Why can't you be prepared for a game session

[Thomas Percy]

As a DM I have a nemesis.
It's another DM (GM exactly) who manages his own business, always has a time for his girlfriend, never forgets about any birthday and makes time-consuming gifts like a 20 full color handwritten comic book 20-pages long.
But the worst is a fact, that for every game session he is absolutly prepared, with handouts, music CDs, candles, full customized (for every PC) story, portraits of NPCs and so on. This mot____er even cooks a dinner for his players.
We have the same players: he at saturdays, me at sundays. And I'm always compared to him with only one result for years.
That is real nemesis.

 

[Digital M@]

People might have other interests. When I am not DMing, I do not thing of my D&D game except on the night of the game. I will keep the stats current, but we all have lives outside of the game. For some, it will be multiple games, or video games, or kids, movies, sports, painting etc.

 

[S'mon]

Then the wife and I straighten up around the house, clean the kitchen, etc. By then, we're pretty darn exhausted. We either relax and watch TV, or we go to bed. Often, though, I'll get on the computer and do what I need to do for my D&D game (when I'm the DM).

Well your wife seems rather generous in allowing you to use this time to prep the D&D game on your PC rather as "quality time" with her...

I mostly GM, but as a player I did once forget my PC sheet for a game - I had all kinds of notes & things and I omitted the PC sheet from the folder. That was a bit mortifying.

Players who don't level their PC up until the session annoy me too. Having to look up turning rules doesn't annoy me at all though, I've read the 3e rules many times & I still need to look them up every time, unlike in 1e with a simple table, the two-stage process is very hard to memorise IMO.

 

[Quasqueton]

I've read the 3e rules many times & I still need to look them up every time, unlike in 1e with a simple table, the two-stage process is very hard to memorise IMO.

AD&D1 = roll 1d20, compare to chart (13 rows x 11 columns); roll 1d12 for number affected (or 1d6+6 or 1d2 depending on type of undead or demon/devil); lasts 1d10+2 rounds.

D&D3 = roll 1d20, compare to chart (9 rows x 2 columns); roll 2d12 +level and Cha mod for number of hit dice affected; lasts 10 rounds.

Eerily similar process. Even about the same amount of text to describe the rules (although the AD&D1 text and chart is split up in two different places in the DMG).

Quasqueton

 

[S'mon]

Quas - I thought I was on your ignore list? :\ Uh-oh...

While your statement is technically correct I think, it's misleading. The 1e chart has results like "Wight: D" or "Wight: 7+", ie it tells you you need to roll 7+ on unmodified d20 roll to turn Wights. The 3e chart requires you to make a modified d20 roll to get Turning Check Result & has results like "Cleric's Level -1". In 1e you then roll 2d6 or 1d6+6 to see number of wights turned, in 3e you have to calculate the number of hit dice turned, & GM factors in Turn Resistance. I find 3e system far far more complex.

Edit: In fact looking at the table just now reminds me how hugely 3e Turning rules frankly suck to an unacceptable degree. Maybe I should go back to 1e or look for a simpler system - hm, I'll check C&C...

 

[boredgremlin]

As a long time DM i have a few thoughts here.

1) If your gonna use DMing taking more time as an emotional bludgeon or to try to guilt trip players then you shouldnt be DMing. Usually DM's are the ones who enjoy the game the most and probably enjoy prepping more then players. Sometimes we still dont like it. I personally hate any hard core prep. Most of my gaming prep involves daydreaming on the john. But still if your not willing to take the extra responsibility without guilt tripping your players you shouldnt be running a game.

2) In my experiance its better for campaigns when players dont level up at home in between sessions. If they all do it at the same time either before or after a game session the players coordinate more about feats, spells, etc and actually come up with team strategies all on thier own based on the discussions about the pros and cons of varius leveling up options. The players will be a more solid team if they do these things together.

3) miniatures, notes, etc, blah blah. Unimportant. Notes should be scribbled during play. If players want to take em home and type em up neat then more power to them. If not then leave with the DM or stick one of the better typers on a rotating weekly schedule to take a few minutes typing things up for the game.

Miniatures are neat but a coin works just as well. And back when i was player if a DM seriusly bitched at me about not paying for an overpriced figure and taking hours out of my busy day to paint it i would leave his game. Besides the fact that some people just dont like arts and crafts or plain suck at them thats an incredibly trivial thing to complain about.

 

[Silver Moon]

Our group gets together for about 3 1/2 hours once a week, and the first half-hour to hour is always spent having conversations, getting game materials organized, etc. I don't think of it as wasted time, because these are friends and we're socializing.

Have to agree with that one. Our games officially start at 7PM but it's seldom before 730PM when the game actually starts - I don't mind, we've been together since 1982 so the social time is also important.

As for player prep though - two players in my group have DMed a couple of times in the last five years and still haven't gotten around to calculating experience points from any of their modules. I find that annoying as I am the primary DM so my own characters are the ones who suffer the most from that. I have one 2nd level character who should probably be 4th or 5th by now as she only has experience from two of the six modules she has played in.

 

[Rel]

Having read and reflected upon this thread for a few days, I'm considering proposing as an "official policy" for the next campaign I run (which will likely be a year from now) the following rule:

The SESSION starts at 7:00. The GAMING will commence at 7:30 and NOT before. Whatever you wish to do between 7:00 and 7:30 is entirely up to you. It may include being late, eating dinner, socializing, levelling up your character, talking about Fantasy Football, etc. Promptly at 7:30 the GAMING will commence. Anybody who has not shown up or called by then will have their character taken out of play for the session and will get no XP. Anybody who doesn't have an updated character sheet by then will play their PC with the stats from the previous level.


Now that I think about it, I may e-mail this to the upcoming GM and see if he wants to incorporate it sooner.

 

[WayneLigon]

The 1e chart has results like "Wight: D" or "Wight: 7+", ie it tells you you need to roll 7+ on unmodified d20 roll to turn Wights. The 3e chart requires you to make a modified d20 roll to get Turning Check Result & has results like "Cleric's Level -1". In 1e you then roll 2d6 or 1d6+6 to see number of wights turned, in 3e you have to calculate the number of hit dice turned, & GM factors in Turn Resistance. I find 3e system far far more complex.

1E was simpler, until you get off it's little tracks. Then you have to remember that this new undead type you want to use turns as 'Wight -3' or 'Ghost +1' or whatever, and it's always different and never consistant. Not to say the effect of undead with class levels, or advanced undead of the same type, or mixed undead (which turns first?, higher hit dice or this other special case?), etc. You should be knowing the number of hit dice in your undead encounter beforehand anyway, which is part of preparation. At least I hope to God no-one does random encounters with a DMG open over one leg and an MM open over another.

 

[S'mon]

I the GM am aware of my monster hit dice, the player isn't, so he can't just say "I turn 6 Wights". BTW I never saw a "Wight -3" in 1e, it was always "Turned as Wraith" or "Turned as Spectre".