Minimizing Prep Time - Forked from "DMing: from fun to work "

Celebrim · Apr 26, 2010

In the "DMing: from fun to work" thread several DMs noted that DMing becomes 'work' when the amount of time spent in preparation began to exceed the time spent in play.

This boggles my mind, because even if you take away that time spent in prepping mechanical issues (stat blocks, ect.), it seems to me that every game requires the game master spend more time in preperation than in play.

So, can anyone explain to me how they manage to run games were the total preperation time for each session is less than the session? What tricks are you using to keep the preperation time small?

I assume there are out there some few DMs that can run session after intriguing session with minimal preperation, but in 25 years of gaming I've never met one (although I've met several that thought they could), so I'm working under the assumption here that they aren't very common. If there are such DMs, I'd expect to find them at EnWorld, but if you are superhuman like that, what wisdom can you impart to us poor mortals that have to work to have good sessions?

TerraDave · Apr 26, 2010

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Celebrim · Apr 26, 2010

TerraDave said:
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Let me see if I'm deciphering your 1000 words correctly.

1) Play only published scenarios.
2) Play only in well supported published game worlds.
3) Choose scenarios that aren't event driven and have a low expectation of role-play.
4) Choose scenarios that are very combat heavy, as those require the most time to resolve in play relative to prep time.
5) Be willing to go with simple hooks like, "The ruler orders you do something or he'll chop off your heads." or "A magic portal sends you to the start of the next adventure."
6) Play with players who happily stay on the railroad.

Without having the text of G1 before me, I don't have a good estimate of how much time I'd want to spend on it before playing it, but I'm pretty sure its probably in the range of 1 hour prep to 3 hours play or better. So, yes, G1 probably qualifies as an answer.

Crothian · Apr 26, 2010

I guess it depends fir t on what is preperation time? Is it any time I think about the game? Becasue I mentally organize my plots a lot of time at work durins slow periods. I'm not writing anything down just thinking ahead to what can be neat and fun. I'll do that periodically throughout the week like when I'm in classes, or driving, or other times I can just sit back and think. But actual prep done writing down and finalizing the weeks adventure can be pretty easy.

Like TerraDave posts using modules is easy way to do this. I'm running Black Flags over Freeport and it takes little prep from me except to read the book (about an hour or two) which doesn't take long. And this should cover the next 2 months of game sessions.

weem · Apr 26, 2010

...but if you are superhuman like that, what wisdom can you impart to us poor mortals that have to work to have good sessions?

This does not describe me, but I will share my process regardless...

The last game I ran involved about 15 minutes of prep time (I simply didn't have time). I decided it would be a much more improv-focused game (something I think I excel at anyway).

It went very well. The prep time simply involved skimming the Monster Builder for appropriate monster possibilities (the flying type) and printing a few real quick (some with quick/minor modifications). I wasn't even sure I would use them (I didn't), but it was a "just in-case" kind of thing.

Generally I spend about as much time prepping for a game as it takes to play (4-5 hours) - and I do it the night before. If I try and plan before that, it all changes in my mind right up until the night before anyway. Sometimes, my planning from the night before is scrapped even. I may decide to open up some new possibility that the players then actually do latch on to etc.

My process (for the most part) involves planning the initial action or "push" of the session - what I need to do to push it, and get it rolling... after that, it will take its course naturally till we run out of time for the night. I will have thought about some of the more obvious possible outcomes of direction(s) they may take, so I am prepared creatively to respond quickly, but the details are not necessary and not much of those will not be written out in any form. Many of the notes I take down before a game are about which NPC is thinking what and why, their motivations etc - I just tend to remember these things better after I have written them down.

Sometimes my night of planning has more structure - usually when the plans of the PC's are more obvious (for example, if at the end of the last game they are sure of what their next plans are etc) in which case I can get pretty detailed with them, or plan very special encounters - such as trying to maneuver an out of control airship through a city, or fighting along the rim of a crater in my ghetto 3d environments made of cardboard, haha.

amerigoV · Apr 26, 2010

Well, I tend to run published material. So there is time reading that over even before the campaign starts, then rereading the material that is likely to be hit during the session, make any notes, flesh out any NPCs, then envision some of the scenes in my mind.

The rest of prep-time is to convert material to Savage Worlds (which is pretty quick, I can get 2-3 sessions worth in a couple of hours). That helps with overall familiarity as well. Final step is anything I may need for Maptools like maps, tokens, art piece that fits the scene.

I would say my prep for a 4 hour session is about 2 hours for that week. However, there is other prep that may have occurred up front as I was getting ready to run the game that is not included. That stuff is not drudgery, as that stuff is what was getting me excited to run the stuff in the first place.

Although it tends to be 1:2 (prep : play) I notice my prep tends to be in cycles. I might have 3 or 4 sessions of stuff ready and just need to refresh before the session. For example, in Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, I have all the Barovia chapter ready (about 3 sessions worth of work done). All I need to prep for next session is some adjustments to reflect player decisions in the last session. About the time those sessions are played through, I will have a flurry of prep for the next likely area.

When I run my own stuff, prep-time increases to something like 1:1. Part of that is the stuff I was doing "up front" for published material is more likely to get condensed in with the normal session prep. The other is, of course, having to develop material whole cloth.

Doug McCrae · Apr 26, 2010

I expect you set yourself higher quality standards than most, that's part of it.

Other than that there are two solutions:

1) Just make

up. It is much easier to do this with a small amount of highly targeted prep consisting of:
a) some general world info
b) adventure synopses (see below)
c) lists of names
A Monster Manual helps massively. Also, the usual D&D stuff like random encounter tables, random treasure tables, etc.

2) Make the PC's tasks harder. Have them take longer. Make PC actions and schemes fail more often. This is a very bad solution imo, as the GM hasn't added more content, but it will definitely spin out your prep. I once experienced a whole session of AD&D in which we did nothing but attempt to scale an icy cliff. It was really, really boring, but some people seem to like that kind of thing. I have also encountered players who love to spend hours discussing theories as to what's going on with the other players. If you can find someone (ideally two someones) like that, you're gold.

EDIT: Spin out all the boring parts such as haggling with merchants. Keep track of encumbrance, ammunition, food and water. Watch order, marching order, door opening procedure. 20 minutes of fun packed into 4 hours. Your sessions will last forever, nothing will happen, you'll hardly need any prep.

Example of an adventure synopsis:
The hag, Jagent the Verminous has roused the formerly placid lizardmen of the Sloomean Bog to make attacks upon human settlements. The PCs are hired to stop the attacks.
Possible complication 1: Bullywugs of the Redthroat tribe are in alliance with the lizardmen.
Possible complication 2: The lizardmen as a whole are blameless, Jagent has used potions to control a few in hopes of provoking a broader human/lizardman conflict.
Possible motivation 1: Jagent hopes to dominate the region, once the two sides are weakened.
Possible motivation 2: Jagent is in the pay of the Legion of Ouroboros, a githyanki faction. (Figure out their motivation later.)

I find the names are the most significant part here, they're the most important step towards making a thing real. Names suggest attributes, and after that you're pretty much done.

Oryan77 · Apr 26, 2010

Does cleaning up the game room count as prep time? What about taking a shower and brushing my teeth? I think prepping myself is just as important for the players arrival...nobody wants to smell me...I stink.

Other than that, I spend a lot of time prepping for the game. But I prepare material way in advance. Then when it comes close to game time, I'll refresh my memory on what is happening that session. So I don't know how my prep time compares to game time. I do an insane amount of prep work, but a lot of it is just compiling info for my Excel sheet that will improve my DMing for years and years and speed up future preparation time (reference sheets, charts, things like that).

I spend a huge amount of time building tools for myself, and building material for the game. I enjoy it though, so I never think of DMing as being extra work. Even picking out miniatures and tiles to use is fun for me. I guess I can't really give any tips on minimizing prep time since my opinion is that the more time I spend prepping, the better my game will be. What is important to me is minimizing in-game wastes of time, like looking up rules, figuring out random treasure, finding info about magic items or gear, etc etc. That's where my Excel sheet comes into play.

steenan · Apr 26, 2010

My average preparation time is a little less than my average session time (7-8h). In games that do not require complicated mechanics I may reduce it to about 3-4h while very crunchy games (ex. high level 3e) make it longer.

I think that the most important time-reducing factor is that I always begin preparations with a concept already in my head. I need to write it down, add and correct some details, make up the numbers - but I have the general situation ready and I may build on it.
I also don't get into long NPC descriptions. They need to be interesting, but don't have to be detailed. Two sentences of background, two sentences of personality, a single strong motivation, a few relations and emotional ties, two or three distinctive traits in looks or behavior. Excluding mechanics, an NPC is ready in 15 minutes and two paragraphs. And I usually need 2 to 6 of them, no more - the rest are just extras, with one-word looks and personality, improvised on the fly whenever needed.

I build situations, not stories. I create NPCs with their goals, methods and abilities and let players interact with them, without planning where they will be encountered, when and what they will tell the PCs. I create a dungeon only writing down a few important monsters, traps, treasures and possibly NPCs in there, quite often with no maps and never with any assumptions what the party will do there. I never try to predict what my players will do and prepare for it - I just show them a piece of the world, with many things happening there. I let them decide what to do and I just react to it. Requires quite a lot of improvisational skills sometimes, but that's something I'm good at.

A nice consequence of this approach is that I'm quite often surprised by how the story evolves. That is much more fun than playing out a pre-defined story with players participating only within its bounds.

Even when I need to focus a little on mechanics, it does not take very long. Most games I play have more narrow power scale than D&D, put less focus on balance and make it much harder to die (either because combats are rare or because death is not the default result of lost combat). Because of this, I don't need much precision when preparing the numbers - I just give my NPCs what feels right, usually including some strong combos and some definite flaws. I'm not afraid of making them too strong or too week - they are there to make things interesting, not to fit a "perfect NPC" template.

I'm a simulationist at heart, but I don't need a system to guide me in most cases. I get a good feel of the settings I run in and my players trust me to make sensible rulings instead or rule lawyering. We only need detailed notes and mechanics for the most important parts of a game and there are not so many in a single session.

Shemeska · Apr 26, 2010

Around half of my prep time takes place during my drive home from work, or over lunch when I take a nice mile or two walk and listen to my ipod. I use the time to just think about possible situations during the next game situations, what various NPCs are up to and how they might react to something.

I've also found myself composing important bits of possible NPC dialogue in my end while doing small animal surgical work. Though I apparently started doing different voices while practicing it all and pseudo-composing it there, so it's probably a good idea that none of my coworkers happened to walk into the room at that point to find me talking to, and responding to myself.

Once I get home I write it all down in summary, add any brief numbers I need to add and I'm good. I spend my time creating a world and important people and places the PCs might interact with, not creating specific encounters.

I also have players who will talk amongst themselves and/or an NPC for hours on end in-character without the need for any numerical prep work on my behalf. They're awesome and I'm amazingly lucky to have them as friends.