Low-prep D&D with kickers, flags, conflict webs, and no-death

[Will Grzanich]

Thanks, Warren -- I get the feeling you're right on the money.

-Will

[John Harper]

Hey Will,

First, cool game! I love to see people trying this kind of thing.

Imrpov can be learned, yes. It takes practice, but you'll get better the more you do it. Plus, first sessions are extra hard since you don't have any momentum. Now that you've put a bunch of stuff in play, it should be a little easier to move things around on the fly.

I think Matt Snyder's recordings of his Nine Worlds game are pretty instructive, actually. Matt does this great thing where he talks to the players about what he's doing, all the time. Like, "Okay, since you went there, I'm going to make up this NPC who will be trying to lure you into a trap. I'm going to call him Bob, and give him these traits. Let's start the scene just as Bob confronts you and tries to talk you into going back into the alley with him..." Instead of pausing the game and going away from the table to work on stuff in secret, Matt puts his "prep" out in the open so it remains part of play with everyone else.

This technique may or may not work for you, but it might be worth a try. You can listen to Matt's game recordings here:
http://www.chimera.info/blog/2006/04/light-years.html

[Alan]

One thing I learned writing fiction: making lively characters doesn't depend on lots of background, just on a goal or two.  The moment a character has a goal (especially one that ropes in the main character) they have fictional life.  I find it works the same way with roleplaying.

I think the Dog suggestion has it spot on.

[soviet]

Something I've found to work really well is to get the players involved in creating the universe on the fly. When they meet a new NPC or go to a new planet I quite often go round the table and ask them to come up with a name and some characterful abilities - it takes some of the burden off you, gets them involved more in creating the game world, and gives them a real investment in the character.

A case in point is the underworld contact one of my players developed in my Star Wars / HeroQuest game. I'd intended him to be just a throw-away character but the group came up with such cool abilities (Midget Drug Dealer, Blink And You'll Miss Him, Holographic Size Improvers) that he will definitely be making a few more guest appearances later in the game!

soviet

[Will Grzanich]

Something I've found to work really well is to get the players involved in creating the universe on the fly. When they meet a new NPC or go to a new planet I quite often go round the table and ask them to come up with a name and some characterful abilities - it takes some of the burden off you, gets them involved more in creating the game world, and gives them a real investment in the character.

Yeah, I'm definitely working on getting them involved in those kinds of ways.  I expect it'll be rocky the first few times, but maybe we'll get the hang of it...

Thanks for the suggestion!

-Will