How do you, as a PC, prep for your next game?

[GMMichael]

Rumor has it that game masters spend some time preparing for a game session before they show up. But are they the only ones? What do you do, as a player-character, before the game? What should you do? Would the game be better off if all the players spent as much time preparing as the GM does?

 

[payn]

As a player and GM, I feel a certain responsibility to assist the GM.

That includes reading the rules. I dont want to burden the GM with spell details or feat applications. I want to be ready to go and not slow the game down mechanically. The amount of time necessary usually goes down as sessions go up and system familiarity sets in. Though, new additional rule supplements can raise this player prep necessity back up again when introduced. I feel if im going to use a new feature, I ought to be able to explain it and understand how it works before game time.

I also try and assist the GM by being prepared for the setting and collaborative story side of TTRPG. That means reading available setting materials and being familiar with them. Asking the GM questions to clarify items. I also like to provide character motivations and desires as the game is going on. This prep varies from game to game and session to session. I'll give the GM as much as they want.

So I think Player prep is good and makes a game better for everyone. I think player prep is very different than GM prep, so its hard to say on a 1 for 1 basis how much time or effort should be put into it by each person.

 

[John Dallman]

Keep my character sheet up-to-date. Go over my notes taken in-session and use them to update my notes about things the party could try to do; I quite often have ideas about this between sessions, since most of the games I play are investigative.

Read history of the period for historical games, which sometimes results in scenario suggestions to the GM. Help the GM with research, if that would be useful. My best success was when the party arrived in Sydney, Australia, aboard a USN submarine during October 1942, when the USN was having terrible problems with the Mark 14 torpedo. The GM wondered if British torpedoes would be compatible: I found the manual for the right model of torpedo tube, complete with instructions on using British torpedoes.

 

[Sir Brennen]

Character sheet updates. Also, I take notes during each session, so make sure to review those. The notes also contain treasure found, and our group uses a spreadsheet to track it, so I (or other players) will make sure that's up to date. Occasionally we'll do a treasure split from that so everyone can update their own coin/treasure carried.

Often have group discussions either via email or a chat tool (like Slack) to discuss party plans for the next session if it's not obvious. These discussions include the DM to help them prepare for the next session.

 

[aco175]

The beggest thing for a player is to show up on time and be ready with your things. The burden is on the DM for most things. I agree with @payn that I DM most of the time so when I get to play I try to assist the DM with other players if there is a question or problem. One thing that has come up in my game a bit is spells from other sources than the PHB and looking them up at the table. A cell phone is fine, but players could take a few minutes to print them off at home and have things ready. Of course players could say that the DM could print them off as well.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Before the session starts, I read the recap and make sure I am remembering everything that happened and may happen. Important for me for weekly sessions as I may forget things from one week to the next.
If I'm expecting a level up soon or in the near future, I will have that planned out ahead of time, so if it happens in game, I can quickly do the bookwork and continue with the game.
Any down time I will have reached out to the DM before the session letting them know what I hope to do during that downtime.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I make sure I am familiar with the rules for my spells/class/race/etc. I generally don't go in for anything complicated, but I never want to slow the game down to figure out the rules for such. I will generally practice my character's voice - if it's inspired by a specific person, I will listen to them talk. For my one character, Lazlo the Laudable, I look up an archaic and goofy-sounding word to incorporate into his dialog. Words like pervulsion, doddypoll, and obloquy. So much of my characters' personalities come from how they talk.

Oh, and for Fantasy Grounds, I always try to log on early to account for the many updates.

 

[Umbran]

Rumor has it that game masters spend some time preparing for a game session before they show up. But are they the only ones? What do you do, as a player-character, before the game? What should you do? Would the game be better off if all the players spent as much time preparing as the GM does?

Day-to-day, I usually find very little needs to be done on the player side.

If I've leveled up, I want that handled before I come to the table - including learning any new rules/spells that may apply.

Beyond that, it is entirely situational.

 

[Richards]

I'm a player in my son's campaign, but as I've also been DMing for decades I do a lot of the DM "busy work" for my son between sessions: updating the equipment sheets and spell lists for the players' folders if there was any change on those fronts during the last (weekly) session; updating the PC tracking sheet with AC, hp, stats, alignment, spell slots, and level of the PCs...and write up the Story Hour of last week's session.

As far as prepping my own PC, if I didn't level up the previous session I generally just do a quick scan over my feats and equipment (I run a melee type) to refresh in my memory what all is available to me, and that's about it.

Johnathan

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Nothing really, I just show up on time if possible and have my character ready to go.