How Much time do you spend in preparation for a nights gaming session ?

[Hackenslash]

Hello again All !!

Well as promised here is the new poll that some of you expressed an interest in during my last poll on gaming time.

I am now wondering how much time all you DM's out there put into your weekly adventures for a gaming session. And what percentage of that time is spent on:

Monster/NPC Design:
Story/Dialogue:
Encounters:
Maps/Supporting Art:
PC Experience and Awards:

Thanks again in advance for any suggestions and comments.

Cheers All.

 

[Mark]

On average about a four to one ratio of prep to game play...

 

[Jeph]

Depends what system. Around 6 hrs for anything d20, about 3 for Feng Shui, literally no time at all for a bunch of homebrew/indie stuff.

 

[bwgwl]

generally, very little at all. an hour per session would be a lot for me.

of course, i'm only talking about specific session prep. once i've got the setting prepped, i don't really need to do much work for each individual session.

before i start a new campaign, i throw together a bunch of generic NPC stats. so when i'm getting ready to run an adventure i can just grab some 3x5 index cards with "Guard, Human, 3rd level Warrior" and "Bandit Leader, 6th level Rogue", etc. if i need new stats specifically for this session, i can usually whip them up pretty quick.

Monster/NPC Design: like i said, i usually do at least 75% of this before the campaign officially begins. it's usually only "named" NPCs that i have to worry about later.

Story/Dialogue: almost entirely ad-libbed on the spot. i rarely plan dialog ahead of time. my "story" prep rarely exceeds three of four sentences for a typical session. usually takes just a few minutes of jotting down notes.

Encounters: i can usually figure out how many / what kind of encounters i need quickly from my story synopsis and grab the NPCs i need.

Maps/Supporting Art: i rarely draw maps. if i need to, i'll visualize and draw something on the spot. i do sometimes spend time on hand-outs, but not for every session.

PC Experience and Awards: when i hand out XP, it's either entirely by the book (and thus doesn't require any additional thought beforehand), or i come up with some yardstick like "they'll gain a level every three sessions" and throw out the normal method of determining XP. either way, it doesn't require any time before the session begins to figure out.

that's how i do it -- i wouldn't recommend it for every DM. (heck, it's backfired on me a few times too -- i had a Star Wars d20 campaign that i ad-libbed into a corner once. if the half the group hadn't moved away right then, i wasn't sure how i was going to continue...)

it can be a kinda cool feeling, though, to have the players think they're in the midst of some involved, detailed, intricate conspiracy even though you're making it all up moment to moment and have no more idea of where it's all going to head than they do. when it works, it's awesome, but when it doesn't it can really suck.

 

[Fenes 2]

I usually prepare up to 2 hours, sometimes more per session.

Monster/NPC Design: Usually 30 to 50 %, depending on the importance of the NPC or Monster. For a significant combat enemy I spend more time, for other NPCs I either don't prepare stats, or just grab some from Birched's NPC generator. Most of my prep time designing NPCs goes into outlining their appearance, character, goals and relationship toward the party and other NPCs.

Story/Dialogue: 30 to 50 % of my prep time goes into the story/plot, sketching the problems and possibilities the PCs will have to face and explore, and the goals of the opposition.

Encounters: Sometimes I have a planned encounter I sketch out, but usually I just type down a small description and a few notes on an encounter while I note the plot. up to 30 % on special occasions (which rarely happen).

Maps/Supporting Art: Only very, very rarely do I prepare maps or art - usually I improvise, or grab a downloaded map.

PC Experience and Awards: Not a single minute for experience awards - we don't use xp anymore in our game but just level up when we feel like it. Other awards vary - I usually build customized magic items when I award them, but that is seldom the case, and mundane treasure is not something I worry about in the campaigns anymore - I just tell the players what level of fortune their PCs have.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

I usually do mammoth preparation for a campaign (with my friends input so it is fun) and just a bit of prep between adventures. Usually just fleshing out an area the party is going.

At the moment I am prepping an overland map with 18 encounter areas (abandoned villages, lost groves, giants' castle, etc...)

It is pretty ambitious but I am just outlining the skeleton of each area with its leaders, rank forces and their general purpose. Monte's RttToEE design has been invaluable to me.

I need to help my players make their characters background, create their homeland and populate it. In between adventures I need to adjust the world to reflect any changes the pc's have wrought.

I do as much as I want to with the time available. My good players reward me for my efforts.

 

[fba827]

If I have to create maps or artwork, the prep. time increases exponentially!

If I can grab a blank pre-made map / art then it is usually fairly minimal.

I don't think I ever spend all the time in one sitting for any of it. More like "through the week mentally add another plot piece etc. here and there."

I think I spend most time on story because I am a huge fan of stories having continuity and some logical basis (as logical as is defined in the game world).

After story, literraly, all other aspects just flow and I spend very little time on anything else (encounters, etc. are easy for me to come up with as long as I know the background / story that results in said encounter).

(just my rambles)

 

[Chacal]

Too much and yet not enough time


Chacal

 

[JacktheRabbit]

This is one of my more time consuming session plannings:


I spent an hour working up the main concept of tonights session.

Then last night I spent two hours drawing the full scale map since the session is going to focus around a seige of the PC's position.

Finally today I figure I will spend another hour maybe two designing the key NPC's.

So this session will have taken about 5 hours work from me. Part of it (the map) is reuseable since the castle is the PC's new home.

 

[Apok]

Depends on the system (some require more prep-work than others) but I don't usually do alot of prep work because I like to stay flexible. I never know what my players are going to do in any given situation, so I don't always get to do what I plan.

At most, I keep a story-board of events in my head so that, when the players finally do decide to go somewhere or do something that is campaign-significant, I know what's going to happen. Beyond that, I just wing it.