Minimal Prep

[Ry]

I've gone back to this great, 5-star thread a few times (The Essential Guide to A GM's Notebook) and I always say "Yeah! Yeah, that's a good idea. Sounds great." I've even made notebooks following these rules.

But I end up just sitting down, jotting a few things on 1 piece of paper, and running off the top of my head. The notebook never gets opened. Neither do any of my other notes, and I'm talking about multiple formats over many years. All I really prep is that 1 piece of paper with a few lines of adventure background tagged per PC, 2-dozen-odd random names, the NPCs for that day, a few notes on the plot (with an extra encounter idea between each step). We've had a blast, year after year, in multiple systems... but I really only do this kind of prep.

Does anyone else prep this way? Does anyone have this down to a method or prep strategy?

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

Yep. That's me all over the place. I create the NPCs I'll need and think about locations a little, but that's it. Everything else is winged. No adventure designing, no plot outlining, no map drawing, nada, zip, zero.

I've wanted to be more prepared, I really have, but I can't seem to force myself to sit down and do it. And my players enjoy my games, so, who am I to quibble.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Sounds solid. I recently came back to GMing after a gap of a couple years. I prepped quite a bit but I can't believe I forgot the names. #1 most important thing, a bunch of setting appropriate names. If something has a name it becomes real. If it doesn't it isn't. I was ready with a list for session 2 but I can't believe I forgot that. Doh!

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

Let me add a caveat that I do a lot of "prep" work on my homebrew setting, organically, between sessions, adding in details that developed during the last session. So, while I don't do any adventure prep, I do have a place to put everything.

 

[Zendragon]

The overall campaign I have is pretty well detailed. I have the current planned adventure, maps, rooms and monsters planned. The next one is in the working stages. Once the current one is done, I finish up the next and start the one after that. This allows for player changes or tangents pretty well. WIth PC's doing stuff like, lets just climb the pyramid and use passwall to get into the top level and catch the BBEG by surprise, I'm glad I have that stuff planned out.

 

[Ry]

Let me add a caveat that I do a lot of "prep" work on my homebrew setting, organically, between sessions, adding in details that developed during the last session. So, while I don't do any adventure prep, I do have a place to put everything.

I do some setting design as well, but it's almost like I've been writing a setting, go to sleep, and then write my 1 page of campaign stuff like it came out of thin air. There's no deliberate connections between the setting design and the session prep, and that's... counterintuitive to me. I mean, I'm a very deliberate, organized guy. Otherwise I wouldn't have made GM notebooks that I never use and just leave next to the game table unopened.

 

[blargney the second]

Yeah, that's where I'm at lately. D&D Miniatures stat cards are a total timesaver for that, btw!

 

[Edgewood]

My notes and adventure prep is pretty much like yours. I build an idea in my head while at work usually (which is really not a good idea as I'm a Sheriff and should probably be more focused) and then jot 4-5 lines of notes down for character names, a random encounter and that's it. We ran our campaign for 10 years so I had alot of material built up about the gameworld. My prep skills however could use alot of improvement.

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

Does anyone else prep this way? Does anyone have this down to a method or prep strategy?

It all in my head. I actually have very long list of adventure details, but I long ago learned this lesson.

If you give Players 3 Options. They'll take option 12.

I know where I want to Start. I know (roughly) where I want to End. I let the Players Organically determine how to get there (as well as the final shape there takes).

I've had several 1st-20+ Games run that way. I just keep in my mind everything that happened before. That Minor Random Encounter 6th Months ago may show back up in some form. That Random Item might fit into some quest later.

For me, its about making sure the Present Link to the Past while Hinting at the Future.

It maked it look like I've made these Complex, Multi-Tiered, Quests that Span Years of Game time.

In fact, I just picked what worked well & ran with it.


However, I do put a lot of work into my Home Campaign World. This does give me a consitent Canvas to Puke Random Ideas onto.

 

[Ry]

My prep skills however could use alot of improvement.

I usually say the same thing - because of course you hear horror stories about GMs who ruin a session without prep. But that's never really happened for me. I'm starting to wonder if maybe the minimal-prep thing just needs refinement, rather than being an indication that an area of our GMing skills is lacking.