How do you prepare for a game?

[Fungi]

Hi playground.

I've been running a weekly pathfinder game that's gone on longer than most things I've run by now (which is not saying much) which has been great, I think I'm getting just a tiny bit better as a DM all the time. Running a regularly scheduled game, the prep for the game gets to be a bit of a weekly ritual, and as I've changed so has that ritual.

Musing on this made me curious to hear how others, DMs especially, prepare for a session. I think there's a lot of technique to planning individual sessions, but I tend to see more information about planning campaigns, or giving general advise to new DMs, but I imagine there's a variety in the ways people think about and approach RPGs. Do you have a specific process, or materials that you use? Do you expect to use a lot of improv? What do you find works really well, or not at all? What is the experience of preparing a game? Anyway thanks for reading.

[Firest Kathon]

When I'm running my own adventures, I usually rely only on a few notes but keep most of it in my head. I try to prepare important NPCs, but for most I just rely on prepared stat blocks.

For Pathfinder Society Scenarios that I run, I collect all required monster stat blocks and print them out for easy reference (in most cases, someone else was so kind to share (http://pfsprep.com/) their preparation for that). In addition, I prepare what I call a "GM Cheat Sheet" where I collect all the things I need to track, with check boxes, as well as important checks the players need to make.

[MrConsideration]

I write setting notes on a Word document which I only ever refer to if I forget a name or something - I have a few anal players who like to know who was King of somewhere that I mentioned a session or two ago - one of them demanded I name all nine of the noble families I had said were eligible to vote in some kind of election - quick-thinking needed!

The rest of my notes I write in a spare exercise book from school which belonged to a horrible girl I used to teach who was expelled. For some reason, I find meatspace paper easier to use at the table. For actual session I am extremely minimalist because my players are unpredictable.

Next session they're going, via sea, to a new viking-themed region called Utangard. I have prepared a four or five combat encounters (any not in that list will be made on the fly) for certain locations on the first island they will reach, and a rough sketched map of the dungeon on the island which they may avoid. If they do something else or fight someone else I'll wing it. Most details and description exist in my brain and I'll make up on the fly.

My dungeon map will be a sketch of rooms and terse two or three word descriptions. 'Altar', Library' - the detail: (The Altar reveals the entombed was a Warlock whose patron was The King of Woe and Winter, an Archfey and traditional enemy of Utangardfolk, connecting to PC2's backstory as a descendant of bla bla bla....) (The library contains scrolls for ice-themed spells as I'm drip feeding Elemental Evil content this way) (there is an injured rival adventuring party recuperating in the armoury, they have barricaded the door) is in my head. If someone asks if they can smash the barricade or charm the adventurers or whatever I make up the DC on the spot - you don't need that info written down anywhere, just the difficulty DC rules on your DM screen. All you need is something that connects to your memory, and that cool idea you had whilst driving or in the shower, and you're off.

Most encounters will just be a page reference for MM (Draugr here being represented as Wights). To try and jazz that up, I always try to add a complication. Draugr on a cliff-face, Draugr in a blizzard, Draugr who are trying to attack a fleeing villager whilst you intervene. Notes for unique monsters (which is what I do most of the time) are just like this:

Knight of Winter and Woe:
Combat stats as Githyanki Knight but abilities are Meld with Ice (like Meld with Stone - but I needn't specify this as I'll remember) and it deals Ice damage with every attack. Spells: Misty Step/ Fog/ Blight.

Any other bits of the statblock like skills or languages or creature type I'll just play by ear. It's a Fey creature, so it'll have that subtype in the unlikely event that that is relevant. If we need languages, I'll just make it appropriate - it speaks Elven, Sylvan, Common and Waterelementalish.

As this NPC might not be fought, I'll pencil down some motivations or hooks - the Knight guards a frozen fortress in Faerie - it resents its position and seeks to swap. Maybe it can be persuaded of some kind of honourable compromise? Often you will not think of the ideas your players will, and you might be changing motivations/personality on the basis of what players came up with. My players rescued a monk once who I felt would just be a source of information that would guard and look after as he was alone in the world. In the end, they hated him, because for some reason whilst playing him I adopted this superior, arch, holier-than-thou voice and constantly berated them for (with justification) destroying his monastery. This touched a nerve and the NPC became memorable, and is now established in a town as an 'ally' of the PC whom they despise - and they talk about him even though he hasn't shown his face in playtime in weeks. For most NPCs, I steal quick-and-dirty characterizations from books, TV and movies. The Captain of the player's ship carries thousands of good-luck charms of negligible value, for example, which makes him a tragicomic figure and quite memorable - he jingles as he walks around the ship. I stole this, wholesale, from a Hilary Mantel novel. If the players are intrigued, I'll invent some story about how his father gave him his lucky charm as a child, then drowned at sea, so he's fanatically devoted to the idea of these charms protecting him - maybe there's a quest there - could you recover the lucky maguffin or find my father's bones or bla bla bla. Or he'll never be heard from again because my players weren't interested. I find using the skeleton of an idea, then adding meat if it hooks, is far more useful than stating out and adding detail that may never see play.


If you DO invent a trap or a monster or an NPC that doesn't click or appear.....reuse them when you can!

I've only been DMing since July, but my players have always said they can't actually tell when I'm winging something, so I think my approach has been fairly effective.

[Jebble]

I keep all of my notes in a big OneNote file. I print these notes out before every session, so I do not have to sit with a computer during gameplay.

The Notebook is organized in the following way:

- Societies: A list of all the societies and a description of them is written here. This includes things like social class, political system, accents and visuals. This helps a lot creating believable characters in that society. It can also be great for getting ideas for plot hooks.

- Places and Stories: Mostly trivia knowledge about the world in general, so everything is consistent.

- NPC's: For each NPC I fill out the following sections: Soceity, Occupation, Visuals, Mannerism, Skills, Woes and Goals. This is usually all that is needed to create interesting characters (even for main villains) while still keeping prep time short. In addition to this I also have a sheet with random NPC's with just a name, mannerism and a visual. That way, I do not have to come up with random names.

- PC goals and skills: A nice overview of the PC goals and skills. This is very important as the obstacles depend a lot of these two things. The goals also help me prepare stuff that the players are really interested in.

- Handouts: Everything I want to give the players in paper (such as magic items or personal notes) is written here.

- Obstacles: Obstacles is the most important section in the notebook next to NPCs. Here all the obstacles I think would be interesting for the players is organized. The obstacles is usually (but not always) non area specific, so they can be used in many situations. If everything goes wrong, I also have a couple of instant obstacles there can always be used to speed up things.

In addition to the notebook I have a Calendar where I write notes during the game in chronological order.

When I begin preparation, the first thing I do is look through the Calendar and the PCs' goals and skills. From them I get ideas to interesting obstacles. Sometimes I get ideas from stories, adventure books or forums like this. After this I update the other notebook sections and assign NPCs' to specific obstacles.

If you are interesseted in reading some more about preparing for a game (and gming in general), I can highly recommend Gamemastering by Brian Jamison. It is a 300 page book with tips, tables and great advice. I do not agree with all of his points, but the book is certainly worth a read for any gm, in my experience.

[TheThan]

I keep extensive notes on what happened the previous session and refer to them when I prepare the next session. I use these notes to build upon that session. What happened last week will have influence on what happens this week.

I then plan out encounters. Which is a loose term for PC/DM interaction; an encounter could be anything and doesn’t have to be a battle, as long as the PCs are involved. Sometimes they’re meeting with someone; sometimes they’re fighting random encounters on their way somewhere. What matters is that they stay interested in the goings on.

I typically allow my players to determine the loose direction of the story and the outcome of events. I don’t craft tight, epic stories that leave no room for PCs to act. That’s not the style of DMing I enjoy and not the sort of game I would enjoy to play in. Instead the PCs drive the action and plot, I just provide the situations they need to overcome.

It's really hard to explain. It's a mix between being hyper prepared and Ad-libbing my game.

[Geddy2112]

I assemble my standard DM survival kit, including
-General notes about setting, NPC's, and the major actions of the party.
- 3-5 random combat encounters, including stats and random treasure.
- 3-5 random non combat encounters, including stats, relevant items, and a plan for when they devolve into combat.
-a few notes on any important NPC's and plot events. NPC's have a set stat block, unless they have become a major factor in the game, in which case they get rolled up.
-Dice, rulebooks, playmats, tokens, pencils, etc.
-Plenty of food and booze. I might even let the players have some.

[MadGrady]

This was a technique I learned playing Fate, but one that has stuck with me.

When I plan a session, I don't necessarily fully plan the encounters, what I do is I write a series of questions that the players will have to answer. The questions then drive the scene, but the information then becomes modular and can be moved to wherever the PCs decided to go (which is usually no where near where I thought they might lol).

Now, I'll have ideas for how I want certain scenes to go, especially the intro, but past that I let the information I provide as they answer questions provide the players with options for where they want to go next, and then place the answers to the next question somewhere in that destination.

What this does is allow me to maintain the control of information and plot, while allowing the players to feel like I'm not railroading.

Questions could be:

What is causing the village to be constantly attacked by Orcs?
What do the Black Hand want with the Orc Chieftan
etc etc

So the questions build on each other, but the answers can be placed wherever you like.

This technique has really worked for me, and it also really helps me keep the game on track. So no matter what choices the players make, the plot is being advanced, and maintains a general direction that I am leading it to.

[TheOOB]

I find as time goes on I put less time into each session. I'll plan story arcs(though never more than a few sessions out, with just ideas for what happens beyond that), but I don't like detailed session plans. Part of this is that I'm better at improvisation than planning.

My sessions tend to be more a series of events of think might happen rather than a story. I'll plan a few key moments/encounters/NPCs, and fill in the rest based on what the players do. Last campaign I ran was pregenerated(Hoard of the Dragon Queen/Rise of Tiamat) and it was interesting, but it always felt very constricting.

[Freelance GM]

Hi playground.
Musing on this made me curious to hear how others, DMs especially, prepare for a session. I think there's a lot of technique to planning individual sessions, but I tend to see more information about planning campaigns, or giving general advise to new DMs, but I imagine there's a variety in the ways people think about and approach RPGs. Do you have a specific process, or materials that you use? Do you expect to use a lot of improv? What do you find works really well, or not at all? What is the experience of preparing a game? Anyway thanks for reading.

I used to thoroughly plan every step of my sessions, but my players are too good at derailing for that. Over time, I've become comfortable enough winging it that I'll thoroughly create the setting for the adventure, and just let the plot happen.

For example, I'll thoroughly plan every room of a dungeon, but improvise the way the party gets there.

One thing I've decided will never work is anticipating your player's actions. If any part of your session notes starts with, "The players...", expect the players to derail your session each and every time they reach one of those points. Even if its something frustratingly simple like, "the players discover..." expect them to miss every hint.

[Faily]

How do I prepare?

... By post-poning it for as long as possible (procrastination!), then ending up working like mad an hour before gamestart... or wing it (has happened way often).

[hifidelity2]

I have a word document (which currently runs to 41 pages of A4) as well as other material (World maps, some family trees etc)

I add to the document for each session (we normally only play a few times a year but when we do its for a full weekend)

During the session I will annotate the document of things they do (and don’t do) and then update the document

The next session is then planned out with some bits in details while other are just bullet points.

I also put down what major NPCs are doing (or plan to do if not disrupted) in the back ground. The world is so big that the PC’s cannot be everywhere at once so if they foil NPC A’s plans there is still NPC B & C doing stuff. Its up to them to discover / decide what is the greatest threat.

e.g. in my last session they could either stop the assassination of the King or stop the Magic Users Guild from splitting- they went for the MU guild and as a result the head of the guild is now an ally BUT the evil PCs have replaced the King with one of their own and they are now wanted.

[Brendanicus]

I don't have an exact order for how I prepare for a session. Once I have the overarching direction of the campaign in my head, I just put down what needs to be done for the players to accomplish their goals. Above all, I try to make sure that the players are presented with interesting problems and decisions to make along the way.

Step 1 flipping through the Monster Manual in order to locate an interesting/classic creature that the players haven't encountered yet. IE, if it's been an undead-free campaign, it's time to crack out the wights.

Step 2 is concocting an interesting scenario to use this NPC/monster. For example, Kuo-Toa are readily usable as cultist bad guys, but what if players had to go to one of their underground cities and try to convert them to a new religion? I don't always try to put a twist on old favorites; but I do about half the time. My group enjoys that particular balance between RP and fighting.

[Velaryon]

I keep a folder on my laptop that has all kinds of things in it: bios for every major NPC as well as lists of their abilities and equipment (because I can't remember it all and I don't want to have to sift through books). I also have a list of each PC's equipment.

I also have an online forum for the game where I post everything from session logs to an index of all the NPC's they've met. There's also a section for in-character roleplaying between adventures, and I've recently started an in-universe newspaper that relates not only some of their more famous adventures but some of the other things going on in the world.

I bribe one of the players to take notes, then I work from those to create my own summary of each session, including details the player forgot to write down or didn't recognize the significance of.

All of that is done so that when I am ready to plan, I have the info I need on hand (although I refer to some of it during the game too as needed).

My actual preparation involves lots of procrastination (I try to start about a week before the game, and usually end up leaving 90% of it until the night before). I don't plan too many specifics, but I want to have one or two encounters planned, and have a good idea of what their antagonists are trying to accomplish this time around.

Since I use a lot of NPCs for enemies, a lot of my prep work involves building or leveling up characters. I try to pick likely or interesting monsters too, though I have to be careful what I throw at the party since they're pretty powerful and they have a necromancer who will happily reanimate anything he can gets his hands on as a skeleton.

[Frozen_Feet]

I haven't done campaigns for two years now, so my usual game prep is like: stuff pens, paper, dice, rulebooks and adventure modules in a suitcase, print out a set of fresh character sheets, go to a convention, sneak up on unsuspecting convention goers and drag them to a nearby table to play with me.

Preparations for my next convention campaign are going to be a bit more extensive. So far, I've commissioned one of my artist friends to draw pictures for a story booklet. Next part is for me to write the text for the booklet. Then, I'll make maps and random encounter tables for the game scenario. Then my friend will format the booklet, design some advertisement posters, and get those things printed out. I'll sneak the game into program of all conventions I can attend. Then it's back to stuffing things in a suitcase..

[Jay R]

For every likely encounter, I have each NPC listed with stats and standard tactics, including the first few spells usually used. I include a sequence of O's to cross through for their hit points.

I also list their hot buttons, if any. [Wants 5,000 gp to buy an item, hates dwarves, bored with eating rabbit, loves challenge fights, rivalry with evil priest in the next valley, etc.]

[Anxe]

For my current campaign I prepared almost the entire thing beforehand. About a dozen adventure ideas ready to go. Some of them were more dungeon focused which have maps with encounters in each room. Some adventures are more "plot focused" with event maps detailing how things will go if the PCs don't get involved.

When I was prepping prior to starting the campaign I'd just work on adventures while watching TV. I'd come up with ideas while biking, riding the bus, or driving (or while in a really boring lecture at school). I still have the same process, but I just don't need new adventures as often. A lot of it is already done.

So what do I prep? Most recently, my players faced off against a Blue Dragon Wyrm. I created an entire blue dragon town around the Wyrm. I detailed a little bit about how the blue dragon society worked with a patriarch at the top and many levels below that. I came up with some key NPCs besides the big Wyrm. I put in a few special encounters in the town along with detailing treasure out the wazoo. I souped up the dragon from the base statistics in the Monster Manual using stuff from the Draconomicon. Defenses for the town as well as entertainment, food, bathrooms, and an infirmary. I write all this stuff down on that yellow-green graph paper. I also came up with a voice for the dragon.

[Avalander]

All the preparation I did for the last game I ran, a couple of weeks ago, was a list of five questions I would ask the players before creating characters, and then build everything on the responses they gave. This was an experiment I wanted to run since some time ago and I will definitely do something similar in the future. The five questions were (I may not recall them correctly):

Where are you?
How did you get there?
What's preventing you from leaving?
How much time do you have before not leaving turns out to be fatal?
Tell me a sentence that defines how the world you are in works.

[themaque]

How I WANT to prepare for a game:

Come up with a cool Idea. Think out how this would work in the world. Develop the campaign from the antagonist point of view.

Develop a working flow chart for various scenarios with an NPC folder ready to pull out. Create handouts for greater player immersion. Hand outs, business cards, maps, props.

This is how I used to run a game.

How I DO prepare for a game:

Come up with a rough idea. Try to figure a few movies to steal ideas from. Wing it.