Experienced GMs - How do you divide your preparation time?

[Umbran]

I'm starting up a Deadlands campaign - a game I've played before, but not in depth, and it was some time ago.

In this game, the stats of normal folks are incredibly easy to hand wave. The stats of major NPCs take a bit more work. There is no "system" for statting monsters, but they are supposed to be rare.

It's an alternate history setting - I can't just toss in a dungeon full of critters and have it be accepted as a fitting adventure. And the monsters are, as I said, rare things - I expect, then, that the situation and motivations of NPCs are going to be far, far more important than the stats of critters.

 

[Talysian]

Having ran and played much deadlands goodness over the years.. you don't need to stat anything but Major villans the rest can be pretty much hand waved. My biggest problem was never knowing which way my players would go in that setting..

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

One of the things I've learned over my many years of DM'ing is that every room in a dungeon doesn't need to be fully fleshed out. You waste a lot of time detailing every single room, especially if you're using one of those maps where every square inch of the paper is taken up with rooms.

Always detail the major encounters you want to happen and if the party goes in the wrong direction you can always move the encounter to what would otherwise be an empty room.

For empty rooms, I like to give them a little bit of flavor so I'll sprinkle little tidbits of interest here and there. Something as simple as a rusty longsword stuck in the floor in the centre of a room can really throw PCs for a loop. "It must mean something!!!"

I've really minimized my work over the years to the point that I have a good sense of what I need and what I won't. There's nothing worse than having 50% of an adventure prepped that you don't end up using.

The other trick is to play for time if the PCs go somewhere or do something you haven't prepared for. If a PC does something interesting, sometimes I'll even flat out tell them that we'll address it next session when I've had some time to think about it. That often results in a much better result and encourages players to be creative.

 

[Umbran]

My biggest problem was never knowing which way my players would go in that setting..

That's why I figure I need to spend much effort on the situation - I won't know *exactly* which way they'll jump, but my players have made it clear that they intend to follow plot hooks. So as long as I keep providing them opportunities, I'll know the general direction.

 

[KidSnide]

I found that my preparation time really changed when I switched from 3e to 4e.

I use mostly human opponents, so - as 3e GM - I spent a huge amount of time statting out guards, acolytes and more complicated opponents. For spell casters I didn't bother selecting all the spells, but I need to figure out the "big ones" and apply all the necessary stat bumps to keep up with what the PCs did.

As a 4e GM, the monsters and enemies are a lot easier to put together, although I still spend a good amount of time adjusting monsters and creating NPCs. (Holy cow, the monster builder would be so much more useful if you could add powers from the class power list.) But my combat prep time is about the same, since 4e requires vastly more complicated maps and I end up spending a bunch of time thinking about the combat space and drawing them out on giant pieces of graph paper.

NPC schemes, characterizations and adventure ideas take up more time, but I can think about that while I'm getting lunch, walking around town or riding the T.

-KS

 

[Nonei]

I use mostly human opponents, so - as 3e GM - I spent a huge amount of time statting out guards, acolytes and more complicated opponents. For spell casters I didn't bother selecting all the spells, but I need to figure out the "big ones" and apply all the necessary stat bumps to keep up with what the PCs did.

It used to take me FOREVER to stat up NPCs (I still play 3.5), especially at higher levels, until I found the "Super-Quick NPC creation for all levels" that I mentioned above. It actually is quick and works great for spending less than a minute on the NPCs that are dead in a couple rounds anyway, or you want to have stats just in case but the PCs might or might not even fight them. It's a good starting place for even more important opponents, although you'll want to spend a bit more time on them for spells/feats etc.

There's also a few sites (although I don't have the links handy - sorry!) that have all the OGL spells organized in a spreadsheet with the info you need. So, for example, if I was adding a wizard on the fly (as in, during play), I'd just decide what level s/he was, and glance down the list as the turn came up, keeping track of how many of which level spells they'd used. That spreadsheet has duration/range/damage/etc in one line although certain spells need a bit of looking up (like dispel magic etc)

 

[Ahnehnois]

My prep consists of 3 things: worldbuilding, statting NPCs, and thinking.

I set down some guidelines for the geography and culture before the campaign, but don't generally need to do much for a particular session.

I stat up a set of NPCs/monsters, mostly specifically as enemies but some others.

I think thoughout the week(s) what intersting plot developments could happen, which of the players' buttons I haven't yet pushed, etc.

The real good stuff always happens during the session when things are live anyway.

 

[Mr. Wilson]

What is this, "preparation" of which you speak? ;p

It depends on the game system I'm running. Prep for one game doesn't translate as well as another. For example, prep for DnD means coming up with plot hooks, dungeon builds (if running a dungeon), npc stats (if needed, bookmarked pages for monsters if using pre-made), treasure, etc. Prep for Deadlands means mostly trying to figure out what the group is going to do next. Prep for Cthulu means creating the solution to the mystery your players will solve.

That said, I've always been someone who, besides dungeon layouts and stats, tries to be flexible in what I prepare under the assumption, "Whatever my players think of collectively is better than what I could create myself".