How long do you spend preparing a game?

[fba827]

we play a very player-driven style campaign, so rarely do i know what they'll do next unless we were fortunate enough to end the previous session at a spot that strongly suggested some particular course of action.

If I know what's going to happen (or at least a close approximation) it takes me less than an hour to prepare. But when I don't have any idea and I need to prepare multiple contingencies as well as a "catch all back up" then it takes me about 3-4 hours to determine plot lines and responses from key npcs and so on.

 

[Montague68]

Thanks to the Dungeon, the D&D Compendium, and the fairly streamlined nature of 4e in general, I spend less than 2 hours prepping for a 5 hour session.

As someone who has run RPGs for over 20 years, this is the new Golden Age.

Pretty much this for me. I have about 3-4 hours of prep work simply because my group likes to play for 8-10 hours every week. I wouldn't have the time to do this for a 3.5 game past 10th level or so.

 

[weem]

About 10-12 hours approx. (for 4th Ed)

That seems like a lot I'm sure, but most of that is not encounters, etc - it's me sitting around writing notes, coming up with ideas, being creative, etc. My games happen on Saturday mornings AND they tend to run about 7-8 hours - so Friday's (I have off) are usually spent from morning till evening working on the game for the next day.

 

[Halivar]

I ruminate over the night's adventure all week. During work, during WOW, during dinner. About 15 minutes before gaming, I log into DDI and collect the monsters I need, reflavoring as necessary. Most of that time is spent on paragraph formatting.