What takes you the longest in adventure preperation?

[Keeper of Secrets]

Maping out a dungeon takes me the longest. That is why my adventures mostly have some random encounters between bouts of role playing, investigation, etc.

 

[shilsen]

The problem is: I can design and brainstorm during any spare thought. So, it's not really a tangible length of time. I could be at work, driving, playing poker, sleeping, ect...and still come up with some reasonably fun ideas--including dungeon design and story arcs.

That's exactly my approach, though I wouldn't call it a problem at all It takes me very little time to actually put things down on paper, since I've had the ideas percolating in my head for a long time by the time I do.

As for the NPC stats, it not only doesn't take me that much time since I usually stat them out in my head just as I design other aspects of the game, but I thoroughly enjoy it too. For me, there's just as much pleasure in putting together an interesting plot point as in crunching the numbers for an NPC (and anticipation at seeing each in action eventually).

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I rarely stat out D&D NPCs with any degree of completeness. It is simply not worth it to know what his climb skill is if he is an orc or even someone the charaters will face off against. If a skill comes up that I had not accounted for, I will roll a d6 or a d8 and add that to his base and use that as his skill. When it comes down to using time wisely, stating out all but the most important (recurring) NPCs is kind of a waste of time.

 

[scourger]

other

For me, it was painting the miniatures. That takes a lot of time. So I quit doing it. I use published adventures, but I like having visual aids. I find it really helps the game. Painting minis for a module is just too time consuming and usually results in a painted figure for a dead foe. Now, I just don't paint them. I use a bare metal mini, a plastic fig, or a cardstock counter (preferably stand-up). If I could go back and do it all over again, I would not have purchased many of the figures that I do have and would use just counters for the bad guys with minis for the good guys. I do love a painted miniature for my character when I play, though.

The runner-up was drawing out big maps on poster paper. So I quit doing it, too. I will scan and print a map or area on my printer as a multi-sheet poster if possible. If not, I just draw a relevant room on an easel pad with one inch grid in game. I've also had good success with a players' map recently that kept me from having to draw out every area of a dungeon and instead focus on major encounter areas. I even let the players draw some areas on the big map for ease of DMing.

Honorable mention goes to just driving to the game site and hauling all the stuff back and forth from my house. That burns a couple of hours each week.

 

[Boddha]

Other
I find trying to guess the players reactions to a situation so I can at least appear to be prepared if they go the "wrong way".
I also tend to run things fairly loosely, using a thereabouts approach to most NPC abilities.

 

[fusangite]

I don't begrudge how long it takes to stat NPCs and monsters but it certainly does take a while. Still, in my view, the longer it takes to stat the creature, the more likely one is to remember its abilities once the party starts interacting with it.

 

[megamania]

I went with other since it really depends on where we are on the adventure. For the most part, creating the lead villian does take the most time. However, since I am still at low levels, most of the NPCs I swipe from the DMG or another book / resource to save time. The dungeon takes a lot of time to set up for me.

But the thing that takes time...

second guessing my players and plotting out about three choises they could decide on so that I am not caught unprepared (which still happens).

 

[megamania]

Honorable mention goes to just driving to the game site and hauling all the stuff back and forth from my house. That burns a couple of hours each week.

Been there and done that. Once drove two hours one way for a three hour game each week. This is where being the DM rules. Whomever DMs decides on play location.

 

[KB9JMQ]

Stats and paperwork.
Just transferring monsters and npcs to notepads or notecards takes the most of my time.
Updating the notes I keep on the PCs. Also keeping the game world living.
I do a lot of dungeon crawls so when the party is coming back to level 1 from level 3 trying to figure out how the survivors on level 1 have adjusted and how things have changed takes alot of time, albeit may not be necessary but seems like something I should do.

 

[Leaves]

My first post!

Designing the "dungeon" (not necessarily a dungeon, but the locations where the adventure takes place) takes the longest for me. It's also a lot of fun, so doing NPC stats is definitely the biggest pain in the neck, but not the most time consuming.

I only do stats for the most basic NPC needs. If all of a sudden I need to know an NPC's Jump check, I'll do it on the fly. I don't go through and write everything down because it's no fun and you only end up using about 10% of the info anyway.