Am I being too optimistic?

[James Gasik]

Life circumstances have given me a lot of free time. Sunday I begin the first session of my new game. I've been converting old D&D modules for 5e play (but this isn't really a 5e or even a D&D topic). Last night I finished up what I hope will be the fifth adventure.

Not the fifth session. The fifth adventure.

And now I'm wondering, am I being too optimistic? Am I setting myself up for failure? Most games I've been in or run don't last this long.

Is planning so far ahead a mistake in of itself? We all know the adage, "no carefully prepared campaign has ever survived contact with the players". I don't yet fully understand their strengths and weaknesses, and I'm designing encounters they'll be facing when (I presume) they'll be level 9! I'm probably going to have to go back and change a lot of things.

And the more I think on these lines, the more I second-guess myself. I seeded the game with spellbooks, but I don't know if there's going to be a Wizard yet (yeah, session 1 is also going to be session 0...well 0.5, I guess. It's not how I wanted things to go, but here we are)!

Are the rewards too great? Older adventures can be pretty fast and loose with treasure. How many interesting things am I going to need to offer for downtime activities? Have I really given the party enough things to do with their gold?

Will they even like the adventures I have planned? Will they turn their noses up at the plot hooks and side quests? I don't want to railroad them, but if they set off in a wild new direction, I don't know what I'll do.

I guess the question I'm wrestling with is, is there such a thing as too much preparation? I haven't GM'd a game in some time, I used to do it all the time, but back then, I'd rarely prep more than one session ahead. Now I'm wondering if I'm setting myself up for a fall.

 

[payn]

There was a time I worried it was wasted effort. Though, I have found that if you dont get to the adventures, you have planned for them so you can at some point, with some group, you will. So, dont see it as wasted time, but future prep for when you need it.

That said, I generalize my prep in advance unlike what you have done here. This is so I dont spend a ton of time assuming things like spellbooks. I save the specifics for just before the next sessions to personalize it for the group. So, if anything, Id say change that habit.

When it comes to rewards and downtime activities and such, you wont know until you get there. Your players might not want any downtime at all. They may care more about the plots than the treasure, or the opposite. Dont fret on the particulars and stay general in your planning and prep.

 

[Umbran]

I haven't GM'd a game in some time, I used to do it all the time, but back then, I'd rarely prep more than one session ahead. Now I'm wondering if I'm setting myself up for a fall.

You are setting yourself up to have a lot of material that really isn't a great fit for the group you'll actually have.

You can't be sure you are building the right thing if you don't know the requirements first - the spellbook thing is an example.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Life circumstances have given me a lot of free time. Sunday I begin the first session of my new game. I've been converting old D&D modules for 5e play (but this isn't really a 5e or even a D&D topic). Last night I finished up what I hope will be the fifth adventure.

Not the fifth session. The fifth adventure.

And now I'm wondering, am I being too optimistic? Am I setting myself up for failure? Most games I've been in or run don't last this long.

Is planning so far ahead a mistake in of itself? We all know the adage, "no carefully prepared campaign has ever survived contact with the players". I don't yet fully understand their strengths and weaknesses, and I'm designing encounters they'll be facing when (I presume) they'll be level 9! I'm probably going to have to go back and change a lot of things.

And the more I think on these lines, the more I second-guess myself. I seeded the game with spellbooks, but I don't know if there's going to be a Wizard yet (yeah, session 1 is also going to be session 0...well 0.5, I guess. It's not how I wanted things to go, but here we are)!

Are the rewards too great? Older adventures can be pretty fast and loose with treasure. How many interesting things am I going to need to offer for downtime activities? Have I really given the party enough things to do with their gold?

Will they even like the adventures I have planned? Will they turn their noses up at the plot hooks and side quests? I don't want to railroad them, but if they set off in a wild new direction, I don't know what I'll do.

I guess the question I'm wrestling with is, is there such a thing as too much preparation? I haven't GM'd a game in some time, I used to do it all the time, but back then, I'd rarely prep more than one session ahead. Now I'm wondering if I'm setting myself up for a fall.

To take your post in reverse. Yes, there is such a thing as too much preparation. This of course leads to the follow-up, how much is enough? Here the answer is more complicated but even though I am a fan of lazy DM prep, I think the correct answer is the amount of prep you think you need, for the next session.
I would not design out to the level 9 encounters unless you think you will struggle with encounter prep tempo alongside the game progression.

There is a good chance that detailed encounter level prep out that far will result in a lot of preparation that never gets used. I mostly run pre-made adventures, the group is pretty casual but there is a good chuck of the written material that never gets used. I do not see that as wasted prep, I never prepped it in the first place.

I would not worry about awards and treasure until one gets to preparing the session. I find that treasure, particularly magic items and spell books and the like are party dependant and not just the characters but the type of players. What do they do with the treasure?

 

[MatthewJHanson]

Are you doing more prep than you need to? Yes.

Is it likely that you will not use all the material? Probably.

Consider another question: Are you having fun?

If the answer is no, that all the prep feels like a burden, then slow down and see how things shake out before doing any more.

But sometimes converting adventures or planning campaigns can be a fun activity by itself, even if it doesn't get used. Just make sure you set your expectations so that you're doing it for yourself. It's a totally legitimate way to engage with the hobby.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I figure if you're enjoying yourself, then it's okay, but if it's feeling like work, cut back.

 

[bloodtide]

And now I'm wondering, am I being too optimistic? Am I setting myself up for failure? Most games I've been in or run don't last this long.

No. You should always hope for the best. And always be prepared.

And the big thing about how long a game runs...well, it is all on you.

First pick only good players. For whatever game you want to run. Also pick good people, ones that will make a point to always show up and play. And pick people that want to play. For example I only want players that can make the commitment to game each session, if I player says "oh I might have cool stuff going on so I might miss a few games as I'm so cool", I won't have that person as a player and just tell them to stay home and " be cool."

And you might have to make players. This can work out great. Once upon a time I was in a deli line with another parent and she noticed my LotR shirt. We talked for a bit and she was interested in the idea of a fantasy game. A week later she had gathered four other moms that liked fantasy and was ready to start a game. The "mad moms" group still plays today, once a week on their own, and once a month with me as 'guest dm'.

Is planning so far ahead a mistake in of itself? We all know the adage, "no carefully prepared campaign has ever survived contact with the players". I don't yet fully understand their strengths and weaknesses, and I'm designing encounters they'll be facing when (I presume) they'll be level 9! I'm probably going to have to go back and change a lot of things.

That adage is not exactly true, as it is based on a lot of falsehoods and other such things. It's like parents that say "my kid won't play with the stuff I buy them"...when the parent is buying 99 cent plastic junk toys and just dropping them on the floor.

Ask any DM that said "oh my plans did not survive" what happened...and they will be confused and vague. You are not meant to question the adage: plans are bad and random chaos messes are fun. So Say They. And if you can get them to say something....there will be an obvious point where they say "oh the players just did this and all my prep work was gone". Of course, ask them, "oh, well, why did you not just stop the players from running wild?" and they will just look at you with a blank stare.

I guess the question I'm wrestling with is, is there such a thing as too much preparation? I haven't GM'd a game in some time, I used to do it all the time, but back then, I'd rarely prep more than one session ahead. Now I'm wondering if I'm setting myself up for a fall.

Well, getting good people that are good players is a big step that will "fix" a lot of your worries. Good people/players simply won't do all that "bad" stuff.

Then you really just need to find your voice....your game style. And embrace it.

 

[CleverNickName]

@MatthewJHanson has the right of it.

You see, there are lots of different ways to play D&D.

Some folks "play D&D" by packing up their books and their character sheet, heading over to their friend's house, and hanging out rolling dice for several hours. Other folks "play D&D" by poring over books at the library, taking notes on Ancient Egypt or whatever, and drawing elaborate and evocative maps that they know their players will enjoy. Others like to "play D&D" by reading the books and tweaking the rules so that everything works Just Like So (do you prefer to use Intelligence for Initiative? how about a Constitution-based sorcerer? what would the stats for a katana be?)

Inventors who create their own monsters and magic items. Pewter Addicts who paint minis for hours and hours and hours on end. Convention Rats who go from venue to venue, meeting developers and sharing ideas with other gamers. All are "playing D&D" in their own way.

And some of us "play D&D" by digging out the classic modules and converting them completely to the new rules system. Sure, we do it for our players to enjoy in our regular gaming sessions...but we also do it as a love-letter to those old adventures that we grew up playing, a way to relive them, see them again from a new angle, keep them alive. Maybe we will share our conversions with our players, or the wider gaming community, or maybe we won't. Maybe we're just doing it for our own enjoyment.

It beats playing solitaire, IMO.

I think that any amount of time spent enjoying your hobby--however you like to enjoy it--is time well spent.

 

[Meech17]

I agree with everyone saying that as long as you're having fun it's not a waste. I went through something similar a few years ago. A few of my friends expressed interest in D&D so I went hard. I spent hours and hours and hours doing world building, and research, and reading related to the game I wanted to run.

I never ended up running that game. When I did finally get a game running last year, I scrapped 90% of the prep.

But I don't regret it. I had fun doing it. It was good practice for my current game too.

As long as you're enjoying yourself and you accept the fact that you may not use this prep... I don't see any harm in it.

 

[not-so-newguy]

I agree with what has been said above. The only thing I'd add is... are you delaying the start of your game in order to do all this prep work?