D&D 5E 30 Minutes before a game session, what prep rituals help you DM/play your best games?

[TarionzCousin]

Is that "e-gor" or "eye-gor"?

What hump?

When gaming at someone else's place, I [-]double-check[/-] triple-check to make sure I have my clipboard with all my notes, my dice, and a rulebook in my bag.

 

[S'mon]

Last Saturday, I ran another session of my Princes of the Apocalypse campaign (using Fantasy Grounds II) and I made an amazing discovery.

Two pints of Boatswain H.L.V. Ale about 30 minutes before the game, in addition to reviewing the adventure to think about possible modifications I want to make and pre-thinking NPC reactions (and deciding on some possible scripting for these NPCs), made for a terrific session.

What are your pre-game rituals?

Beer tends to slow my brain down, if at pub I tend to have pint of pepsi + pint of cider. My main ritual is to read the adventure - something I don't always manage in advance of play...

 

[Ath-kethin]

Back in the day, 30 minutes before a session is when I'd start calling people to make sure they were coming, and find out half of them weren't.

 

[mrpopstar]

Once all the players arrive, I spark up intentional conversation about the campaign, the current plot, the characters (their beliefs, understandings, and relationships), the meta, and things unclear. This is intended to both recap and afford me access to the knowledge silos of the players (where they maintain their perceptions, conceptions, and wants). I usually schedule 30 minutes for this, but it very often takes an hour or more (once or twice actually consuming an entire session).

 

[Li Shenron]

Rituals? 30 minutes before???

No rituals here, just preparations, but mine start a week before... I want to keep the stuff at the table to a minimum and no books, so usually my preparations imply to print/photocopy/cut material I need to reference or hand out to the players, so that we don't hopefully ever need to pull out the books except for showing the pictures. As I do this in the previous days, I file the papers into a folder or two, so all I need to do 30 minutes before the game is check where the folders, the dice, and the Lego minifigures are.

 

[akr71]

Beer tends to slow my brain down, if at pub I tend to have pint of pepsi + pint of cider. My main ritual is to read the adventure - something I don't always manage in advance of play...

Whether they admit it or not, beer slows everybody's brain down. However a pint or two does improve my roll-playing. As a DM, if I know the party is likely to encounter a banshee, hags or anything that has some intelligence and will talk beyond "orc smash you now," the session is likely to be more memorable if I've had a few... I wouldn't call it a ritual though.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Thirty minutes before game time, I'm generally finishing up some last minute cleaning (getting the dog hair off the couch, after I just cleaned it, because dog...).

I open a bottle of wine to breathe before the group gets there. I take a look at the adventure one last time, maybe review monster strategies again. Unless I've had a brainstorm at the last minute, I don't mess around with the adventure itself, though.

 

[cmad1977]

I like to kick back, drink some beer and smoke some weed.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I consider putting on pants.

Briefly.

 

[Ranthalan]

I clean up the table, set everyone's character sheets for the session at their spots on the table, set the players' dice and pencils next to their character, same with the appropriate miniatures if any, and set whatever books, notes, and DM screen I'm using for the session up at my spot.

Then I eat, and chat with the players as they arrive.

It's like looking into a mirror! I do the same. If I'm doing actual prep at that point, it's not going to be one of my better sessions.