Running A Game On the Spur of the Moment, Without a Prepared Adventure

Lately my life has been a little crazed. All the "normal" events are still going on, but July and August become more cramped. I could go into the laundry list of events and projects my wife and I have to go along with working full time, but then all I would be doing is whining. You didn't come here to read an article about some other guy whining about how busy they are because you're also busy. Along with all of this additional work I have piling up I promised I would run a game. Now what?

I think every person who has been a game master (GM) has come across this same situation. You know you have people coming over and they are expecting a game, and you have been so tied up with other events in your life you haven't drawn out what you are going to do. Now what?

Your group gets together and at the last minute the person who was supposed to GM can't make it. You look around at each other. Everyone was looking forward to getting some gaming in, but you don't have a GM. Now What?

I know every good GM is supposed to have their adventures worked out way ahead of time. We're supposed to have our notes made up so we can keep the action moving ahead on some well thought out adventure with twists and turns the players aren't expecting. A devious villain, or master boss, concluding the adventure in a great climax of action, suspense, leaving the players with a mystery of what great reward lies in wait for their characters. It doesn't always happen that way, I am willing to bet, more often than not most the time a GM has an outline of the events they would like to do and pieces of paper in their monster book marking what the party is going to run into.

Not having a prepared adventure can be one of the most stressful times for a GM, especially when you're just getting into being a GM running your own game. You want to make it spectacular for your players. And, you're looking at running them into the same monsters you just ran because you have been busier than expected since the last game.

It's okay. Run with it. Take the few notes you have (if any) and combine them with the critters you know how to run. Then, give that setting over to the players and let them run with it. But, don't tell your players you are at a loss, at least not until after the session is over. They don't know you don't have every detail worked out. Even if you did, they would probably do something that would require you to make changes. The concern then becomes how to run a game like this.

Have a solid location

Over the years GMs I have gamed with have had a particular location they are comfortable running. Back in first edition the Shady Dragon Inn was a favorite starting point. In my world it is the Hin House. Use what you know, even if you make changes to it. Give your barkeep a different name, or make them a different race. Draw the map a little different and suddenly the party is in a location they have never been to before. Now you can give your players some lead and see what they do with it.

Listen to what the players start asking for. They may have some ideas from the last adventure they played and look for information. They may be getting into character personalities and want to blow off some steam and spend some of the rewards from the last haul. Many players when given the question of what are they doing, will come up with an answer. It may not be the answer you're expecting and for this type of game that could be the hook that takes the entire evening. It may even take you away from those rough notes of what you had sketched out.

I have done this a number of times over the years and very seldom have I or the players been disappointed. The reason is because you are opening up the evening of gaming to more fully directed by the players. You, as the GM, can provide consequences to their actions without having to direct them on where the actions have to take place.

In one of these sessions one of the players took the lead to start putting together a boxing competition between the townsfolk and one of the party members. While he was doing that several others thought that would make a great distraction for collecting a few items from some of the richer people living there. Another time the game lasted for four hours and the party never left the tavern as they were involved in a bar fight and then the aftermath of dealing with the guards.

I have also seen this work at conventions with pick-up games. A group of players wanted to just have at it for a bit so they sat down with the some pre-generated characters one of them had prepared to run another game with. Instead, another person took over and threw out a situation as presented above. After a short while there was a small audience watching the game, just to see what they would come up with next.

Have an idea, something simple

I keep a few base ideas handy just for these situations. Something I can drop out on the table putting characters into something a little different and let them decide how to deal with it. Just the other night  we ended up with our own one-shot pick-up game with a new player to the group. We had a couple of hours so I found out what character the new guy had and had the others pull existing characters around the same level. Then I started with one question, "How did you meet?" With the information thrown out, part of it originally in fun, we ended up having a full evening of adventure without having any notes to go on beforehand.

If you have ran one of these evenings, what was your experience and outcome?

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