RPGs: a labor of love...how much labor?

[Ragitsu]

What is the biggest (in terms of cost, time investment, difficulty, or otherwise) thing you ever did to run, or participate in, a pencil & paper roleplaying game?

How about other folks you know: what have they done?

[bokodasu]

It took me four spreadsheets and a database to run a high-level druid who had a fondness for the Awaken spell. But I didn't slow down the game!

As far as running games, have you ever looked at what Gabe/Mike from Penny Arcade does for his players? My players are lucky if I break out a marker and a battlemat.

[Dienekes]

I'm a DM who likes big complicated plots and complicated characters, where the world has events take place that are not entirely dependent on the PCs.

So my current outline/mission description for my SWSE players is now up to 150+ pages. I work on it in bits and pieces when I find time, but I do not want to even imagine the total hours I put into this thing.

[Callista]

As a DM, I've never actually put that much prep work into it. It's not that I don't like it; it's just that the players don't stay on the rails (nor should they), so I don't build rails. I prefer to just create a few locations and NPCs and let the PCs play around with them as they wish. The pre-made monsters are dangerous enough without custom ones running around. And I don't really like pre-making plots, because, like I said, they'll pretty much go off the rails immediately. I just give all the NPCs their personalities and motivations and let them react to their circumstances. As for world-building, I'll usually just build a town to start with, and then define the surroundings as necessary. I have found that the PCs define their own plot... all you have to do is give them good antagonists to play off against.

As a player, I ironically do almost as much preparation as I do when I DM. My PC has to have a backstory; and then the backstory has to be edited down to one page, otherwise nobody will read it. I often keep journals or write accounts of particularly interesting events. I need to be sure that the PC will fit in with the other PCs. And I'm generally the group's rules lawyer (or one of them anyway), so I need to keep up with the rules we'll be likely to use, so that when somebody goes, "Uhh, how does Turn Undead work again?" I can actually answer that. I also keep and level a backup character so that if the plot or the dice say my character dies and can't be raised, I can bring in another PC the same session.

[potatocubed]

I show up to sessions.

Usually.

[Yora]

I once drew a sketch of the scene when one of our characters appeard in front of his god in a vision.
Since it was Tempus, one could have made a Metal album cover based on it.

But I really hadn't anything to do for the 15 minutes but listen how the encounter progressed. Some people drew their own characters sometimes, but that's really about all the effort I've seen people put into the game, except for GMs. As a GM, I once drew a wide shot of the ruin the characters were entering.

[Dienekes]

As a DM, I've never actually put that much prep work into it. It's not that I don't like it; it's just that the players don't stay on the rails (nor should they), so I don't build rails. I prefer to just create a few locations and NPCs and let the PCs play around with them as they wish. The pre-made monsters are dangerous enough without custom ones running around. And I don't really like pre-making plots, because, like I said, they'll pretty much go off the rails immediately. I just give all the NPCs their personalities and motivations and let them react to their circumstances. As for world-building, I'll usually just build a town to start with, and then define the surroundings as necessary. I have found that the PCs define their own plot... all you have to do is give them good antagonists to play off against.

I've tried that, and it ended up a disjointed mess of plot holes and inconsistency. My trick to avoid railroading was to make the plot modular. Sure some events might happen at a predestined time (while the heroes are out on their third adventure King Groovydude is assassinated by Ambassador Naughtyface), but other than that I fit in the missions based on where they choose to go, and which sides they pick.

[grimbold]

i have an 130 page world i built

[Corronchilejano]

- I have 242 pages of NPCs for my current campaing. Each NPC has its own statistics, equipment, personality and story.

- I have around 30 pages worth of history and legends that I may throw at the PCs at any given momento to flesh out the world.

- I design maps in TrueSpace to show stills of the ambience, so the PCs have an idea of what they're looking at.

- I make my own music for certain situations.

- I write metric poetry for a certain puzzle in this campaing (****ing HARDER than what it sounds).

- I'm writing down the campaing to animate it later.

- ... I have a gf, she sometimes doesn't ask.

[randomhero00]

Played in a 3 year (real life years) campaign that went from 1-24. The DM put so much work in that stuff from the previous campaign affected the current one. He set stuff up in the 2-8 lvl range that ended up affected 20+ fights. It was an amazing integration and creative story. She probably could have written as book and published it.


Edit: And like 20 years passed in the campaign. So we had a chance to have a family, find a home, etc. They were living breathing characters to us. RIP nice epilogue though. 2 of us became gods, 1 retired into immortality, and 2 decided to just wander the globe for thousands of years and start their own schools.

[Typewriter]

Probably spent around 600 dollars on books over the last 4 years, including two PHB's for pathfinder so that I can loan the spare to players that don't have their own copy, around 400 dollars on tiles/minis/tokens/etc. and around another 600 on Heroscape tiles.

I love Heroscape tiles for building giant terrains for massive combats, and will often end a session leading into a combat. Next session begins with the combat terrain having been put together over a course of several hours sometimes.

I tend not to write as much as I used to usually putting about 20-40 hours into planning a campaign(our campaigns are shorter, usually lasting 10-20 sessions), and another 2-4 hours per week doing updates based off what the players have done.

I don't write as much as I used to because one SW campaign I spent around 140+ hours planning, including a notebook that detailed what was happening on every planet every day for a period of 4 months. It was set up so that they could literally go to any of a dozen or so planets, and I would know what was going on for them to interact with. Each week between sessions I would update the notebook to reflect changes caused by the players. After 2 sessions they said they didn't like the system, and wanted to go back to D&D. I took a slight hiatus from DMing at that point....

[TheCountAlucard]

I once ran an entire evil campaign when I realized that my other campaign sucked, due to a lack of proper villains. With a proper cast of antagonists, the game went much better.

Playing-wise, I was excited to hear that one of my friends was going to do a Shadowrun campaign. Deciding I'd play a hacker/rigger, I sat down and read all of Unwired. Talk about a labor of love!

[Corronchilejano]

After 2 sessions they said they didn't like the system, and wanted to go back to D&D. I took a slight hiatus from DMing at that point....

When you weep, the world weeps with you.

[Volos]

I've spent the better part of the last 18 months working on a campaign setting. I have fully detailed maps, world history, important NPCs, organizations, religious orders, guilds, empires, nations, alliances, and other such details worked out. While this world is very realm to me, it is all subject to change as the players intereact with it. I never rail road my players, and with a setting so expansive they can do almost anything they can think of. Depending on their choice of quests and their actions they could end up going against any one of the numerous BBEGs I have planted in the setting. Basically I let my players pick their own poison. If they raid ancient tombs for a quick cash fix and destroy a powerful necromatic artifact along the way, they will probably run afoul a lich. If they go about smashing dragon eggs and uncovering foribidden magic, they will get themselves hunted by a dragon of some sort. It's more complicated that than, but far too difficult to explain. Suffice to say I put alot of work into my setting to begin with and then I kick back and enjoy the story that unfolds naturally from my player's actions in that setting. The best part is if I end up finishing a campaign, the changes my players have made will stick for the next campaign. It may be hundreds of years later, but my world will change and they get to continue to be a part of it. Or switch characters and enjoy the refrences OOCly.

[Sipex]

I wish I had the resources (mainly cash) to pull off crazy stuff like getting heroscape tiles and enough minis for an army.

That said I have sunk quite a bit of cash into this so far and I do sink a lot of time coming up with campaign stuff, side quests, personalised storylines for each character, unique paragon challenges to allow my PCs to reach paragon (including seperate dungeons, mysteries and in one case, a full exam), dungeon design and puzzles (puzzles can take a while depending on what you do).

[Totally Guy]

I worked very hard and went through much pain to become a better GM.

[Choco]

I've tried that, and it ended up a disjointed mess of plot holes and inconsistency. My trick to avoid railroading was to make the plot modular. Sure some events might happen at a predestined time (while the heroes are out on their third adventure King Groovydude is assassinated by Ambassador Naughtyface), but other than that I fit in the missions based on where they choose to go, and which sides they pick.

The trick with sandbox games is that you don't so much put a bunch of prepwork into the game before each session, but you have to create stuff on the spot and take notes DURING the session. And be able to recall them off the top of your head at any time in the future where they might be relevant. Or at least be very good at stealth-retconning and/or creating a logical reason for a contradiction (one of the 2 guys who told you the differing pieces of information was OBVIOUSLY malicious and/or honestly believed what he told you!). It's something you really only get better at with practice.

[Ragitsu]

What's the furthest you've ever traveled to a game session?

[Telasi]

I ran an epic 12 hour session of Dark Heresy last year. The players were all there for once (college group, frequently missing people) and everybody was psyched up because they thought that they were on to something. I set up with what I had actually planned, and they ran an entirely different direction, ending up in Gunmetal City on Scintilla. After crawling around the hive, they finally found where the gunrunners they were looking for were getting their supplies and decided to set a trap. The result was a battle on board a moving land train, climaxing with an Imperial Navy airstrike (at PC request). All run off the seat of my pants. Best session I ever ran, in my opinion.

[TheCountAlucard]

What's the furthest you've ever traveled to a game session?

200 miles. We regularly made this trip every few weeks or so, and the rest of the time, our GM came to us. For eight months.

[Gan The Grey]

The trick with sandbox games is that you don't so much put a bunch of prepwork into the game before each session, but you have to create stuff on the spot and take notes DURING the session. And be able to recall them off the top of your head at any time in the future where they might be relevant. Or at least be very good at stealth-retconning and/or creating a logical reason for a contradiction (one of the 2 guys who told you the differing pieces of information was OBVIOUSLY malicious and/or honestly believed what he told you!). It's something you really only get better at with practice.

This. I started my campaign setting with almost 200+ pages of outline with little description of areas, and every session I add a little bit more to the outline. The outline has grown so bloated that I have recently had to separate each section (religion, organizations, history, locations, setting specific rules, ect.) into completely separate documents in order to locate anything in a timely manner.

Plus, most of what I think up on the spot is more interesting than what I plan ahead of time. Don't know how that works, but I can dig it.

[Chess435]

I have a 200+ page notebook, full of homebrew. That took awhile. Probably my biggest accomplishment in there was homebrew a deck of many things system for 54 cards (including the jokers) and making 11 power levels for each. I'd type it up, but it'd take forever.

Edit: But I will if you really, really, really want to get your hands on it.

[kiergon]

As a DM I have a campaign setting with a timeline measured in the billions of years, of course I dont have every year, or even million year detailed, but have a general guideline of how the world was since the begining (4 billion years in the past) all the way to 1000 years in the future of the era where most of my campaigns are run. I have had to change the timeline twice becuase of time traveling pcs, and the future era is constantly changing due to the pcs.
I have the maps as they have changed over the ages (like 20 or so maps without that much detail) and 3 with a lot of detail (think forgotten realms maps).
My campaign is kind of high powered. I think if there are to be epic beings, they should exists in the campaign and should be justified in fluff much more so than in crunch, that way when/if my pcs become epic themselves, it makes sense that there is a Xixecal, or epic dragons, and they dont appear out of nowhere suddenly.


The farthest I´ve gone for a game session? well it wasn´t just for it, but went to China with a friend to finish a campaign 4 years ago, btw my character died on the 3rd hour of real time play, and the session lasted like 10 hours.

Edit: But I will if you really, really, really want to get your hands on it.

I´m really, really, really interested now on your deck of cards rules.
Please?

[Kuma Da]

I'm usually not that effort-intensive as a GM, and I practically flee the scalding touch of systems that like to be really work heavy.

I usually just draw up ten or so typed pages of meta-data for the particular module that's running, keep a few books open, have a notebook for quick facts that I might want to remember, and steadily compile a master document of what's happened so far.

See? Not really effort-intensive at all.

...right?

[kyoryu]

Plus, most of what I think up on the spot is more interesting than what I plan ahead of time. Don't know how that works, but I can dig it.

Generally because what you come up with on the spot is done with a few random inputs, while what you do up front has to come completely from your own head.

At least, that's what I find.

[valadil]

I prepped for 10-20 hours per weekly session during my first campaign. Since then I've become a lot more efficient.

[Demonweave]

I think I do more work as a Player than I do as a GM.

For example I am currently playing a Gnome Cleric of Boccob, who's aim is to gather as much information as possible about every single topic he can. Ultimately so he can fill an entire library written by him.
So I make notes on every single creature, item, place, person and anything else that is interesting. I have four entirely seperate note books for this guy.

That means I'm quite often taking my notes back and rewriting them and constantly editing and adding to them.

As a GM I work out the setting of the world (Or 42 worlds in my current campaign) and the most important things in it before hand. But for the rest of the stuff, I make it up on the spot. I think I only spend a few hours at most before i start running a campaign, then at most 15 mins between sessions.

[Gamerlord]

Most work I ever did for a RPG session:

-One set of monster stats
-One map of the dungeon


Most work I ever did. I tend to make it up as I go along when I play RPGs. That is right, I even make up the Campaign Setting and Plot as I go along.

[Ragitsu]

Most work I ever did. I tend to make it up as I go along when I play RPGs. That is right, I even make up the Campaign Setting and Plot as I go along.

That is an excellent policy.

Picture most groups of PCs as a world record hurricane. If you, the architect (GM), are building elaborate structures (rigid campaigns), then it is easy to get frustrated as all that work gets torn down...and down again.

However, if you opt for sturdy tents (on-the-go campaigns), then it even EASIER to build again, after they blow on through.

[Dralnu]

I started off purely with improvisation, which worked surprisingly well. No preparation required but a little too much desperate scrambling to find suitable monsters on the spot and the battlegrounds were a little too bland. The most interesting NPCs came from these campaigns though. For some reason, developing NPC personalities on the spot via player interaction worked very well for me.

Then I ran a couple pre-made modules, like RHoD. I'd read through a Chapter then play it out in the next session. Usually took me about 1 hour preparation time to be familiar with the material.

Now I'm running a completely homebrew evil campaign. Have a full overarching plot, the main NPCs statted out along with their personalities and goals, all of the general layout of the continent, etc. Not counting the NPC stats, that took me about 5 hours to complete. Statting out the NPCs took me about 10 hours alone so far. I've put the most effort into my next upcoming session in the campaign over here, about 5 hours?

Now that I wrote this up, I'm seeing a trend of spending more and more preparation time. I really need to cut down on that.