D&D 5E How Would You Run a Game with 5 Mins Prep Time

[Tony Vargas]

Well thats what I did how would you run a game with 15 minutes of prep?

5e? With no prep at all. Just wing it. Frankly, I'm not sure prep is ever that worth it in traditional version of D&D. Hours of prep might result in a better session that none at all, 5 vs 15 vs an hr, maybe not - in classic D&D there was this expectation that the dungeon was all laid out in advance and the DM didn't improv anything as you went, though. That made DMing that much more tedious, but it's not like it was ever hard to fake being prepared. (I played in one campaign for a while before figuring out that the DM wasn't making secret surprise/notice type rolls, but just rolling up the dungeon out of the random generator in the 1e DMG as we went. Sounds lame, but it was as fun a game as any I was in back in the day, including ones that I prepped the hell out of.)

But, that's generally my style, in most games, I improv'd running Storyteller for years, even Champions! (which is insane, it's an absurdly detailed system, but I did it, consistently). 3e tempted me to prep, to actually write up the detailed monsters with feats and ranks that had become possible or to use CR, but it was a bear and not really worth it. 4e is the only game, this millennium, where the prep was worth it, and that only because it was so quick & easy - might as well spend a few minutes on it. :shrug:

There are some cases, though, where prep can be well worth it. A few sessions back I ran a fairly complicated encounter, well above the PC's paygrade, but with pre-planned ways of using skills to even the odds. It created a long, complex, neo-encounter that included interaction with NPCs (and the monsters, in a sense) and exploration (high-speed exploration on the combat time scale), with skill check vs fight a meaningful decision on many rounds. It was some significant prep, I had monsters, helpers, and NPCs all statted out and a 1-page hand-out describing the objective and generally how various skills could be used under the circumstances. It was very successful, but an exception to my usual style.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

You get the idea from the 2E Complete Wizards handbook?

Possibly indirectly. I haven't cracked that particular book for more than the expanded familiar chart or a peak at some art or a spell since I first bought it, but if there was a suggestion in there to run that sort of campaign, I'd have to credit that as the original spark of inspiration despite it being Harry Potter that was in my mind when I made the suggestion on game day.

 

[hawkeyefan]

In the past, for a one off adventure, I've used a good amount of improv, and even involved the players in the world building. Let them determine some of the details. I come up with a very loose plot that I can change on the fly if need be. I then take the characters that the PCs make, and draw any possible ideas from what they've provided.

So, in the most recent example of when I did this, I started off by saying "You find yourselves in a large chasm, with only one torch lighting your way. You stand upon a pathway that descends into darkness. Behind you, you can just faintly see the light marking the mouth of the cave that leads to the surface world. What brings you here?"

I let the players answer that question. It's a bit of a jarring method at first....you have to kind of let them know they can make that decision, and maybe coax them along a bit. My players hesitated at first, but quickly warmed up to the idea. "We're here looking for my brother," said one of the players. So I could take that to mean that he was missing and they were searching for him, or that he had done something wrong and they were hunting him. I figured that having the brother be an enemy would be more investing, so I went with that.

"Okay," I said, "your brother is wanted for horrible crimes, and you've been asked to hunt him down and bring him to justice." Then I asked the other player what the brother did.

This lets them determine the story just as much as you do. And you take the details they provide, and you use those as the foundation to move things along, and as inspiration to come up with ideas of your own. Then you just improv as best you can. It's not nearly as hard as it sounds.

I've only done this a few times, and found it to be very fun most of the time. It takes some getting used to...and one time I tried it, I had to abandon it quickly and go full improv because two of the players could not handle the approach....but it is pretty rewarding. Even if the story you build is not that memorable in and of itself, the way in which you build it can more than make up for that. It's a very collaborative experience, and a nice change of pace from the standard way we play.

 

[tglassy]

I've done it. I sat down with a player, who wanted to just play a one+ DM game, had her roll up a character real quick. She said she was a wizard, but didn't have much backstory besides that. So I said "You're a 17 year old wizard who's just finished her apprenticeship at a wizard's tower with an old, crotchety wizard. You haven't left the tower in a few years, now. Before the wizard releases you and lets you graduate he is called on an errand leaving you with nothing to study, and for the first time in your life, no chaperone. What do you do?

And I literally made up the rest as we went. Eventually, she explored the parts of the tower she'd never been to, got caught in a Mirror of Life Stealing, let out an evil dark mage her master had put away, and then when the wizard came back and saw what she did, letting her free, he gave her a package and said to take it to Waterdeep to a friend of his. Thus began her adventure. It's been fun ever since. I actually prefer the seat of your pants type.

I've also done some major prep work for a game, and it went great. Took five player's characters and interwove their stories into one massive, six hour one shot. It turned out so well, they want to continue, but I'm going to go back to seat of your pants planning. I'll have a few plot points I want to get to, or events they will come across, but for the most part, I'll just let them tell the story.

 

[77IM]

I'd grab some of my favorite maps, then pick a bunch interesting monsters out of the MM. I'd give the party a mission that isn't defeat-all-monsters: rescue an NPC, retrieve an artifact, escort an NPC, guard a location, etc. Throw in a few wacky NPCs, give several of the monsters personalities and rivalries, and begin!

 

[Zardnaar]

Put an hours prep into it today. Prepped 6 dungeons and 35 encounter locations on a hex map.

If anyone cares this is what I ripped off.

JN2 Monkey Isle
http://www.basicfantasy.org/downloads.html

 

[Blue]

For an "oh shoot, no time to prep" one-shot I'd lean heavily on the players. I'd get from them a goal for their characters and something else (a loved one to protect,a nemesis, etc.) and try to weave them together.

 

[Xorne]

Only 5 minute prep session I had (which was more like 30 minutes, the time they took to make characters) I decided there was a big city, with a silver mining town nearby, overrun by kobolds. I made up about 6 kobold encounters and then figured out where they fit as we played. Along the way the idea of a big army marching on the town to just raze it came up, and the PCs were trying to liberate the town first, before the army showed up. Even had some politics and stuff that came up. Mostly I just had the encounters ready and a loose LOOSE idea of the climax, and I let the players figure out how to get there, watching for good spots to drop the encounters in.

 

[Jago]

[MENTION=20564]Blue[/MENTION] had the right of it: your players are going to make characters. Speak with them the entire time they're coming up with their stuff, and you're going to get some measure of story, maybe even your main villain/conflict right off the bat.

5E honestly seems to make it the easiest to do this with: I wouldn't even look at the MM for a 1-shot 15-minute prep kind of game, no hexes or maps or anything: just flow with what the players are giving and keep building from there.

Player takes the Sailor background? We're going on a ship. To where? Well, someone else is a Noble and another is a Soldier. They're on a diplomatic mission to another kingdom, and they're traveling on the sailor's boat. Bam. That's an entire adventure.

Someone is playing a Druid and another is a Rogue? Story focuses on Robin-Hood style antics in the forest. Save the trees and make a bit of coin on the side.

Really, if you have 15 minutes (or at least until the characters are done), 5E makes it Really Easy to just look at Class/Background combos and go right from there. Someone is a Hermit? Lost city in the wilderness. You have a Criminal in the same party? You're there to steal the Ancient Whatsit before that other party gets it because it's important, like The Flag. Acolyte and a Charlatan, and both are Clerics? They're on a mission from God(s) to save their Temple before it is knocked down by the city for [enter reason here].

Enemies and encounters and such can just be sprung about naturally. Cities and towns are great for this since the enemies are usually just people: guards, criminals, gangs, etc., but most GMs know to populate certain areas with goblins, kobolds, wolves, bugbears, etc. Reskin them for something else and go from there.

Use the base DC stuff to avoid having to look up crazy stats and go from there. Easy enemy? 10 AC. 5 HP. Little bit more of a challenge? 15 AC, 15 HP, and just add that +2 Proficiency to what you want. Keep things in intervals of 5s and 10s, and I would generally keep these sort of "We're making a game RIGHT NOW" for Level 5 or below, nothing really over. Helps keep all that easier to manage.




Also, steal. Stealing is wrong, kids, but steal relentlessly. Borrow an NPC from an adventure you read recently, or that you remember fondly, or a film or book or something. Take plot beats from these, take encounters from these. Stealing (while super wrong), is your absolute best friend and you should do it with wild abandon when you're running a super-quick game (but Jago reminds you to never steal, except for when you should).

I had players sit down for such a game just after I had finished playing NWN2 once again. I had little to go on for a setting until I just started pulling from the game.

Where do you start? Uhhh ... Fort Locke. The old castle of a great hero.
What's going on? Uhhh ... the remnants of a dark force from the Mere of Dead Men is causing trouble, something that hasn't been seen in many years. Spooooooky.
Who are the NPCs? Uhh ... a Greycloak Captain. And a secret member of The Neverwinter Nine. A Dwarven Monk who won't shut up about his father.

And everyone loved it. Nobody is going to care if you're borrowing or paying homage to something proven and enjoyable, and it literally does 60% of the work for you.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

For an "oh shoot, no time to prep" one-shot I'd lean heavily on the players.

I want to add that this is what I did in my afore mentioned all wizards at school campaign.

One player wanted to play almost more of a shaman sort of character, so an appropriately styled tribe happened to live in the area surrounding the school.

Another player wanted relationships with other students and faculty to be a big part of the story, so I quickly thought up a few students that would make good buddies for them and worked with the players to establish their personal relationship with the department heads of their respective specialty schools.

The other two players were joking about a party of all wizards ending up in a dungeon with 2 spells each and choice of a stick or a dagger, having to fight for their lives to escape, and sounded like they were excited by the prospect, so I added in a secret extra-dimensional "dungeon" alongside the secret work-space/club house I was planning on using to facilitate some privacy for the characters without them having to leaving campus. This last one lead to the first of many memorable moments, when the party were exploring the hidden space and found a chamber guarded by two giant constrictors. Everyone starts to flee, except the enchanter who draws his dagger and spawns the exchange of "Hey, where's Zeke?" and "Oh, just knife-fighting those snakes." which set the players to laughing as their characters rejoined the battle, and actually managed to kill both snakes without anyone getting hurt.