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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Piratecat" data-source="post: 899404" data-attributes="member: 2">It really depends on the session. I average an hour of aimless brainstorming and an hour of actual prep per week.Most sessions require little or no prep work, other than thinking about plot in the shower (or driving, or falling asleep; I really miss not being in more boring business meetings, because that's when I did my best design work).  I scribble my thoughts down in cryptic sentence fragments on a single piece of paper, and I'm ready to go. A favorite technique is also using a flowchart to map out who's doing what, and how the PCs might react.I really like doing handouts. Most of my Excel maps don't take me too long (less than an hour), but I only make them when they'll actually be useful. I also like providing handouts like Murliss' love note, because it provides insight into the minds of the bad guys. Lately, Agar has been using a spell that shows him visions, and I've spent maybe a half hour a week writing up "cut scenes" that he sees.. thus providing the same sort of effect. But lordy, there are exceptions. I find that I dislike "ballparking" NPCs only when I want to provide a real challenge. That means that before a big fight game, I spend a lot of time generating NPCs. I'll be moving to doing this electronically, but I'm not there yet.  It can be time consuming. I plan ahead enough that I can spread the effort out over 2-4 weeks.For this next session, for instance, I've had to create: - a prestige class (the kuo-toa whip), - a 19th lvl kuo-toa cleric/hierophant, - two 16th lvl kuo-toa whips (cleric 3/rogue 3/whip 10), - a 16th lvl kuo-toa monitor, - an assortment of 10th lvl kuo-toa fighters, - a half-dozen or so unique magic items,- a rough schedule of what happens when (with or without the PCs' intervention), - a series of prophecies,- a rough map of Glubyal,- a specific map of the area around the shrine of the Glass Pool, - some research into new ways to resolve large-scale combat,- sneaky kuo-toa battle tactics.Whew!  The high level spellcasters, in specific, took me at least an hour per NPC. I'm glad I don't do this sort of thing too often. It should be worth it, though; if the PCs go into next game foolishly and without a clever plan, they're going to get a very rude awakening. There's a good chance of a body count; and really, that's why I want to make sure that my rules are nice and solid.</blockquote>

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