[DMs] How much time do you spend preparing the game from one session to the next?

[Lanefan]

There needs to be an option for "highly variable", as that's what my prep time amounts to. Some weeks, it's zero. Other weeks, it's quite a lot. As the campaign goes on, it slowly becomes less on average, as the world details become ever more complete; if you'd asked me near the start of my game, the answer would be much different, but I voted 1-2 hours as that's probably my average these days.

I'm not counting time spent *recording* the game; I keep logs, stats, etc., and those take time particularly after an eventful session or two.

Lanefan

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I'm definitely a "Wing-it!" man, but I THINK about the game all the time away from the actual session. I don't write much down unless there are specific combat encounters I want to prepare for and that's just a matter of having stats and spell lists already made up. The rest of it is mostly a matter of deciding RIGHT NOW, during the session, what is going to start happening next. But those decisions are backed up by all the previous weeks of brainstorming by myself a myriad of possibilitiies and mental images of interest. That makes it hard to put a reliable number on hours of "preparation".

 

[scourger]

My prep time is down to 0-1 hours since I've been using Savage Worlds (fast! furious! fun!) and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (quick & dirty style).

 

[MerricB]

4 hours of prep for 1 hour of game time.

i.e. 6 hour session = 24 hours of preparation

I think this demonstrates that prep time is edition-independent.

Cheers!

 

[Woas]

It all depends. Some weeks none. Some weeks up to 5 or 6 hours I'd say. And it could be anywhere in between.

Really just comes down to what the players did last time and whether or not what they did requires me to make more plans, or if the hours I spent last week prepairing can continue to be used for following sessions.

 

[RFisher]

Unfortunately, my real weakness is "winging it", or at least having the confidence to let the chips fall where they may when I do. I'm trying to develop this, and going with more of an "outline and statblocks" style adventure may be the key.

YMMV, but I highly recommend working to develop it.

It can also be fun to start without an outline & statblocks. (Well, just consider the MM your statblocks.) Just ask the players, "What do you do?" & see where it goes. (Maybe best to use an existing campaign setting to give them some initial context. Last time I did this it was Middle-earth. & give them a heads up that you plan to do this before they start creating characters, so they can be thinking more about their goals & such rather than expecting you to lay out a quest for them.) Ad lib the session. Then between sessions develop NPCs & their motivations, intentions, & reactions to the player's actions, &c. (I still avoid stats for the important NPCs until the PCs are likely to encounter them. Usually they're only encountering mooks & monster mostly straight out of the book.) Just see where it takes you.

 

[fusangite]

This is kind of like asking a writer how much time they spend writing. Much of my prep time was front-loaded onto the process of creating the campaign. Then there's the time I spend thinking about the game and not writing my thoughts down but when I process most of my ideas.

As for time spent bashing away at the keyboard or working on maps, I'm guessing about 2-3 hours per 4 hour session.

 

[Nalfeshnee]

6 - 10 hours for me. i tend to run my own adventures, which requires a lot of tweaking and stuff and a like to be well prepared so i spend more time than i should. and if i had more tome to spare, id probably spend more like 10-15 hours a session preparing.

one thing that irritates me is DMs who prepare at the table - it maes them look so unprerpared and disorganised

 

[megamania]

I would guess 4-6 hours for a 4 hour game session. More time for the higher in level we go.
Orcs and goblins I can wing it, Beholders and Huge Black Dragons in a lair I need to write up and play it out in my mind to try to guess what players would do and why.

By Epic Level I'll do 10 hours prep for a 4hr game

 

[DragonLancer]

2-4 hours is about right. Its normally spread over 1-2 days, but thats my reading and note taking, as for the moment I'm running Shackled City.

If it was a homebrewed campaign, with a few published modules thrown in, you could easily say 4-8 hours a week.