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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Haltherrion" data-source="post: 5332479" data-attributes="member: 18253"> There are many refs who seem to have good success with little prep but while the blank page concept is a nice one, it doesn't always work all that well. Start with a blank page and you might end up with a bunch of doodles. Can doodles really compete with all the other types of entertainment available to your players these days? I guess if you are an outstanding doodler it can, but I'm not.  For me, preparing for a session helps me host a memorable game with continuity and complexity sufficient to make my players come back in a world where SOs, family, movies, video games and all sorts of other entertainments are competing for their time. I don’t personally prep a true scenario, I create elements that I can use for the likely paths the players will take. These include plot hooks and if the players have “bitten” on a hook, I will prepare more information for that path. For instance, if they have shown an interest in intrigue among some petty kingdoms, I will work up the current political and dynastic situation, several ways that can get further enmeshed in that (typically people looking for some “special” services, maybe an incident or two that might bring them to someone’s attention), some prepared encounter groups suitable for that track and I’ll pull them in as needed. My occasional co-ref tends to prep true scenarios and that works just fine. Less freedom but always an interesting game, often with some very memorable incidents. The more ad lib’d sessions I’ve played in have been honestly less interesting. I don’t think the average ref does a great job with it. The game often becomes a series of unconnected incidents that doesn’t grab my attention long term. While I don’t like a true railroad, I generally prefer a well handled prep’d session to a well handled ad lib’d session and my players seem to as well. I guess the way I look at it is: I want to play twice a month or more. If I want my players to be available that much, I need them to be excited and engaged about not just generic D&D and a get together with the guys but the current campaign itself. I want them to be looking forward to what they were doing, exploring an engaging ruin, defeating a memorable foe, whatever. For me, that requires preparing for the session to make sure that the entire session is interesting and moving along. If they want to spend two hours discussing what to do that’s fine but what isn’t fine is if they spend hours in uninteresting encounters because between all of us, the ref and the players, we didn’t happen on something terribly interesting to do. If I prep'd interesting things to do, that won't happen. </blockquote>

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