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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gilladian" data-source="post: 5719782" data-attributes="member: 2093">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.</blockquote>

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