GM's What do you do to prepare for a game?

[Tolen Mar]

These are all good, keep'em coming.

Lately, I've been discussing my adventure plots with my son. He's seven. I am a very verbal thinker, I do my best work when I think out loud, and he likes to listen to my stories and ideas. Two or three times each 'bull session' he makes a comment that sparks another idea or three.

I wonder what my players would think of that?

 

[ThoughtBubble]

One more suggestion:
If I have a lot of time, I write stuff down on index cards. Important loot, unimportant loot, secret messages and status effects are all nice things to have.

I had one that read:
Status Effect: Lizard Venom
"Eww. Lizard spit. -2 to dice pools for the next 5 turns"

 

[kigmatzomat]

My game players are quite integrated into the setting so I don't have anything resembling "modules" anymore; every time I try they manage to find somewhere else they should be.

What I do is try to have a list of active plots and what the trigger events are. "Lord Hatestheirguts will attempt to discredit them next time they are at court." "The stableboy at Gilkree Manor was related to some of the bandits they killed last month; he will poison their horses and cut their saddle straps when they visit", "By Mid-Summer the lich will be regenerated by his philactery", etc.

Attached to each of those is the relevant stats along with any skill checks the players could take to see it coming or defend against it. For combat (i.e. the lich) I will have 2-3 round plans of action (pre-fight: buffs; 1:mass slow; 2:call service from demon Gated in earlier & cast Decomposition; etc) It's generally not worth doing more since the fights get too chaotic.

For mass combats I'll do quick dice analysis where I figure out how much average damage each of the grunts and players will do each round. Kind of a safety check on CRs.

After each game session I do a write-up and update my plot notes. A wiki is wonderful for such things.

 

[MonkeyDragon]

Lets seee....

1) Think about the game all week, but put off all the prep work til the day before the game.
2) Get all the other stuff done for the day, figuring that I'll work better if it's my only thing to think about.
3) Figure that an hour of tv can't hurt....
4) Spend way too much time fiddling with minutae the players might not even encounter.
5) Figure that I'm just too tired to concentrate and will get up early to finish.
6) Overlseep.
7) Rush around like mad, not getting done half of what I wanted to get done. Throw together my hasty notes and get myself to the game barely on time, and winging half the stuff I wanted to prep for.
8) Run the game. It goes fine, even if I have to make stuff up.
9) Resolve to plan better next week.
10) Repeat next week.

 

[Rel]

I usually give my wife a rundown of the events of the prior session and she helps me brainstorm ideas for upcoming sessions. Although she's a gamer when she has a chance she isn't as immersed in the "D&Disms" as I am so she often gives me good "outside the box" ideas.

I come up with a list of all the plausible encounters the PC's might have in the next session and write a notecard for each NPC or set of combatants. This card includes everything I'll need to run the encounter for that creature including all combat stats, spells and treasure. This means that I'm never flipping through the Monster Manual(s) while trying to run a combat, which has helped a lot in keeping things moving. Because the PC's very rarely encounter ALL the stuff that I deem plausible, I generate a stack of "unused encounter cards" that I can pull from in later sessions any time I feel that a "random encounter" is appropriate.

Ever since I ruined my battlemat, I've been using 24"x36" sheets of 1" grid paper instead. The unexpected side benefit of doing this is that I can pre-draw all the set piece action scenes. So if I know they're going to have a big fight on a bridge or in a certain room of a tower I can have them already drawn and simply flop them on the table when the moment arrives. I found that I really enjoy the time this saves and the intensity that can be maintained by not having to take time to draw stuff.

Other than that I simply review my notes. If there are certain parts that I feel need emphasis then I'll write them down on a notepad. I'm the kind of person that remembers things much better if I write them down rather than just reading them off the page.

 

[Kuld]

These are all good, keep'em coming.

Lately, I've been discussing my adventure plots with my son. He's seven. I am a very verbal thinker, I do my best work when I think out loud, and he likes to listen to my stories and ideas. Two or three times each 'bull session' he makes a comment that sparks another idea or three.

I wonder what my players would think of that?

That's cool! My son's a wee bit too young for now (19 mos) but I can't wait.

Have you ever considered letting him play?

 

[Tolen Mar]

On a few occasions, but he usually proves too young.

The first time around, he played at casting spells during recess. (he goes to a Christian school )

Right now, he's still at that point where he would rather play the game and roll the dice, than sit around role-playing. He'll get there, but I'm taking it slow.

 

[Graybeard]

I start out by reviewing what happened last session. Based on that information, I come up with 3 or 4 things the PCs may do. Then I flesh them out somewhat, write out index cards for NPCs, spells, traps, poisons, etc. Draw some maps (if needed). I have alot of basic NPCs statted out on index cards already. Stuff like various levels of warriors, fighters, rogues, commoners, merchants, and a few other lower level people. I am fortunate that my players usually give me an idea of what they plan on doing next. Of course, things happen during the games session that I don't plan on and end up winging it (something I've become good at). Also, during the planning stages, I set aside any minis that may be needed. I have a plastic bag with several human figs set aside for easy use at all times.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

1. Go through my collection of plastic minis. Find something I want to use. Locate a monster in the book to crib from for stats. Sticky it. Put a post-it down with cheat notes to ramp up the monster's power just because I'm a meanie.

2. Read through last time's session notes. Jot down two or three things from that to remind the players of at the start of the game. (I always do a five-minute, "What Has Gone Before", summary to sort of ground them and get them focused on the game.)

3. Put magic items on index cards. Pick one in five to be cursed and add a separate entry in my notes. (Okay, okay, it's not automatically one in five. But I like to make these things fun for me.) Concoct one weird, minor item to give to the NPCs.

4. Glance through my notes on how the players have been tactically. Spend some time on my commute to work thinking up how to give them a challange.

5. Buy beer. Yep, I'm in agreement on that one.

 

[zoroaster100]

1) I review the encounters I expect are most likely to happen in the next game, plus one or two extra just in case.
2) I set up the most difficult/interesting combat settings I expect to need with Dwarven Forge and other miniature accessories.
3) I review the abilities of all standard creatures that are likely to be encountered.
4) I enter all NPCs and unusual creatures into the DM'S Familiar software I use to manage encounters and review all spells and abilities of these.
5) I try to think of good lines or good descriptions to highlight certain roleplaying moments or certain memorable combat or exploration moments in the game.