Prep work? What stinking prep work?

[Zendragon]

Prep time has gone down since the birth of daughter 2 years ago. Now I have the next three adventures in mind. I finish up the next few levels that I think the party will get to. Basically have an outline and fill in the blanks as game night approaches. Prep is one of the things that I love to do so it kills me sometimes not to have the information at my fingertips.

 

[Christoph the Magus]

I prep out stats and abilities, but I'm more fluid with the story line. I usually start a campaign by writing up a 3-4 page "treatment" of the bad guys and their motivations, but let the characters' actions dictate where the plot takes us.

 

[robberbaron]

I do a lot more prep in 3.5 than I ever did in 1e. Back then, my NPCs/monsters were a description, a bunch of hit points, some items, an AC and a THAC0. Most took less than a couple of minutes. Any major NPC would get a few more deliberately chosen items and a name but not many.

And I used to wing most games - I knew what was happening in the world and merely adjudicated the PCs' effect on it. Piece of cake.

These days, using DMGenie to ease the strain, I have to consider feats and skills as well, not to mention more available classes. A BBEG can take up to half an hour to create, his mooks maybe half that.

Also, my players divert from the 'mission' or do something unexpected so often that I have found meticulously prepared adventures bypassed entirely. OK, that means they will just have it later on, instead, but it does force a modicum of flexibility on my part.

As a rough estimate, I would say that I spend at least 3 times as long prepping for 3.5 than 1e.

 

[Hussar]

Heh, I got so far ahead on my prep work for the World's Largest Dungeon at one point that I went over six months without doing any prep for a weekly game. Now that was nice.

I loves me modules.

 

[Thomas Percy]

I love the preparations, so the more of them the better,
but I have no enough time, so I follow DMG2 preparation advices.
It takes usually 1 hour a day (0'00-1'00am) which makes splendid 4-6 hours a week.

 

[kigmatzomat]

So, two out of three falls recommends less prep work?

I recommend not doing every last bit of prep work and only do the prep work that you are likely to need. Look, If your fights last 6 rounds, if you prep 12-rounds worth of material you've left yourself plenty of options.

If I'm prepping a caster I'll have 12 combat-use spells (including escape and detection), any persistent daily buffs, and the buffs the NPC will have ready and are likely to be able to use. Why do I need to spec out the other 2-dozen spells? After bluff, intimidate, sense motive, spot, listen, search and concentration, do I really need to spend the remaining skill points?

Most melees are pretty simple, excepting Bo9S characters. Work top down, choosing the 12 most powerful maneuvers they qualify for and just assume they have the pre-reqs. It can pretty much always be true.

At this level you know the party and their 3 most likely approaches. Figure out the NPCs likely reactions in a general sense (Caster erects forcewall, archers spiderclimb & shoot, swordsage shadowblinks & attacks mage, etc) so you aren't blindsided. yes, they will occassionally catch you completely offguard. Big deal, they might catch the BBEG offguard too since the BBEG won't have seen them in action as much as you (the DM) have. Start with the plan that works best and roll from there.

Simply reacting in a decisive and coordinated, if suboptimal, fashion is often enough to provide the apperance of competence to players. Heck, the players won't know it's suboptimal since they can't be entirely sure what the NPCs are capable of. The PCs will never know what spells the NPC had already cast or prepped in memory or what plans they might have had.

An old military saw is "Perfection is the enemy of the good." If you've got an imperfect, but workable, plan go with it rather than dithering around trying to make it perfect. It gives the other side time to prepare or, in this case, get bored.

 

[TerraDave]

So you can wing a 3rd ed game, who knew

Sometimes the prep work is just finding the right minis...but it can be more. Spellcasting NPCs and there tactics have made me nervous in all editions and continue to...but I still wing them most of the time. I also am not afraid of modules.

BUT, I do keep track of HP. Sometimes you can go to far with these things.