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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Sigil" data-source="post: 9773845" data-attributes="member: 2013">In the earliest days of 3e, I ran a campaign that was extremely heavy on prep. Every monster and NPC had lovingly crafted statblocks. Every DC for traps, challenges, etc., was carefully tuned. I always had detailed notes to refer to when the PCs encountered something. My players loved it.Same group, one year later, with me one newborn child later... I no longer had time for prep, so when combat started, I picked foes' ACs and HP based on "what felt right." I had very loose notes with major plot points and improvised everything smaller. My players loved it.So the answer is, "I've done both" and "both are fine." I used to prefer super-prep because it made me feel "safe" because I could point to my notes - but I finally realized that when it comes to MECHANICS the difference between "prep" and "not prep" was really only how far in advance I decided what the target rolls are (and what the damage/HP of the enemies are) - as long as I don't decide AFTER the PCs make their roll (at which point it becomes GM fiat) it doesn't really make a difference.So now I'm a fan of "hybrid" prep. Story beats, plot points, memorable locations, lore, cool magic items, I set all that stuff up in advance to make sure it all makes sense. If I have time to stat the mechanics, I will, but if not, I'll do something like the "index card RPG" system where all DCs in a room are the same and I just set the DC on the fly.Also, I should clarify, I don't "railroad" but instead I set up NPCs with motivations, factions with goals, etc., then sit back, throw in the PCs, and I simply make adjudications about how the PCs' actions interact with the above to ripple consequences through the game world AFTER the PCs take their actions (if I decided beforehand that would be railroading).</blockquote>

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