You Should Improvise Unfairly

I’m a huge fan of Chris McDowall’s work; not only has he created some of the most famous lightweight fantasy roleplaying games, he’s also filled them with referee advice that’s often missing from more mainstream games. Despite his many excellent takes, there is one line of advice in Mythic Bastionland that I cannot disagree with more: When faced with a question not answered by rules, notes, or procedures, you improvise. Anything too beneficial or too harmful creates the feeling of an arbitrary world. This idea is also expressed in Sandra Snan’s Blorb Principles: Try to make [your improvisation] something that won’t help or harm the player characters too much. On the surface, this advice is trying to ensure some level of fairness. As Sandra notes, a Game Master could throw “20 angry beholders” or “20 free healing potions” at players, rendering a situation impossible or trivial for players to resolve. And while I would agree both of those options are likely not great improvisations in…

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