I'm a PhD student DMing a homebrew campaign for my close friends. As such, there are times when deadlines encroach when I don't have time or energy to prepare an elaborate well-planned-out session.
My friends are totally understanding and are fine with "snack" sessions that aren't as elaborate as the regular ones. Last time this happened I ran "A Wild Sheep Chase" as a side-quest, and I informed them that it was a side-quest (and didn't fit perfectly into the setting or style of the campaign). It was still a lot of fun!
Any creative ways you guys use to provide sessions that are fun but not that much work to prepare?
I do "interludes," which are non-canonical (or time-is-wibbly-wobbly) sessions with campaign elements I've already fleshed out - cities they've been to before, NPCs they liked or disliked, environments that they enjoyed, etc. Sometimes, it's a beach episode and they mess with each other the whole time. Sometimes, it's a recycled quest they didn't get to. Sometimes a carnival comes to town. Really low-key stuff on my end that allows them to have fun in a low-stress environment that doesn't require me to fit things into the current narrative.
When I really don't have the brainpower to run a real session, I just sometimes take a week off. And when I know I'll be in crunchmode soon, I ask my players to DM a one-shot that week so I can chill. They actually like stepping behind the DM screen on occasion, and I enjoy getting to be a player once in a while, too.
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Hi!
I'm a PhD student DMing a homebrew campaign for my close friends. As such, there are times when deadlines encroach when I don't have time or energy to prepare an elaborate well-planned-out session.
My friends are totally understanding and are fine with "snack" sessions that aren't as elaborate as the regular ones. Last time this happened I ran "A Wild Sheep Chase" as a side-quest, and I informed them that it was a side-quest (and didn't fit perfectly into the setting or style of the campaign). It was still a lot of fun!
Any creative ways you guys use to provide sessions that are fun but not that much work to prepare?
D&D Beyond has provided several of these in their articles:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/tag/encounter-of-the-week
I do "interludes," which are non-canonical (or time-is-wibbly-wobbly) sessions with campaign elements I've already fleshed out - cities they've been to before, NPCs they liked or disliked, environments that they enjoyed, etc. Sometimes, it's a beach episode and they mess with each other the whole time. Sometimes, it's a recycled quest they didn't get to. Sometimes a carnival comes to town. Really low-key stuff on my end that allows them to have fun in a low-stress environment that doesn't require me to fit things into the current narrative.
When I really don't have the brainpower to run a real session, I just sometimes take a week off. And when I know I'll be in crunchmode soon, I ask my players to DM a one-shot that week so I can chill. They actually like stepping behind the DM screen on occasion, and I enjoy getting to be a player once in a while, too.