How much preparation do you put in as a DM/GM?

[Drakeburn]

I'm just curious about what amounts of preparation is actually put into running a game?

I'll confess that in the past, I've ran games without any preparation whatsoever. And I think it shows in the previous games I've ran here in the Playground.

The most I've ever put into preparation is a plan for the first encounter in my head. It's something I really need to change.


So how about you? How much preparation does go into the games that you run?

[KillianHawkeye]

I generally have an adventure outline. It's never more than an outline, because it's subject to heavy changes based on player actions, though.

Then I create the villains and common enemies and any major NPCs. Creating stats for all these is the most time consuming part, usually.

I also do some map sketches, then sometimes use those sketches to plan dungeon layouts or to draw an overland map to hand out to the players.

Specific dungeon areas, traps, or encounter designs don't get done until I prep for each individual game session, because I procrastinate. This is also when I create stats for other creatures I've decided to throw into the players' way but didn't do ahead of time, which often eats into the time I would rather use on descriptive details that are less important to the game's mechanics.

Then go to the game and improvise anything else.

[ShadowSandbag]

It depends on the campaign and the system. For my Mouse Guard Campaign I usually have a a few sentences for each Arc, and then I prepare one or two sentences before each session.

As an example for the last season (Spring) my general notes boil down to "Investigate the spooky abandoned village and find out what happened there. The answer is Weasel War Crimes". Then my session-to-session was along the lines of just 5 sentences each about one of the places they might go.

For my Lancer campaign on the other hand, I get some battlemaps and enemy tokens from some sites I use and then edit those to better match what I'm going for. I also plan out multiple combat encounters with a number of different enemy types, usually with some customization added in for flavor and write down a general battle plan for how they each act.

Mouse guard takes maybe 20 minutes of prep if I'm working slow and don't have anything planned, Lancer takes upwards of an hour even if I work fast and have the general ideas planned out.

[Rynjin]

Very little. The more you plan the more you get frustrated when things do not go according to plan.

You just need a vague outline of the world, a theme for wherever the PCs are at the moment, and the ability to improvise.

[Jay R]

It's fun to think out the basic history, cultures, and physical characteristics of a world. I spend a fair amount of time preparing worlds, or continents, or abandoned castles, that never make it to a game. So I'm going to ignore all time spent o world-building.

After I have as much world conceptualized as I expect to need, and after I've worked out specific constraints on character design, and after I have a basic situation that calls for PCs, and after PCs are designed and approved, ...

... then I probably spend about 2 hours away from the table for every hour at the table. This includes drawing maps, assembling NPC figures, rolling for hit points on most likely encounters, deciding on motives for sapient NPCs, generating treasures, and putting together tables of specific encounters.

A specific encounter table has all the creatures, with AC, movement, # attacks, to hit rolls, damage, xp, and a reminder of special abilities.
Then I have a list of each one, with hit points represented as circles I can cross off. Below that is the treasure they have.

Any bookkeeping I can do in advance saves me time at the table.

[Forum Explorer]

Just enough so I don't have to improvise everything, and not so much that I've wasted a massive amount of time when the PCs inevitably do something to surprise me.

Basically what this amounts to is a series of encounters, challenges, and obstacles. Usually they aren't any more detailed then a brief blurb like
-patrol of Bullywugs.

But if I have to make up a statline for a character or monster, then I'll try and do that in prep.


Dungeons are an exception; they get lots of prep time, as I'll plot out every room, and descriptions of each room. Because once the party finds a dungeon, they'll generally finish that dungeon. So I don't need to worry about any wasted time in that case, and the extra detail I feel really makes a dungeon pop.

[Mastikator]

I prepare a lot but it's generally just assets and bullet lists of triggers and effects (with additional bullet lists for skill check DCs, short descriptions, etc). Almost all of the preparation I do has reuse value or future value, only exception being if the players kill an NPC I wanted them to have as an ally/patron.

If I was DMing a module then obviously it's almost no preparation.

[DigoDragon]

If I was DMing a module then obviously it's almost no preparation.

I am the opposite; I only prep an outline in my own campaign, with some prerolled d20 results and a few npc names for the social situations.

But with a module, I feel like I prepare a lot more. Maybe I just know my players well enough to see where they'll get lost in the module and jump the rails. :3

[GentlemanVoodoo]

It depends really on the game. Something like D&D I have very little preparation other than a few thought out key points. If it is something like White Wolf, that is going to take much planning out given how those games are. If it is a module or adventure, none. I go by the book in those cases unless I am inspired to think of something more unique to happen.

[kyoryu]

In general, I prep:

1) THe major players, their factions, and a few other NPCs in their factions
2) The agendas of the major players (at least).
3) Any overarching threads that will be happening, at least at a high level
4) The general area the players are expected to be in, and some major NPCs. Key locations, maybe a general map.
5) Enough worldbuilding that it feels like there's some consistency

For the plans in step 2, I make sure that at least some are mutually exclusive - this helps keep me "honest" and not get too attached to them.

This prep tends to be the heaviest before the first real session. In general, the goal is "just enough". Some of this might be done before "session zero" but I never do all of it before then, as figuring out what the players are bringing to the table will absolutely impact all of this.

All told, this takes maybe a couple of hours.

After that, the per-session prep tends to look more like:

1) Figure out what the major players have been up to
2) Bring in new elements if necessary.
3) Figure out some bombs I can drop on the players if necessary.

This all takes maybe twenty minutes.

On occasion, I may have to go back to the first step if events in the game mandate it. That's pretty uncommon though. Usually any initial scenario is enough info to come up with gameplay for at least six or so sessions. At least. And even then, further iterations of the first steps is usually easier since it's already building on an existing world and tied to previous events.

Really, it's this: https://bookofhanz.com/#how-i-gm-fate-core It's aimed at Fate, but it's basically the process I use for most games, unless I"m running some kind of exploration sandbox.

[Easy e]

I generally prep an initial Hook, the adversary, the adversaries basic motivations, and what the adversary is planning to do. The rest is improved. The setting is either made in collaboration with the players or a continuation of a known setting.

Despite the small amount of prep, I keep a tight handle on the flow of the game, and fast-forwarding small details, while giving time for bigger impact scenes to breath. I also vaguely put in a 3 act structure with a hook, encounters along the path (social, combat, investigation, exploration), and then some sort of "climax" where I ramp up the urgency by raising the stakes.

However, after the "Hook" none of it is really prepped, and evolves based on what the characters are doing, and what the adversary was planning/trying to achieve. I am also more than happy to adjust what the baddie is doing and who the baddie even is based on what the players THINK the bad guy is doing/is.

My prep time is about 5 - 15 minutes.

[Xervous]

2-3 hours spent on the campaign for each hour of session, but that’s because it’s fun. Running a living world with all manner of pawns and points in time takes planning. There’s plenty of hooks I shovel onto the PCs knowing they’ll only engage with a select few. What does that make the rest of the hooks? Scenery, but not just something that exists to fill space.

Sourcing images, editing images, preparing puzzles, handling IC resolutions of private events outside the sessions. If the players are heavily committed on one plan of action I may be planning specifics weeks in advance If they’re scatterbrained or an arc just concluded, then the up to date local hooks get rolled out.

I’ve had the players duck large segments in favor of other pursuits. They understand such changes of course lead them a bit of the ways outside the more detailed prep, but they’re fine with that as the alternative is railroading themselves to misery.

[Mastikator]

I am the opposite; I only prep an outline in my own campaign, with some prerolled d20 results and a few npc names for the social situations.

But with a module, I feel like I prepare a lot more. Maybe I just know my players well enough to see where they'll get lost in the module and jump the rails. :3

Just put them back on the rails, that won't ruin anything will it?

[Telok]

Open world / sandbox (multiple systems): Months of prep. Custom beastiary (about 50 total, easier to have a slate of standard monsters and variants prepped). Maps, towns, dungeons, npcs, plots, activities, holidays, local color, weather. Then its maybe an hour max before game to review and an hour or two post game to write a log, do analysis, and update the world. The campaign generally runs a RL year and I can reuse the setting & stuff, especially missed dungeons.

Paranoia: Couple 2-3 hours to prep a game. Spreadsheet automates the sector map. Wing nut the smaller maps in game. Write a batch of npcs (names, personalities, & goals take longer than stats). About an hour post game to log & do analysis.

Champions: Some hours of prep to set up a scenario. Thats picking npcs off the net (the game is classic, people have made & published thousands of pc/npc & power sets), deciding the villian & plan, working out the timeline, etc. Then it runs like a mini-sandbox for about a month or so before I need another scenario.

I barely tolerate most official modules as a player, accidentally hitting plot holes or just derailing with basic normal logical decisions. As a DM few are acceptible to use as anything but sources of maps or bits. The old TSR modules set up as hex crawls or sandboxes work best.

[Composer99]

If I'm running a published 5e module, I'll re-read the area we're covering in a session over beforehand, figure 15-30 minutes prep per session (not more than that). Closer to an hour when just starting.

Running a 5e game in my own setting, probably 1 to 1 1/2 hours prep per session.

Haven't run any other systems in ages, so couldn't say.

[Satinavian]

For a 4-hour session, i collect ideas and inspiration over roughly a week and then arrange and finalize them over an hour. That is only for the session itself, the whole campaign are is doene seperately at an earlier time.

[Batcathat]

When I first starting GMing (as a 12-year old with zero RPG experience and no idea of what he was doing) I think I literally didn't prepare anything at all. Maybe I had some vague idea of where things were going but I'm not even sure I had that at first. As time went on, I started preparing more and more but was still mostly improvising. Between ages 20 and 30ish I didn't really RPG at all (besides PBP games) and after picking the habit back up I haven't really GMed much, but I'm thinking of getting back into it. If and when I do, I think I'll start preparing more in advance, while hopefully remaining a decent improviser.

[Mordante]

Not enough. i should prepare better, each time I say to myself, "next time I will not have to wing it". Each time I fail. I have the broad picture in my head and see from there how things develop. But I don't do a lot of combat and never do dungeons.

[gijoemike]

My Own Content

I approach preparation on a scenario basis. If the PC's are trying to assault a keep then I need to plan out the defenses, important npcs, treasure, stats, maps. So there is quite a bit of prep work. This could take me 2 whole weeks and 5 or 6 pages of notes. But in turn these notes could last 2 or 3 sessions. You have to prep almost everything due to the fact the PCs can discover each challenge in any order.

If they pcs are visiting a market I only need 3 or 4 key items, 1 encounter, a maybe quirky merchant. Total prep 15 mins.

Major battle. each enemy and if they are all unique it could take an hour to 1.5 hours.

Module

I read the relevant parts of the module and try to figure out WHY? This way the enemies will have the proper response and motivation. This could take 30 mins of prep time or DAYS for part of a Pazio adventure path. This also helps to determine any random or additional encounters that can be added.

[Quertus]

Ennui would be my nemesis were I not constantly world-building. So I inadvertently perform copious amounts of preparation.

Placia is an enormous world, roughly the size of Jupiter, with many small moons. Despite its size, the land surface area probably isn't much greater than on Earth, as most of the surface of the planet is water. The history of Placia is, in broad strokes, cyclic (Wheel of Time did something similar decades later), with certain shapes of global events being "fated". "Deity" (those with the ability to crowd-source their magic) is a race, not a position (not that the gods are in any hurry to let mortals know anything about how they work). Technology is fully functional as technology on Placia - no "wand of teeth" or artifact Machine of Lum the Mad.

Sometimes, while I'm doing this world-building, I'll see a "what if" area of space-time and think, "I'll bet players would find it enjoyable to have PCs here".

Before the rising of the Dark One, when the Elves live in harmony while the seven human kingdoms clash, and the Circle of Eight is broken, waging their own secret war, a group of settlers travels north to escape the conflict, camping on the doorstep of the Remnant. The dwarves in decline, the overpopulated Goblins, at the height of their industry, begin to mobilize, just as the Giants rediscover Dreamcraft.

Once I have a "module" that I want to run, I'll create a sample party, and run them through. This allows me to familiarize myself with the content and the relevant subsystems (like "grappling", or noticing pickpockets), fill in details that may be important (like, if the PCs fail to catch the pickpockets, but track them back to their hideout, ), and create a baseline of "this is what I don't want the party's runthrough to look like (because, if it did, I may well just write single author fiction).

I'll repeat this with as many sample parties as it takes, to feel confident I've worked the major kinks out of the system, and figured out just how "tough" the module is ("for 4-6 characters, level 10-12").

Then, between sessions, as I learn about the specific party / PCs, I'll research / pre-fill additional details that they're likely to ask about, from architecture to clothing styles to regional dialects. And I'll advance any off-camera plots / NPCs, roleplay them making any adjustments to their plans or timetables based on PC actions. And, yes, sometimes, that means that heroes the PCs have saved or created end up foiling plots that, in my runthrough, the PCs had to handle. Or, more fun, villains the PCs didn't off actually stop other plots, because it's their world, too.

During the game, I just roleplay the people the PCs interact with, and roll dice.

[HumanFighter]

Lol I remember once I had entire dungeon and plot planned out for a Pathfinder game. And what did my players do? Completely ignore it and piddle about in the big city the whole session, so I had to improvise literally everything. It was...messy, to say the least, but apparently my players said they still had fun, so...I guess not so bad.
It just goes to show that you can plan and plan and prepare and prepare and plan some more, work your butt off, and the players will still go the other way and you have to improvise everything anyway. A Classic D&D/tabletop rpg thing that happens.

[dafrca]

How much preparation does go into the games that you run?

I used to put a lot of time and effort into plans. But over time I realized the players often cause my plans to shift and change, not by being mean or anything but rather they just came up with idea that sometimes forced me to change plans. So I realized I had two real choices, force them to play how I wanted them to play (never a good idea) or plan less in depth and leave myself room to zig or zag as needed. So I began to plan some things and let some things be either unplanned or very vague and loose. This made the games even better for my as well because my stress went down.

So now I plan a little and just have various resources handy and roll with it. Let the flow of the game push the party and in many ways the details and story as well.

[Grod_The_Giant]

It varies wildly. My last Exalted game, for instance-- there were weeks between sessions where I'd spend hours working on stats and maps and lore and all the rest, and there were weeks where I'd sit down in exactly the same notes as I ended the last session with. I try to have at least the mechanical elements beforehand, though. At least for me it's easier to improv an NPC interaction than it is to come up with a satisfying encounter on the fly.

[Vahnavoi]

My rule of thumb is that one unit of preparation should get you at least four units of actual play. So, for example, one hour of prep ought to generate four hours of game. Four hours is my standard for one game session. What the actual work consists of, depends on the type of the game. For a freeform game, all of that might be just writing up a single character sheet. For an OSR game, majority of it is drawing maps, then organizing character sheets and the physical playspace. So on and so forth. To cut preparation time, I ruthlessly reuse materials - run the same modules, use the same characters, so on and so forth, whenever the opportunity presents itself. Some play materials I've committed to memory well enough that I could run them with minimal preparation - wake me up in the middle of the night, give me five minutes to fetch pen and paper for everyone, and it's on.

[KorvinStarmast]

I'm just curious about what amounts of preparation is actually put into running a game?

A lot.
Not sure what else to say.
Even with published adventures, I am digging into them seeing what I need to tweak to get the right feel.

[False God]

I put a lot of prep into the "big stuff": cities, lords, political interactions, the machinations of important NPCs. This stuff will define how the world lives and breathes around the PCs(with or without their input).

A lot of the "open world" stuff I will largely come up with on the fly as its needed. If my players don't show any interest in Area B, or Forest J, or the people of Town Y, I'm not going to bother creating heavy content ahead of time for that. I have a stockpile of generic randomly generated dungeons, quests and local events that I can drop into an area without much work if the players decide to take a particular interest in Area B, or Forest J, or the people of Town Y. I still usually create a few elements that are specific to "The Dread Forest" or "The Thunder Coast" or whatever, but they tend to angle more towards interesting flavor elements rather than heavily developed world components.

---
The answer in short is still: "a lot", but also "where it matters".

[Stonehead]

I've tried running no prep, and I've learned that I'm very bad at it.

I can only DM a passable session when I've put in roughly the same amount of time in beforehand. I usually plan out what the goal is (if the party doesn't have one already), a few ideas of how they could possibly solve it, and some obstacles blocking the goal.

I'm jealous of people who are able to run a fun game with no prep, because I've noticed basically a linear correlation between how much time I put in, and how much fun the players have.

[Mastikator]

I've tried running no prep, and I've learned that I'm very bad at it.

I can only DM a passable session when I've put in roughly the same amount of time in beforehand. I usually plan out what the goal is (if the party doesn't have one already), a few ideas of how they could possibly solve it, and some obstacles blocking the goal.

I'm jealous of people who are able to run a fun game with no prep, because I've noticed basically a linear correlation between how much time I put in, and how much fun the players have.

I think it also depends a lot on the players and the group as a whole. Some will accept "bad"/fast world building in exchange for a huge degree of freedom and those are easier to please when DMing with no prep. Other players need a railroad and will be very unhappy if you don't prep a railroad.

I know I can DM with no prep but it really drains me because you have to invent really fast, and if a player is argumentative about some particular worldbuilding I've come up with on the spot then I just become frustrated. So yeah, for me too prep is always better than no prep.

[Stonehead]

I think it also depends a lot on the players and the group as a whole. Some will accept "bad"/fast world building in exchange for a huge degree of freedom and those are easier to please when DMing with no prep. Other players need a railroad and will be very unhappy if you don't prep a railroad.

I know I can DM with no prep but it really drains me because you have to invent really fast, and if a player is argumentative about some particular worldbuilding I've come up with on the spot then I just become frustrated. So yeah, for me too prep is always better than no prep.

Some players also create stories and hooks, while others just ignore the one's you've created. When the PCs are actively following their own goals, it's a lot easier for the DM to prep less. It almost flips the script where the DM is the one reacting to the players' actions, where normally it's the players reacting to the DM's establishing scenes.

[False God]

Some players also create stories and hooks, while others just ignore the one's you've created. When the PCs are actively following their own goals, it's a lot easier for the DM to prep less. It almost flips the script where the DM is the one reacting to the players' actions, where normally it's the players reacting to the DM's establishing scenes.

I really do appreciate it when players take advantage of my lightly penciled in areas to create their own investment in the world rather than me having to guess at what might get their PC interested in actually participating in the game.