How much material do you normally prepare?

[ergeheilalt]

When I go to game face to face I always have a number of things

1. An adventure w/map that encompasses 10 pages with the stat blocks for monsters, treasures. and relevant DCs for skill checks. I will even write down the "theoretical" CR of the encounter (which may change depending on the actions taken by the party).
2. If there is going to be any traveling (land or sea) I will also create an encounter table.
3. At least three good NPCs with decent backgrounds. I prefer that they all have different alignments (Good, neutral, evil normally). If worst comes to worst, the Good NPC can be introduced to save the party or the evil NPC can aid the dungeon denizens. The neutral guy will go either way depending on the situation.
4. Plenty of scratch paper
5. A good idea is a phone book .... there is one instant name generator.
6. If there is going to be a big plot change involving campaign history I make sure to reread the stuff I've introduced and write in any empty holes. This can halt confusion and makes for a more interesting story if you can pull in history, NPCs, previous adventures, etc.

As always, there is an element of winging it. I wing it about 20%, otherwise my adventures are all planned out.

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

I prepare as much as I feel up to, usually... LOL. Back in my first few times of DMing, I NEEDED EVERYTHING written out for me. I've gotten a lot better about winging thigns and just need to actually do my homework before a game now.

What I need is a good idea in my head of where I want the quest to end up, NPC and monster stats written up in the quest, basic encounter notes for a majority of the encounters, notes or an idea of NPC personality, my handy-dandy help sheets (mostly angra-blah-blahs rule sheets, a sheet of names) maps are also good. I'm getting to the point where I can describe stuff simply by winging it. My DMing is improved from consistently poor to inconsistently good and bad, and it's all about my preparation, lol.

 

[Crothian]

THe more I prepare for one week, the longer it lasts. I work a lot at the beginning of a campaign to set a good, solid foundation. Then with that down it really depends on what is happening that week. Usually, I don't need to prepare much because everything flows easily.

 

[NiTessine]

I usually prepare about half of the session, writing up NPC stats, picking monsters, trying to create a solid plotline, and stuff like that. The rest, I can do on the fly.

Interestingly enough, the two best sessions I've ever run were almost entirely improvised.

 

[Viking Bastard]

None on paper if that's what you mean.

I usually have a bunch of scenes, plots and characters formed in my mind but the connection between it all doesn't get created until I sit down and game.

Anyway, the players always do something else than you planned them to do, so planning it is a waste of time anyway. I let my players find out how they get to A to B, while I just try to think of a reason 'why'. When the rare occassions come when the players can't think of anything I just throw them the first bone I can think of (in the form of pulp-action-like rockets or something).

Like once, I planned to make the main villain kill the PCs' number one ally and then I just waited for the players to give me a opportunity to throw it in.

 

[Neo]

THe more I prepare for one week, the longer it lasts. I work a lot at the beginning of a campaign to set a good, solid foundation. Then with that down it really depends on what is happening that week. Usually, I don't need to prepare much because everything flows easily.

I would agree with this totally, the most preparation i do at any time is usually for the start of a campaign, to ensure it gets off to a good start.

 

[Nightfall]

It depends. For a regular meaningless game (which happens a lot) not much. If it's for an attempt at a campaign, I spend two to three weeks getting the setup done and everything else put into play.

 

[Bagpuss]

I never do enough that's for sure.

I tend to use published senarios to save time although I will often alter the main villans to suit the campaign. I tend to print out sheets with monster/npc stats and hit-points on which helps speed up play.

I don't do much else anymore for D&D, since its basically a fun hack and slash game.

I'm currently putting a lot of work into planning a Vampire campaign, but when the players design characters for a Dark Ages game then wake up from Torpor during World War II, then have flash backs to the First Crusade, before the whole campaign shifts to Modern Day where they are influencial Elders, you have to plan a bit more than a simple dungeon delve.

 

[Quickbeam]

I try to prepare pretty thoroughly for most "conceivable eventualities" that may occur during a given session, but still find myself winging about 35-40% of what transpires.

I combine a Boy Scout (motto: Be prepared) with an entropic philosopher .

 

[ForceUser]

Man, what to plan. There's the question. I *usually* spend some serious time creating background before kicking off a campaign. I want a map, some countries and their relationships to each other, some major NPCs, and some long-term plots to work with. I try to ask myself "Who is planning what?" and let the campaign unfold from there.

Session-by-session I let it go freeform. I have my campaign world, I know generally where everything is and should be. I know who's up to what, and I have some specific locational and situational encounters that the PCs may run into. I have the adventure carrot I give my PCs to follow, but it's up to them how they pursue it (or not). I am generally in the camp of DMs who believe that it's impossible to predict what the players will do, and so therefore it's better to keep the story loose and easy and let the players walk into important events at their own pace. I intersperse this with specific story-related encounters and random encounters. I tend to prefer encounters and events that propel one of the major plot threads forward as opposed to totally random events. I am also a big fan of locational encounters that sit and wait for the day the PCs stumble across them.

I spend a lot of prep time on NPC characterizations. I want my NPCs to be distinct and memorable. I use different voices and accents. I try to vary body language. When I want to portray something I simply can't reproduce, I try to be as descriptive as possible.