DM's - how much preparation time?

[der_kluge]

Given the recent threads about DM's packing up their bags and leaving, I'm curious to know how much time, between sessions, does the average DM here spend preparing for the next game? And where the majority of that time is spent.

Myself, I spend a lot of time. We game every other week, and I probably put in 2-3 hours per day, and more time on weekends. So, after a two week period, I probably will have put in easily 40 hours worth of work (in that thread I said 80, but that would be ridiculously high), but 40 hours (20 hours per week) sounds about right for me.

But, that number should go down once I start running from a purchased module I have that will be coming up.

The process for me is as follows: I spend a couple of days just *thinking* about the plot. My campaign relies a lot on history, and certain events and figures moving about at various times. So, I have to ensure that the timelines are all accurate, and the motivations for all those involved are reasonable. Then, I draw up a map. This is probably where I spend the greatest amount of time. I use Dungeon Crafter (love it) and end up tweaking the map just so, and getting it just like I want it. The architecture has to make sense, and I try to make it interesting, as opposed to just stacks of rooms after rooms with nonsensical hallways, etc.
Lastly, I populate it with monsters, and treasure (if applicable). My campaign is fairly combat-heavy (intentionally, since most of the players aren't big role-players), so this pattern seems to work ok.

I'm gonna have to cut that number back though, since it pretty much consumes every evening and large chunks of my weekend.

 

[Wraithdrit]

I run what I would consider a pretty successful game, but its based on a published campaign in a published setting. So I only really put a few hours into the game every week. At least thats all I'm willing to admit to. Any more and I'd probably look obsessed.

And we aren't counting story hour writing time, right?

 

[Nifelhein]

Around 5 to 10 hours a week, provided that I already have the geenral picture, else I would not even start the game, for each session I read monsters, prepare npc personalities and think of the descriptions that I am gonna use at the table.

My game is roleplay heavy with combats at least once a session, that is how my players like and how I like too.

I have been preparing the last session and the coming one together, though, so I spent around 2 hours a day on that and now am on the usual ammount, as I had made some nice plotlines for them to develop or not.

 

[Castellan]

Nearly all of my planning occurs during the previous week's game session. The players are constantly coming up with interesting ideas or suggestions (though, most of the time they don't know that), so my games pretty much run themselves.

On rare occasions, I have to sit down and really create a tough opponent, but right now, I've got one of the players working on a killer opponent that they'll be fighting in a few weeks/months. Letting the players come up with ideas makes them feel like they're really a part of the adventure, and when they get to see one of their NPCs/villains in action, they get a sense of pride.

Now, that said, I don't count the time I spend thinking about a new idea when I'm doing something else. A lot of the time, I'm thinking about in-game issues when I'm driving, or working out. I really only count the time I'm sitting at my computer composing data for the game.

 

[Crothian]

For me I do a lot of work at the beginning oif the campaign, and less and less as the campaign goes on. Once I get a good fondations and feel for the characters the work becomes much easier.

 

[Graywolf-ELM]

I can have a session ready with but a few minutes notice and can run much of it from my head, with the accumulated reference material that I have from years of different gaming groups. That said, I generally prefer to prepare 5 to 10 hours a week. I am doing that at least right now, as the characters are awarband of Orcs, Goblins and related races, and most adventures I have prepared are better suited to more conventional parties. But the world exists, and is relatively easy to build from and modify to 3.5

 

[DanMcS]

Hard to quantify; for one, I don't run every week, we rotate DMing, so the weeks I'm not running, hardly any

For the game I've been running, I have a good handle on where things are in the game and where they will likely go, so bare minimum preperation. A quick stat-block and some names for major enemies, a list of names for NPCs. A flowchart or set of plot outline if it'll get convoluted that session, but the first thing the players do is blow my plans away, anyway, so not much of that. I'm comfortable eyeballing things for my weekly group, and I know they have goals of their own that they'll bring up at random, so I don't really need too much planning.

During the game, I end up taking a lot of notes to remember exactly what DID happen, though. Retroactive planning, I suppose, so I know what has happened and can continue to wing it the next session

For the one-shot I'm planning on running at the Ohio gameday in march, a good bit more. I guess I want to make sure the one session I run for these folks is fun, and I have to kind of drive the action for it since there won't be any hardcoded, pre-existing character motives to get PCs something to do. So a couple hours sketching scenes and characters, a couple hours re-reading rules, and maybe an hour statting out some people already, and probably a fair amount more before I end up going to the game. The drawings probably won't get any direct use in game, but they're fun for me, and I get good visuals out of them for descriptions.

 

[diaglo]

does posting on message boards count as research time.

 

[BlackMoria]

I'm the master of improv DMing. Been doing it about 20 yrs of the 27 years I've been DMing.

I just get a idea or concept in my head and run with. Give me an idea, a bag of dice and the core books and I'm good to go. And my players have learned to 'hang on tight' 'cause its going to be quite the ride.

My biggest problem is remembering all the NPCs I create on the fly. As I am interacting with the PCs as an NPC that I just created, I am madly writing down on a pad of paper what the NPC's name is, what he does and where the PCs met him.

Once or twice, I have misplaced my hasty scrawled notes about a NPC I conjured up, only to have the PCs come back to interact with that NPC again.

Still, I enjoy that DMing style. I never lament about spending X amount of time making up an adventure, only for the characters to ignore the hook and go in a completely unexpected direction, like I have heard others lament about over the years.

Many times, whole adventures and even campaigns (all very memorable for the players) have evolved based solely on reaction to what the PCs were doing. My players love it .... as do I.

So.....send me in cold, coach!

 

[kengar]

The game I run is under the Savage Worlds system and takes next to no prep time to run. Which is one of the reasons why I dumped d20 for SW. When I ran 3e, it was more in the 5-10 hours per week category.


CAVEAT: I don't count painting minis as prep time since I'd do that anyway