Comments on: Mini-Prep: Just how little do you need to prep?

By: Prep for Burning vikings, plus spoilers « Cogito, ergo ludo.

Prep for Burning vikings, plus spoilers « Cogito, ergo ludo. — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:03:13 +0000

[...] January, 2008 at 11:03 pm (Burning Wheel, Burning vikings, game mastering) Once upon a time, Phil asked how much people prepare for their games. Here it comes [...]

By: Asmor

Asmor — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 05:00:28 +0000

Treacherous? P’shaw! I’m a perfect little angel.

What do you mean, “What’s that you’re hiding behind your back?” Can’t a guy stand with his hands behind his back? Sheesh.

By: clem

clem — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 17:07:34 +0000

I need very little prep as a rule. I have the outlines of the campaign well in mind far into the future, and I generally have more detailed outlines for the next few sessions in mind based on what the players know and have been doing at the moment. I usually keep two or three hot plotlines more or less ready in the back of my head in case the players head in an unexpected direction (\”let\’s find the missing explorer and let someone else spy on the Evil Empire\”). For an individual session, I just write a page or two of brief notes, just a sentence or so, for each of the events that need to happen or that might happen depending on chance or player choices, and that can be worked in if convenient for color, background, or humor. I also make a quick list of names of characters, ships, places etc. that may be needed, since I get absentminded about such things and pawing through old session info breaks the game flow. I improvise dialog, descriptions, and some encounters on the fly (and keep notes on a laptop for future reference). I find that doing less prep leads to a rambling boring session and future plot holes and retconning. Doing more detailed planning on the other hand, is either wasted when time or player choice gets the material cut or leads to a klunky session with poor flow. In particular, writing dialog in advance is a complete waste of time. The players NEVER take a conversation in the direction i would expect, and trying to use it anyway leads rapidly to DM of the Rings territory. Total prep time for a single session, not counting the background I have built up over the years this campaign has been going, is about ten minutes to an hour, two hours at the very most for an extremely important, climactic, or complex situation.

By: Burning some vikings « Cogito, ergo ludo.

Burning some vikings « Cogito, ergo ludo. — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 09:35:01 +0000

[...] Phil (Chatty DM) asked how much people prepare. I figured that it is as good a subject as any, so my prep thus far: An outline of the starting situation, this being the only place where I write this down. Stats for three potential important NPCs. Some pre-game discussions with one player. [...]

By: ChattyDM

ChattyDM — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 02:26:52 +0000

Thanks for the reference… Asmor is one of our beloved (albeit treacherous) Minions here

By: Phased Weasel

Phased Weasel — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 01:56:25 +0000

Have you seen Encounter a Day? It’s a blog full of encounter ideas, seeds, and hooks. They are all varied, and I get inspired to work on my campaign just reading them. Another way to reduce prep time, or at least fish for inspiration:

http://www.encounteraday.com/

By: ChattyDM

ChattyDM — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 20:07:04 +0000

Excellent points on delivery (and not just because Yan is sucking up! j/k) and definitively material for a future post…

I’m thinking “Zen and the art of Game delivery… (30 minutes or it’s free!)”

By: greywulf

greywulf — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:38:41 +0000

I agree entirely. Different GMs work differently, and how quickly you prep definitely isn’t a measure of your skills at the table. I’ve known great GMs who spend //hours// preparing for a game, and equally great ones who do no prep at all - or claim they do, at least

I find how much prep time I need depends as much on the system we’re using as anything. M&M and Savage Worlds both take less prep time than D&D, on average.

Either way, the amount of prep you do will always fill the time available

By: DNAphil

DNAphil — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 16:20:29 +0000

I think that is a fair assessment. I think that if you look across the blogosphere, you will see a number of people boasting on their short prep times, when really boasting should be more on delivery/presentation.

I think if you hone your delivery at the table, then you will discover how much prep you need to reach that level, and then you adjust your prep accordingly.

I know for me, if I run without detailed notes, that I can pull it off, but the delivery will be very superficial, where if I do my normal prep, then I know that have have the depth of notes, and of thought about them, to give me what I need to reach that level of delivery that I like to deliver.

You bring up a good point.

By: Yan

Yan — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 14:20:51 +0000

Well DNA, I for one, don’t think that less preparation time equals better DM. I’ve always considered ChattyDM a better DM then I and mostly because of his narrative skill.

You see, preparation is one thing, delivery is everything the player see… You might prepare or not at all if you don’t know how to tell a story in an interesting way it won’t have the impact you wanted.

The preparation is in fact more related to the type of DM you are then your actual skill.

My 2 cents