Planning games, how do YOU do it?

[Stormonu]

What am I running? Because seriously, the way I prepare for oD&D is very different from the way I prepare for 4e is different again from the way I prepare for Dungeon World (the latter I might not prepare for at all - and I never prepare for Fiasco).

Yeah, game has a lot to do with how prep is handled. In just about every other system beside D&D/d20 derived, stats are the last thing I think about. For D&D games, stats enter the picture early on and I use a lot of electronic aids for generating those for 3E on, because otherwise its too easy to miss stuff (for 3E I used e-tools, Pathfinder I use Herolab and for 4E there was a free monster creator I downloaded and used, until the math changes)

 

[steenan]

I usually play games where character relations, motivations, goals, beliefs or something similar are an important part of character creation. We start by creating characters, so when I begin planning the game, I already have character sheets at hand.

I draw a mind map, with PCs as central nodes and the NPCs mentioned in their backgrounds around them. Lines between them represent relations.
Then I add more elements (NPCs, places, items, past events) until I have something to engage each goal and belief. And after that, I complete the graph by defining relations between the NPCs.

If I have enough time, I prepare character sheets for the NPCs that look like they can be important (tied to main motivation of any PC, or tied somehow to many PCs). If not, I just write down what are their main strengths and weaknesses. I add a few adjectives to guide me in roleplaying them.

I also prepare things that I know I will need at some point, but don't want to waste brainpower improvising or I'm just not good at improvising. Things like list of names for NPCs in various cultures (also names of villages/towns, names of ships etc.), a map to show how far the major locations are from each other, mechanical writeups of nameless NPC types (generic bandit, generic guard, generic thief etc.).



For the first adventure, I prepare a situation that lets me present a significant part of my relation map and that pushes PCs into action. I don't prepare a "plot" and make no assumptions about what my players will do. I just throw them into a situation that pushes their buttons, and react to what they do.

After each session, I update my mind map and use it as a guide on what to put in the spotlight next.

 

[innerdude]

Typically I'll start off doing a basic review of events from the past 2-3 sessions.

1. What's happened that's important?
2. What's at stake for the characters?
3. What choices did they make that pointed the party in a certain direction?
4. What are the characters invested in, and what NPCs are either aligned or opposed to that investment?

After that, it's mostly building "scene frames" for places and people with which the party may interact. I try, as much as possible, to have no predetermined "route" or sequence of events. Typically I'll generate a basic outline of approximately 5 locations with their attendant NPCs.

At no point in this process am I dealing with stat blocks. It's purely about putting together the basic framework. This process generally takes 45 minutes to an hour.

Once I have a framework in place, I'll go ahead and generate some NPC stats for foes they're likely to combat. In Savage Worlds, this is typically a 20-minute process, tops.

If I'm feeling up to it, and want a big "set piece" battle, I'll fire up Serif DrawPlus and Photoshop, and put together a custom map. But this is pretty rare, maybe once every 6 months. This typically takes 3-4 hours to put together, but most of the time, maps are a Paizo blank flip mat and a set of dry erase markers.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

(snip) Of course, I am one of the fastest cartographers you're ever likely to meet, so I generally need only an hour to make any necessary maps. (snip)

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I hate you and all that you stand for.

One hour to do maps? That's not fair. I can spend days and they still suck... so now I am like some pitiful beggar hanging around websites looking for what I can scavenge insofar as maps go.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

I am preparing for a Star Wars game right now (well, right now, I'm procrastinating on preparing for my Star Wars game by writing a message board post about how I'm preparing for my Star Wars game, but you get the idea). Here's some of the stuff that I've done so far.

First, I ask myself what I want out of the campaign, the session, whatever.

The campaign takes place during the clone wars. The characters are a pair of itinerant Jedi, some Clone Troopers, and some technical experts that have offered their services to the galactic republic. My plan is to get them involved in various scenarios tangential to the meta story, and see how they effect things. It seems likely that they will bash into the canonical story and jack it all up, so that is what I'm (more or less) planning for.

For my initial inspiration, I went on Wookiepedia and bounced around on random pages until I found something that interests me, and then I combined it with some stuff that is related to the main storyline of the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Doing this, I found a system called Seoul (the same name as the capital city of South Korea, where I lived briefly). So I looked into that. There, I found a story where Han Solo fought some Imperials doing weapon research on some mysterious force crystals from a ruined civilization. That sounds promising, but will require some adaptation for the current scenario.

Also, I know that I would like it if the player characters eventually thwarted the assassination of (former) supreme chancellor Finis Valorum (played by Terrence Stamp in the movies), so I want to give them a taste of some corruption in the government and a hint of the massive conspiracies that are taking place right under the jedi's noses. So some of the characters involved in that assassination are going to pop up in a few of the initial adventures.

The first session (which I'm planning right now) is to be a murder mystery (sort of). The characters have returned to Coruscant from a previous mission (I am actually taking over the campaign from someone else) for a debriefing by the Jedi high council and whatever else may be going on. While there, they will be approached by another jedi, asking them for a favor. (I'm using Jedi master Plo Koon, but it doesn't really matter who it is). This is the plot hook.

One of the Jedi master's friends, an Antarian Ranger, has been murdered, and the Keldoran Jedi, being busy with the war effort, has asked these itinerant jedi to investigate on his behalf. All that is known so far is that the Antarian Ranger's starship exited hyperspace in the Coruscant system with its owner deceased. It has been taken in to a Republic Office of Criminal Investigations impound lot and the body delivered to a medical examiner (or whatever the Star Wars equivalent of that is). So the players have two avenues of investigation to start with.

The first stages of the adventure will be mostly social, in nature, with the characters going to talk to different folks and finding out what they know. I'll use this time to add a little flavor, and make notes if the players make a particular connection with any of the npcs that are introduced, for later use.

Eventually, their investigation will lead them to the Seoul system, where they will discover the larger plot going on. Some unfamiliar clones (based on a different prime than Jango Fett), led by a couple of Anzati assassins will be going about some nefarious business, attempting to turn the ruins of this ancient civilization into some sort of superweapon (star wars is all about the super weapons, it seems like all anyone in that galaxy wants to do is blow up some planets).

The middle parts of the adventure will involve the players negotiating the ruins and possibly fighting a bunch of clones and several Anzati assassins, as well as a dark jedi. Hopefully, they will figure out some way to stop these guys from building whatever super weapon is being cooked up (in the original version of this, Han Solo accidentally blew up the planet, but I'll roll with whatever these guys do). Also, they should encounter the person who actually did the murder, so that they can consider their objective completed.

The end parts of the adventure should involve wrapping up and reporting what they discovered to master Plo Koon, and then something should go horribly wrong, setting the stage for the next adventure.

Most of the proper nouns I'm sprinkling into here are things that I found while clicking around on the wookiepedia site, but if I was using a homebrew setting, I would be making these sorts of things up myself. With the overall structure of the adventure sorted, all I've got to do is whip up some NPCs (impound guy, medical examiner, information broker, alternate clone trooper, anzati assassins, dark jedi, maybe some hostile native life forms), come up with a map that looks like it could be the weird power station for an ancient civilization, and develop a few contingencies in case things go differently than expected.

Now, because my group meets for a relatively short period and because my players screw around a lot, this scenario will probably last for about three sessions, so I don't need to be in too much of a hurry. But, as I do not have to work on Christmas eve, I will probably do the rest of the necessary prep (which is mostly all administrative stuff, rather than anything creative) tomorrow.

 

[howandwhy99]

It depends on the game really. A lot of games will tell you how to set them up, how to prepare for them. What the players are asked to do matters too.

 

[gamerprinter]

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I hate you and all that you stand for.

One hour to do maps? That's not fair. I can spend days and they still suck... so now I am like some pitiful beggar hanging around websites looking for what I can scavenge insofar as maps go.

You can always raid my map thread here in the forums - Gamerprinter's Map Emporeum (been active since 2009).

Consider that I created the original hand-drawn map of the City of Kasai for Paizo Publishing Jade Regent AP on commission, and it took me 16 hours to draw, including over 8500 buildings. Most maps fit in an hour to hour and a half to complete. A map has to be something really serious for it to take me longer to complete.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

You can always raid my map thread here in the forums - Gamerprinter's Map Emporeum (been active since 2009).

Consider that I created the original hand-drawn map of the City of Kasai for Paizo Publishing Jade Regent AP on commission, and it took me 16 hours to draw, including over 8500 buildings. Most maps fit in an hour to hour and a half to complete. A map has to be something really serious for it to take me longer to complete.

Thanks Michael.

I've stolen every single one of your maps either from that thread or your deviantart page. Your work is simply stunning, especially those maps with the underwater bits.

And I'm glad to hear that not all of your maps take only an hour.

Seriously, 8,500 buildings in 16 hours? Red Bull? Potion of haste? How can you be so fast and yet still do a great job?

 

[Sunseeker]

Depends on my group, but generally speaking I plan out some general "points" within the area that the players are in, and some potential points in the neighboring areas. These are plot hooks, specific monsters, etc... Some of these are more specific than others, and that depends really on what sort of things those are and what I want to do with them.

I prep out some general monsters/NPCs that may appear in these areas(some of which are really just re-named mobs since I don't expect any group to totally explore everything and clear it all.

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

Full disclosure, right now I'm running D&D 3.5, Forgotten Realms.

I actually don't do that much prep for games. The game I'm running now is city-based, and we've had multiple sessions played where either dice were not rolled, or only rolled for a skill check or two. The only thing I really need is names for any NPCs that might come up, and usually I don't do even that. I come up with them on the fly and write them down as I go. The play is very character-driven, so where they might go in any given session can be extremely valuable.

When combat might be impending, I do a quick flip through one of my monster books, find something appropriate, and wait for the players to get to the monster/drop it in at an appropriate moment.

I do a lot of "seat of the pants" DMing. I frequently integrate ideas and off-hand comments of my players into whatever is going on. I set up battlefields based on a vague mental map and the first handful of mostly-appropriate terrain tiles that come out of my (admittedly disorganized) bag. I frequently run battles without minis or maps if they're small encounters, because if it takes more time to set up than it takes my players to defeat, it's not worth it.

A lot of this stems from college, when I absolute didn't have time to prep, so it was either DM by the seat of my pants... or not at all.

A certain amount of this "low prep" has to do with the few times I have done elaborate prep (set up traps, made special monsters, etc.), it's mostly been in vain. The players find the trap, they defeat the special monsters before it has a chance to use more than one of its special abilities, and basically make the prep-to-utility ratio very bad. Rolling with the punches I find to be a more rewarding and fun gaming experience for both me and my group.

At most, I might want a list of possible NPC names, tavern names, a short list of appropriate CR monsters, and maybe I'll print out a page or three from a treasure generator. Add that to the notes from my previous session, and I'm good to go.