DM, How much time do you prepare before a session

[MonsterMash]

I recon about 1:1 ratio prep to playing time or 1.5 hours prep for 1 hours play, but I do write my own adventures for the sessions.

Hopefully this will reduce as I get more familiar with the rules and have more NPC's and customised monsters that I can reuse.

 

[GuardianLurker]

Right now, it's taking me about 30-40 hours of prep per 8-hour session. But I play a high-level game with *lots* of custom monsters/NPCs, as well as unusual-must-be-mapped-or-I'll-forget locales. These last few sessions have also been a lot more combat-heavy, as we're approaching the end-of-the-arc.

When the session is RP-heavy, and I don't have to stat the monsters, I can get by with about 3-4 hours of prep, mostly deciding the RP threads and NPC attitudes.

If I can use the monsters straight from the book (something more common at low levels), then prep time goes down in proportion.

 

[BlackMoria]

15 minutes...tops. I scrawl a few ideas down and run with them.

I wing it and now have it down to an artform. My players are none the wiser that I've been winging things for years.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Not sure. Most of my prep time is in 5-minute increments as I get ideas and scribble them into my palm pilot. if you include the post-game recap and posts to the game website I probably spend as much time prepping as in-game.

Truth be told, I generally spend most of my effort on NPC motivations and guestimating the timings of key events. As long as I know the motivations and off-camera events, I can handle all the interactions and dynamic responses.

Combat-wise I try to keep 2-3 encounters "in the can" so I always have something prepared. I don't need much in the way of pre-generated tactics because like the man said, 15 years of DMing will let you run most combats by the seat of your pants.

 

[DrNilesCrane]

About 1:1 ratio of preparation time to game time, plus some additional time (usually while driving) just doing some general brainstorming, thinking of NPC personalities, and even trying a few different voices out for them as well.

 

[JamesDJarvis]

I spend a whole lot of time on campaign work. i don't sweat individual adventures too much. 10 hours of planning can go into 1 hour of play or one hour of work i did 2 years ago could turn out to keep folks busy for 2 or 3 sessions.

 

[IronWolf]

I tend to spend a fair amount of time preparing for sessions. I would probably say about 2 hours per hour of play time. While I can wing it, I like to have a fair amount of material laid out ahead of time, whether it be NPC motivations so it can make winging it easier for me or becoming familiar with a module or thinking about the overall scope of the campaign.

 

[Crothian]

A few hours but it really depends on the session. At the beginning of campaigns I spend more time planning and then later on in the campaign I can spend less since much of the foundation is already there

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I generally spend a concrete hard thirty to forty-five minutes on it, plus at most thirty minutes of paperless pondering.

Sometimes I miss the days of when I did it all 100% on the fly.

 

[Virel]

I have four groups I DM for.

I've DM'd seven times for about 36 hours of play in the last twelve days. I had to refuse to DM on two occassions due to real life. I have printed maps, creature stats, developled NPC's, there are 25 active players & 45 characters. Most of my game time can be spent - gaming - thanks to using 1st ed AD&D.

I have spent a total of four hours in prep time over the last two weeks.