I've been following a module and the players went and did.....
It never fails, with homebrew or existing adventure modules, players are going to throw a wrench in your game at some point or another and go left when the module has planned for the right.
So how do you freestyle when this happens?
This is a skill that is earned with plenty of practice, and even still, experienced game masters can stumble with this process. That being said, I will share with you some tried and true suggestions that can help you navigate these perilous waters of roleplaying.
13 ways to improvise during a gaming session
1) The first thing you must do is know your adventure! Know what the overall objective is and the series of events that will lead the player to the end of the module. Modules are pretty well railroaded adventures that have a sequence of events, but if you know the path well enough, you will be able to shuffle things as needed to keep the story going.
2) Have some side quest options quick at hand that won’t impact the main storyline. Our plot deck is a great tool that allows you to quickly have a ready to go side quest that will give you time to get the group back on track. You can also create your own list of quick, go-to side quests and refer to it anytime you need to.
3) Refer to your players characters personal goals and motivations. Why are they going off mission? What is their motivation to do so? Take inspiration from their background stories and inject some rewards or clues that become future adventuring hooks specific to the characters.
4) Read and glean inspiration from other adventure modules. Even as a new game master, reading will give you super human powers… sort of. If you can get ahold of and read through other adventure modules, this can be an easy way to re-rail an adventure. This method can also simply redirect the adventure into the new module. It simply opens up more options for you as a game master.
5) Add to the “why” they need to finish this quest. Ok, saving the world from perilous peril just isn’t enticing enough. So, perhaps they stroll into town and one of the characters meets the love of their life while the others talk to a wealthy landowner and each are offered what they desire in return for fulfilling this mission (which just so happens to be the mission they were already supposed to be doing). So throw some money and personal PC relationship carrots at the group.
6) Bring in recurring bad guys. This one should be a bit higher in the list, but #6 isn’t too bad. Having a baddy that you love to hate is a powerful motivator. They can somehow drop in at just the right times and taunt the heroes just enough to get their blood boiling and blood feuds reignited. Get yourself a good bad guy….. good…bad… guy…, that doesn’t sound quite right… but a good bad guy that’s not good… you get the point, and this can help stoke the fires of mission accomplishment.
7) Don’t try to control everything. This is a tough one, even I still suffer from this one quite a bit. But good words to live by. Let the player play. If they’re having fun, roll with it. Use the tools here to adapt to the groups new missions and ambitions. Keep an open mind to not completing the quest line that you started out doing and working towards some other goal.
8) Don’t overwhelm your players. This can be done with combat, puzzles, and even storyline. A lot of factors can go into this, and because we as game masters know the story inside and out, its easy to take for granted that the players are being spoon fed information slowly and often times miss some of the more subtle nuggets that are dropped.
First lets talk about overwhelming players in combat. This can be done, and it just happened to me yesterday in my last session, when not all the players show up to the game and you run combat based on numbers that aren’t present. I had 3 of 5 show up and one of the two was my tank. Two of the players that did show up ended up going down, leaving the one with low health and facing off some pretty big baddies. Instead of killing him off, I modified the storyline a little bit and introduced a couple NPCs early on that came in and bailed them out, healed them up and are now their guides. This was intended in the story, we just a bit of a round-about way to get there.
Puzzles are a beast of their own. There are three trains of thought on how to handle puzzles. Solve as the players, solve as the characters, or the hybrid method.
- Most game masters will present the players with some puzzles and ask that they solve it. This tests the players abilities, not the characters.
- Then you have the other camp that lets the players roll their characters intelligence stat or applicable skill check to solve these sorts of problems.
- Lastly, there’s the hybrid method, where the players are presented with a puzzle and told to roll for their characters intelligence. The roll determines how much of a clue the players get to solve the puzzle, this allows the players to collaborate and role play the puzzle solving experience. There have been cases where players with not so great intelligence stats have come up with some clever in-character suggestions which, as the gm, earned a bonus clue to the puzzle.
9) Don’t be afraid to fudge your rolls. But do this in moderation and don’t let your players find out! Use your judgement when to do this and when not to do this. I personally tend to let storyline drive when I fudge rolls, and the overall state of my characters health and wellbeing. If a decision that I make is something that will most likely kill the party (that is not main quest big bad guy level), I will tend to fudge the numbers a bit. Now if the players decide to go and do something that is rather stupid and put themselves in a situation that will kill everyone, then that’s a different story. And that take us right into the subject for #10.
10) Don’t be afraid to kill party members. There are times when it’s OK to let a players character die. As a new game master it can be difficult to let this happen because you’re afraid you’re going to piss the player off and they won’t come back. Don’t worry about that. Killing a character can be truly beneficial, especially to new players. First- it teaches players that this world is deadly, and their character is not invincible! Second – it teaches players to think more critically when they’re making decisions. Trust me, this is a good thing. A side effect to this is they will typically stop rushing into perilous situations Leroy Jenkins style.
11) Practice describing things in greater detail. If I’m being honest with myself, this is an area I can improve too. However, being able to come up with descriptions is a great way to strengthen your improvisation tools. When you can describe the riverside farmhouse in more glorious detail, it becomes more then just a farmhouse, it becomes an area of interest. Now you as the game master may know that there’s not a single thing of importance in that farmhouse, but your description will tickle the curiosity of the players to investigate. And when you can do this on the fly, you can create some quick and fun distractions for the players.
12) Don’t get caught up on the rules. Rules are suggestions in my opinion. When I am the game master, I decide what is the rule and what is a guideline. If a rule is confusing or not working for you and the way your group plays, disregard it. That being said, you do need to be consistent. If you make a ruling for a player once, then it needs to stand true the next time and for the other players. If you change the rules and rulings each time, you will earn yourself an empty table real quick.
13) Consult with your players between game sessions. Getting feedback from each of your players individually will help you immensely. They are more apt to open up about their experiences playing with you and they can tell you what’s working and what’s not working.
BONUS: 14) HAVE FUN! First, last and foremost… the objective for YOU and your players is to have fun. If you’re not enjoying the game, chances are that’s transferring to your players too. If your players aren’t enjoying the game, you won’t have players. Do whatever it takes to have fun. If that means scrap the entire module you’re running, do it. If that means more combat, do it. If that means no combat, figure out how to do a 100% role-playing game. Chances are if you’re new to game mastering, and especially if you’re running a group with new players, you can set the tone and teach them your style of game mastering, even as you learn it. If you’re new to running games with veteran players, it can be a bit tougher depending on what the group is used to. Most of these guys can be understanding and cut you some slack, and most will undoubtedly give you advice on how to run a game. Do what you enjoy and the right group will be formed.
