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Wow. It's like you've done this a time or two. You should write a game!
More seriously I think there's an important bit in Kobayashi 's post. The idea that it takes about an hour. If you're someone who likes doing 12 hours of prep for a 3 hour session, more power to you, but cutting down on prep time is more normally a key part of not getting burnt out, especially for those of us who seem to be forever GMs.
A caveat, I'm naturally pretty lazy and have never done more prep, time-wise, then the length of the session in question. Well, maybe when I was 12, but that was also when dinosaurs walked the earth and spending 12 hours on a Sunday making maps on graph paper was a joy not a chore.
I'm actually using A5 notebooks so a double page spread gives me an A4-sized space.
What's always on those two pages:
_a short summary of the previous session (2-3 lines).
_what's relevant for the current session is put front and center (maps, relationship maps, etc.)
_the relevant NPCs
_a list of random names
_the PCs/players names and relevant rules informations for the game that I may need as a GM..
_a small space to record the aftermath of the session.
That's the core of my preparation, whatever game I'm using. It takes about one hour, sometimes less. We also have short sessions (3 hours), for longer sessions I need a bit more material but the logic remains the same.
I know a wide variety of approaches exist. I'm not asking about theoretical session prep. I want to know what you- yes you, the pubgoer reading this- personally prepare when getting ready to run an rpg session.
But how do you, like, not prep all the time?f you're someone who likes doing 12 hours of prep for a 3 hour session, more power to you, but cutting down on prep time is more normally a key part of not getting burnt out, especially for those of us who seem to be forever GMs.
Wow. It's like you've done this a time or two. You should write a game!
More seriously I think there's an important bit in Kobayashi 's post. The idea that it takes about an hour. If you're someone who likes doing 12 hours of prep for a 3 hour session, more power to you, but cutting down on prep time is more normally a key part of not getting burnt out, especially for those of us who seem to be forever GMs.
A caveat, I'm naturally pretty lazy and have never done more prep, time-wise, then the length of the session in question. Well, maybe when I was 12, but that was also when dinosaurs walked the earth and spending 12 hours on a Sunday making maps on graph paper was a joy not a chore.
But how do you, like, not prep all the time?
I'll be lying in bed trying to fall asleep and my brain would be running through next week's game...
The current "adventure" for Thieves Guild came about from looking at the map of the region around Haven and what lies along the road they are traveling and then perusing RuneQuest to pick out a couple likely monsters to encounter as they go through the mountains. The heist they did they did just before (their trip is to go to another city to hawk the loot) they picked out a jewelry store to rob and based on a little blurb about the store, I cooked up some stuff for them to steal (rolling on the RQ gems and jewelry table).
Are you me?I think about it for five minutes
Well, not playing the Thieves Guild system, just the setting (and some of the scenarios). Where are the TG9 scenarios set? Anywhere near Haven?Yay, someone's still playing TG, huzzah! (Don't mind me, TG 9 author here.)
I pour hours and hours of intellectual labor into this, so that all of my multilayered improvisational political machinations look effortless.
I really don't put as much effort into this as I should, especially for the heavier game systems I usually prefer to run.
I was just trying to "out" the casuals from the real role players!I'm sure some people do. I have, just not in ages.