I used to spend a lot more time developing adventures, too much time even. Not only does a GM not need to have every detail meticulously planned out, but there adventure is usually better if they wing it at least a little.
But it takes time and experience to develop this skill and to become comfortable enough to try it.
I don't like just winging it though. I've ran complete improve games and sometimes they are pretty good, but they can also be a complete mess.
To help create a balance of structure and on-the-spot creativity I've been developing a lot of random tables.
I used to hate the idea of random tables, and I'm still hesitant to use other people's. I always thought it would be better just to always think of everything myself, but I would often have trouble figuring out where to put everything.
I know I would want a pit full of snakes and falling icicles but I wouldn't always know what hallway to put them in or what room they would fit in.
So now I let fate decide, I write up everything I want in a given situation and put it on a table I can easily roll on. Depending on what I'm doing I may have to roll everything before the actually game but sometimes I don't have to roll until actual play. I usually need to create a basic layout of what I'm doing as well.
This system may require some tweaking throughout and sometimes I'll forget randomness and still plan somethings, but that's usually when I'm sure I know what I want.
But this is dealing with entropy in a creative system so of course you're not getting an exact science.
In the next post I'll talk about how this system actually worked in-game.
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