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

[Celebrim]

Hooks, reskinning and role-play are things that I find to take the least prep, to the point that they can be done on the fly.

To some extent, everything must be done on the fly. You can't prep everything. And since you can't prep every NPC, alot of NPC's get built 'on the fly' and almost every conversation is built 'on the fly'. I certainly find it hard to prep more than one conversation per session, so you reserve conversation prep for only the most critical NPC's and role play events.

But I disagree that NPC and dialog prep are less time consuming, or that they provide a better prep to game time ratio that map making and combat.

In fact, probably the best prep to game time ratios is in the creation of large dungeons. I know from experience that I can create dungeons faster than players can explore them, and if I just want to create 'random stuff'', an old school dungeon is one of the easiest things to create on the fly.

The hard part of dungeon design isn't creating content, its making that content clever such that it constitutes an interesting puzzle as well as an environment for hack and slash. Big sprawling dungeons are easy, but quickly bore most experienced players. I don't think I could get away with the megadungeons of my youth with most adult players. The trick to dungeons is being just as big as you need to be, and that requires alot of thought. It's a skill I'm still developing. Anything that requires alot of planning is time consuming.

Good hooks therefore are to me the hardest and most difficult part of a DM's job. Every good adventure in my opinion has to have a twist in it - a point where the players perceptions of events suddenly shift. That moment of discovery is often the highlight of the whole adventure, and is often even more satisfying than eventually defeating the villain. Every good adventure in my opinion begins with, "Something has happened here." and inevitably finding out what has really happened should feel like a significant achievement. For me, the hardest part of a design is hooking the player into, "Something has happened here and this is why you care." in a way that doesn't seem trite after a while. Creating webs of clues and secrets and then turning them into some sort of meaningful activity on the characters part is hard.

The time consuming stuff tedious stuff is statblocks and maps.

Ok, maybe I should do your statblocks and maps and you should prep NPCs and dialog.

 

[ProtoClone]

Prep-time for me ends up being maybe 2-2.5 hours per session.

I usually end up going over the material and making sure I remember all the bits and pieces that need to be remembered.

Other then that I write everything down that I need, like stats, and wing the rest.

 

[Noumenon]

I'm pretty much hopeless on this issue -- I can spend twice as much time prepping a module as the session lasts. I've never taken on a project as open-ended as DMing, where you have to set the scope and every detail you pursue takes time away from the big picture. It's very educational.

My main question to add to the thread is, "How do you learn what to ignore from what you read on EnWorld?" Because each amazing tip takes time. I make NPCs with a single memorable trait now, off a list -- so that adds a minute to every (scarred, glamorous, or solipsist) NPC I build. Then I give them a motivation so I can improv their plans and dialogue. But now I'm cutting into the time for all the other awesome tips -- making three clues for every revelation in the plot, adding interesting terrain to a combat, making sure to plan for failure in a skill challenge.

How do you tell the difference between a cool DMing tip being "the right way" and just "one way"? I have no problem with this when I see people using papier-mache minis, I feel no need to spend time doing that. But when I hear something like "make sure your trap design reveals something about your villain's character," well, I just have to start doing it that way, no matter how long it takes.

(I did spend over an hour writing this post, by the way -- I really am hopeless.)

 

[pawsplay]

If I were going to give just three tips, it would be: 1) keep NPCs mechanically simple, 2) do nothing original when shameless imitation will work, and 3) practice dialog while you're driving to work.

 

[pawsplay]

I'm pretty much hopeless on this issue -- I can spend twice as much time prepping a module as the session lasts. I've never taken on a project as open-ended as DMing, where you have to set the scope and every detail you pursue takes time away from the big picture. It's very educational.

My main question to add to the thread is, "How do you learn what to ignore from what you read on EnWorld?" Because each amazing tip takes time. I make NPCs with a single memorable trait now, off a list -- so that adds a minute to every (scarred, glamorous, or solipsist) NPC I build. Then I give them a motivation so I can improv their plans and dialogue. But now I'm cutting into the time for all the other awesome tips -- making three clues for every revelation in the plot, adding interesting terrain to a combat, making sure to plan for failure in a skill challenge.

How do you tell the difference between a cool DMing tip being "the right way" and just "one way"? I have no problem with this when I see people using papier-mache minis, I feel no need to spend time doing that. But when I hear something like "make sure your trap design reveals something about your villain's character," well, I just have to start doing it that way, no matter how long it takes.

(I did spend over an hour writing this post, by the way -- I really am hopeless.)

I think slicing tomatoes to look like roses is awesome. But first, make the salad.

 

[Noumenon]

Maybe I need to play more and DM less so I know what a salad actually tastes like. Especially some homebrew -- reading all these modules must be like going to the salad bar at Le Bernardin to learn how to make a lettuce and tomato thing.

 

[GrimGent]

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.

Well, there are RPGs which are specifically meant for quick pick-up games, ranging from no-prep to low-prep.

Consider, for example, Maid in which not only the PCs but also the basic setting, along with the genre and the mood, can be generated randomly from a series of charts and tables. ("Okay, so the three of you are a catgirl hacker, a shy android, and a mad scientist who's wanted by the police, all currently working as maids for a nineteen-year-old evil empress, an albino hedonist who rules her own artificial planet through a combination of magic and military might...") At its simplest, even the actual gameplay itself consists of rolling up one random event after another and trying to solve the whole mess somehow. ("Birth of a computer intelligence! The mansion's AI becomes self-aware and begins to rebel! Every security system turns on the residents!" "Caught up in an interstellar war! You have to get away from this planet somehow!" "Encounter with a god that lurks between the stars! Can you withstand such pure madness?! And what is the true power of an outer god?!")

 

[Vanifae]

Well, there are RPGs which are specifically meant for quick pick-up games, ranging from no-prep to low-prep.

Consider, for example, Maid in which not only the PCs but also the basic setting, along with the genre and the mood, can be generated randomly from a series of charts and tables. ("Okay, so the three of you are a catgirl hacker, a shy android, and a mad scientist who's wanted by the police, all currently working as maids for a nineteen-year-old evil empress, an albino hedonist who rules her own artificial planet through a combination of magic and military might...") At its simplest, even the actual gameplay itself consists of rolling up one random event after another and trying to solve the whole mess somehow. ("Birth of a computer intelligence! The mansion's AI becomes self-aware and begins to rebel! Every security system turns on the residents!" "Caught up in an interstellar war! You have to get away from this planet somehow!" "Encounter with a god that lurks between the stars! Can you withstand such pure madness?! And what is the true power of an outer god?!")

I could never run this but it sounds amazing and fun.

For me I find most of my prep time is spent before I start the campaign once I have the pre-game stuff done, the actual session time is maybe an hour or two going over notes creating cool encounters and extending plot lines.

 

[howandwhy99]

Lower system complexity is the key to shorter prep times. The less computation you need to perform to create a session's scenario, the less time it should take you to prep.

As others have said, published (or another DM's) modules and setting materials can help immensely. I find it takes a far longer time, if I design a game element myself. But converting other's work to the system will still take time, so the system complexity issue matters here too.

Campaign prep is really the biggest chunk of time for any game, from my perspective. So the more you can hash out prior to the game's beginning, the easier it should be to prep scenarios from session to session.

You could also take a look at many of the new storygames, which focus on prep-less play. No math or dice rolling prep is really needed at all, but situational ideas and interesting personalities generated before play can still help a lot.

I think it's fun to prep for games as it is something of a solo game in and of itself, albeit with no choices for the DM. I like to read modules and convert on the fly, but without much of a standard design for them I still prefer do a few test runs with the Player's PCs to find flaws and overall difficulty before getting the Player's okay to add it to the world.

 

[Blackbrrd]

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.

Now, I must say you have low expectations of pre-made modules. I am currently running the best pre-made modules I have gotten my hands on, WotBS and they have plenty of opportunity for role-playing. The plot is driving the story, but by no means is it a straight railroad.

My prep-time was reading through the module twice, which took maybe 4 hours and then re-reading the relevant parts before each session and looking at the encounters which should take about 2 hours, but can be rushed in 1 hour. A typical session of mine has 4-6 hours of play time. The first module lasted 5 sessions.

Total prep time 14 hours, total play time 25 hours. That doesn't take into account the time I spend thinking about the story and getting it straight in my head, or the time reading what other people have done with the module here on Enworld.

The first hook to the module I kept quite simple, but that is in line with my game which is pretty lighthearted and fun. My players will get really fond of their characters and nag me to DM more, but at the same time, it isn't exactly serious business.

Character motivations during the game is something the players usually come up with, not me as a DM, but they do align it with the story I am starting to tell, making my job much easier. We usually do this by talking a bit about what has been happening before they start playing and is an important part of making a pre-made module work.

... It's also time I forgot above when mentioning my prep-time. I bet I used 10 hours putting the party and character backgrounds together, but it isn't prep time in the usual sense, since I am coming up with a story together with your player. It's more like very free-form role playing. It's as fun as playing the game.

The REASON I use pre-made modules is that I am not creative enough on my own - it's not one of my better qualities. I am really good at refinement and adaption.

One friend of mine is really creative but as a DM he is really really really bad at refining his ideas into something playable. He is extremely helpful to have along as a player though. He will create whole subplots by himself.

Conclusion - I use about as much time preparing to play as I do playing, but quite a lot of it isn't "boring" prep-work but thinking about how I want to run it and how MY player characters will act and react.

Addendum: There are nearly no modules available in high enough quality, the last one I liked was Red Hand of Doom, the rest are starting to feel really shallow.