[Players] How much time do you spend preparing for one game session to the next?

[diaglo]

four hours of prep time for every hour of game time.

i.e. 6 hour session = 24 hours of prep time

 

[Imruphel]

While I don't play, two of my main three players spend up to four or so hours before each session preparing. They have notebooks with adjusted stats for their characters depending on which spells they use to buff... mind you, these are the same guys who also prepare their character sheets for 1st to 20th level before the first game session!

 

[Kyuss Knight]

I usually spend more than 2 hours between sessions. Between compiling notes into a legible version, to tracking the party's loot, to fine tuning the cartography of the dungeon we are/were in. Just yesterday I spent more than 2 hours in one sitting redoing my character sheet for this weekends session. I checked all my modifiers and what not to make sure that I wasn't cheating or screwing myself over! Plus, my character sheet had just gotten far too ragged for it to continue.

 

[Piratecat]

four hours of prep time for every hour of game time.

i.e. 6 hour session = 24 hours of prep time

As a PLAYER? What the heck are you doing with that time?

 

[lukelightning]

I do a 45-minute dice-rolling workout before each session, making sure my rolling hand stays in shape. The last thing I want to do is sprain my wrist rolling fireball damage!

Seriously, though, I only spend a sizable amount of time during character creation, making sure I know all the rules, etc. Once the game session I'm all set and need hardly more than 5 minutes. The most I do is look up spells, now that I'm playing a wizard, but it's not like I don't know pretty much what every spell does already (the regular PHB list, not weird stuff from other books, that is).

 

[DestroyYouAlot]

I voted more than 90 minutes. By a factor of about eight. Y'see, I'm the "default DM", and I never get to play. So, when I do, it's on my mind from the moment I get up that day. We're talking probably 12 hours where I'm either reflecting on last session, anticipating the next session, making notes, playing with my character sheet... I get excited, is what I'm trying to say, here.

 

[Jedi_Solo]

Depends on if I have leveled or not.

If I have not leveled - I usually just spend the time to write a journal entry between sessions which usually just takes a few minutes.

If I have leveled then there are spell lists to consider, a character sheet to update, my current character has Leadership and Landlord (from Stronghold Builder's Guide) so there is a lot of bookkeeping to take care of in addition to the journal entry.

 

[diaglo]

As a PLAYER? What the heck are you doing with that time?

writing background notes and hooks about things i want to do. where i want to go. things i want to buy. testing out things i want in the way of class features or skills or feats or whatever the game is.

i have a terrible short term memory. so i have to practice over and over and over again. so i remember to use things when it comes time for them in play.

 

[diaglo]

besides this helps me stay in the story.

to know the names of NPCs (minor and major)

to know what the objectives are since we only game on avg once every 2 weeks.

to know obscure details about things that happened 20 or 30 sessions ago.

 

[KB9JMQ]

30 minutes tops if I am playing a spellcaster.
Anything else is under 5 minutes including getting the dice out of my bag and opening my Pepsi