How much time do you devote your campaign?

[DarkJester]

This is for all you DM's out there. How much pre game planning do you put into your game? I just recently started working on my own world and I have been devoting 1-2 hours a night on it. It got me wondering what other people are doing with there time.

 

[Buttercup]

I think 1-2 hours per day is about right for me too.

 

[Crothian]

It's hard to say. I think I've put about 10 hours into my modern camapaign som far, but it doesn't start for another month because of the Hollidays. So, over the next month I imagine I'll be spending much more time on it.

 

[Silver Moon]

Time

For my first module I devoted an absurd amount of time (2-3 hours a day for three months). That was back when I was in college, and I had an absurd amount of free time. We've been using that same setting for 21 years now, so I guess I recouped my initial time investment.

For modules today I use mostly pre-packaged materials or build upon things that have previously been established. Dungeon Magazine is great- I've run around 10 to 12 modules from that source over the years. I'm currently trying something different, namely posting the ideas for my next political epic on the "Plots and Places" board, and taking suggestions from other EN World readers.

 

[Drawmack]

Well I play with people from school so we only play during the semester. So I take the time between semesters to write my campaigns up and then play during the semesters. I generally design one large adventure and 5 - 10 one day adventrures and make everything very scalable. That way I can fill in as needed around an on-going adventure. I'll even drop day adventures into the on going adventure if the players are getting board with it. So over the summer I spend about two hours a day working on things. Over winter break I generally double that because of time constraints. During the sememster it's 2 -3 hours a week out of game.

 

[Piratecat]

On average? Probably two hours a week of actual prep, and additional time thinking about it in the car, in the shower, and while falling asleep. That's when I get my best ideas.

I never stat out creatures that I don't expect the group to fight, and I never stat out creatures that are straight out of the book. I never make a module-style" map (keyed map and individual descriptions for each room); instead, I make one map and make cryptic notes all over it as to what is in each room. Then, when I add things on-the-fly in play, I jot those down too for later reference. This saves me a lot of time.

The one exception is complicated battle-ready NPCs and advanced monsters. Man, those take me forever.

Most of my time is spent on plot-related planning, figuring out what else is happening in the world that might affect the PCs. That's the tricky part!

 

[Bagpuss]

TOO MUCH and yet NEVER ENOUGH.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

For the actual preparation of each session: 1-2 hours. Of course, I also get ideas when I'm doing something unrelated...

And the time I spend on developing Urbis? This varies a lot - usually, whenever I have the time. This isn't a lot at the moment, since I'm stressed out with my day jobs - but I should finish early next week, and after that I plan to spend about three hours a day developing the setting for the rest of the year...

 

[Shallown]

I spend a great deal of time thinking about it, Much like PirateCat While driving, showers and any other time I have downtime mentally I mull over campaign things. Actually writing things up takes maybe 1-2 hours a week. I tend to just stat things out as needed and do everything else on the fly. Well mostly on the fly since Before hand I will examine a situation/scenario from many angles and thought up the results of each. Occasional players surprise me but most times I have things planned out as far as my possible reactions to thier actions. I also tend to have some great plan then throw it out the window at the last minute becuase I run better that way. The Idea of the moment is always the best for me. But I still have the back up plan and the ideas I prepared still often have some use.

Just the way I do things.

Later

 

[mythago]

I run a modern era game (Delta Green). It tends to be feast-or-famine. If the players are doing a lot of researchy things, then I spend many an hour making up realistic handouts and writing in NPC details. Unlike in D&D, I don't have to stat monsters out as much, because in CoC monsters tend to be mooks or massively powerful without much in between. (IOW, either the players dispatch them handily or they die in the first round or two.)

I also have a brain pre-crammed full of all kind of crap about conspiracy theories, strange occult groups, weird history, etc. If I had to research this stuff from scratch it'd take longer.