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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 7928533" data-attributes="member: 22779">Look, it's a spectrum.  There are all sorts of options here.  From the very traditional where the DM is the source of 99% of the work, all the way to sitting around the campfire, pass the story stick type games (which I don't particularly enjoy either).  It's not binary.Take the example of the town adventure.  Ok, we have the traditional setup where the DM spends 4 hours prepping the town.Or, we step back a bit.  At the end of the last session, the players were just entering town.  So, the DM plays a variation of 2 Truths and a Lie.  Each player has to tell the DM (probably through email or a note) one thing that their character believes is true about this town.  Now, the DM can decide what is true and what is not and then prepare based on the input from the players.  So, it takes a bit of the workload off the DM, but, not much.  Or, we step back a lot.  At the end of the session, the players were just entering town.  The DM asks each player, say within the next three days (presuming a weekly game) to give him a one page scenario in the town.  Two, three encounters, a bar, something.  Anything.  The DM then stitches these four scenarios (possibly making changes) into the town, maybe even adding a scenario of his own.  Now, not every scenario is going to get used.  So, the unused scenarios go into the DM's hand folder for use later.  Repeat that every couple of sessions and the DM winds up with hundreds of scenarios/scenes/NPC's in very short order and has to do virtually zero prep.  Heck, these can be carried forward into the next campaign as well.  Sure, it means that any given player might have a better insight into a given scenario, or, maybe not.  The DM can certainly change things as needed.Note, none of these are the "right" way of doing things.  Just options.  I'm sure there are tons more.  But, to me, the notion that we must stick with the traditional "DM does 99% of the away from the table work" is not necessarily the best solution.  It's one solution.  And it has strengths and weaknesses.  To me, the weaknesses - DM workload and burnout - more than outweigh the benefits.</blockquote>

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