I've played roleplaying games for 40+ years now, starting with B/X. Even back then, as unsophisticated as we were, we inevitably ended up playing what we called "Random."
Random was very simple:
Make a map (or steal one).
Make an encounter table or use a standard one from one of the many books.
Play the dang game.
Random play was liberating for both players and DM. The players knew that their characters actions mattered. They weren't acting in the DM's carefully crafted drama (I'm looking at you Dragonlance!).
The DM had everything they needed: a prompt, knowledge of the rules (sort of), and player reactions to improvise with. They might have a dungeon prepared to plop down somewhere or an NPC they wanted to introduce. There might have been lead figures for the characters and a few for the monsters (or usually just dice).
The important thing is that the DM didn't need to spend hours creating (or all of their hard-earned lawn mowing or babysitting money buying) "canned" adventures. The DM improvised the encounter, the PCs reacted as PCs do (usually with murder), treasure got written down, dead characters written off. Rinse. Repeat. Until dawn (those were the days).
Now we have the term emergent gaming, which is just the codification of that freewheeling time. Hearkening back to those all night (all weekend!) games, these are the tenets I try to adhere to when I design a campaign:
Stuff to do (that matters) -- Regardless of how libertine you want to be as a DM, you need something to capture the characters' interest (through their players' interest). Even if the session ends up with a series of interesting interactions with NPCs in town, make sure you have plenty for the players to jenga. And make sure the jenga has both incentives and consequences. If you want to incent exploration over treasure and combat, make sure you have plenty to discover, both wonderous and dangerous. Is it monster hunting? Populate the world with unique/legendary monsters. And make sure the rewards for doing the thing are sufficient to encourage it.
People in the world -- Speaking of NPCs, make sure you have a list of interesting people, near people, monsters, spirits, demons, gods, and everything in between. Sound daunting? My list has four columns, 10-20 entries each. A name, a type (sometimes I leave this for the random encounter), a motivation, and a secret. Roll 4d20 and I have something interesting. If I don't like it, I roll again or pick. If I run out of names, I hit one of many name generators.
The Story isn't yours -- After that, get out of the way (metaphorically). The story belongs to the PCs. You are just the world, responding. Everything else -- rote storylines, NPC machinations, really anything that happens offstage just isn't the game, and probably eats up your time as a game master when you could be playing.
That's it. Go play the dang game and don't let anyone else tell you different!
Witch-Lords of Skull Mountain
Hey, you may know that we're running a #zinequest crowdfunding campaign for an emergent setting. We're creating three different versions for three different game systems: DCC RPG, Shadowdark, and Old School Essentials / B/X (which is essentially compatible with any OSR system).
If it interests you, run on over to Kickstarter and show your support. I promise it'll have enough detail to lighten your DM/Judge/GM load, enough open-ended content to allow you to improvise the blanks, and provide many hours of gaming for your gaming-starved players.
Below is a preview of the wilderness event tables that'll be included, along three versions of the terrifying Salt Bull!
