D&D General To Prep or Not to Prep - A Players Perspective

[EzekielRaiden]

Salient all the way. As both a player and a DM, that's the sweet spot. No plan survives contact with the players (or the monsters!), but having a plan and the details that come with it is essential. Those details become the grease which keeps the wheels going once you've started improvising. Keeping it supported but not perfectly nailed down gives you lots of practice with extemporaneous delivery, which isn't that far off from inventing something new while you're going.

 

[Distracted DM]

Depends on the dm

Yeah it's an unhelpful answer to a poll, but I imagine most people that DM most of the time would say that it really depends on each individual DM's own style and needs.

As far as players are concerned, I can't imagine that they know how much their DM preps unless the DM tells them. I know that when I was only playing I always assumed my DMs prepped a whole bunch- if they had told me they were doing it all off the cuff I'd have been amazed... I guess if you enjoy the game, you're assuming they put a lot of work into it? At least, I would have.

Another important note caveat to this question is "online or in-person?" In person I require basically no prep, except to pull out a bunch of minis that I think might be relevant to the location that the party is in or could reach. I am very improv-happy, reacting and coming up with appropriate things on the spot and using tables etc.
Online I need to spend at least a couple hours prepping for a rough location, all technical stuff to make sure that the quality of the online session meets my standards- walls for line of sight, making sure I have the statblocks imported into the game for creatures, finding art for creatures and locations, etc etc etc.

 

[TheSword]

I'm wondering why this is even relevant since players aren't doing the prep? The first time a player tries to tell me how to prep my game, that's one less player at the table. I don't get to tell them how to RP their characters and they don't get to tell me how to prep or run my games.

GMs get their agency just like players get theirs, right?

I think players are better at spotting a DM winging it than you think. I think DMs aren’t as good at hiding it as you think. Probably many players tolerate it because they appreciate other elements of the campaign but it doesn’t mean they particularly like it.

 

[TheSword]

As a GM, I find the social/intrigue work better with the least prep. If I try to plan out a lot of things, they are doomed fail (or I might try to force it, which has never gone well). Stick with a short list of motivations and resources for the major players and then wing it based on the players' actions.

I usually don't define why group X hates group Y or who did what, so that when the PCs inquire I can get sympathy or a rise out of players as needed.

Be zen, have no desires of my own, be true to the NPCs motivations, make up minions as needed based on the "resources" constraint, and always write down their name/race/faction to maintain versimilitude.

If all you have are motivations for NPCs and No forward planned activity do they simply react to what the PCs do? How do you give the PCs things to react to without prepping that in advance?

How do determine NPCs stats for opposed rolls or their capabilities in RP situations if all you have is a name, race and faction? Are they made up when the action is called for?

 

[TheSword]

Yeah it's an unhelpful answer to a poll, but I imagine most people that DM most of the time would say that it really depends on each individual DM's own style and needs.

As far as players are concerned, I can't imagine that they know how much their DM preps unless the DM tells them. I know that when I was only playing I always assumed my DMs prepped a whole bunch- if they had told me they were doing it all off the cuff I'd have been amazed... I guess if you enjoy the game, you're assuming they put a lot of work into it? At least, I would have.

Another important note caveat to this question is "online or in-person?" In person I require basically no prep, except to pull out a bunch of minis that I think might be relevant to the location that the party is in or could reach. I am very improv-happy, reacting and coming up with appropriate things on the spot and using tables etc.
Online I need to spend at least a couple hours prepping for a rough location, all technical stuff to make sure that the quality of the online session meets my standards- walls for line of sight, making sure I have the statblocks imported into the game for creatures, finding art for creatures and locations, etc etc etc.

See whether I play the game would depend on the DM and of course I want the DM to be happy. But that is separate from the question.

I want to know the salient details of the game are determined so I’m interacting with something tangible and not a nebulous concept. I want my decisions and the outcomes of what I do to matter. A game which is entirely reactive to my character gives me nothing to get my teeth into.

 

[Theory of Games]

I think players are better at spotting a DM winging it than you think. I think DMs aren’t as good at hiding it as you think. Probably many players tolerate it because they appreciate other elements of the campaign but it doesn’t mean they particularly like it.

There's a lot of assumption in there. Are you suggesting a DM "winging it" is a bad thing? Do all players dislike when DMs "wing it"? If "winging it" is bad, then are you suggesting DMs should prep for every in-game eventuality?

 

[Lanefan]

I think players are better at spotting a DM winging it than you think. I think DMs aren’t as good at hiding it as you think.

I agree, but as DMs we can always try to get better at it.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

I don't want the GM to go through more effort than the players. As long as they have some view of what the world is like, so it feels consistent and on-theme, I'm good with 'looks like there was a catastrophe here recently, of... a magical nature. hmm.' when we just wanted to visit the local bakery.

Gaming should be fun for the GM as well, and interpreting results and being surprised is more fun than watching your carefully crafted stage play go off the rails and unused. Or to read 10 pages of source material beforehand, and then players don't end up going there, so then you need to re-read those 10 pages the next time it might come up, repeat. For DnD in particular, on a system level, there really should be something in place that creates stuff like detailed battlemaps without needing to be hand-crafted ahead of time...

Now, of course, if everything is nebulous and unconnected, then it's obviously a bad version of this approach. Just the same way that a strict railroad is a bad version of the prepared GM.

 

[DragonLancer]

Salient. That is what I do as a DM and all I expect from a prospective DM.

 

[Horwath]

Usually DM will prepare as detailed session as much as free time allows it.
That is all anyone can ask from DMs.