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General Tabletop Discussion
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Some Tips for Smoother, Faster Play
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<blockquote data-quote="Bawylie" data-source="post: 7999761" data-attributes="member: 6776133"><p>That’s all excellent player-facing advice. And with some slight exceptions or differences, I’m broadly advising my players the same things.</p><p></p><p>On the DM side, though, there are organizational things you can do to prepare your game so they roll out smoothly. </p><p></p><p>When I prep, I work from hard to soft prep. Meaning I look first at all the stuff I will 100% need for the next session (maps, monsters, minis, stat blocks, notes) and organize it in roughly the order I expect it to come into play. That’s what I consider hard prep - the items this session will need. After that I pile up some soft prep - stuff that might feature in the session - and set that behind my chair. I can usually draw from the last two sessions’ hard prep to build out my soft-prep. </p><p></p><p>With everything “at hand,” there’s usually only momentary pause between scenarios for resetting or re-staging. I see a lot of folks doing big set pieces with dwarven forge or things like that. If and when I do those, I’ll set that up at the gaming table but begin the session in the living room and move to the set piece when it becomes relevant. </p><p></p><p>All in all I spend about 1 hour writing and 30 min to an hour setting the table (laying out every character sheet, minis, dice cups for rolling, handouts) to ensure the moment we sit down is the moment we start playing. </p><p></p><p>I can write faster, if the adventure or session will rely on the campaign’s soft prep more. For example I’ve got an island expedition campaign going and I’ve already prepped the weather, random encounters, and tables for discoveries. I’ve already set aside the maps and minis for the various areas of the island. So all overland exploration is already soft-prepped for about 3 levels worth of adventuring. When the players are around 5th level, they’ll move to the next island and I’ll prep another 3 levels worth of stuff they might encounter on that island. It’s only about 4 index cards of notes and lists, then a pile of maps and minis. But it lasts a LONG time and it saves me a lot of prep time every week. Because in any given session, I only need to hard prep things that aren’t already in the soft prep. </p><p></p><p>But with it all prepared ahead of time and piled up properly, the move from scene to scene or setup to setup is very smooth. And I don’t spend minutes thumbing through books when a random encounter pops up like some spell casters I know when it’s their turn to cast a spell!</p><p></p><p>Oh yeah- one player facing rule I have is that if you’re casting a spell, you’d better have the text up and ready to go on your turn.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bawylie, post: 7999761, member: 6776133"] That’s all excellent player-facing advice. And with some slight exceptions or differences, I’m broadly advising my players the same things. On the DM side, though, there are organizational things you can do to prepare your game so they roll out smoothly. When I prep, I work from hard to soft prep. Meaning I look first at all the stuff I will 100% need for the next session (maps, monsters, minis, stat blocks, notes) and organize it in roughly the order I expect it to come into play. That’s what I consider hard prep - the items this session will need. After that I pile up some soft prep - stuff that might feature in the session - and set that behind my chair. I can usually draw from the last two sessions’ hard prep to build out my soft-prep. With everything “at hand,” there’s usually only momentary pause between scenarios for resetting or re-staging. I see a lot of folks doing big set pieces with dwarven forge or things like that. If and when I do those, I’ll set that up at the gaming table but begin the session in the living room and move to the set piece when it becomes relevant. All in all I spend about 1 hour writing and 30 min to an hour setting the table (laying out every character sheet, minis, dice cups for rolling, handouts) to ensure the moment we sit down is the moment we start playing. I can write faster, if the adventure or session will rely on the campaign’s soft prep more. For example I’ve got an island expedition campaign going and I’ve already prepped the weather, random encounters, and tables for discoveries. I’ve already set aside the maps and minis for the various areas of the island. So all overland exploration is already soft-prepped for about 3 levels worth of adventuring. When the players are around 5th level, they’ll move to the next island and I’ll prep another 3 levels worth of stuff they might encounter on that island. It’s only about 4 index cards of notes and lists, then a pile of maps and minis. But it lasts a LONG time and it saves me a lot of prep time every week. Because in any given session, I only need to hard prep things that aren’t already in the soft prep. But with it all prepared ahead of time and piled up properly, the move from scene to scene or setup to setup is very smooth. And I don’t spend minutes thumbing through books when a random encounter pops up like some spell casters I know when it’s their turn to cast a spell! Oh yeah- one player facing rule I have is that if you’re casting a spell, you’d better have the text up and ready to go on your turn. [/QUOTE]
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