el-remmen
Moderator Emeritus
As those of you who have followed my posts on here may know, I have a recurring mantra that D&D is as much a DIY hobby as it is a game.
This popped into my head today as I was going through some stuff I bought at Michael's to make some quick n' dirty scenery for my current DnD games and I realized that the longer the game sessions are delayed (we can't play again until the 11th of September - last session was July 31), the more crap I keep buying to make stuff. I kind of said aloud to myself, "Prep is fun, but prep is not playing. . ." but then I thought "Or is it?" It may not be traditional game play with opponents and a definitive win condition, but then again neither is D&D necessarily - and like actual play, it involves challenges (how can I use these foam boards and wooden spools to create a ruined temple?) and imagination (envisioning such a temple itself) and fail states (as when the garbage you built still looks like garbage so you say F' it and throw it out).
It feels like a mode of "play," much like homebrewing a setting and writing an adventure feels like that. One way to look at it is that it is play like Soduku or a crossword or an adult coloring book is "play."
While I have been fairly lucky to have groups to run for or play in for most of my life from age 12 to present (38 years), there have definitely been some fallow months or years. And while, some of that was just because my interest in RPGs temporarily waned - other times it was because other players' interest waned, or people moved away for college or new jobs, or schedules changed dramatically for a variety of possible reasons, and I had to struggle to construct new groups. During these times of waning opportunity, but waxing interest, creating stuff for the game was a way to remain engaged and challenge myself to make up fun stuff. In the past, this was mostly homebrew creation - Aquerra - but more recently I have really enjoyed supplementing my 2D battlemat (or 1 inch graph paper) drawing with some 3D elements to spruce it up and give it some texture and verticality (while avoiding over the top and too expensive stuff like Dwarven Forge, which I find hinders ease of play more than complements it). I like to make stuff I don't mind throwing away and that can be thrown down on the table without too much fuss.
Anyway, I also find that doing this kind of prep (much like prepping or writing an adventure or encounter) really shapes what an adventure or encounter is like and there are happy accidents or shortcomings that lead to both potential tactics for enemies and for PCs (who love to do stuff I can rarely predict). In that form, it is also a kind of meta play - I will make this stuff and imagine both what the PCs and the enemies might do with it. I think this is the case whether you write up some slick stone ramp up to a monsters perch that requires a check or carve one out of foam and realize the steepness of the ramp may call on hurrying PCs to make an Dexterity skill check to not fall and slide down. . .
Anyway, it is no substitute (at least for me) for playing with a group (in-person always being my preference and camera-use not vtt when remote is the only option) but this kind of "prep as play" has entertained me for nearly as many (if not more) hours as gathering around the table has.
(it is certainly a lot more fun than prepping lesson plans back when I was a lecturer).
How about you? What's your relationship to game prep (of any kind)? And do you find it to be "play" and fun diversion?
This popped into my head today as I was going through some stuff I bought at Michael's to make some quick n' dirty scenery for my current DnD games and I realized that the longer the game sessions are delayed (we can't play again until the 11th of September - last session was July 31), the more crap I keep buying to make stuff. I kind of said aloud to myself, "Prep is fun, but prep is not playing. . ." but then I thought "Or is it?" It may not be traditional game play with opponents and a definitive win condition, but then again neither is D&D necessarily - and like actual play, it involves challenges (how can I use these foam boards and wooden spools to create a ruined temple?) and imagination (envisioning such a temple itself) and fail states (as when the garbage you built still looks like garbage so you say F' it and throw it out).
It feels like a mode of "play," much like homebrewing a setting and writing an adventure feels like that. One way to look at it is that it is play like Soduku or a crossword or an adult coloring book is "play."
While I have been fairly lucky to have groups to run for or play in for most of my life from age 12 to present (38 years), there have definitely been some fallow months or years. And while, some of that was just because my interest in RPGs temporarily waned - other times it was because other players' interest waned, or people moved away for college or new jobs, or schedules changed dramatically for a variety of possible reasons, and I had to struggle to construct new groups. During these times of waning opportunity, but waxing interest, creating stuff for the game was a way to remain engaged and challenge myself to make up fun stuff. In the past, this was mostly homebrew creation - Aquerra - but more recently I have really enjoyed supplementing my 2D battlemat (or 1 inch graph paper) drawing with some 3D elements to spruce it up and give it some texture and verticality (while avoiding over the top and too expensive stuff like Dwarven Forge, which I find hinders ease of play more than complements it). I like to make stuff I don't mind throwing away and that can be thrown down on the table without too much fuss.
Anyway, I also find that doing this kind of prep (much like prepping or writing an adventure or encounter) really shapes what an adventure or encounter is like and there are happy accidents or shortcomings that lead to both potential tactics for enemies and for PCs (who love to do stuff I can rarely predict). In that form, it is also a kind of meta play - I will make this stuff and imagine both what the PCs and the enemies might do with it. I think this is the case whether you write up some slick stone ramp up to a monsters perch that requires a check or carve one out of foam and realize the steepness of the ramp may call on hurrying PCs to make an Dexterity skill check to not fall and slide down. . .
Anyway, it is no substitute (at least for me) for playing with a group (in-person always being my preference and camera-use not vtt when remote is the only option) but this kind of "prep as play" has entertained me for nearly as many (if not more) hours as gathering around the table has.
(it is certainly a lot more fun than prepping lesson plans back when I was a lecturer).
How about you? What's your relationship to game prep (of any kind)? And do you find it to be "play" and fun diversion?
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