I’ve been reading about and seeing a new breed of traveler in the airport these days. The kind who boards a red-eye with no neck pillow, no noise-canceling headphones, no downloaded videos and podcast. They’re not just unprepared – they’re rawdogging the flight.
But rawdogging doesn’t stop at air travel. It’s a state of mind, and commitment to presence over preparation. And in the world of tabletop role-playing games, I believe it’s an ethos we should push towards in our game design.
Imagine this: No hours of prep. Only players, dice, and a GM (or Doomsayer, in the case of my game) who trusts the game system to carry the weight. That’s rawdogging the dungeon! And it’s not a desperate improvisation – it’s actually a design goal.
Rawdogging a dungeon can be intimidating, and you should support your GM by designing your game to make it easier for this freestyle approach.
Designing for Zero-Prep: Lessons for RPG Creators
I used the below philosophy in design my own game, Fängelsehåla (Shameless plug), and whether you’re a game designer building your own system, or hacking one into another one, here are some lessons to make rawdogging the default mode of play!
1. Rules to Remember
Make sure that the rules are easy to remember, and never make people search a rule book to see how something works. Make any magical effects short and easy to record on a player sheet so that all the information is at your finger tips! (Don’t be DCC with your individual spell charts)
2. Player Facing Rolls
Having players roll for everything, including attacks, defense, and consequences. puts the tension in the player’s hands and frees up the GM to focus on narrative flow. This also reduces bookkeeping and speeds up gameplay dramatically.
Fundamentally you should also reduce the number of potential modifiers to rolls. If every roll is modified by several factors, you get into arguments. I personally prefer a dice pool system like Fang has, so that the results are immediately apparent and adds excitement to the roll!
3. Reduce Stats, and Add Meaning to Rolls
In most games opponents and monsters are defined by just a few key stats – DC, HP, etc. While you probably can’t get away from needing stats, you can limit them.
D&D over the years transitioned to having monsters having Attributes. While on the surface it seems like a good idea for accuracy, it also adds unintended complexity. This also may require GM facing rolls unless you choose the correct game mechanic to avoid it.
You can also add effects that are triggered by the dice. I chose to do this with Fang by having the delta (the difference between difficulty and roll outcome) be the damage received – either way.
Further to that, I also have critical rolls and complications triggered by the dice. Fang isn’t the first game to do that, but doing so frees up the GM from making decisions. It all flows from the player’s rolls.
The one caveat is that you need to limit the amount of times complications, as this will also become cumbersome to the GM over time!
4. Build Tools, Not Walls
Zero-prep doesn’t mean zero content. It means offering the GM modular and useable tools instead of narrative walls. In Fäng, spark tables create NPCs, locations, and situations on the fly.
5. Design for Emergence, Not Control
Instead of plotting arcs, offer ingredients. When everything is interconnected – characters, items, dangers, and oddities – the game writes its own story. The GM doesn’t need to steer it. They just need to open the world and say, “What do you do?”
Join the Rawdog Revolution
The best sessions don’t come from perfect prep. They come from being in the moment, trusting the system, and rolling with it (literally).
With Fängelsehåla, I’ve aimed to create a game that invites you to do just that. No stress. No homework. Just a vivid world, dramatic consequences, and the tools to let GMs rawdog the dungeon like a pro.
So the next time your players ask, “Are we playing tonight?” and you’ve got nothing prepped – grab the Fang booklet and go! You’ve got this. You were born to rawdog!
Join the Fun with Fan Adventure Jam, and be eligible for oner $1000 in prizes!
Recent Comments