Hey everyone. I'm curious, how much of your campaign is improvised, and how much is prepared for. I am running my second campaign ever, and I have found that I enjoy improving it as we go. I would say it's about 30% preperation and 70% improvised so far. As we all know, PC's can make our sessions unpredictable. So I wanted to know how you all account for this, and what mix of prep vs improve works for you.
I am probably 90% prep, 10% improv. I suck at improv, so I prep as much as I can ahead of time. If I am well prepped, what improv I have to do, I usually can do OK.
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Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
In my experience players always do things that the DM isn’t expecting and hasn’t prepared for. I try to keep my prep to improv ratio about 70/30, but there are nights when it’s 0/100.....
The vast majority, probably 90%, is planned, though it can be more if the players really go off track. Even though I (and my players) tend to consider me good at improv, it still comes out much better that way. That said, I've run very good sessions with minimal prep, but even ten minutes before the session can make a huge difference—not to mention create more exciting, balanced fights.
I would say im 70% prep and 30% imrpov. But my prep is not like a play by play its more about flushing out the motivations/backgrounds of NPCs and locations that I think will be relevant in the upcoming session so that I can improv properly to maintain story continuity.
Depends on the table. If the players are happy to stay on the roller-coaster, 90/10 prep vs improv. Once in a while someone wants to see what's over yonder hill, or someone gets a little murdery, but nothing that requires really heavy lifting on my part. It's gotten as low as 50/50.
As others have said though, good improv takes an awful lot of prep to happen.
This is difficult for me to answer. I plan a lot ahead for the campaign's long-term arc, but don't plan a lot for the short-term (individual sessions), and therefore improv a ton. So, on a basis of session-to-session, I probably plan between 20 and 30 percent of the next session, improving between 70 and 80 percent of it, but when it comes to long-term story arcs of the campaign, I probably plan between 70 and 80 percent and improvise between 20 and 30 percent.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
I have plot bullet points I need to hit but fill in the blanks as I go. I know NPC’s motivation’s and what way I would prefer the story to go and I have key locations abd what’s there but I tend not to plan more than an arc ahead (2-3 sessions) allowing the story to be driven by what the players want to do. But that comes down to my confidence n my ability to swerve if needed.
as I have gone on I have tended to plan less solutions and more hurdles that I then just let the players throw themselves at. So it’s less “you put the goldfish in the furthest jar from you which unlocks the door” solutions and more “hey that’s cool and they rolled well so I guess that solves it”
This is a difficult thing to quantify... I try to create history for the world as a platform from which to improvise. I don't create any predefined plot points, other than to say that something has happened up to a point, and what happens afterwards is up to the players to work out. So what happens during the session is 100% improv, though I might have already thought about the obvious points of it, and everything I prepare in between games is historical information about what has led NPCs, monsters, BBEGs, towns, forests etc. to their current state, which provides a footing for the motivations and reactions the world will have to the actions of the players.
So pre-game it's 100% preparation, and during the game it's 100% improv, based on the decisions the players make and the prepared history of the area they're in, motivations of the NPCs, and so forth.
The caveat to this is when the players need specific information from the NPCs to continue their desired direction, in which case I pre-plan who knows what, and then work it into the conversations in-game so the information is conveyed - though they might withhold some if the PC's are being rude, or offer more info if they are being polite.
I try to plan as much as I can, but I'm not a very organized person and my players are often unpredictable, so my playstyle is definitely 'try to plan, be ready to improv'
Most of the time, I plan to improv. I know who is involved for the most part and I understand what motivates them and what they expect out of the characters and how they will respond on success or failure. I also know they are going to go off on a lark from time to time, so I have some general locations that can be adapted and some characters I can use for general filler and if I need to get specific, then after I've done the improv at the table, I'll develop that character more and write down what I remember them being motivated by in the moment. There's a lot of give and take and I try to plan for the big things and direction markers and the upcoming moments that are going to provide a plot twist or unexpected situation, but I don't try to plan out all of the villagers in a town. I have a good feeling on where they will go and I'll sprinkle in some flavor for other things, but there are many NPCs they talk to that I didn't do much prep on. Over time, I have gotten more comfortable about speaking as a character, coming up with some quick motivations and mannerisms and then going with it. And the NPC the characters are going to click with and that you all have a good time with is NEVER the one you expected it to be and planned for.
If you asked me how much I have written down, very little in real terms, I tend to do that prep session to session, apart from creating battlemaps on inkarnate. I run a completely open world campaign so it’s hard to prep an arc as such. But my local area and continent maps are full of TBCs text indicating to the players areas of the map they don’t know anything about yet :).
I have a spreadsheet on which I have a load of encounters/adventures that are in the area, where they are, what the trigger is and maybe some ideas of what they consist of. Those form the basis of the battle maps I prepare.
I have a list of NPCs that populate the town the party are on right now, as well as people the y have met outside. But a lot of this has been created on the fly grabbing names from a list I have.
I have every player backstory sketched out, just as much as they need to know right now, maybe with some ideas of where it will go, but they flow and change depending on party actions.
But ask me about my world and I could Spend hours giving you great detail about it, I could explain the government systems of every nation, there alliances the state of those alliances, I could tell you about the spring pig roast festival and why it started and when it happens.
I could go into detail about the green skins in my world, how as an oppressed people they have been tortured, shunned, enslaved and forced to leave there lands and live in refugee enclaves. Hence bands of them strike out fighting for a better future.
I could tell you about the 3 great calamities that happened and so many other things because every spare second I have to stop and think I am creating a vision in my head, of the world, of NPCs, or bad guys, I am working out motivations and details and then translating that into a session for my players.
So ask me how much formal prep I do, maybe 2-6 hours depending on the map complexity, but in terms of thinking about my world, probably 4-5 hours a day in total.
I prep about 80% of what I'm expecting to happen and then often end up having to improv >50% when my party does something I did not expect. Unused content can be recycled and prep makes me feel more confident, so I rarely regret prepping more than I needed.
I have to plan to be able to ad lib. I can’t really put percentages on prep vs ad lib, but I’d say I do 30 minutes of story prep for every couple of hours of play, if that’s what you mean.
I try not to anticipate how my players will act, but rather try to think about the consequences of outcomes. I find that makes it easy to work backwards to the ad-lib. For example, for an NPC encounter I will try to capture my NPC motivation and methods (why they do things and how they get things done). I then consider the effect of possible outcomes of the party interacting with the NPC: befriend, antagonize, kill, interrogate, etc. It’s a little different for every NPC. I don’t consider every possibility, just the ones I consider important. I do allow any outcome that emerges at the table, though. Nobody and nothing has plot armour. That really makes the world feel real, even if the party finishes plot lines months before I intend. Some of our best stories have come from that. The same idea can be applied to a situational encounter, trap, puzzle, whatever.
So basically, for most things I plan, I capture: motivation (why is this here), methods (how does this act/react), developments (what is likely to emerge during play), and outcomes (what happens as a result of how things are left).
This works for everything: encounters, locations, combat, traps, puzzles, kingdoms. Anything. It also has the benefit that everything I plan for has the same structure which makes casual perusal easy.
I'm mostly improv. I'm completely terrible at planning, and I think it makes for a better story to have it evolve in an organic way. And I really loathe railroading, in video games and in TTRPGs so I do my absolute best to avoid that.
I definitely improv much much more than I prepare. I don't get a whole bunch of time to prepare, and the dynamic of my table is pretty chaotic. I keep a general bullet list of things that need to happen in the general order, but sometimes we have a whole session following a vein that just popped up in game play I feel like for me it keeps things more authentic and dynamic.
However I will say, prep work is really important. You never want to be slacking on story or environmental stuff, because it might take away from the game by feeling really spotty and incomplete.
@Third_Sundering That is pretty much how I run as well. I know the overall story, but the rest is up to the players. I plan to make my story points fit in to what they decide to do, and where to go, rather then planning on specific locations or actions where my story events will take place.
This is a difficult thing to quantify... I try to create history for the world as a platform from which to improvise. I don't create any predefined plot points, other than to say that something has happened up to a point, and what happens afterwards is up to the players to work out. So what happens during the session is 100% improv, though I might have already thought about the obvious points of it, and everything I prepare in between games is historical information about what has led NPCs, monsters, BBEGs, towns, forests etc. to their current state, which provides a footing for the motivations and reactions the world will have to the actions of the players.
So pre-game it's 100% preparation, and during the game it's 100% improv, based on the decisions the players make and the prepared history of the area they're in, motivations of the NPCs, and so forth.
The caveat to this is when the players need specific information from the NPCs to continue their desired direction, in which case I pre-plan who knows what, and then work it into the conversations in-game so the information is conveyed - though they might withhold some if the PC's are being rude, or offer more info if they are being polite.
That's a good way to put it. I've been improving a large chunk of the History too, beyond the general outline of the story. Maybe I should but more prep into that, and adjust how I run a bit.
To everyone, thanks for your input. It looks like alot of you are similar to what I try to do. I like the "Try to plan, ready to improv" moto. I may have to steal that line. Hahaha. Now how many people build your stories based on player backstories more then running your over all arch, and tying them into the main story somehow. This is an area I'm struggling with, and would love more input on how best to do it. Also, I know what you're thinking. "Wanta be Matt Mercer". But, I would like to put out there that I ran my first game this way before I knew what CR was. Though it didn't go as well as I had hoped.
Hey everyone. I'm curious, how much of your campaign is improvised, and how much is prepared for. I am running my second campaign ever, and I have found that I enjoy improving it as we go. I would say it's about 30% preperation and 70% improvised so far. As we all know, PC's can make our sessions unpredictable. So I wanted to know how you all account for this, and what mix of prep vs improve works for you.
Stay on the Razors Edge
I am probably 90% prep, 10% improv. I suck at improv, so I prep as much as I can ahead of time. If I am well prepped, what improv I have to do, I usually can do OK.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
In my experience players always do things that the DM isn’t expecting and hasn’t prepared for. I try to keep my prep to improv ratio about 70/30, but there are nights when it’s 0/100.....
Professional computer geek
The vast majority, probably 90%, is planned, though it can be more if the players really go off track. Even though I (and my players) tend to consider me good at improv, it still comes out much better that way. That said, I've run very good sessions with minimal prep, but even ten minutes before the session can make a huge difference—not to mention create more exciting, balanced fights.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
I would say im 70% prep and 30% imrpov. But my prep is not like a play by play its more about flushing out the motivations/backgrounds of NPCs and locations that I think will be relevant in the upcoming session so that I can improv properly to maintain story continuity.
Depends on the table. If the players are happy to stay on the roller-coaster, 90/10 prep vs improv. Once in a while someone wants to see what's over yonder hill, or someone gets a little murdery, but nothing that requires really heavy lifting on my part. It's gotten as low as 50/50.
As others have said though, good improv takes an awful lot of prep to happen.
This is difficult for me to answer. I plan a lot ahead for the campaign's long-term arc, but don't plan a lot for the short-term (individual sessions), and therefore improv a ton. So, on a basis of session-to-session, I probably plan between 20 and 30 percent of the next session, improving between 70 and 80 percent of it, but when it comes to long-term story arcs of the campaign, I probably plan between 70 and 80 percent and improvise between 20 and 30 percent.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
I have plot bullet points I need to hit but fill in the blanks as I go. I know NPC’s motivation’s and what way I would prefer the story to go and I have key locations abd what’s there but I tend not to plan more than an arc ahead (2-3 sessions) allowing the story to be driven by what the players want to do. But that comes down to my confidence n my ability to swerve if needed.
as I have gone on I have tended to plan less solutions and more hurdles that I then just let the players throw themselves at. So it’s less “you put the goldfish in the furthest jar from you which unlocks the door” solutions and more “hey that’s cool and they rolled well so I guess that solves it”
This is a difficult thing to quantify... I try to create history for the world as a platform from which to improvise. I don't create any predefined plot points, other than to say that something has happened up to a point, and what happens afterwards is up to the players to work out. So what happens during the session is 100% improv, though I might have already thought about the obvious points of it, and everything I prepare in between games is historical information about what has led NPCs, monsters, BBEGs, towns, forests etc. to their current state, which provides a footing for the motivations and reactions the world will have to the actions of the players.
So pre-game it's 100% preparation, and during the game it's 100% improv, based on the decisions the players make and the prepared history of the area they're in, motivations of the NPCs, and so forth.
The caveat to this is when the players need specific information from the NPCs to continue their desired direction, in which case I pre-plan who knows what, and then work it into the conversations in-game so the information is conveyed - though they might withhold some if the PC's are being rude, or offer more info if they are being polite.
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I try to plan as much as I can, but I'm not a very organized person and my players are often unpredictable, so my playstyle is definitely 'try to plan, be ready to improv'
Most of the time, I plan to improv. I know who is involved for the most part and I understand what motivates them and what they expect out of the characters and how they will respond on success or failure. I also know they are going to go off on a lark from time to time, so I have some general locations that can be adapted and some characters I can use for general filler and if I need to get specific, then after I've done the improv at the table, I'll develop that character more and write down what I remember them being motivated by in the moment. There's a lot of give and take and I try to plan for the big things and direction markers and the upcoming moments that are going to provide a plot twist or unexpected situation, but I don't try to plan out all of the villagers in a town. I have a good feeling on where they will go and I'll sprinkle in some flavor for other things, but there are many NPCs they talk to that I didn't do much prep on. Over time, I have gotten more comfortable about speaking as a character, coming up with some quick motivations and mannerisms and then going with it. And the NPC the characters are going to click with and that you all have a good time with is NEVER the one you expected it to be and planned for.
If you asked me how much I have written down, very little in real terms, I tend to do that prep session to session, apart from creating battlemaps on inkarnate. I run a completely open world campaign so it’s hard to prep an arc as such. But my local area and continent maps are full of TBCs text indicating to the players areas of the map they don’t know anything about yet :).
I have a spreadsheet on which I have a load of encounters/adventures that are in the area, where they are, what the trigger is and maybe some ideas of what they consist of. Those form the basis of the battle maps I prepare.
I have a list of NPCs that populate the town the party are on right now, as well as people the y have met outside. But a lot of this has been created on the fly grabbing names from a list I have.
I have every player backstory sketched out, just as much as they need to know right now, maybe with some ideas of where it will go, but they flow and change depending on party actions.
But ask me about my world and I could Spend hours giving you great detail about it, I could explain the government systems of every nation, there alliances the state of those alliances, I could tell you about the spring pig roast festival and why it started and when it happens.
I could go into detail about the green skins in my world, how as an oppressed people they have been tortured, shunned, enslaved and forced to leave there lands and live in refugee enclaves. Hence bands of them strike out fighting for a better future.
I could tell you about the 3 great calamities that happened and so many other things because every spare second I have to stop and think I am creating a vision in my head, of the world, of NPCs, or bad guys, I am working out motivations and details and then translating that into a session for my players.
So ask me how much formal prep I do, maybe 2-6 hours depending on the map complexity, but in terms of thinking about my world, probably 4-5 hours a day in total.
I prep about 80% of what I'm expecting to happen and then often end up having to improv >50% when my party does something I did not expect. Unused content can be recycled and prep makes me feel more confident, so I rarely regret prepping more than I needed.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
I have to plan to be able to ad lib. I can’t really put percentages on prep vs ad lib, but I’d say I do 30 minutes of story prep for every couple of hours of play, if that’s what you mean.
I try not to anticipate how my players will act, but rather try to think about the consequences of outcomes. I find that makes it easy to work backwards to the ad-lib. For example, for an NPC encounter I will try to capture my NPC motivation and methods (why they do things and how they get things done). I then consider the effect of possible outcomes of the party interacting with the NPC: befriend, antagonize, kill, interrogate, etc. It’s a little different for every NPC. I don’t consider every possibility, just the ones I consider important. I do allow any outcome that emerges at the table, though. Nobody and nothing has plot armour. That really makes the world feel real, even if the party finishes plot lines months before I intend. Some of our best stories have come from that. The same idea can be applied to a situational encounter, trap, puzzle, whatever.
So basically, for most things I plan, I capture: motivation (why is this here), methods (how does this act/react), developments (what is likely to emerge during play), and outcomes (what happens as a result of how things are left).
This works for everything: encounters, locations, combat, traps, puzzles, kingdoms. Anything. It also has the benefit that everything I plan for has the same structure which makes casual perusal easy.
I'm mostly improv. I'm completely terrible at planning, and I think it makes for a better story to have it evolve in an organic way. And I really loathe railroading, in video games and in TTRPGs so I do my absolute best to avoid that.
"h"
Probably around 60% Prepared and 40% Improv.
I usually prepare encounters, locations, information, major NPCs and such, but I improvise almost everything else at the table.
I use Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master's by Mike Shea as a basis for my prep, because it stays focused on preparing so that you can improvise.
I definitely improv much much more than I prepare. I don't get a whole bunch of time to prepare, and the dynamic of my table is pretty chaotic. I keep a general bullet list of things that need to happen in the general order, but sometimes we have a whole session following a vein that just popped up in game play I feel like for me it keeps things more authentic and dynamic.
However I will say, prep work is really important. You never want to be slacking on story or environmental stuff, because it might take away from the game by feeling really spotty and incomplete.
@Third_Sundering That is pretty much how I run as well. I know the overall story, but the rest is up to the players. I plan to make my story points fit in to what they decide to do, and where to go, rather then planning on specific locations or actions where my story events will take place.
Stay on the Razors Edge
That's a good way to put it. I've been improving a large chunk of the History too, beyond the general outline of the story. Maybe I should but more prep into that, and adjust how I run a bit.
Stay on the Razors Edge
To everyone, thanks for your input. It looks like alot of you are similar to what I try to do. I like the "Try to plan, ready to improv" moto. I may have to steal that line. Hahaha. Now how many people build your stories based on player backstories more then running your over all arch, and tying them into the main story somehow. This is an area I'm struggling with, and would love more input on how best to do it. Also, I know what you're thinking. "Wanta be Matt Mercer". But, I would like to put out there that I ran my first game this way before I knew what CR was. Though it didn't go as well as I had hoped.
Stay on the Razors Edge