Secrets of low-prep homebrew [+]

[UngainlyTitan]

I am gonna tout Mike Shea's "Return of the Lazy DM" @SlyFlourish , got a website an all, tons of advice on low prep rpgs

 

[Committed Hero]

The "bring one piece of content" failed utterly. Nobody was willing to do any homework outside of game night.

If I were to do it again, I'd lean into the "players create the content at the table" aspect. Microscope worked really really well. I'm not sure how it would work, though—creating NPCs, encounters, maps at the table? I think it's more common in rules-lite games, but my players prefer 5e. But it does seem like there's some potential there for a truly low-prep approach.

Asking players to come up with things at the table is the way to go. Simply by being there they are in the right mindset to create. Even asking players pointed questions at the end of the session gives you ideas of what to focus on in the next one.

 

[Truename]

Asking players to come up with things at the table is the way to go. Simply by being there they are in the right mindset to create. Even asking players pointed questions at the end of the session gives you ideas of what to focus on in the next one.

I tried this with NPC names. Each player was responsible for one race (the race of their character), and was supposed to bring a list of names for that race. I shared some random name generators I had googled. Then, when they encountered an NPC, I would ask them to name them.

They actually did it the first part! Well, most of them did. And it worked for like the first 2-3 sessions. Then they lost track of their name lists, and some never bothered to do it in the first place, and I started getting names like “Gnomey McGnomeypants.”

My group is really good at following my lead, but not so good at taking initiative. But it’s the group I have.

PS: Thanks to everyone for all the great suggestions. I don’t want this thread to be all about me, so I’ve been hanging back, but I’m enjoying the ideas.

I’d love to hear more ideas about doing prep “at the table,” with players’ involvement, à la Microscope. It didn’t really work for me with NPCs but I feel like it could work if I had the right mini-game to use. (Again, like using Microscope as a world-generation mini-game.)

 

[zakael19]

I’d love to hear more ideas about doing prep “at the table,” with players’ involvement, à la Microscope. It didn’t really work for me with NPCs but I feel like it could work if I had the right mini-game to use. (Again, like using Microscope as a world-generation mini-game.)

So here's some ways I've done that in a highly narrative focused game like Blades in the Dark:

• Center on a goal of play through some around the table questions. In something like Blades, you've got Scores and their Targets to facilitate that.
• Ask each character how they want to gather information to set the stage and gain an advantage towards the engagement roll.
• The questions they ask and the results from the GI rolls lead into framing out the score.
• Throughout play, use "paint the scene" style questions to bring the world to life.

For me, given starting conditions of the game and its inherent setting, plus what we've built up as the focus of play via character and crew playbooks, the game is entirely 0 prep session to session. This has worked so well that even for more conventional games I've taken the time to build that initial setting frameout with factions and areas following the BITD model to focus and impel play.

Another option is using random tables to start the prompts or conversation, perhaps by having players roll the dX and combining the results into a situation. I tend to do that a lot with Stonetop exploration when the players decide one or more of them wants to go do X that we didn't know about, the large set of nesting tables means I can look at a couple and have them roll and spin out a focused situation or complication in a hurry and see what they do.

 

[overgeeked]

Kind of a cheeky answer, but serious all the same.

Watch Taskmaster. Steal the tasks and modify them to suit.