No Prep D&D as the Socratic Method

If you're not familiar with the Socratic Method, it's basically asking questions to teach. I know that's a bit of an over simplification, but you'll understand better as you read on.

I'm not sure if I've interpreted this wrong, or if this is a way some people play Old School D&D, but I've always imagined it (and played it) as a sort of question and answer discussion between the Referee and players. A lot of examples show this: "Is there a lever on the wall? . . . I press it, what does it do?", "Do I notice anything odd about the hallway? . . . what color is the shine?", etc...

This might have come naturally to me because I've always liked the Socratic method, in high school I loved reading Socrates and Plato. With my friends it always inspired critical thinking, free thought, and drawing your own conclusions. In my opinion, D&D, is very much a game of critical thinking, and being free to do what you want.

I'm also a rather lazy Referee. I usually come up with some general ideas, and or a broad concept of what I want to do. From there I let the players fill in the gap by asking questions. When they ask a question, I ask myself "does it make the game more interesting/fun? does it make sense? and what are the possible repercussions of this?". I'm sure tons of people do this, and I'm not special. I do know that it's more typical to spend a lot of time preparing games and campaigns, and having everything planned out ahead of time.

Let me give an example of this. First let me warn you, I'm probably an easier Referee than other old-schoolers (or at least the perception of them). I let my players get away with stuff in the interest of having a good time, and making a good story. I'm not one (anymore) to say "Well you didn't specify that ahead of time". Maybe if it's something big that they really should have specified I'll tell them no. Normally though if it's something there character would have done naturally, or something that makes a lot of sense, I'll let them get away with it.

One time I was playing OD&D with my wife and good friend we'll call Fighter (incidentally in real life he was a Fire Fighter, so how about that). They had made camp in the woods, and were awoken that night by a boar digging through their camp. Fighter had specified ahead of time that they slept about 25 yards away from where their fire and food had been. When the boar charged Fighter said he jumped upon a log they had made camp by. His argument was that he was playing a Ranger, and would have definitely thought to camp near some cover. Being that it was the woods, there's tons of broken and fallen logs, and he was a Ranger. So why not.


That was a bit more proactive on the player's part, but often a similar process happens when we play. In almost any instance I don't take time to give very detailed descriptions. Anything extremely important to the encounter or campaign I'll describe, or major terrain features such as whether it's the woods or mountains, I'll be sure to include. But normally I don't take time to describe the rocks on the side of the road, or whether there are bones on the floor in a dungeon, or exactly how many boulders there are in the valley.

Instead I like players to come up with fun plans or allow them play out their ideas in the game. Players might come up with some really awesome plan involving the terrain or miscellany in the dungeon. If it's fun and makes sense I'll probably let the required materials be near by. Obviously I'm not letting them find whole contraptions, or free armor, or even ray guns and tanks. Simple miscellaneous material though, like ropes, candle sticks, old furniture, and kitchenware, why not.

The point in all of this, is that I don't take time to prep much. I leave game world a blank canvas for my players and I to cooperatively paint a cool picture (one involving wizards, and knights, and lots of adventure). Not only does this save me time, but it's the players imagination and creativity run wild, without being restricted to few ideas I could come up with during preparation. Of course this is just my way of playing.