The weekly DM process

[huskythegeek]

Hello fellow DMs. Still being new to Dungeons and Dragons as a whole, I was wondering how my fellow DMs prepare for their weekly gaming sessions. I'm just starting to prepare my second session and was just wondering what kinds of things DMs make sure to account for, and how much time you put into preparing. Honestly, I feel like my personal preparations are a little unorganized, and I could use a few tips on nailing down "the process".

As always, thanks for your replies!

 

[BobTheNob]

Hello and welcome to the world of D&D

I dont like to spend crazy amounts of time preparing the adventure. Sounds crazy, but the more work you put in, players have a tendency to find a way around, and that is the beuty part of the game...that they can. My adventures tend to be little more than background story, notes and pre-composed maps. I almost never "pre-design" encounters.

(p.s.I have some luxury here as I have my own software which does mapping and encounters in one, so I can create encounters on the fly)

I find the most important thing of preparing for the game ahead is anticipation. Knowing how your players minds work and anticipating what their reactions will be to the coming situations. Who takes the risks? Who looks for the way around? Who solves problems by charging in Axe first? Study where you are at before each session, match your players patterns of behaviour, and be prepared for what your players will do next.

(Of course, they invariably never do what you expect...but thats what makes DM'ing fun)

 

[Saeviomagy]

Now, this is my procedure for pre-written modules:
Thumb through the adventure. Rip out scenes that I think are lame and flip through monster books to pick out something that seems right for the situation. Up/down level it if necessary. Run through some characterization for the NPCs in my head.

If it's not a pre-written module:
Look through my adventure outline. Pick out some monsters and up/down level them. Run through characterization in my head. Try to mentally run through the decision tree and work out where the players might go that I don't expect, and devote some thinking to those scenarios.

Either way - write up some timewasters for if I get caught out - there's nothing quite like stumbling upon a random puzzle-followed-by-monsters for slowing down your players until you can get back to writing ahead of them.

 

[SkullThrone]

I use Monster stat block cards for initiative tracking, which works great for prep, because after DM'ing 4e for over 2 years I've a stack of cards about 6 inches high, but I can typically not bother with the stat block in the modules, even better when I'm making my own encounters.

4e has also come a long way in the encounter creation area, typically for a good set of players and a balanced party enounters should be level+1 or level+2 to be challenging (not every battle should be this way).

I also find it better to utilize terrain and play toward the weaknesses of the party, as you get more bang for their buck...when the Paladin has a 28 AC, go for the auto-hit on his Reflex rather than putting the expensive creature out there that has a +16 vs AC, a lower level +8 vs Reflex will likely have the same effect.

For prep I think 4e encounter guidelines in the DMG and DMG2 are good (but each party may be slightly different). What I do try to do is have at least one combative skill challenge in a battle, something that non-combative people can spend their standard actions on during a fight rather than continually missing or hitting for trivial damage. This gives them a better sense that they "helped out" (or "failed miserably").

I do try to make sure each character will "Shine" once a night by setting something up for their character...if they miss it and it's reusable, then I just save it for next time.

I spend more time prepping the story than I do encounters, and planning one or two adventures ahead, at least NPC names and hook delivery, so the story takes on a more seamless feel. Some player would rather have the dis-jointed "Start-End" first adventure, before beginning 2nd. I've found it my players like multiple plots running (linked to their backgrounds if you have time) to provide a more seamless feel.

Lastly I look at consequences of doing or not doing things on the adventure. A lot of modules have encounters just to pit the party against the 4-5 encounter delve template. In these cases I make sure the party has a fair reward for the optional encounter, or appropriate consequence for not doing something critical.

This may seem like a lot for new DMs, but honestly reading the current module as a story does most of this. having a few modules read (possibly with notes) can do wonders with the linking of things, and having players on an offline email chain really helps with direction of the campaign as far as how they want to go.

 

[Blue]

I run my own homebrew world and don't use published adventures. My prep takes on two parts - "arc" and "details" for lack of better names. "Arc" is me planing all of the plots and stuff, and usually I only put serious time into it when we have significant advances in the campaign or a lot of travel, so that's nto weekly. This could be things like advancing ongoing plots (both from what the PCs are doign and what else is happenign in the world), pulling in character backstory hooks, coming up with adventure hooks (either to advance a major plot or unrelated), etc.

Weekly I do the "detail". Work out specifics for what they are doing (or may do), stat up encounters, work up NPCs and personalities, etc. All of the specifics to run a situation. That said because the players have a lot of freedom in what they do and I run a bunch of plots at once, some of it may not get used for a few sessions if at all, so there is a lot of carry over from week to week.

I have a "prep" document that I update every week. Right now it's got details of the major city they are in: locations, organizations, and major NPCs, info on the order of knights they are dealing with (notable members and the code of the knights), details on a side quest about wiping out an enclave of wererats in the city (or at least tthat's what the characters think it is) which is more standard adventure format, some top-of-mind notes for character backstory that can come up in this city (one PC is from here, another from this duchy), light details on three other plots that the PCs might get involved in the short term, details on allied NPCs that they are having do things (sage research and talkign to the xenophobic halflings) and some "random encounters" if they shadowwalk.

As you can see, much of the detail stuff I can carry over from week to week so my prep time for any particular session isn't particularly heavy, takes me an hour to an hour an a half a week. Big advances in plot take more.

 

[Riastlin]

For me, it tends to be a bit fluid (i.e. changes from week to week). For my game that is running the Scales of War adventure path, I always make sure to reread the adventure I am currently running. I pay particular attention to those encounters I anticipate running in the upcoming session to make not of any tactics or unique abilities of the monsters. To be safe, I always try to 1 or 2 extra encounters prepared before the session. So, if I think we can get in the next three encounters at the session, I'll try to be ready for 5 just in case it goes really well.

For my homebrew game, I go over my story and plot arc, make sure that the encounters I have planned still fit in with the story line and again try to make sure I am prepared for a couple of extra encounters just in case. Although 4ed is pretty predictable in terms of how long an encounter will take, party tactics and lucky dice can greatly speed up some encounters.

Finally, I try to get a good idea as to what NPCs the party might meet in the upcoming session -- as well as giving names to a few of the enemies they might meet (my players love to interrogate their enemies). I find that if prepare the names before hand, they'll fit a lot better into the storyline, and they won't be nearly as similar. For instance, when I have to come up with names on the fly for those unexpected NPCs that I need names for I run into situations where I am naming them Kraven and Graben. Makes it real hard for the players to distinguish them later.

 

[aco175]

I have been saving monsters from the Compendium over at Wizards into files as I go. It is not as organized as it could, but I get by. I like to take the monsters in a fight and put them onto 1 page if I can and print them out for game night so I can write on them and toss them when finished, or use the notes on them for working into future encounters. I try to steal maps where I can to use and I have several tiles and printed maps of the King's Road and such that have been in many a fight. When I can, I like to develop the encounters of a 'dungeon' and then design a map that makes good use of the terrain.

I do try to have some loose notes on where the overall stroy is going, like the arc thread from above. This way I can have weekly episodes that tie in.

 

[Truename]

Interesting thread.

I use prewritten adventure paths. I used to do most of the prep for an adventure in advance, but now I prep week by week. My games are three hours weekly and I prep over the course of the preceding week.

For me, prep-work is part of the fun of the hobby, so my checklist might be a little longer than most. Here's what it looks like:

• Review the adventure to figure out which encounters the PCs will face in the next session. We typically get through 2 roleplay/exploration encounters and 1 combat encounter in a session, and I'll usually prepare 3 and 2 respectively just in case.

• Summarize the key points in my session notes, one page per encounter. Create roleplaying notes for any NPCs. Print them the night before the session. (See the attached 'session_notes' pdf for an example. SPOILERS for War of the Burning Sky players.)

• Determine how many treasure parcels the PCs will find, if any. Roll treasure using the Rules Compendium method and figure out magic items, if any. Create treasure cards to print on cardstock and hand out. ('treasure_cards' example.)

• For combat encounters, review the monster stats and bring them up to MM3 standards. Tweak the encounter level and decide how many monsters to include for various numbers of players.

• Check if I have the right kinds of monster tokens. If not, print new ones on cardstock, then paste onto chipboard scrapbook covers and cut out.

• Draw any needed maps on Chessex battlemats. I have three battlemats, which is usually enough to have all the maps I need drawn out in advance.

• Immediately before the session, review my notes. If there's time, pre-roll initiative for the monsters and write up the monster names on my combat tracker ('monster_tracker' attachment).

That's it!

 

[jcayer]

I write everything at work the day we are going to play. Just kidding.

I run a home brew world and probably spend more time thinking about it than writing it down. I'll spend several days dreaming up what's going on and then finally write it up a day or 2 ahead of time. And then revise it at work the day of.

We're moving to Maptools, with a projector, as one of our players is going to be full time remote. Prepping this week has been interesting because maptools is going to change my prep more than I expected.

Also, as I've become more experienced, prep has changed. I used to try to script everything out. Now it's more of an outline and bullet points with monster stats thrown in.

 

[GRStrayton]

• Determine how many treasure parcels the PCs will find, if any. Roll treasure using the Rules Compendium method and figure out magic items, if any. Create treasure cards to print on cardstock and hand out. ('treasure_cards' example.)

Truename, your treasure cards are great! Would you be willing to share your template? I'd love to use it!