What's the hardest thing about preparing for RPGs

I think the hardest thing about prep is exactly how to spend the prep time. Sometimes it’s easy to know what you’re likely to get to in a session. Like, if you’re in the middle of a dungeon crawl, you can brush up on the nearby areas and likely encounters. Other times it’s not so obvious; the PCs are at town or their home base, and they have a couple of possible hooks to follow up on.

I try to tailor my prep based on where things are at in the game. I don’t mind nudging the players a bit, but I prefer that they determine where things go. So I think the hardest thing for me is to determine where on that sliding scale we’re at, and then how I should prep accordingly.

ChaosGenerators said:

The companion to What do you find hardest when running RPGs...

What gives you the most pain or takes the most effort when preparing for a game session or adventure?

Click to expand...

Finding reliable players.