Your approach to session planning?

[steeldragons]

See, my problem is when i ask this kind of question I get an answer generally like "It depends on your group".

Well, it kinda does. Do your people want to fight everything they see? Are they looking for mysteries or interested in encountering NPCs in )for lack of a better term) "meaningful" ways? Is tthere something in a PC's background (or multiple PC's backgrounds) that is being used/pulled in to the plot? All of these, ans countless other, options are completely dependent on the particular group and play style you're going for.

My, specific, amount of prep is generally dependent on what I know my group is looking for out of the session. If it is a big long storyline, then there's more preparation needed, more notes, more pre-prepared encounters. If it's just going to be a relaxing "one-shot" night or a published module, then less so.

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?

Depends. I'll try to give my own experiences to the specifics you request.

Do you use an encounter table?

If it's a published module that has them, then yes I try to make use of one of those tables at least once in the game...They are there, afterall. My problem with these is that oftentimes, some encounters on the table don't "make sense" to the given terrain or set-up of the story. So then I'll change it to something that does "make sense" to me.

If it's not a published adventure, then I generally have an idea of a few (maybe even only a d4) possible encounters that are not "rooms", if you will, or "plot important."

Do you set up your encounters for the entire game? If so , so you jot down the page in a book?

I will have a set of encounters for, what I'd consider, the "entire game." But, one can't always expect the PC's to take the bait, as it were. So being somewhat flexible on any or all of those being left by the wayside is kind of necessary.

It is also completely dependent on where the adventure is taking place? Is it a wilderness stretch/do I have to think abiout what sort of wild animals or a group of roving bandits around or maybe a patrol of men-at-arms from a neighboring fief/kingdom? Is the party in a castle or village? Should there be patrols of soldiers, servants, merchants in the marketplace, priests in the local temple (who is the local temple/populace devoted to?)? Are they in a "dungeon"/caverns -what lives there? What lives next to what lives there? I'm not a huge stickler for "realistic ecology" but it should generally, again, "make sense" to me. The ravenous troll 20 feet down a passageway from a kobold warren isn't going to be "ravenous"...just sick of eating kobolds all of the time...and the kobolds may be willing to parley for help in eliminating their vastly superior/ever-hungry neighbor. That kind of thing.

Do you type up the monster to have it in your notes? Do you jot down knowledge about the monsters?

Hmmm. This kind of goes to what system you are using. For me (either Basic or 1e or 2e hybrid) then no, I don't stat them. I have the stats I need in reference books (the MM or the back of the 1e DMG). For later editions, my understanding is monsters are far more "individualized" and so maybe then I'd make up a separate listing for this or that specific monster. If I have something interesting/different than your "average" monster , then of course, I make that note.

(Using the troll/kobold example from above) Let's say the troll is actually smart enough to have acquired some plates of armor and a bastard sword from previous foolish adventurers. The shaman community has a shaman who's been in charge since the troll recently snacked on the chieftain and top warrior/champion...so I need to make a spell list for that and some cursory conception of how he is maintaining his authority/control of the rest of the warren. A couple of notes will do, with alterations to the published stats as necessary (alter AC, HP, spells, special/different weapons -and damage, a "personality" note or two.)

How do you run dungeons?

4

I have a map to give me an idea of how many "rooms" I need to prepare, where traps might go (WHY and HOW the traps are there?!), populate it with creatures that "make sense" for the dungeon and surrounding environs and, as I said, work out a reasonable (if not entirely "realistic") ecology and social framework for how all of these things are being found in the same place.

How do you run city encounters?

Ah. THIS requires, for me anyway, much more prep. Since you have (or should have), people for the PCs to interact with...any/everywhere they go.

What is the compliment and (roughly) organization of the city guard? Is there a thieves' guild working in certain parts of the city? A mage's guild/tower? A merchant's guild...what do they trade in/control trade of (andd make sure that "makes sense" for the given geography and social structure)? In a city of even small size, I would say, multiple temples of various gods...are they politically aligned...at each other's throats? WHO's in charge?! Is there a Duke running the city, a Council (of elders? ministers? guild leaders?), an 'elected' mayor or local hero who acts as the final say...and then, how do the various factions/organizations in the city interact with the ruler and each other?

Some things can be answered in a single sentence or a cursory view/understanding...but if the PCs decide to pursue a particular plot/storyline...one should have, at least, a cursory understanding of how all of the various parts of the city intertwine...it can always be fleshed out later, as needed, but you should have at least a vague "jumping off" point...just for your own sanity. hahaha.

Then, of course, there are the NPCs of note (a particular innkeeper or two, local priests, mages, aristocracy of influence, a captain of the guard perhaps -if the party is prone to get into "legal trouble", a merchant of goods you expect the party to be interested in acquiring, a smith for repairs or sale of arms and armor)...Any/all of these potential NPCs need, at least some cursory, stat-ing...and, at the very least, I'll make note of their appearance and common demeanor should I have to "pull them out" so to speak, in play.

Yes, cities are a LOT of work. Naturally, the smaller the "civilized" area the less work/personas you need to worry about. The border/farming village or mid-sized trading town require significantly less than the capitol city or crown palace.

Do you write down questions and answers that people are most likely to ask a person with any given information?

Ha! I used to do this kind of thing...when I had a long running group and knew the peple very well. I might not have it written down, but could guess contingencies for what was likely to be asked or courses of actions by various players. Years of DMing have taught me...Don't bother! lol. The players will ALWAYS come up with something you hadn't thought of. So I find cursory framework and limited notes work best. The rest comes out/gets developed on the fly in play.

How do you let information flow in social situations?

This is really...a case-by-case kind of question. Not group-by-group, but interaction-by-interaction.

I can't tell you the number of NPCs over the years I've had all geared up and prepared to be helpful and then, when the party actually encounters them, through their own actions and comments, they're lucky not be thrown out of town or in chains by the time they're finished.

This is where it is necessary to have an idea of the NPCs personality and demeanor? Are they a "do-gooder" who will overlook some social...misbehavior? Are they a haughty aristocrat or nobility who, while willing to be helpful, will not tolerate a breach of protocol? Are they a dishonorable merchant just looking to fatten their own pockets, regardless of what the PCs say or do? Are they looking to manipulate the PCs to their own devices?

These are typically mental notes (but as the years progress, I have noticed more things get written down. haha). Even just a single word to remind myself: NPC is -openly helpful, cautious or guarded (but is in the know/can help the party if they prove they can be trusted)...Are they just reserved but not necessarily hostile?...or are they determined to NOT be helpful? A blatant liar or subtle manipulator?

How much or reliable the info obtained by the party is, really, entirely up to them and their actions/handling of the situation.

Generally speaking, I always have/know what info is/could be available to them and from whom, but how much of that gets shared or utterly "missed" by the PCs is completely in the players hands.

I, personally, try not to have anything that is "crucial"/necessary for the party to succeed. But if a plot demands that sort of thing...then one can add in an anonymous tip/or mysterious message being sent to them...have one of the PCs run across or overhear something simply by chance...there's always the local "rumor mill" where info may or may not be accurate/true.

Do you write down relevant skills for these particular situations or let the players come up with what they want to do ?

See above. It's in the players' hands. That said, I do keep an eye/thought on what the players/PCs have, in the case of "skills" and how they generally run their characters...but it's never a 100% thing that they will do what I think they will/find the info they're seeking. It's up to how they go about trying to obtain it.

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.

Well, there you go...from my perspective/experience. Hope some of it is helpful.

Good luck and happy gaming.
--Steel Dragons

 

[Vascant]

With the group I DM for I generally allow them to figure out what direction they may be headed, sometimes they give me a heads up other times I find out just as they figure it out.

So first rule of thumb I figure out all the directions they can head based on where they are, start up a word document file and create a quick outline of all these points.

Next find or create the maps needed to support these locations. I am getting much faster at drawing them myself.

As I am drawing I usually come up with flavor and personality for rooms and challenges, I add them to the outline at the same time so I do not forget (I am getting old).

Once the maps are done and the initial ideas are in the outline, I open up NPC Designer and generate the NPC's needed for the encounters.

There we go...

Sometimes I am caught off guard as they head in a direction I did not think about or do something off the cuff, for these moments I am glad I have a good stock pile of material and NPC Designer. Some times they can't even tell I am winging it.

 

[the Jester]

EDIT 2: My players, don't look at the attachments- there may be some major campaign spoilers in there! Also, for everyone else, if you're playing through Dead Gods, there may be some spoilers for that as well, though I wouldn't swear to it (and maybe even the Great Modron March!).

1. Try to anticipate what the party will do next.
2. Think of 3-4 other "most likely paths".
3. Examine what's going on in the milieu.
4. Write up any obvious likely enemies, items, events, dungeons or what have you that a high likelihood of coming up.
5. Play.

EDIT: The amount of written prep I do varies a lot. If we end a session with the pcs likely to head to a dungeon next time, I'll make sure I have the dungeon (and the journey to it, if necessary) ready (or at least ready enough). If we end after the pcs finish up an adventure and they haven't decided on a "what's next", then I might go in with no real notes or anything other than my existing notes on the setting.

I'll attach an example of an adventure I did write for reference. It includes a skill challenge (to find the hidden island), new monsters and a new trap, etc, but no map; I don't have a digital version of it, sorry!

 

[jcayer]

I stopped running around the room screaming because my wife complained about it. Now I sit at the laptop and bang my head on the table.

Seriously, my players like to be led around a bit, so it makes it easier for me to prep, particularly encounters.
I usually try to sit down 3 or 4 days before we play, already having some vague ideas. Sometimes it's a terrain/room idea I come up with or a monster I've heard about and want to use. Sometimes, just browsing through the monster builder will inspire me. I try to daydream a bit during the week.

But when it comes down to it, I'll fire up, Word, Maptools(projector), Monster Builder, and usually pandora(need music to drown everything else out). Then I go at it.

I will start with a brief description of where they have been or what they did last session, and where they are now...."When we last left our intrepid adventurers," always starts our sessions.

If I know the map idea I want, I start drawing it in maptools. Once I have a vague outline of the space, I'll consult the monster builder for what I want. Then copy and paste it into the word doc. If I know the monsters, I'll start with them and then design a map. That at least is an encounter.

I will sometimes write out whole paragraphs to read to the players, sometimes, just bullet points. Sometimes I write it out like a module would. I have no idea why. Very few charts other than monster blocks.

If I know the night will be more free form, like a city adventure, I'll do my best to have some NPC names handy, stores, location, etc.....I need more work on this kind of prep, but I'm getting better. I might prep an alley map and encounter, but not feel like I have to use it.

I grew up playing AD&D, so my prep isn't too far from those original modules, probably because I don't know better.

 

[SiderisAnon]

I do very little prep work or organized planning for a session and I write almost nothing down. I think about ideas and situations. I generally have a few scenes in my mind, or one decent sized problem, and then I do everything else on the fly. I don't go in with an answer or solution; I present my players with a problem and let them find some sort of answer. I find this avoids railroading or my getting set on a single solution.

There is an exception for player handouts. Sometimes I give them information in written form, but it's almost always information they gained last session or over time. As example, this past session they got a map of their region as they've been learning about what other lords are where and how much land each has.

I do also create stuff beforehand or during the campaign that is information about the campaign world. Things like a writeup of a country or a map of the world.

If I am running a module, which I do once in a while for variety, I read the whole module through with a highlighter, which I use to mark important information or things I want to make sure to touch on in the game. (If the module is in PDF format, I highlight it on screen. That's my preferred method.) I make copies of any handouts and look up any special rules or spells I'm unfamiliar with. That generally is enough prep work for a module.

 

[Jacob Marley]

At the start of each campaign...

1. I develop a list of NPCs and organizations. For each NPC and organization I determine their motivations, resources, and power levels.

2. I draw up a map and populate it with dungeons and lairs.

3. I determine how the NPCs and organizations relate to each other and to the dungeons/lairs.

Note: Often times the actions above are taken simultaneously.

4. I write up a dynamic encounter table (Subject:Verb:Object) based on my previous work above.

At the end of each session, I ask where the players are going next or what they are planning on doing. When preparing for the next session...

1. I roll on the encounter table to determine which encounters the party will face. I develop the encounter based on the NPC's agenda, the Verb/Object that the NPC is currently interacting with, and my notes about what the PCs have done so far in the campaign.

2. I usually write six to twelve encounters for each session (only four to eight will actually see play during the session, however).

When playing the session...

1. I usually need to improvise an encounter or two. This is easy to do as I already laid the groundwork with the NPC motivations and dynamic encounter tables.

 

[SnowleopardVK]

I don't do as much physical prep as I used to. These days, if there's a dungeon coming I'll have it ready, with every monster, obstacle, and puzzle in it ready too. Then I generally go do other things, and as I do I tend to think of how I might handle the various upcoming challenges as if I were each of the PCs.

If I think of any ways of problem solving that I can't remember the mechanics of, like "Oh, they're about to encounter some animals and I can't remember how the druid's wild empathy works" I look those up so that I don't have to slow the game for them.

And that's about it. If anything really out-there happens that forces me to majorly improvise, I know all my core books well enough, and I design maps and stories frequently enough that it's not really a problem to throw an NPC, monster, puzzle, plot piece, dungeon, or something together as we go and make it look like I had it prepared beforehand.

 

[fba827]

For me, I basically list out a few things ....

I. Recap
I jot down rough keywords to remind me what is most important to mention (or make sure gets mentioned) during the recap. And if it's relavent, stuff like in-game date/time

II. For myself, I list some important NPCs and their motives & active plots that are driving the current story as a reminder to myself if i think it will be relavent as that also shapes the rest of my notes

III. 2-3 Likely paths/things that I suspect the party will do
A. At minimum a couple sentences about the concept (ie "They might chase the guy that was following them - in that case, his trail leads them to an old warehouse and they can find his stuff there but no sign of him, judging by his things, he might be an assassin")
B. Might get more detailed like like creature types and numbers of each and terrain features i want to include
C. If a custom monster is needed, i make sure to wrie out full stats ahead of time

IV. Treasure ideas.
I prefer to select treasure that is appropriate to the moment rather than random loot. So I like to give it a bit of forethought. So I jot down some things that are likley to be found in any of the encounters that I wrote out in part III

V. List 2 Random Encounters
I write out 2 encounters that could be used as random encounters to use if the pace needs picking up. Typically one of my two random encounters is a 'random bandit' type thing while the second one is a plot related thing like a strike team from an enemy that wants to slow them down.

VI. On the fly quick charts
A. list chart at the bottom with the easy/medium/hard DCs for party level
B. If I'm REALLY unsure of what to expect (and I don't think i'll have easy access to monster books/info), then I also list out a very generic artillery, brute, soldier, skirmisher in terms of what the defenses/attack/hp/damage should be like and then just be ready to reskin it.


Anything that doesn't get used, gets copy/pasted to the next session's notes (so usually at least 1 of my random encounter ideas as well as some treasure ideas and my quick ref chart just get pulled from session to session).


And if i'm doing a dungeon-crawl a lot of this becomes a little less ambiguous and a little easier to predict.

 

[Halivar]

This is my technique for 5-minute prep:

1. I just jot down a rough idea of what the plot is. If the players leave the reservation, I have to make it up on the spot.
2. I print out a list of monsters I think will show up. I re-skin as necessary (really quite amazing how a dire wolf can become a space-orc thug so easily).
3. I have ready an exhaustive list of randomly generated names. As the players meet new NPC's (even major ones), I grab one, cross it off the list and write it down in a notebook along with a brief note.

After a while, side-plots and whatnot should begin to generate themselves. As the campaign continues, I find myself pulling less and less out of thin air and more from the established milieu.

 

[Rogue Agent]

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.

It really depends on the type of adventure.

LOCATION-BASED adventures break down to a keyed map and inhabitants. The traditional way is to include both inhabitants and locations on the same key, but I actually break them up: There's the map, a key describing locations on the map, and then a roster of inhabitants.

SCENE-BASED adventures I prep the scenes and I figure out how the players can navigate from one scene to the next. A similar approach explained at nauseous length.

In either case, each "chunk" of information is prepped using succinct bullet points. (Easy to write; easy to reference; easy to use.) And for stat blocks I'll do my best to use stuff I can plug-and-play as often as possible.

I think the biggest thing experience has taught me is to prep situations, not plots. (I used to talk generally about prepping "antagonists and their plots", but this was useful in clarifying the approach in my head.) The problem with prepping plots is that you'll usually waste a lot of time on contingencies that never get used. And even if you don't go in for contingencies, you'll still spend a lot of time prepping stuff that could just as easily be developed organically and spontaneously at the game table.

With all that being said, there is no silver bullet I've found. Sometimes I'll prep 20 pages of stuff and I'll get 30 minutes of play out of it. Sometimes I'll prep 4 paragraphs and I'll get 8 hours of play out of it.

As you gain experience, you get better at figuring out what is and isn't going to be useful (particularly for a specific group of players). But there are no guarantees. (And I like that.)