Are you a preparation junky?

[Oryan77]

Is there anyone out there like me that spends countless hours preparing content for their game? I spend my free time doing some sort of preparation work for my game. It is kind of embarrassing how much work I do (have done). Now that I use Maptool, my prep work has doubled.

I'm also an organization freak. I'm not comfortable unless all of my files and notes are in order for "easy access". I create data on my Excel campaign file that is intended to help run my games more smoothly or just help me prepare content in general. I'm a graphics guy, so I do a lot of my own artwork to use with Maptool.

I stat up all of my NPCs that may be used in combat. Even monsters from the Monster Manuals get written up on my stat sheet. This helps me learn what they can do and I can write down how the abilities work in a way that will be easier for me to reference during the game.

I recently made my own Player's Handbook for my campaign. I took all of the racial information from the 30+ races I allow players to choose and combined it in my own pdf file. It includes photoshopped images I created of the races that had "lame" artwork before. I made affiliation rules for factions that I use and took a bunch of PrC content from Dragon Magazines and compiled it into the pdf. I created a massive equipment list that includes all items from every WotC 3.5 book so the players can reference gear that they want to buy more easily.

I've compiled background music and made playlists for everything. I also made my own character sheets and other various gaming sheets. I put together random charts with macros in my Excel file. I manage character wealth in Excel to make sure the PCs are not underpowered.

Then there is all of the time I spend reading published adventures I want to run and then preparing them for the game. I also like to write my own content that will have a direct impact on individual PCs.

This was all done over the course of 10 years. But I spend almost every day doing some kind of prep work. I'm sure I spend more time prepping than playing, but it's relaxing and fun for me. Plus I tell myself that when my kids are old enough to play D&D, I won't have to do much prepping for those games.

 

[mcbobbo]

While I'm the absolute opposite of the preparation-junky, Maptool has also doubled my prep time, so I have empathy for you there.

It seems like you're enjoying it, and if your players are as well, couldn't possibly hurt...

 

[Derfmancher]

When I am running something that I have created myself, I am prep heavy. While I am currently running kingmaker (pf) and with that I have quite a bit less prep. I basically brush up on what is likely to happen in the AP, mark needed pages, and check the map. When I was attempting to run my own campaign, I drew up a map of everything needed.. notes on loot, xp, monsters, and npcs. I am in both regards a bit of a 'seat of my pants' gm, however some prep is still helpful.

 

[haakon1]

Is there anyone out there like me that spends countless hours preparing content for their game?
. . .
I stat up all of my NPCs that may be used in combat. Even monsters from the Monster Manuals get written up on my stat sheet. This helps me learn what they can do and I can write down how the abilities work in a way that will be easier for me to reference during the game.
. . .
Then there is all of the time I spend reading published adventures I want to run and then preparing them for the game. I also like to write my own content that will have a direct impact on individual PCs.

I'm pretty obsessive in my amount of preparation. That's because my "live" game meets only 2-3 times a year, so I want to make the most of it.

And I run a game over email, which allows for much more detail in descriptions, lots of conversations with NPC's, etc. But it's easy to keep things partially sketchy and flesh out details as needed in an email campaign. I just flesh out a lot of details I don't really need, because it's fun.

I quoted the stuff that I actually do.

Three things I'm NOT into:
-- Graphics. I just do grid maps in Excel for the email campaign, and my drawing (in advance, then rolling out) on map paper for my live game. I rarely bother with pictures, unless it's showing something from a module or book in the live game.

-- Music. I've done music at the gaming table only once that I can recall, to set the mood for the first adventure in the live game. And I showed them a Conan: The Barbarian clip for the second session.

-- Rules. I keep the rules as simple as possible. 3.5e core rules, plus about two pages of additional rules I've let in over the years from other 3.5e books. That's feat primarily from the Net Book of Feats, some house rules to make Rangers optionally more like AD&D rangers (no enemies, no animal companion), retraining rules, and spellcaster multi-classing rules from Unearthed Arcana 3.5e (Arcane class levels stack to an Arcane caster level, Divine class levels stack to Divine caster level, Paladin and Ranger class levels count as half level of Divine (if I recall correctly), Adept class levels stack to both Arcane and Divine).

 

[Crothian]

I do a lot of prep but almost none of it is stat blocks or rules related. I like to prepare for all the options the PCs have so no matter what choices they make I have something ready for them to do and accomplish. I also like to run adventures without needing to use a book. I might need to look up some names but most of the time I just memorize the modules and adventures they are going to go through and run them from memory.

 

[howandwhy99]

I might be called lazily obsessive about learning and studying the D&D game, but my prep is pretty hit or miss. I've certainly had times when I've over prepared and times when I was under prepared. I really do try and work for a balance. "Never create what the players can't reach in a session" However, with that goes "Pre-roll and generate everything prior to session you can account for." That basically means everything except the players actions and the world's response to them.

Adventures, both converted and personally created, as well as scenarios can be play tested prior to a game session. That takes time, but it can help enormously to have ambiguous and subtle errors rooted out before play.

 

[Vegepygmy]

Is there anyone out there like me that spends countless hours preparing content for their game?

I think we are twins, separated at birth.

 

[Dordledum]

Guilty as charged. I'm pretty good at improvising, but I am a prepare-aholic.

 

[Jhaelen]

I used to be like that, but no longer. After having successfully run a couple of games (and also workshops!) with little to no preparation I've gained a lot of confidence.

The most time-consuming activity I still engage in is fiddling with monster stat blocks in the DDI Monster Builder. But I only use it when we start with a new adventure that I've converted from a different rpg system or edition.
Otherwise adjusting monster math takes little to no time for me.

When I'm creating my own adventures the hardest part for me is to come up with a good story/background that doesn't have too many logic holes.

 

[Gilladian]

I spend lots of time writing campaign world notes. I compose myths and folklore and write geography descriptions and map obscure villages, etc...

I do it for myself, not for the campaign. It's how I express my creativity. I have fun and don't count it as "prep time".

What I do that IS prep time is draw maps for the game, write up NPCs they will interact with, make magic item cards, write up the previous week's game (I do it EVERY week, immediately after the game, or it doesn't get done). And read the next session's gaming material, even though I've read it before. If I'm not sure what the next session will encompass, I try to prep a little of each possibility, mostly with random tables and bullet lists.