What is "Prep"?

[Deset Gled]

A koan of jargon: If your goal is to DM "on the fly", does meditating for an hour before the game to clear your mind make you more "on the fly" because you are more free of the presuppositions and influences of your day, or less "on the fly" because you spent an hour "prepping" by meditating?

 

[ninjayeti]

I would define prep fairly narrowly as stuff that is directly related to running the adventure. I have lots of activities that are useful to running games - painting minis, watching Matt Coleville videos, reading through other adventures/RPGs for inspiration. But I do not think of those as prep.

 

[Umbran]

What constitutes "prep" to you, from a GM perspective?

Those things I do to make ready for a particular session of gaming are prep, to me.

Reading a published adventure once is prep. Reading it twice and doing an analysis of the CRs of the encounters is prep. sketching out maps for the session is prep. Choosing music to play at particular encounters is prep, and so on.

Gathering "random" tables sounds more campaign-building, to me. For me, those tables in prep would be purpose-chosen for the specific session.

And for that matter, what does "running on the fly" mean? How do they interact? Can a GM do prep and still run on the fly?

Running on the fly is what you do when play goes beyond preparation.

As a real-life example: My preparation may be a bullet list of the plot points of "Hound of the Baskervilles", some NPC names cleverly swiped from said story, and a sketch statblock for the Hound itself. All the details and deviations from that are my running on the fly.

 

[Lanefan]

What constitutes "prep" to you, from a GM perspective? And for that matter, what does "running on the fly" mean? How do they interact? Can a GM do prep and still run on the fly?

I'd define prep to be and include any out-of-session work done by the DM to further or enhance or augment the game s/he's running.

Given that, @overgeeked has the right of it in post 6.

@Umbran - I'd posit campaign-building and world-building falls squarely under "prep", as in a way you're prepping for every session instead of just one.

I'd also lump post-session activities (DM-side bookkeeping, game logging, xp calculating, etc.) under prep.

Edit: and "on the fly" covers anything you have to make up on the spot during the session, that you didn't or couldn't prep.

 

[Umbran]

@Umbran - I'd posit campaign-building and world-building falls squarely under "prep", as in a way you're prepping for every session instead of just one.

The OP asked what "prep" meant to me.

You are free to take campaign and world building as prep, for you. I find it valuable, to me, to think of them as fairly separate activities, and will continue to do so.

 

[billd91]

If I'm putting in effort directed toward the campaign I'm currently running, whether the next session or multiple sessions down the foreseeable road, I consider it prep. It could be setting up maps, building encounters, finding icons or other art for the VTT, mulling over the likely next steps my players will take, or thinking of interesting ways to drive engagement for my current players. Just about anything, really.

If I'm looking at, reading, or even thinking about game-oriented material, in general, and not thinking about how it applies to my current campaign, it's not prep.

 

[Hriston]

Does collecting random tables and NOTHING ELSE count as prep?

Sure, why not?

Does reading the adventure one time through count as prep?

Yes, as does selecting and/or buying an adventure.

 

[Hriston]

Although the OP asks specifically about prep from a “GM perspective”, I also wanted to mention that I consider character creation prep and that it’s generally the form of prep in which more people at the table participate.

 

[not-so-newguy]

The campaign is on hiatus for the another month or so. But when we're playing regularly, this is how it flows for me:

• Go for a walk; think about campaign
• write Recap from last session
• Go for a walk; think about campaign
• Reading the material for next adventure
• Go for a walk; think about campaign
• Making necessary adjustments from any pre written material
• Go for a walk; think about campaign
• If needed: Print necessary handouts and other player aids
• Play game

Rinse and Repeat.

 

[Reynard]

The campaign is on hiatus for the another month or so. But when we're playing regularly, this is how it flows for me:

• Go for a walk; think about campaign
• write Recap from last session
• Go for a walk; think about campaign
• Reading the material for next adventure
• Go for a walk; think about campaign
• Making necessary adjustments from any pre written material
• Go for a walk; think about campaign
• If needed: Print necessary handouts and other player aids
• Play game

Rinse and Repeat.

I wrote my first novel based almost entirely on walk powered mulling.