Preparing for games

[Munin]

It is a good for DM s to continually try new things nad improve their skills.

This can't be overstated. You've got to stay one step ahead of your players. If you don't push yourself, your game will grow stale over time.

On a more practical level, I find it helpful to ask the players what they intend to do next session (if I don't already know) and work from there. If it involves a dungeon-type environment, make sure you read it over so you can anticipate any problems that may arise.
If it involves heavy roleplaying, add something that has NOTHING to do with the players.

When you have extra time, work on adding depth to your NPCs.
Establish side plots that will draw your players into your campaign and involve them in it.
Take your player's character sheets after each session and go over them. The object here isn't to exploit their weaknesses (which is exactly what they'll think), but to look for obscure skills, feats, or unused abilities that you can include in future sessions.
Change one thing about every NPC between adventures.
Since you're going to run the Shackled City, make sure you read the fine storyhours on this website. Mine them for ideas.

 

[wedgeski]

i prep about 4 hours for every 1 hour of face-to-face.

4 HOURS?!! So, if I was you, I would be spending 16-20 hours per week in preparation for one session! Almost an entire day of the week... I hope your players appreciate you Diaglo.

FWIW, my ratio is about 1:1, one hour of active books-strewn-around-me prep, not counting background thought processes when I'm bored at work.

 

[LostSoul]

I tend to be lazy about keeping things organized which leads to inconsistency in games, and I don't particularly like saying "Okay, you return to the shop, insert name here welcomes you back and ask how the travel went."

Ah, I get it. I was thinking along the lines of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

I think you could get away with writing down NPCs (names, jobs, motivations) before the game. I don't see a need to write a heavily-structured plot, because that can lead to as many problems as it solves.

 

[punkorange]

My problem tends to be that when I do write down stuff it ends up just scribbles, because I have no organized way to track it.

Do you use any downloadable forms or a computer program, and if a computer program (I have DM Genie) what do you recommend?

 

[Orryn Emrys]

Its okay to have the grey terxt describtions but don't read them word for word. Place itn some emotion into the voice and look at the players when you talk to them. Looking at the page and readign it word for word is not good showman ship.

If you can keep a more personal, conversational tone in play when "reading" boxed text, you will certainly have a more receptive audience. As soon as you break the connection with a simple narrative, the audience tends to lose interest. Try to keep a tone that invites the players to feel that they can interrupt at any time with a question appropriate to the description, but be sure to resume the description before anyone can actually choose to take action.

I actually started thinking this way back in the 1E days, when boxed text would often include six or seven sentences detailing the furnishings and such down to a failrly intricated level of detail before getting around to the final detail that some vile monster stands in the midst of the room preparing to strike you down... as if you were interested enough in the flowered curtains to ignore the parcel of slavering orcs....

It is a good for DM s to continually try new things nad improve their skills.

Hail, Crothian! Good advice for any game master, no matter how good s/he is....

 

[Orryn Emrys]

4 HOURS?!! So, if I was you, I would be spending 16-20 hours per week in preparation for one session! Almost an entire day of the week... I hope your players appreciate you Diaglo.

FWIW, my ratio is about 1:1, one hour of active books-strewn-around-me prep, not counting background thought processes when I'm bored at work.

I tend toward about 2 to 3 hours of prepr per hour of game time, and I run a weekly 6-hour session.... But the reward for my efforts is staggering. I tend toward convoluted plots with lots of intrigue, investigation, diplomacy, research, and general roleplaying goodness, mixed with plenty of hard-core adventure. Without appropriate levels of preparation, I don't think I'd be able to feel properly prepared for the variety of scenarios I like to provide. It has become a bit more streamlined in the last year or so, since I got DM Genie and a laptop with which to pursue much of the statistical legwork.

But then, even though my sessions generally turn out all right when I'm forced to wing it, I always feel that they could have been much better had I properly prepared....

 

[LostSoul]

My problem tends to be that when I do write down stuff it ends up just scribbles, because I have no organized way to track it.

Do you use any downloadable forms or a computer program, and if a computer program (I have DM Genie) what do you recommend?

I just use notepad. Keeps everything nice and neat.

Just to be clear, I was recommending that you prepare the NPCs before the game. Sorry if I had muddled that point.

 

[blargney the second]

Lately I find that the majority of my prep time is devoted to writing down the hooks that I will strew liberally throughout the session. The PCs currently have about 7-8 hooks that they can follow up on at any given point.

-blarg