Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Master Survey

[SlyFlourish]

Good day to you!

I am conducting a survey in order to get a better idea of how dungeon masters prepare and run their D&D games. The results of this survey will help us all receive objective evidence on how we prepare and run our games.

If you have a couple of minutes, please help me out by taking part in the following survey:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGZ0Z0UtenZLeHloTFpqZnptODZjX3c6MQ

Thank you!

Mike Shea

 

[Yora]

Odd choice to ask for Worldbuilding and Monster Design as minutes per session. I think those are primarily done way in advance before the actual campaign even starts, with only a few minor adjusments for the individual play sessions. Whatever you want to do with the data, keep that in mind.

 

[Dioltach]

I responded, but I can't vouch for how accurate my answers really are. I tend to do much of my preparation in my head between sessions, mulling things over in general terms before I actually sit down with pen and paper.

 

[mcmillan]

Responded and will be interested in seeing what you do with the data. Though I agree with Yora, at least about Worldbuilding, that defining things as time/session doesn't always make sense, but figured a rough estimate of the percentage of prep time in general.

Another thought I had while answering was the disconnect of how much time I put into something vs how much I'd like to spend or how important things are. For example I spend a fair bit of time picking out loot, which I'd rather not have to do (and if player's were ok with it I'd probably think about switching to inherent bonuses). On the other hand I probably should spend more time dealing with major NPC design and would probably include more puzzles if I had a good resource to help me come up with them.

 

[Argyle King]

Good day to you!

I am conducting a survey in order to get a better idea of how dungeon masters prepare and run their D&D games. The results of this survey will help us all receive objective evidence on how we prepare and run our games.

If you have a couple of minutes, please help me out by taking part in the following survey:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGZ0Z0UtenZLeHloTFpqZnptODZjX3c6MQ

Thank you!

Mike Shea

I think it might help a little more if there were a way to measure which responses were most (or least) often attached to certain games.

I prepare for a Pathfinder session a lot differently than I prepare for a D&D 4th Edition session, and both of those are different from what I do when running the material from either game with a different set of mechanics. Because of the differing ideals of what some of the editions are based on, I'm not sure many of the topics asked about could give a blanket answer which accurately covers all of them.

 

[Aberzanzorax]

Right now we're using Maptools, a VTT, to play.

For that I put in MUCH more time developing the maps ahead of time. When we play face to face, I just draw as we go, and it adds very little time to the encounter/session and requires no prep.

Just a head's up that different ways of playing could impact your survey, and you may want to parse those ways out in future surveys.

 

[Qualidar]

As a DM that runs Adventure Path adventures, or for my other group converted Eberron adventures, I think that my responses may not have fit into the categories very well. If I had the time and inclination to homebrew, previous experience shows much higher time investment.

 

[Gilladian]

I am running a sort of adventure path (Dungeon-a-Day) in my homebrewed campaign world; since the world has been developed over the past 20+ years, there's not a LOT of development I still feel the need to do...

So my DM development time is devoted to creating NPCs and side-plots and super-special treasures and such...

 

[Jon_Dahl]

Interesting results.
47% design puzzles for each game? Really? Ehm... Can I play with you guys? Usually puzzles are pretty rare in games. I like them a lot, but they are pretty difficult to design. And it really depends what you count as a puzzle. Do you count traps? I don't.

What is the difference between monster design and designing combat encounters? If I spend 15 minutes adding five levels of fighter on an ogre and gearing him up, which one is it? What about advancing a tyrannosaurus by few HD?

The length of combat encounters varies a lot. Sometimes I tend to have amusing blitzkriegs where the PCs overwhelm their opponents in mere ten minutes. Luckily it's never the other way around.