Game Prep...

[Scribble]

So I've noticed in a lot of debates about the merrits of PDFs or Print a big spot where a difference of opinion hits is in how the product is used, and whether or not the person using it does a lot of game prep work on a computer.

So... I decided to post a poll about how people (mainly DMs) do most of their game prep.

Personally I do most of my notes for my games on the computer, but I draw most of my maps by hand.

 

[jensun]

I will normally type up my prep notes but only because I find it easier to do at the PC. I then trasnfer the key pieces of information to index cards for easy use at the table.

I dont draw maps for anything. If I have possible encounters in mind I will dig out some appropriate tiles for use with that encounter, adding to it on the fly if necessary.

I will describe locations as needed in the game but I try to keep the connections between places a bit fluid.

 

[Agamon]

I use the PC for both notes and maps, but I steal more maps than I draw.

 

[mlund]

I do the bulk of my session note development in my notebooks. Then I start transferring that information and formatting it in Word on my computer. I run the session off of print-outs of the Session document. I jot down notes in my notebook a during session and keep the Word document as a reference archive after the fact.

I tried to use campaign cartographer early on to do some overland maps but it was just more trouble than it was worth. The layering and fractal pattern aspects of the tools make it a little too difficult for my stuck-in-photoshop mindset. I always wind up with the wrong coastline shape, screwing up attempts at river and lakes, and generally frustrating myself. Ergo, my maps are all hand-drawn now, with my dungeons on good, old-fashions graphing paper.

- Marty Lund

 

[Scribble]

I do the bulk of my session note development in my notebooks. Then I start transferring that information and formatting it in Word on my computer. I run the session off of print-outs of the Session document. I jot down notes in my notebook a during session and keep the Word document as a reference archive after the fact.

I tried to use campaign cartographer early on to do some overland maps but it was just more trouble than it was worth. The layering and fractal pattern aspects of the tools make it a little too difficult for my stuck-in-photoshop mindset. I always wind up with the wrong coastline shape, screwing up attempts at river and lakes, and generally frustrating myself. Ergo, my maps are all hand-drawn now, with my dungeons on good, old-fashions graphing paper.

- Marty Lund

I love Campaign Cartographer, and think it allows you to make beautiful maps... But for the bulk of my adventure prep, the time it takes isn't worth using it... A plain ol graph paper dungeon map takes only a fraction of the time it would take me to do it right in CC...

 

[Griego]

Since my group plays over the internet, everything ends up in electronic format eventually anyway. So I use Klooge.Werks for my virtual tabletop, Dundjinni for mapping and OpenOffice Writer to type up notes. The only time I use pencil and paper is when I'm someplace where I don't have access to a computer, which is almost never.

 

[Clavis]

I do both my writing and mapping about 50% on the computer, and about 50% by hand.

Campaign information and adventure keys I write on the computer. My session notes and outlines are hand written on old-fashioned composition paper in an 3-ring binder. Basically, anything that's meant to be durable, potentially sharable, and/or reusable, I do on the computer.

As for maps, I tend to do large-scale overland and player handout maps on the computer. Almost all of my dungeon and building maps on on graph paper, however, mainly because I enjoy the craft of doing them that way. There's just something satisfying about putting pencil to graph paper.

 

[Glyfair]

One sound option is missing. For maps I borrow significantly. Between the Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas, various Judge's Guild map books (City Book, Castle Book, Village Book, etc) and other resources I borrow about 75% of my maps.

I do some prepwork by hand (thus I choose both), but 90% is by computer because I need to be able to read my notes to use them.

 

[Mr. Wilson]

Most of my prep work is done by hand, though I try to steal maps because I am terrible about making up realistic maps.

 

[EricNoah]

The vast majority of all of my prep is done via computer.

For stats, I use a combination of copy and paste of suitable NPCs from PDF adventures, and eTools; and for monsters sometimes I use a d20 SRD website.

For maps, my first choice is to use a map that already exists (copy from a PDF adventure I have purchased), or some of the free maps that have come from the old Dungeon mag website, WotC's map archive, Phineas Crow's maps. I sometimes use old maps from the FR Electronic Atlas. And I sometimes use Campaign Cartographer to make maps though I do that less and less often. I occasionally hand-draw a dungeon map.