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<blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 9323571" data-attributes="member: 467">The thread title and OP seem to be asking different questions.As to the OP: the best resources for me is good random tables that generate the kinds of game elements I prefer. I tend more to weird fantasy so I like tables that do that, but there are lots of more &quot;grounded&quot; tables. In any case, the nice thing about random tables is that you can use them during prep or during play as the need arises and your ability to improv makes practical.As to the more general question in the thread title, my &quot;best practice&quot; for prep is to have a solid understanding of the situation. because I am highly improvisational, I tend not to establish a very tight &quot;adventure structure.&quot; Rather, I prep the situation by working on the wheres, whats, whos and hows. If I know which NPCs are involved and what their motivations are, I can bounce off whatever the players do. No amount of detailed plotting can help if the PCs zig when I expected them to zag. So, I drop those expectations and just lay out who wants what, and what happens if the PCs never get involved. It is useful to have stat blocks and battle maps on hand, of course, but those can be improv'd too (stat blocks&nbsp; especially if you know a rule system well enough to reskin and tweak existing ones on the fly).I don't want this to sound like &quot;the key to prepping is to not prep&quot; -- it is still prep and can still take time. But you aren't plotting, which I think is an important distinction.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Reynard, post: 9323571, member: 467"] The thread title and OP seem to be asking different questions. As to the OP: the best resources for me is good random tables that generate the kinds of game elements I prefer. I tend more to weird fantasy so I like tables that do that, but there are lots of more "grounded" tables. In any case, the nice thing about random tables is that you can use them during prep or during play as the need arises and your ability to improv makes practical. As to the more general question in the thread title, my "best practice" for prep is to have a solid understanding of the situation. because I am highly improvisational, I tend not to establish a very tight "adventure structure." Rather, I prep the situation by working on the wheres, whats, whos and hows. If I know which NPCs are involved and what their motivations are, I can bounce off whatever the players do. No amount of detailed plotting can help if the PCs zig when I expected them to zag. So, I drop those expectations and just lay out who wants what, and what happens if the PCs never get involved. It is useful to have stat blocks and battle maps on hand, of course, but those can be improv'd too (stat blocks especially if you know a rule system well enough to reskin and tweak existing ones on the fly). I don't want this to sound like "the key to prepping is to not prep" -- it is still prep and can still take time. But you aren't plotting, which I think is an important distinction. [/QUOTE]

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