Your approach to session planning?

[Evenglare]

Hello all. I have been GMing for a number of years... 11 or so . I have always looked for new quicker and concise ways of planning sessions. So my question is how do YOU plan for them? Do you have some sort of format you follow? If so can you post example? Do you just write down what you think will happen and go from there? Im trying to think of some sort of template to use when planning out sessions. Any ideas or advice on that? Maybe there is some sort of document out there that i have passed up ? Anyway, thanks in advance.

 

[molepunch]

I'm curious to know how others approach it as well.

I personally try to run them organically and take notes as new things come up. I do have a loose idea of the main framework of the story but I try to let the players cue me. As such, I GM very badly when I have power gamer or munchkin players. I try to weed them from the group ASAP.

 

[AeroDm]

I think it depends hugely on your group and your gaming style. Some groups need to feel like they are defining the adventure and the GM is just reacting, other groups like a lot of structure and to overcome the challenges presented to them. Preparing for each group is hugely different.

The absolute best way to prep (in my opinion) is to spend time understanding what makes your group tick and the specific people that make up that group. A lot of what makes a "good session" is threading the thin needle between the preferences of many players. If one character likes to feel like a hero, another likes big rewards, and another likes to feel the threat of death, threading that needle can get pretty thin. The best way to do that is to understand the direction you need to head.

 

[Evenglare]

See, my problem is when i ask this kind of question I get an answer generally like "It depends on your group". Which is fine. But that really doesn't answer my question of how to prepare, and by that I mean, what do you physically write down to prepare for this kind of thing? Do you use an encounter table? Do you set up your encounters for the entire game? If so , so you jot down the page in a book? Do you type up the monster to have it in your notes? Do you jot down knowledge about the monsters? How do you run dungeons? How do you run city encounters? Do you write down questions and answers that people are most likely to ask a person with any given information? How do you let information flow in social situations? Do you write down relevant skills for these particular situations or let the players come up with what they want to do ?

I'm really looking for example writeups for how people GM. I dont necessarily care how similar our groups are. I want to know what works right for you.

 

[Hungry Like The Wolf]

I start a campaign by buying a workbook. Then I'll sit down and spend an afternoon running over plots and how everything fits into them (areas of adventure, NPCs, magic items etc). I usually try and polish it until I have a clear summary, about 500 words, and a list of important events, locations, and items.

Then I set on expanding that plot out to the PCs and how they will fit into the story as it develops. I usually use mind maps. Then I'll have a Q&A via email about what the players are looking for. Afterward I'll draft up some backgrounds which plug into the plot and suit their interests and e-mail them out for players to choose from.

From session to session I just build off of what I have planned. During play I keep a notepad where I jot down things about the players decisions. Do I need to plan some contingencies? Who is enjoying what? Cool plot ideas the players have thought of.

During the planning for a session I'll go back through my workbook and notes and devise the next step. I usually keep a flow chart so I can see everything as it unfolds.

For encounters, I usually try and have three challenges. Monsters, terrain and something special. I keep notes on what works and what doesn't which helps to create templates. For example, I like to use a minion spawning era and strategically placed difficult terrain. I use this template early on when I want the PCs to feel super-awesome. They get to cut down minions left and right but have to figure out how they keep coming in waves and how to over-come those terrain blocks before being overwhelmed.

That's pretty much all I can think of. I hope that's the sort of response you were looking for.

 

[Stormonu]

I usually run around the room for 45 minutes or so screaming "they're coming! they're coming!"

Actually, after having DMed almost 30 years, I don't do a lot of prep work anymore (I used to do everything from scratch, but I just don't have the 4-6 hours a week anymore). My current modus operendi is to take about 20 minutes to review the module or adventure path I'm running and do a quick check-over of the what I think the group is likely to encounter that evening (usually 2 encounters and an hour's worth of RP/interactions).

I also try to have any miniatures and/or dungeon tiles at hand for the night's use set out before the night's game begin. As far as paperwork, I keep a sheet listing the PC's name, hp total, damage taken, AC, Fort, Will, Reflex, Perception bonus and any special notes (forex, Mage Armor on the summoner's eidolon).

Since my group is only playing every other week now, I always start the night with a recap of the last session. I prefer the players to perform this recap (with some prompting to jog their memory); it tends to give me insight to what the characters are thinking and what they believe to be important from the previous sessions. I also point out anything that at the time it occurred the players noted they wanted to follow up on and may have forgotten about, or that may foreshadow events to come. I try to limit the recap to no more than 5-7 minutes.

During the game, I run from an ipad, which so far has kept open a copy of the module I'm using (Rise of the Runelords - Burnt Offerings), a copy of the Pathfinder Rulebook and the Bestiary. Thanks to bookmarks, I can flip to the section I need rather quickly - except for the module, which I've found myself flipping through pages instead of employing bookmarks. To my consternation at times, since 3.5E, I haven't used a DM's screen.

I've always enjoyed using miniatures for combat as I have a very poor ability to keep and relate distances in my head; besides, painted minis are generally pretty cool looking. This does tend to slow things down a bit as I'm too apt to map things out, but I generally get great satisfaction in how things turn out.

As for social interactions, I'll often assume the voice and mannerisms for various NPCs. It's not uncommon for me to often play two NPCs with adversarial positions, and while I'm assuming a part I don't roll for skill checks (such as Bluff, Diplomacy, Sense Motive and the like) unless the PCs call for a check or I think the NPC might be suspicious of their actions. Where possible, I try to coax the players to step into the role of their characters and not rely on the die rolls. However, I do try to take the NPCs skills (or lack thereof) into account in how they address and react to the PCs. If I'm not sure which way things will go, or if the players feel they need a hint, I'll let them make a skill check to help direct them.

For example, in the last session, the characters were conversing with a mercenary they'd overcome and were trying to decide what to do with; in the role of the mercenary, he suggested the characters bail on their quest - his employer was a truly horrific individual - and he would leave to return to the nearby large city (though he was really from a port city in the opposite direction). Another NPC with the group - an elvin ranger - didn't trust the mercenary and was urging the PCs to leave the mercenary tied up as they continued on their quest (because she had a bone to pick with another mercenary in the bad guy's employ). There were no skill checks involved in this interplay, the characters had to decide for themselves which, if either, of the two NPCs to believe (they ended up choosing to follow the ranger, even though the mercenary was truthfully warning them about the danger ahead).

 

[Jan van Leyden]

I prefer doing a lot of prep work in one big block for a number of sessions like a complete adventure. For a published adventure this means reading it once and committing the important points to memory. I also prepare the creatures needed for and with the Combat Tracker.

Changes to the adventure are made in memory as well. For the impending session I prepare a number of encounters in the CT and perhaps re-read the specific information on these encounters.

All in all I tend to improvise a lot based on a foundation of an adventure; that's the best fun-to-work ration for me.

One more point: The longer one block of a campaign - be it an extended adventure or a story thread - the less fun I get from preparing for the game. In the end I might even got to the table unprepared.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

I'm going to try to be a little more nuts and bolts, since that's what Evenglare seems to be asking for.

For me, 4e has put me in a place where I focus almost all of my energy on planning encounters. I don't always like this, and I'm working on trying to bring back more story-oriented thinking, but the encounter-prep approach makes sense.

The first thing I prep is the monster stat blocks. I use Power2ool.com, which is the best tool I've used (Sorry Monster Builder!). I can throw together customized monsters, in batches for each encounter, add in magic items if necessary, all in a matter of minutes, then print the sheets and be done.

Second I prep the maps. My first pass on maps is just getting them into something like Maptool (rptools.net) (we use a projector for maps in my game, rather than tiles or a megamat).

If time permits, I'll spend some time with the map trying to figure out some details, terrain effects, etc, and really make the map interesting.

The day of, I prep minis (we use action stands, which I attach to the minis with sticky tac) and initiative tracking tents with pre-rolled initiative.

The Good:
This is nice and systematic. I know for one of our six hour sessions I need to have 6 encounters prepared, with one that I can throw out towards the end of the session if we've been playing slowly. I'm a gadget nerd, and you'll have noticed that I'm using a lot of different tools that help me do it quickly. The only part of it that is totally necessary is first part, in my opinion. I could, if I was short on time, turn off the projector and draw maps the day of the session, and the action flags are nice and handy, but not critical (and could be managed during play, either by me or by a player).

Also, almost all of the prep can be done outside the game room -- I put the monsters and maps together sitting at the computer, so I can do it during a few stolen moments at work, or sitting in a coffee shop, etc.

The Bad:
This path leads to railroading, and a combat focused game. Sure, skill challenges can be mixed in with the other encounters, and I usually do that, but they tend to not get the same sort of attention (something I'm working on). But because I'm preparing encounters, and time is short, I don't usually take the time to prepare extra encounters in case the PCs make choices I don't expect, and when I have prepared encounters I tend not to be very open to ad libbing encounters based on the PCs making unexpected choices -- so I don't leave opportunities for those choices.

I try to counter that by doing a couple of things:
1. I don't usually prepare more than a session ahead -- PC choices are a lot easier to respond to if I'm not very far ahead of the PCs.
2. I have been investing a lot of time thinking about non-combat parts of the game lately -- especially elaborate skill challenges. This can be very time consuming, but it makes it possible to break up the combat slog and try some different ideas.

When I'm preparing home-brew stuff I also spend time journaling and thinking about the important NPCs in the adventure -- I write about their goals, how they respond to the meddling PCs, etc. This helps me map out the next session's encounters, and also gives me good prep and fodder for ad libbing encounters once the PCs go off the rails, and keeps me from having to dig around in my notes too much looking for what I wanted a particular NPC to say in a given scene.

It occurs to me just this minute that there's no reason I wouldn't do that with NPCs in an off-the-shelf adventure. But I've never tried it.

 

[IronWolf]

I am running an Adventure Path now. The initial prep consisted of reading through the whole AP so I knew the direction is was going to take over the course of the campaign.

Now for individual session prep I take a look at where the party is and I usually have a general idea of what they hope to do next session. I take a look at that area and pre-draw battle mats if needed and review the encounters. I find I am notorious for missing small things if I don't read over the encounters ahead of time. This often includes highlighting and making notes in the PDF on my iPad for the encounter to make it easier to run when they reach it.

And then, since the party never does what you think they will I look at least glance at some other options, so if they change course mid-stream I am not caught completely unaware. Nothing in-depth here though.

I run from my iPad for the most part these days, so my prep happens there. Save for pre-drawing the battlemat and picking out some minis for critters they are apt to face that night.

 

[Gilladian]

Right now I'm running two very different games, so I'll compare them. One is my long-term campaign, face to face DnD. The other is a short-term (4 sessions, I hope, though maybe only 3) online game using Basic Roleplay (Call of Cthulhu) rules.

My long-term game is based in my campaign world, using Dungeon-a-Day (which is a FABULOUS, large dungeon, with a really good storyline) and the surrounding regions, into which I've plopped a good bit of Kingmaker stuff without the Kingmaking... For that game, I read my notes from a few previous sessions, then I work up any threads I'm writing for myself, generating needed NPCs or sites, but not in a great lot of detail. I like to keep the non-module stuff flexible and easy to shift around. I also read any sections of the dungeon, and try to get a handle on the encounters the PCs are likely to run. This week I'll be emailing the player who died to find out what his new PC is likely to be, so I can start spinning ways to work him into the game. Most of this campaign's work is just-in-time.

For my other game, we have a metaplot; each different scenario is being run by a different participant in the game, and the characters are all reincarnations of the characters in the previous scenarios. It's vaguely king arthur based, so the characters are Arthur himself, Vivian, Merlin, and one a-historical character named Taleisin (IF you can call any of them "historical". Traditional might be a better word). My scenario has a sort of Fisher-King feel to it, I hope. The king is wounded, the king must not die. Its set in a post-holocaust, gammaworldian setting.

To prep this game, I read a module, absorbed the gist of it, threw it out, and spun out my own scenario. I broke the likely events down into scenes, and maptooled a map for each one. (In fact, today I have to go back and add in some new maps because when we played, they were galloping through the scenario and now I want/need to extend it. I'll be adding maps of a big building they're exploring, and a random table of room contents. I'll also add a near-the-end scene that I had eliminated earlier, giving some more of the game's mystery elements to the PCs to solve). I roughed out the likely NPC reactions to PC behavior, and added clues that I specifically want to insert that give PCs an understanding of what's going on. I created tokens for all the major NPCs so we all have something to hang the roleplay on. This game is HEAVY into roleplay. Being the characters is most of the point. The plot is frankly fairly weak, with a minor mystery element (who injured the king, did they also bring the plague, and why?). If they never figure that out, well, it will be there for them to solve in the ultimate scenario, when they return to their "true" roles at the end of the game.

Prep for these two games is very different. In game A, I have a real structure - the dungeon, the town, and the NPCs in it. I ad-lib action for story, but not for the actual adventuring. In game B, I'm creating everything from scratch, but the scenario is much more limited and directed. Almost railroaded. At the same time, most of what I'm doing is very similar. Creating a framework and throwing in story elements.

I've stayed away from the rules of these games, because while they do matter to a certain degree, what really matters is that STORY is what moves me. The PCs are living a story. Make it fun.

For each game, I spend about 2-3 hours a week prepping. For my home campaign, I also spend 2-3 hours a week just working on the campaign world. Creative writing, I guess.