The Successfully Unprepared DM

Obviously, preparing to run a 4th Edition game has gotten me remeniscing about Dungeons & Dragons games past. This hasn’t been woolgathering about the “good old days”, or Old School nostalgia, or even deeper contempation about the Edition Wars as it has been me trying to recall how I used to do this. The skills, they are rusty.

The ultimate knock upside the head for me, when my 14-year-old self really started screaming that I was overthinking it, was when I remembered how my friend Bob and I used to prepare for weekend D&D games in high school. I lived near the school and walked home, Bob lived farther away and took the bus. On Friday after school he’d walk home with me, and we’d detour to the hobby store. Together, we’d pick out a module that looked pretty good, and whichever of us had money (or sometimes the two of us pooling our money) would buy it. Then we’d go back to my house and hang out until his dad got off of work and swung by to pick us up.

We’d go to Bob’s house, have dinner, meet a couple of friends, and then I’d take the shrink wrap off the module and we’d start to play. I didn’t read through it first. I had no idea what was going to happen next. I had no idea what was in that room until they kicked in the door and I had to read the description. I was totally flying by the seat of my pants, and we all had a great time.

We’d game all weekend, sleeping over at Bob’s house until his dad took up home on Sunday. When the module ran out, or we didn’t have a module, I just rolled random dungeons using the tables in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Again, as the DM I was as surprised as they were and had no preparation time, but we all had fun.

Over the years I’ve obviously gotten more sophisticated and my gaming style has evolved, which is mostly a good thing. But there’s something to be said for the simpler times, flying blind and just taking things as they come. Being prepared makes for a better game, of that I’m certain, but there’s such a thing as being over-prepared, and a certain joy to be had when you have to think on your feet and improvise on the spot.