Last night my wife needed a game. Our daughter wore her nerves out, so after Lily's bedtime, it was time for diceful whackass.
"Something Traveller", she said, but my buddy Phil has my MT stuff at present and Amber prefers it over the LBBs, so she said, "Okay, how 'bout D6 Space?"
And I said, "Yeeeaaaaaaahhh."
It was a chance for me to exercise all the stuff I keep talking about doing, here: GMing fast and loose, not over-preparing, taking creative shortcuts and not worrying so damn much about perfection.
I made about a sheet of notes and that was it. I Funneled* together an idea built out of Escape From New York ("Rescue a VIP from a warzone") which itself was inspired by playing Crimson Sea 2 the other night, along with a stray thought from about a week ago ("I like space-lizards with guns!") and her request that there be a sexy NPC in there.
A few quick obstacles (not all of which I used), a few names pinched from a list I made a year ago, shameless acceptance of action movie cliches -- and done.
It was fun -- and I found myself feeling even more creative for having less to go on. Like, I decided that her suggested landing site would be an old strip mine NOT during the note-making process but during a potty break minutes before she landed.
I liked the notion of using my Funnel obstacles not as a program but as a smorgasbord -- I originally had it that the landing site was occupied by Space-Lizards, so she'd have to find alternate berthing...but instead I changed that, and opted not to slow the game down any further.
Seriously -- for me, this kind of improv is liberating. I'd usually try to stick to my notes because, hey, I WROTE THEM DOWN -- almost slavishly, cripplingly. Instead, last night I just played with my ideas as I was using them.
Really, is this what everyone else has been doing all along...? Is it the "hat over my eyes" thing?
By the way. If you're not using a list of ready-made names and details for your campaign setting...DO IT.
*Funnel: The Better Way To Office!
