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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Noumenon" data-source="post: 5141752" data-attributes="member: 70102">Chatty DM's <a href="http://critical-hits.com/2010/02/03/gearing-up-the-setting-pre-prep-and-the-adventure-plan/" target="_blank">adventure plan checklist</a> seemed like it could solve my prepping problems.  I want to prioritize the stuff I really need, and resist my tendency to spend hours printing monster tokens and tweaking stat blocks.  Here's his list:[sblock]Here’s my template:    * Treasure Parcels: A bullet list of magic item levels and monetary value of each parcels.    * Dramatis Persona: List of main NPCs to be developed according to earlier template or copied there if already done.    * Existing Quests: Short list of unfinished quests that are relevant to this adventure.    * New Quests: Short description of new quests introduced in this adventure.    * Player Intro: Recap and/or intro to the adventure.Structure of the Adventure    * Background: Just enough to remind me what the goal of the adventure is and its context  in our campaign (usually one-two paragraphs).    * Adventure-Specific Mechanics: List of things I’ll need to design in this adventure (monsters, traps, puzzles, skill challenges).Scene Breakdown (if event-based) or Area Breakdown (site-based) or Hybrid    * Scene 1: Name of scene          o Goals: What must/can/may be achieved in this scene.          o Scene Summary: High level structure of the scene, including NPCs involved.          o Complications/Rule of Cool: Elements to make things more interesting.          o Expected Outcomes: Short list of possible conclusions and consequences.or    * Area 1: Name of Area          o Objectives: Why PCs explore/visit this area, what they may gain from doing it.          o Threats and Opportunities: What populates the area and how they can be a challenge/interact with PCs.          o Complications: Anything that may go wrong, make conflict more interesting or blow up in PCs face.          o Expected Outcomes: As above.Rinse and repeat.I then go through the plan time and time again, fleshing it out part by part, adding a new scene here, a stat block there and cutting out things I won’t have time do, shifting scope and adding ideas as they come to me.   All this time, I try to focus on prioritizing what will bring me to a playable adventure the fastest. Getting lost in the details is so easy so I try to be careful lest I start botching it come Thursday night. After, if there is time, I may add more elements like complex traps and such to make things more exciting.[/sblock]It seems like my actual prep experience is too concrete to fit into this outline.  The actual actions I do when prepping a game include things like:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Read the module</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Print out monster tokens and maps</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Select appropriate treasure from long list of magic items</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Create NPC: Pick a role, a quirk, a motivation, a secret, put on 3x5 card</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Brainstorm aimlessly about all the possible ways the PCs could get out of the slave mines.  Decide to create a prisoner NPC who ties into one PCs backstory, think about how the PCs can find food and water after escaping, plan an encounter where the orcs look for them with trollhounds.  Don't get around to any of these things.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Look up last session notes.  Pick things to follow up on: one PC's criminal record, another's recognizable tattoo.  Get stuck without deciding whether or when reactions to these things will actually occur.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Get confused by the module and go surf Enworld to find out what the designers were thinking.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Add a house rule.</li> </ul>I guess what I'm looking for is a list of five things that absolutely have to get done to have a game, maybe broken down into three subtasks, so I can say "I'll spend 30 minutes on each subtask and be assured of being well-prepped in 7-1/2 hours total."  (The notion of spending only one hour prepping for a game like Yax at DungeonMastering.com is completely incomprehensible to me, and yet I bet he's better prepared for each session than I am.)Anybody have a "Session Essentials" adventure-prepping checklist?  Or a short list of prepping priorities?</blockquote>

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