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Dungeons and Dragons – Improve your game with Improv

Game Master Tips - Giving your Players Agency in Your Campaign
Dungeons and Dragons - Descriptive Combat Using Real World Fighting Techniques

Dungeons and DragonsOk, dungeon masters how many of you spend hours in between game nights plotting and planning your adventures and encounters for your players.  You probably spend more time than you should.

Lets look at the key factor.  When your players show up at the table they usually have little to no idea what you have in store for them for the evenings entertainment.  They only have the ability to react to what you throw at them.  Well what if you had a loose outline of the entire campaign and then only reacted off of what the players do?

Does your Dungeon Master use Improv?

You could play Dungeons and Dragons by the seat of your pants, much the way that your players do.  Nate the Nerdarch is running a gamedungeons and dragons where he is using the random tables to make decisions for his game and so far his players are having a wonderful time with his random game.

I ran an entire campaign, a weekly game run in college, where I had the premise and the ending at conception.  Everything else that happened in that game was done during game play, with a little bit of note taking to make sure that everything stayed cohesive.

Now I know what you might be thinking. You could be saying that you do not think quickly enough on your feet.  Well, let me tell you the more you do this style game the better at you become.  Your biggest friend in this style of running is, “So what are you doing?”  You can literally ask your players what they want to do.  This gives the power to the players and that is ok.  It is far better then to plan an entire evening of them fighting goblins and then when they show up they say nah, I do not want to fight goblins tonight.

Improv to Improve your Dungeons and Dragons Game

Dungeons and DragonsOr you could be thinking that you need to be the one in control of your Dungeons and Dragons game and that Improv is not for you.  Well this is a game that is all about improv.  And the control factor is always passed around the table.  When you let the decision of whether something succeeds or fails based on a die roll, sorry Dungeon Master but you are not in control the dice are.

When you let your player do a speech to the masses you are granting that player authority in your world.   When your players rise up over the villain you created he players gain renown over the populace and you have relinquished even more control over to them.  So if the goal is to become heroes in this game then clearly by the end of a game the DM has little control.  So why not start off your game with little control and save yourself some time and enjoy the ride?

So Until Next Time, Stay Nerdy!

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Ted Adams

The nerd is strong in this one. I received my bachelors degree in communication with a specialization in Radio/TV/Film. I have been a table op role player for about 20 years 17 of which with the current group. I have played several itterations of D&D, Mutants and Masterminds 2nd and 3rd editions, Star wars RPG, Shadowrun and World of Darkness. I am an avid fan of books and follow a few authors reading all they write. Favorite author is Jim Butcher I have been an on/off larper for around 15 years even doing a stretch of running my own for a while. I have played a number of Miniature games including Warhammer 40K, Warhammer Fantasy, Heroscape, Mage Knight, Dreamblade and D&D Miniatures. I have practiced with the art of the German long sword with an ARMA group for over 7 years studying the German long sword, sword and buckler, dagger, axe and polearm. By no strecth of the imagination am I an expert but good enough to last longer than the average person if the Zombie apocalypse ever happens. I am an avid fan of board games and dice games with my current favorite being Quarrios.

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