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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MNblockhead" data-source="post: 9704432" data-attributes="member: 6796661">I've run low-prep games with more collaborative world building. I tried using tools like Cityographer and Dungeonographer (now both replaced with all-in-one Worldographer).  I found Cityographer to be great to generate villages and towns on the fly.  It would generate settlements on the fly with details on the inhabitants, store proprietors and goods sold, etc. It worked well and you could customize the text files for name, species, goods, etc. randomization.  I could create a village or town on the fly, in-game. But I never liked it for larger settlements like cities and or any more important locations.  It was best for situations where the players say, we go to the nearest village to buy supplies.  Yeah, you can just improvise this, but often hooks would develop through role play and it allowed me to flesh out area maps. I never liked dungeonographer or any randomized dungeon generator. I instead built up a very large collection of digital battlemaps and digital NPC tokens. I was using MapTool at the time with a horizontal display.  Players would use miniatures for the PCs. I organized and named the files in such a way that I could search and pull up a map and apply fog of war in less time than I've ever been able to draw something out on the Chessex map. Similarly search and dropping tokens for NPCs was much quicker than selecting and placing miniatures on the fly. For cities, I either just used various city books that fit the area of adventure.  I also used Vornhem: The Complete City Kit.  A small book with very clever mechanics for running adventure in a large city with little to no prep. I didn't know about the controversy surrounding the author at the time. The one thing, however, that I've always needed to start with is an area or world map. My recommended approach for a low prep, collaborative game would be:1. Even if you play in person, consider using a digital display.  Put in the time to build up a large collection of battlemaps and NPC tokens up front.  It take time up front, but then you play for years with little session prep. 2. Select a world map that you like that has not words on it. At session Zero, discuss what kind of world they would like. Decide together generally, in broad strokes, what the different areas of the world are like, where they would like to start, and fill in some more details of the immediate surrounding area of the starting location. Then make the characters. 3. Jot down a few ideas regarding adventure hooks and important NPCs for the first session. Nothing too detailed.4. Each session take very brief notes on what the party did and ideas for new plotlines, developments for existing plot lines, and some potential scenarios for the next session that hook into the last. I didn't find it to difficult to improvise quests, hooks, and tying in plot lines. These grow organically. But we like to play with battlemaps and minis rather than TotM for combat. Spending the money for a horizontal display was well worth the cost. I spent just under $600, but that is because I had a custom case built for it. You can do it for far less. I've seen people lay normal TVs flat, face up, mabe on wood blocks to keep it stable and cheap peice of plexiglass lain on top to protect the screen. Digital signage displays, especially those designed for face-up or table display, may be a better bet but you'll spend 400-600 on those.But even at $600, I would have to spend much more than that on miniatures etc. I've tried low-cost solutions like just scribbling onto a Chessex and print paper tokens and punching them out with a 1" punch, but all of that just adds to prep time. If you are playing on line, that makes things easier but you have to be aware of the VTT-time trap. You want one that makes it easier to pull up a map and tokens and apply fog of war quickly. Foundry is a no-go on this IME. Fantasy Ground works very well, both for in person and online games. Roll20 makes it pretty easy with battle maps, kinda drag and drop, but I'm not sure how well it works with dropping tokens. MapTool was by far the best for in-person low-prep play, but isn't worth the hassle for online play.</blockquote>

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