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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fewilcox" data-source="post: 6604093" data-attributes="member: 6794151">We use clothespins across the top of the GM's screen. I got a huge pack of wooden clothespins for $1, so I put the names our regulars on some of them, and simply colored a half dozen more for other players. For monsters I have five with different numbers of dots, and use the one with my name on it for the biggest baddie in the encounter.I do have a big ferrous dry erase board I bought to use for HackMaster 5e since its second-by-second combat can be tricky to keep track of for less math-able players. I'll be doing precisely what you do, but the combatant's magnets will be moving around the <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/92780501/" target="_blank">Count Up tracker</a> invented by a regular in the Kenzer & Co forums.Because it's driving me nuts: the word is et cetera, abbreviated etc. (et is Latin for "and", and cetera means "the rest"). <a href="http://www.etymonline.com/" target="_blank">Etymology</a> is one of my hobbies. 8o)To the question at hand. Most of my games fall into one of two categories: D&D Encounters via module, or sandbox made up as we go along. For the former I read the sections of the module I expect to need that week, but don't bother reading anything other parts of it since I won't remember them anyway thanks to a typical American driver who decided her time was more important than my life.For both types I prepare a spreadsheet filled with the appropriate monsters so I'll have them as needed without having to look them up. The D&D 5e one started as a <a href="https://fewilcox.wordpress.com/2014/09/11/dd-or-any-other-level-based-game-session-experience-tracker/" target="_blank">spreadsheet that automated the calculation of experience to award each session</a>, but ended up as a proper encounter builder like the <a href="https://fewilcox.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/roleplaying-accessories/#HM5EncounterBuilder/" target="_blank">one I made for Hackmaster 5e</a> several years ago (you may have to scroll down to see it since my HTML anchors on Wordpress are refusing to work).In short: those spreadsheets have all of the monsters I might want to use and all the info I need to run them. Creating an encounter is as easy as copypasting the desired monsters elsewhere on the sheet, where OpenOffice rolls their HP and initiatives. That's the only prep I need to do for Encounters.My HackMaster 5e campaign is also an exercise in cooperative world-building, so I don't even have any setting planning to do since even that gets made up as needed. The PCs just recently left a steam-powered city in the middle of a desert, where they got their airship upgraded to be more than a simple flying sailboat. Shortly before that the "Hungry Earth" episode of Doctor Who had aired, so I the PCs ended up having to deal with an invasion of the Silurians that had been sleeping under the city for millenia. They ultimately made peace with them, so when they return the place will be changed significantly by the culture and technology introduced by its newest (or, from their perspective, oldest) residents.They specifically wanted a campaign that followed Doctor Who's habit of stumbling into trouble, so I don't need to worry about having some huge evil plot they need to deal with, but I do have vague outlines of several that are happening, and dangle hooks in front of the players from time to time, like the summoner they removed from the sewer under the starting city, and the various flying beasties following their airship from place to place. Should they ever bite on a hook then I'll add some details to that outline, but until then the only prep I do is jotting down the occasional encounter, NPC, or setting idea.The only exception right now, and probably ever, is my GURPS Warehouse 23/13-inspired campaign, set in the late 19th century. In order to have the game be a plausible but suppressed history of the real world, I do hours upon hours of research for each artifact (so I don't run more than a couple of sessions a year). Memory issues resulting from head trauma make it impossible for me to retain all of that information even after that much study, so the game sometimes stalls while I look up some detail I need. That is one of the reasons I set out to develop my GMing improv skills.The other reason dates back to the very first campaign I ever ran (GURPS, of course). I spent a couple of weeks coming up with combat and non-combat encounters, puzzles, maps, NPCs, and the like. When game time came my players ignored almost all of my prep and forced me to improvise most of the session instead. That is the main reason I no longer put any significant effort into session prep. On the bright side, they spent a good 15 minutes or more roleplaying a dinner with a major NPC, so I let them continue until it looked like it might peter out, at which point I gave the session a nudge. As a GM I live for those moments.Summing up, I do prep in one of three ways:* For modules (which I only use at Encounters since I don't really like them) I have a spreadsheet of the monsters, and re-read the relevant sections of the module right before each session.* For sandboxes I have the spreadsheet, with the monsters sorted onto tabs according to the locations in which they can be found, and some vague ideas of encounters and evil plots.* For a campaign I want to blend into real world history I research my butt off and have pages of hyperlinked notes so I can find needed historical details in a flash.The vast majority of my campaigns use the middle option, as do my wife's. Actually, pretty much every game she runs is a GURPS sandbox she improvs. She also GMs D&D Encounters from time to time, but because she's a backup for when we have so many players that we need a fourth table, she doesn't have the benefit of any kind of prep since she doesn't want to spoil the story for herself. Fortunately for everyone, she's pretty good at running off the cuff.</blockquote>

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