Little or No prep before a game....am I a bad DM?

[Waylander the Slayer]

Prepping as far as planning everything out is not necessary. But I would consider it important to have a working knowledge of the campiagn world important. Players, if you let them, tend to take plots in very different directions. but I do consider it important to have a few GM tools:

1. Have the important NPCs etc written up - this is extremly important in 3e since feats, skills etc come into play a lot - it is almost impossible to run effective high level NPCs without prep (sometimes writing up important NPCs can take up 4 hrs etc).

2. Have maps - i have a binder full of maps which is very handy.

3. The most critical skill of all - Make sure you let the PCs think that you know exactly what is going on even when you are pulling stuff out of ur booty!!

 

[BiggusGeekus]

No prepping?

Bad DM! No TPK!

 

[Ysgarran]

Actually I have two kinds of games I run. The first one uses a fair amount of preperation the other only requires developing the characters.

If I can get the basic plot line down, the characters involved and their motivations that is pretty much all I need to do get a game ready. I like this kind of game because I truly don't need to force the characters down any kind particular path. Another reason I like is that I kind spend time working on it while driving to work, while I'm working out, etc.

I find creating my own dungeon crawl usually does take a lot of preperation because I want to create an environment that I can describe to the players and have a feel for what they are walking into.

later,
Ysgarran.