from Knight Run, it was the only good thing in that comic", and the like, no.

[@ookami1001]

You did think about the villains you would choose. You knew the villains, you had to watch all these animes to know these villains. And you probably caught yourself thinking about how to put them in game mechanically-wise/system-wise. Hence, prep.

[@Parker8752]

It's worth mentioning that there are different kinds of preparation, and some systems require more of it than others. Even if (like me) you're more comfortable improvising a game almost entirely from scratch, preparing aids to improvisation will almost always make your game better.

[@Spaceisprettybig]

See that's the thing though, you did prep before hand by choosing a cleanly identifiable and familiar character (an anime villain). Literally their entire personality, motivation, mannerisms and so forth have been canonized tropes in modern media. 'You' may not have prepared this character, but he is none the less a pre-prepared character you've experienced dozens of times over the years, allowing you to easily recall his personality and thus easily apply him to the story.

[@aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa2004]

I like most of your videos, but your weird strawman about improv really turns me off. All one needs to prep for a game is story beats, which is the mostly the same as real longform improvisers do. I'm so sick of the "improv rpg bad" rhetoric these days that I may have to make a response channel. Again, love most of your stuff and you.

[@sleepnt992]

Improvisation improves with preparation - when I know the world, have locations and NPCs in the backhand, i can improvise much better. Like a musican has to know the instrument, you have to know have to know the game.

[@Radiogumdrop]

We had a D&D campaign at school and there were way too many people. There was my DM and then like 8 players. It sucked. Unless you were an aggressive type of player, it was hard for people to get anything in. I think a good number is 4 players.

[@jakerockznoodles]

On the first point, our old GM just had a very simple way of avoiding info dumps in that situation. If someone asked the barkeep a question like that, he'd just say "Sure, what do you want to know? ".

[@ladybuzzkillington2072]

Im super guilty of number 7 because im a giant lore nerd. Ill spend hours just reading aboit lore in video game worlds. This is one reason why i mostly run Cthulhu so that im not as tempted to lore dump. However in my most recent dnd campaign i ended up making a text channel in our discord where i just lore dumped for a couple thousand words and told my players read up if you want if not ill give a brief recent history during session 0

[@mileseximius]

I WANNA KNOW MORE ABOUT DEAN DORO

[@jamesonjjjoseph3705]

ive been accused of star player, but that "star" is the only person actually interacting with the world... the other players just make attack and damage rolls...

[@alexmcclure4100]

My players derailed the entire campain on the first session. And they do this every other session. I physically cant prepare for these people, their goal IS to derail it. But you know what I still have fun, Ive just decided to not prepare in as much detail as most, but still try. It always gets derailed

[@justinfenton9983]

Just found your channel today, really dig your humor, pace, candor, and knowledge. Definitely getting my sub.

[@matthewbirdsall9518]

Love these videos. Seth is great, the points are well made and illustrated. Also, been hard crushing on Cyberpunk 2020 since I opened that book.

[@kokumalamoi3421]

You speak like the truest of all Game Masters. You shall have my subscription, Sir.

[@monsterbash9758]

How could the players possibly kill my big bad in one hit? They don't know how much hp it started with. XD

[@evanhaukenfrers4765]

The irony of #2 is that my players consistently enjoy my improv games more than my planned ones. To the point where planning anything beyond very broad strokes has become a detriment to the game as a whole.

[@baronvonkek8467]

I'm a new DM watching these videos to see what to avoid. Thank God I do, because God knows I'd do some of these otherwise.

[@sts8304]

i roll with 8 players. We all roleplay heavy. It makes the games exponentially longer but it's not harder

[@0x777]

I'm missing one, the most crucial sin of all: The Mary Sue NPC. I've seen this too many times to ignore it. Meet some superspecialawesome NPC who can and does solve all the problems in the world. The ultimate deus-ex-machina, mender of plotholes extraordinaire and ultimate warrior-wizard-thief. He can do anything, does know anything and is basically immortal. Ok, that's the ultimate worst version of it, but you know these characters. Usually it's an old PC character the GM played in one of his own games where he was a player and really grew fond of that character. Maybe it's even a character that some of the players know because they were players in that campaign, too, and hence remember that the GM played that character. That character then gets souped up to godlike powers and becomes some sort of local hero that now is some kind of big buddy of the characters. Whether they like it or not. Inserting an old char into the game, especially one that belongs to the GM so he doesn't step on anyone else's toes, and one that at least the players know so they have some kind of memory of him, that can be fun. But it never really is when the GM uses one of his own beloved characters. Because invariably that character becomes de facto immortal (and don't you DARE to attack him, mortal, for your ashes will be blowing in the wind before you're done drawing your sword!) and so over the top that it's simply not funny to be a player character anywhere in the same realm as this person.

[@Plaugue1122]

For the too controlling scenario I would simply put the encounter into the back door entrance

[@kevinbarnard355]

Yup, that's a great way to handle it. Once you realize that you can just shift reality if it's important for the story, you never have to use a railroad again. However, remember to reward players for being careful, clever or both. If there is a guard waiting to arrest you at the front door, let them sneak in the back, but the guard might be patrolling the halls. If it's information they need, move it to where they go. Let them see the bucket of slime above the front door waiting to drop on them as they come from the back of the house, and they feel clever for having gotten past it. I was reminded of the front stoop scenes In Murder by Death. Everyone saw the trap coming or were suspicious...they all had different ways to avoid it.

[@guntisveiskats6053]

OMG, did you really say that?? "Player death happens" (7:25)

[@nolgroth]

There is a huge difference between "improv" and "freeform." Sometimes you have to improv. "Half the players are out time to call....wait, you want me to run a Call of Cthulhu game as a fill?" You do the best you can and hope people have fun. Freeform games are very similar with the key difference being that you have prepared (stats, dungeons, NPC's, etc) that can be inserted wherever you need. You just do it in little chunks of content that, when combined with a little improv, form a more cohesive story that relates to everything else you've been doing while giving the illusion that you can improvise virtually anything. Just keep a notebook or dome index cards around to jot down those improv notes do that you can refer back to them later.