GMs: What is your prep to play ratio?

[Bagpuss]

In-person, my prep was like... 15 minutes of picking out minis, 5-10 minutes of writing down names and places, and 15 minutes of driving to the game and thinking about what could happen.

Online I need to make it all nice to satisfy my own standards, that's like... 2+ hours per session.

I'm curious as to how convoluted or detailed your adventures are in that case? What sort of games are you running? How much is player driven and how much is RP.

Same goes for anyone where prep time is less than play time.

I'll admit I don't run heroic fantasy very often, mainly Call of Cthulhu or other games with multiple NPCs, plots to foil and clues to follow, and I would say prep is several hours per hour of play although that does include prop making.

 

[Distracted DM]

I'm curious as to how convoluted or detailed your adventures are in that case? What sort of games are you running?

I'm not sure what you mean re: convoluted or detailed adventures. DnD5e is primarily what I've been running.

In-person the fanciest stuff I used were my hoarded horde of minis. I got most of the "juice" from my in-person interactions, face to face, and improvised most of it. I had lots of books and PDFs to reference for inspiration, but ultimately there wasn't a ton of reading or prep unless I had some specific set-piece idea, which were uncommon. This was the case for several 1-2yr 5e campaigns, including a big West Marches campaign which only ended cuz of COVID.

Online, I don't have the juice of face-to-face interaction, so I get it from using fancy effects, nice maps, art, handouts, all that kind of high-prep stuff. I can't make monsters on the fly with a built-out system, because everything has to be input beforehand. In a cynical frame of mind, one might call it a gilded cage for my improv creativity BUT I do get satisfaction out of it... it's just a lot more work, for not quite as much payout.

 

[Reynard]

I'm curious as to how convoluted or detailed your adventures are in that case? What sort of games are you running? How much is player driven and how much is RP.

Same goes for anyone where prep time is less than play time.

I'll admit I don't run heroic fantasy very often, mainly Call of Cthulhu or other games with multiple NPCs, plots to foil and clues to follow, and I would say prep is several hours per hour of play although that does include prop making.

I don't go for detailed, pre-written plots. I am more of a play to find out GM. I like creating fun and interesting situations then letting the players loose on them. As such, much of what is considered traditional prep isn't just unnecessary, but actively counter to the point.

 

[bsss]

I'm curious as to how convoluted or detailed your adventures are in that case? What sort of games are you running? How much is player driven and how much is RP.

Same goes for anyone where prep time is less than play time.

I'll admit I don't run heroic fantasy very often, mainly Call of Cthulhu or other games with multiple NPCs, plots to foil and clues to follow, and I would say prep is several hours per hour of play although that does include prop making.

Focusing my answer on what I've been running mostly regularly for the longest: in my scifi space game in Cypher System, they are highly player driven sessions where I've developed enough details about the NPCs in order to create a model for their individual reacitons, complications, etc., prepped or ad hoc as the case may be. There is also a long-running narrative in the game, so it's not like I'm recreating a new set of NPCs and situations for each session --- each session more or less flows from the previous. Though, even when a session is a bit more "monster of the week" in nature, the prep work is pretty foundational.

Each NPC gets a name, a couple things they are good at, what they're currently up to, and why they are doing the thing they're doing. Places, more or less the same deal: name (or what people call it, anyway), a couple standout features or themes, what's there, and why the things are there (or why things are not there). Specific features (personality, nature of the flora and fauna, etc.) I'll just wing it.

From there the sessions are really just the table riffing off of each other. The party took a prisoner at one point and tried to wear him down over time to get info about the morally villainous megacorp that's a central point of the current plot. Did I plan out the depth to which said prisoner would resist interrogation, or be susceptible to a moral or empathic argument to be a turncoat? Absolutely not. I didn't even know if he'd be taken prisoner. I knew he was a megacorp merc sent to kill the former merc from the same megacorp in the party, and that he had his reasons for being mostly aligned with the megacorp. In the end he was held in the brig for an extended period of time, they wore him down to the point that they got fresher information about an angle against the megacorp, and stranded him on a livable world (hey, at least they didn't space him like the last guy).

Similarly, this hacker guy is mostly just about getting paid, and will take any ride out if it means he's a step closer to completing his deal or getting the next job started. Or this bioengineer is a believer in the cause, but their loyalty is more with the science than the megacorp, so they can be reasoned with if the party takes that tack. Or so on.

How much of that was I prepared for when I came up with the NPC (who in the specific example was really just a named combatant)? Name, profession, job, motivation. Everything beyond that is table RP and collaborative storytelling.

 

[bsss]

I don't go for detailed, pre-written plots. I am more of a play to find out GM. I like creating fun and interesting situations then letting the players loose on them. As such, much of what is considered traditional prep isn't just unnecessary, but actively counter to the point.

Also this. I have an idea of what the next couple steps are likely to be, and I'm just as often surprised by the direction the players take, but I'm fine because I mostly just have a bunch of motes of adventure and storytelling to move around and expand on as I see fit, plus my ability to improv, plus a little bit of "crap, sorry guys, you caught me flat-footed, let me think about this next scene a bit longer".

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Does Roll 20 not let you re-use stuff from campaign to campaign? Or is it just that you don't have pre-done resources to pull from to leverage?

I've found with FG all of that is usually already done, and when I create a custom NPC I can use it over and over again in limitless campaigns. So the first time might take 15 minutes to do something "custom" but then the next time it takes second to re-use it.

Oh, yes, absolutely. Re-using stuff is super easy.

Trouble is, I rarely re-use stuff.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Edit: I forgot one thing--initiative management. That's been, to one degree or another, kind of a nuisance in every game I've ever run ever, and I'm perfectly happy to let a computer mostly take care of it for me.

Yeah, it does a decent job.

But I had to re-explain to almost all of my players, every fight, how to do the initiative in Roll 20. <sigh>

 

[Thomas Shey]

Yeah, it does a decent job.

But I had to re-explain to almost all of my players, every fight, how to do the initiative in Roll 20. <sigh>

Fortunately the Maptool macros I put together for the two games I've used since them require them to hit a button at the start and from then on its taken care of at my end.

 

[Piperken]

...Same goes for anyone where prep time is less than play time.

I'll admit I don't run heroic fantasy very often, mainly Call of Cthulhu or other games with multiple NPCs, plots to foil and clues to follow, and I would say prep is several hours per hour of play although that does include prop making...

For my own answer (1:3) this only includes "immediate" prep i.e. what I do maybe a couple days prior to an hour before everyone arrives. That's usually a one-page session sheet, getting in game props ready that will get handed to the table in course of play, and setting up the physical space.

I'm running a published campaign however, and while I use it as the main reference, there is a lot I have added or revised (changing or revising keys for rooms, converting monster stat blocks, for example) to it. Also, my players are working on improving their note taking, so I am handling where they have gaps in that between sessions.

So my actual time is closer to what others who're doing campaigns have mentioned (i.e. more time).