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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fenes 2" data-source="post: 431675" data-attributes="member: 6166">I can (and used to) run games without any preparation but for a vage idea of a plot, back in the days when our group met for a session first and then decided who was to be DM that evening. Nowadays 10 years of Dming at least once a week, often thrice a week does lend me some experience that helps a great deal with winging it, but I usually prepare at least one page of notes for a game session, mainly a short synopsis of the background of the adventure, loose ends form previous adventures, how to start the adventure with the party, what problems the PCs will face and what possible solutions they have, and short descriptions of the major NPCs. I also have a detailed campaign sourcebook covering the main locations and the NPCs used so far, a more or less detailed log of the campaign's adventures and a sketchy outline of the current and future main plot(s) (very sketchy).I still wing it regularly, especially if the PCs go off on a tangent, and get into trouble. I have come to sessions prepared as detailed before, and then "improvised" for the whole session when the PCs started an adventure of their own, or a problem turned out to be harder than expected, or the dice had a bad evening, resulting in a TPC (Total party capture).All in all I give the nod to moderate preparations instead of micro-managing. I neither like wasting hours of work on an NPC or encounter that was not used not forcing the PCs on a certain path just to make sure all my work will pay off. I try to remain very flexible towards the PCs ideas. If they want to break in a mansion I do not make up detailed defenses for the walls, the lawn, the park and the fireplace. I wait and see what the players decide, then improvise and add the details. F.e., usually I will have notes like: "possible means of entry: Disguise as servants for a ball, old escape tunnel mentioned in chronicles or bard song, sneak in over wall (dogs, wards, guards), enter as traveling foreign dignitaries" and then add the neccessary details (Ball guests, butler, servants etc., cranky scribe/flighty bard and the dangers underground, or guards, dogs and wards) to the option chosen on the fly.IME this way of preparing worked out fine, and I prefer it to the "module style", which is often a bit railroaded and stat-heavy (I can come up with stats for most NPCs, even in battle, on the fly).</blockquote>

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