Some DMs completely improvise their sessions, others plan every word they say. I'm partially in between, but what methods or ways do you have for preparing for your games? I usually have a basic session-planning Google Doc, in which I put NPCs, enemies, locations, maps, and tips to help me remember the story. It's worked well so far.
Are there other ways to prepare for games, or is improvising the way to go?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Running a (homebrew) hexcrawl open-world campaign called In Thrall of the Lost, inspired by BotW and Skyrim.
Well, the first thing I do is I make sure I know where we are going next session. This comes down to one of two ways - I will either have the session end part way to a goal, which lets me know with some confidence that they will continue to that goal, or I will find they have stopped at the goal, and I will then ask them to decide what they want to do next session.
This may seem immersion breaking at first, but you can reflavour it however works for you. I have a Discord chat for my in-person game, with a channel called "where to next", and if they are in a location where they could do anything, I open discussion in that channel between games, basically saying "so, where are you all going next?".
If you are organised and have the time, you can also orchestrate this with roleplay at the end of the session. Just asking them to consider where they are going next and then to roleplay out their discussion with one another (and any NPCs).
This way you know what to prep for your next session!
I am currently using Obsidian (a free software for note keeping) to track my game, and before that I used Homebrewery. I write down the overarching plot in the background which they are discovering and uncovering, and then I pick the next bits of it to weave into their next session. I then write a brief synopsis of their likely course of action and plan around that. For example, in my last session, they had arrived at the boathouse with a view to leave by boat ASAP. They had the captain, and he was ready to go.so my notes were along the lines of:
Party is going to the boathouse with captain, going to cast off. Boat is pulled by 2 manatees, Hugh and Verne. encounters on the river:
(list of encounters, in order).
they could stop at this riverside tavern on the way:
(name and description of barkeep, description of strongest alcohol in the tavern, description of tavern, one encounter for the tavern)
then they will arrive at North Mason Port, where they will pick up the road they need:
(description of North Mason Port, list of NPC names to use)
The list of NPC names to use is very useful as I did not have this, and inadvertently made an NPC called Benzo, when they are on a quest for a guy called Enzo. They now refer to Benzo as "Wish Enzo".
I also thoroughly recommend getting creative with alcoholic drinks for the party. I have never yet had someone go into a tavern without one of the party asking for the strongest drink in the house!
For running the game, I keep the key details from the notes - NPC names, town names and descriptions, etc. - but I improvise the rest, building the world up as I go!
I plan in a very odd way I fear. I almost plan backwards and very loosely.
I'll work out what the major challenge to overcome is (resolution). Then I'll work out what clues, items, and information could be encountered to help them overcome said challenge. Finally, I'll work out how I can hook the players in such a way that they want to take on said challenge.
The second part of that process I keep intentionally fluid. I don't have a defined way that they can encounter information, clues, items, puzzles, etc. so that if they deviate from what I anticipate I can simply drop down an NPC, or a clue in their current path.
Likewise I don't have a defined method of overcoming a challenge.
Here's an example My party have not yet encountered a dragon and I think it might be fun to see how they deal with a dragon who is causing an issue for the local population. This is the challenge that they need to overcome. While I intend for the dragon to be found at some ruins a short journey away Dragons can fly so I know that I can always have the dragon attack or encounter the party wherever they are or go.
Next up I think about what would be useful to seed in terms of information or items. How about a farmer that has started a new venture in breeding rabbits. Or, perhaps cattle rustlers have become a major issue. The location of these areas or this information might be useful to the party in suggesting a peaceful resolution (i.e. how about we tell the dragon where it can get food that isn't humanoids?).
Then I think about the level of the party and the level of the dragon. What items might help them overcome this challenge? Perhaps some slippers of spider climbing, or a bead of force? Where can I have these items be found? Can they be purchased? (usually I would seed these things in during a prior session).
The players will also need to know where it is that the Dragon is calling home, how can I ensure that they visit certain locations in order to get clues or rumours about the Dragon's location? (Taverns, nearby villages, NPCs who survived a recent attack by said dragon).
All of this is that second step and can be moved around as much as I need to move it around so that the party do have the opportunity to encounter said info or items. I usually put two opportunities for stuff in the way of the party. If they still miss it...well that's them telling me they didn't want it or didn't understand my clues.
Finally, I think of what the hook is. It could be a simple quest board notice (Dragon Attacks - Heroes Wanted). It could be that their adventurer's guild have heard about the attacks and are dispatching them to deal with it. It could be that someone bursts into their tavern, or camp screaming about a dragon attack.
I made myself a little planning sheet that I pop a lot of this into along with potential rewards or NPCs and locations that I have prepped and bingo...that's my session planned.
Campaigns My planning for campaigns it should be said is not that dissimilar. I work out what the end goal of the campaign will be (i.e. kill the bad guy, save magic, free the slaves, liberate the kingdom, steal the legendary magic item etc) then work out what the necessary steps are to achieve that goal. Do they need to assemble an army? Do they need to get blueprints or maps? Finally, comes the hook for the overall adventure. What is it that will make them want to achieve the end goal. Everything gets kept kind of flexible and moveable so that I can essentially shift it around the party's actions.
How I plan is creating a loose bullet point outline of what I think will happen in session. I have one or two dm plot points I try to incorporate in some way that is important to the session. For example, my players were planning to enter a casino as they were planning to investigate a cult who ran it. So I may have the following jotted down as how I think things will happen so I can prepare.
- casino hostess in front to greet players (name is Alliete Hum)
-clerk will give chips to players for money they want to gamble
- party gambles and someone will spot a man with the cult marking walking to back room
- party sneak into backroom to overhear an important convo on what the cult plans to do next
My dm plot point would be that conversation that the party will overhear and I get names ready for those important npcs. However, my players chose to instead start sneaking right away into the casino, using an NPC they found on the street to serve as a front and distract the people around them as he gets drunk. They then dip behind the counter and make their own identical cult markings so they can get in the back room. This is where I di some improv with the dm plot point and had the head cultists think they were the people they needed to talk to that was sent. The players did things in a round about way but got the information and feel amazing for it. Then they went off of what I predicted and ribbed the casino successfully and I had to improv all of that as well.
My point being, have a general plan for the party so if things fall to a standstill, you can use your outline to help get things going again. But it is really important to build your adaptation skills and have resources ready for improv. Luke gave general maps ready like an alleyway in case they get in a bar fight, having a street Map in case a horse carriage goes wild that can hold a clue to help further the plot. A lot of this spur of the moment stuff happens so quickly so it's important to have resources. I like grabbing an npc name genratior, a magic shop generator, loot generator, my players character sheets up on my computer so I can look up stuff, a conditions list, and my music list to switch between songs if a new scene takes place.
This is quite literally how I prep, glad to hear I'm not the only one.
I always tend to think as cinematic as I can, to help with an encounter, or a dungeon, or simply an NPC conversation.
sometimes I over prep...or at least I think I do, but one thing I find really helps with the way you described this prep method, is that there have been several sessions that I have ended where no prep had been needed for the next, because I created from the end of the story "working backwards". And where my players had left off meant I knew everything coming down the pipe for them.
Doing it this way really helps with one shots.
I run a D&D program for my local Park District and this method helps big time when I need to run a one shot, or do a big side quest.
I routinely ask the players what they did or did not like out of previous sessions. I try to tailor the story and encounters to their preferences, within reason.
I also ask which way are we going next time if there is a serious fork in the road. I don’t want to waste hours on something they have no interest in.
I like making props if possible. Real paper letters, puzzles you can hold, etc.
As far as dreaming up a campaign, I don’t know if I have a method. It is usually an amalgamation of places I have visited, interesting ideas I dreamed up, stories I have heard, etc.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Velstitzen
I am a 40 something year old physician who DMs for a group of 40 something year old doctors. We play a hybrid game, mostly based on 2nd edition rules with some homebrew and 5E components.
I routinely ask the players what they did or did not like out of previous sessions. I try to tailor the story and encounters to their preferences, within reason.
I also ask which way are we going next time if there is a serious fork in the road. I don’t want to waste hours on something they have no interest in.
I like making props if possible. Real paper letters, puzzles you can hold, etc.
As far as dreaming up a campaign, I don’t know if I have a method. It is usually an amalgamation of places I have visited, interesting ideas I dreamed up, stories I have heard, etc.
So, I'm a big fan of other TTRPGs where the world available to explore is a lot smaller. An addendum to my previous post is that I contain my players inside a city or small area during the early stages of a campaign. It makes it easier to show the consequences of their actions and learn what the players respond to (Blades in the Dark is great at that). Giving players a house or base of operations is also really handy because it incentivises getting back home to resupply and recover much like Dragon of Icespire Peak has Phandalin as a hub of everything. It means you don't have to ask which way they want to head at the end of each session as their choices are a little limited.
- read a substantial portion of the content to get an overall idea of the intended plot, NPC motivations, general location and types of encounters (eg running a published hardcover like SKT, ToA or OOTA .. I find it is a very good idea to understand the overall plot rather than just reading a chapter at a time. The main reason is to insert foreshadowing and supporting events that aren't in the published material.
Examples from OOTA:
1) Escape from the outpost - the guards would usually fairly easily kill the prisoners unless they are all asleep and can't raise an alarm for some reason. One of the suggested events is a that a group of battling demons enters the cavern distracting the elves. However, if you just throw that into the plot line it doesn't feel like a natural continuation of the story because it comes out of no where. I added a description on several of the previous days of unearthly screams or faint sounds of combat echoing from some long distance in the caverns. When that noise spills into the caverns accompanied by fighting demons, the players get an answer to the mysterious noise they had heard AND it supports why this distraction could reasonably happen at this point in the adventure.
2) There are a lot of random events and encounters in the underdark that happen as the result of earth tremors or earthquakes. However, there is no description of these events happening at any other time except when they affect the characters in random encounters. That also adds an unrealistic element so I added occasional descriptions of earth tremors and the almost daily instability in some of the rocks of the underdark so that when one of these events affects the characters the random event almost feels expected and logical.
- read over the parts of the module the characters are most likely to reach in the next session - skim the rest in case they go in an unexpected direction
- make any props I think I might need though encounters can just be drawn on a white board in person or on a VTT. Sometimes it feels cooler to have a map if I have time to make one.
- have stat blocks handy if in person - online makes this easier.
Published content is generally more work to prep in some ways.
2) Homebrewed content.
- have an idea of the plots going on in the world along with the ones that the players might have already encountered or may encounter in the next session. If there is a plot arc in play at the moment, have a reasonable idea of what might happen next.
- have some ideas about the NPCs/monsters and what they might do. Not everyone fights to the death. Not everyone is even interested in fighting and NPCs can be as deceptive as PCs.
- have the stat blocks of creatures that might be involved handy.
- if time available, create any props that I think might be needed.
- make the rest up as I go along :)
HOWEVER, be sure to make notes as you go along as you create things since whatever you created before and after should be consistent with whatever you are making up on the spur of the moment.
In my experience improvising the whole thing is really difficult to do well for most people. They tend to stutter and say ahh a lot and they have no clear idea where to go.
Personally I don't like listening to a DM read from a book.
In any event the worst possible scenario to me at least is a DM that does not know their material before they show up.
My method. I create my own content or borrow and modify what others had done.
When starting a campaign I first try to figure out what the desired end game of the adventure will be. Everything else is then a build up to that eventuality that may dozens to hundreds of sessions away. My campaigns are generally one long quest, will have many sub quests inside of it.
The I create a way for the party to have an excuse to be together. I almost always start at level 1.
Then I create the first session. Now it is important to me as a presenter (professionally and in game) to be able to narrate the story without reading from a book or piece of paper.
So I create sessions adventure. I will often write out the dialog and descriptions like I was writing a book. I then make an outline of the book.
I will read through the book several times.
When I show up I use the outline to prompt me for descriptions and dialog. I always have a DM map and a player map that shows me where object are in the room and doors etc.
For me this works because I can then do the session more smoothly and without constantly reading.
Each session will have set and random encounters. I completely build the encounter. Meaning determine monster, to hits, hit points, initiative, treasure. All I have to do is pull out the encounter sheet and when the players roll their initiative I just put their name in where it is supposed to be.
The next day I start creating the next session based on what happened in the last session.
I posted a long one so I will just start a new thought. 100% improvised is really hard to do.
However, in my last campaign one of the PC's would say or do something that completely alters the course of the adventure. This is why I don't plan to far ahead. Also I try to remember and incorporate the funny, heroic, or downright stupid things people have done. The PC's get a kick out of it coming back.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Some DMs completely improvise their sessions, others plan every word they say. I'm partially in between, but what methods or ways do you have for preparing for your games? I usually have a basic session-planning Google Doc, in which I put NPCs, enemies, locations, maps, and tips to help me remember the story. It's worked well so far.
Are there other ways to prepare for games, or is improvising the way to go?
Running a (homebrew) hexcrawl open-world campaign called In Thrall of the Lost, inspired by BotW and Skyrim.
Well, the first thing I do is I make sure I know where we are going next session. This comes down to one of two ways - I will either have the session end part way to a goal, which lets me know with some confidence that they will continue to that goal, or I will find they have stopped at the goal, and I will then ask them to decide what they want to do next session.
This may seem immersion breaking at first, but you can reflavour it however works for you. I have a Discord chat for my in-person game, with a channel called "where to next", and if they are in a location where they could do anything, I open discussion in that channel between games, basically saying "so, where are you all going next?".
If you are organised and have the time, you can also orchestrate this with roleplay at the end of the session. Just asking them to consider where they are going next and then to roleplay out their discussion with one another (and any NPCs).
This way you know what to prep for your next session!
I am currently using Obsidian (a free software for note keeping) to track my game, and before that I used Homebrewery. I write down the overarching plot in the background which they are discovering and uncovering, and then I pick the next bits of it to weave into their next session. I then write a brief synopsis of their likely course of action and plan around that. For example, in my last session, they had arrived at the boathouse with a view to leave by boat ASAP. They had the captain, and he was ready to go.so my notes were along the lines of:
The list of NPC names to use is very useful as I did not have this, and inadvertently made an NPC called Benzo, when they are on a quest for a guy called Enzo. They now refer to Benzo as "Wish Enzo".
I also thoroughly recommend getting creative with alcoholic drinks for the party. I have never yet had someone go into a tavern without one of the party asking for the strongest drink in the house!
For running the game, I keep the key details from the notes - NPC names, town names and descriptions, etc. - but I improvise the rest, building the world up as I go!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread - latest release; the Harvest Sprite, a playable Jack-o-Lantern Race!
Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: The College of Fisticuffs Bard!
I also dabble in art on here (my art thread)
I plan in a very odd way I fear. I almost plan backwards and very loosely.
I'll work out what the major challenge to overcome is (resolution).
Then I'll work out what clues, items, and information could be encountered to help them overcome said challenge.
Finally, I'll work out how I can hook the players in such a way that they want to take on said challenge.
The second part of that process I keep intentionally fluid. I don't have a defined way that they can encounter information, clues, items, puzzles, etc. so that if they deviate from what I anticipate I can simply drop down an NPC, or a clue in their current path.
Likewise I don't have a defined method of overcoming a challenge.
Here's an example
My party have not yet encountered a dragon and I think it might be fun to see how they deal with a dragon who is causing an issue for the local population. This is the challenge that they need to overcome. While I intend for the dragon to be found at some ruins a short journey away Dragons can fly so I know that I can always have the dragon attack or encounter the party wherever they are or go.
Next up I think about what would be useful to seed in terms of information or items. How about a farmer that has started a new venture in breeding rabbits. Or, perhaps cattle rustlers have become a major issue. The location of these areas or this information might be useful to the party in suggesting a peaceful resolution (i.e. how about we tell the dragon where it can get food that isn't humanoids?).
Then I think about the level of the party and the level of the dragon. What items might help them overcome this challenge? Perhaps some slippers of spider climbing, or a bead of force? Where can I have these items be found? Can they be purchased? (usually I would seed these things in during a prior session).
The players will also need to know where it is that the Dragon is calling home, how can I ensure that they visit certain locations in order to get clues or rumours about the Dragon's location? (Taverns, nearby villages, NPCs who survived a recent attack by said dragon).
All of this is that second step and can be moved around as much as I need to move it around so that the party do have the opportunity to encounter said info or items. I usually put two opportunities for stuff in the way of the party. If they still miss it...well that's them telling me they didn't want it or didn't understand my clues.
Finally, I think of what the hook is. It could be a simple quest board notice (Dragon Attacks - Heroes Wanted). It could be that their adventurer's guild have heard about the attacks and are dispatching them to deal with it. It could be that someone bursts into their tavern, or camp screaming about a dragon attack.
I made myself a little planning sheet that I pop a lot of this into along with potential rewards or NPCs and locations that I have prepped and bingo...that's my session planned.
Campaigns
My planning for campaigns it should be said is not that dissimilar. I work out what the end goal of the campaign will be (i.e. kill the bad guy, save magic, free the slaves, liberate the kingdom, steal the legendary magic item etc) then work out what the necessary steps are to achieve that goal. Do they need to assemble an army? Do they need to get blueprints or maps? Finally, comes the hook for the overall adventure. What is it that will make them want to achieve the end goal. Everything gets kept kind of flexible and moveable so that I can essentially shift it around the party's actions.
My free DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
How I plan is creating a loose bullet point outline of what I think will happen in session. I have one or two dm plot points I try to incorporate in some way that is important to the session. For example, my players were planning to enter a casino as they were planning to investigate a cult who ran it. So I may have the following jotted down as how I think things will happen so I can prepare.
- casino hostess in front to greet players (name is Alliete Hum)
-clerk will give chips to players for money they want to gamble
- party gambles and someone will spot a man with the cult marking walking to back room
- party sneak into backroom to overhear an important convo on what the cult plans to do next
My dm plot point would be that conversation that the party will overhear and I get names ready for those important npcs. However, my players chose to instead start sneaking right away into the casino, using an NPC they found on the street to serve as a front and distract the people around them as he gets drunk. They then dip behind the counter and make their own identical cult markings so they can get in the back room. This is where I di some improv with the dm plot point and had the head cultists think they were the people they needed to talk to that was sent. The players did things in a round about way but got the information and feel amazing for it. Then they went off of what I predicted and ribbed the casino successfully and I had to improv all of that as well.
My point being, have a general plan for the party so if things fall to a standstill, you can use your outline to help get things going again. But it is really important to build your adaptation skills and have resources ready for improv. Luke gave general maps ready like an alleyway in case they get in a bar fight, having a street Map in case a horse carriage goes wild that can hold a clue to help further the plot. A lot of this spur of the moment stuff happens so quickly so it's important to have resources. I like grabbing an npc name genratior, a magic shop generator, loot generator, my players character sheets up on my computer so I can look up stuff, a conditions list, and my music list to switch between songs if a new scene takes place.
This is quite literally how I prep, glad to hear I'm not the only one.
I always tend to think as cinematic as I can, to help with an encounter, or a dungeon, or simply an NPC conversation.
sometimes I over prep...or at least I think I do, but one thing I find really helps with the way you described this prep method, is that there have been several sessions that I have ended where no prep had been needed for the next, because I created from the end of the story "working backwards". And where my players had left off meant I knew everything coming down the pipe for them.
Doing it this way really helps with one shots.
I run a D&D program for my local Park District and this method helps big time when I need to run a one shot, or do a big side quest.
I routinely ask the players what they did or did not like out of previous sessions. I try to tailor the story and encounters to their preferences, within reason.
I also ask which way are we going next time if there is a serious fork in the road. I don’t want to waste hours on something they have no interest in.
I like making props if possible. Real paper letters, puzzles you can hold, etc.
As far as dreaming up a campaign, I don’t know if I have a method. It is usually an amalgamation of places I have visited, interesting ideas I dreamed up, stories I have heard, etc.
Velstitzen
I am a 40 something year old physician who DMs for a group of 40 something year old doctors. We play a hybrid game, mostly based on 2nd edition rules with some homebrew and 5E components.
So, I'm a big fan of other TTRPGs where the world available to explore is a lot smaller. An addendum to my previous post is that I contain my players inside a city or small area during the early stages of a campaign. It makes it easier to show the consequences of their actions and learn what the players respond to (Blades in the Dark is great at that). Giving players a house or base of operations is also really handy because it incentivises getting back home to resupply and recover much like Dragon of Icespire Peak has Phandalin as a hub of everything. It means you don't have to ask which way they want to head at the end of each session as their choices are a little limited.
My free DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
Different approaches for different content.
1) If I am running published content
- read a substantial portion of the content to get an overall idea of the intended plot, NPC motivations, general location and types of encounters (eg running a published hardcover like SKT, ToA or OOTA .. I find it is a very good idea to understand the overall plot rather than just reading a chapter at a time. The main reason is to insert foreshadowing and supporting events that aren't in the published material.
Examples from OOTA:
1) Escape from the outpost - the guards would usually fairly easily kill the prisoners unless they are all asleep and can't raise an alarm for some reason. One of the suggested events is a that a group of battling demons enters the cavern distracting the elves. However, if you just throw that into the plot line it doesn't feel like a natural continuation of the story because it comes out of no where. I added a description on several of the previous days of unearthly screams or faint sounds of combat echoing from some long distance in the caverns. When that noise spills into the caverns accompanied by fighting demons, the players get an answer to the mysterious noise they had heard AND it supports why this distraction could reasonably happen at this point in the adventure.
2) There are a lot of random events and encounters in the underdark that happen as the result of earth tremors or earthquakes. However, there is no description of these events happening at any other time except when they affect the characters in random encounters. That also adds an unrealistic element so I added occasional descriptions of earth tremors and the almost daily instability in some of the rocks of the underdark so that when one of these events affects the characters the random event almost feels expected and logical.
- read over the parts of the module the characters are most likely to reach in the next session - skim the rest in case they go in an unexpected direction
- make any props I think I might need though encounters can just be drawn on a white board in person or on a VTT. Sometimes it feels cooler to have a map if I have time to make one.
- have stat blocks handy if in person - online makes this easier.
Published content is generally more work to prep in some ways.
2) Homebrewed content.
- have an idea of the plots going on in the world along with the ones that the players might have already encountered or may encounter in the next session. If there is a plot arc in play at the moment, have a reasonable idea of what might happen next.
- have some ideas about the NPCs/monsters and what they might do. Not everyone fights to the death. Not everyone is even interested in fighting and NPCs can be as deceptive as PCs.
- have the stat blocks of creatures that might be involved handy.
- if time available, create any props that I think might be needed.
- make the rest up as I go along :)
HOWEVER, be sure to make notes as you go along as you create things since whatever you created before and after should be consistent with whatever you are making up on the spur of the moment.
In my experience improvising the whole thing is really difficult to do well for most people. They tend to stutter and say ahh a lot and they have no clear idea where to go.
Personally I don't like listening to a DM read from a book.
In any event the worst possible scenario to me at least is a DM that does not know their material before they show up.
My method. I create my own content or borrow and modify what others had done.
When starting a campaign I first try to figure out what the desired end game of the adventure will be. Everything else is then a build up to that eventuality that may dozens to hundreds of sessions away. My campaigns are generally one long quest, will have many sub quests inside of it.
The I create a way for the party to have an excuse to be together. I almost always start at level 1.
Then I create the first session. Now it is important to me as a presenter (professionally and in game) to be able to narrate the story without reading from a book or piece of paper.
So I create sessions adventure. I will often write out the dialog and descriptions like I was writing a book. I then make an outline of the book.
I will read through the book several times.
When I show up I use the outline to prompt me for descriptions and dialog. I always have a DM map and a player map that shows me where object are in the room and doors etc.
For me this works because I can then do the session more smoothly and without constantly reading.
Each session will have set and random encounters. I completely build the encounter. Meaning determine monster, to hits, hit points, initiative, treasure. All I have to do is pull out the encounter sheet and when the players roll their initiative I just put their name in where it is supposed to be.
The next day I start creating the next session based on what happened in the last session.
I posted a long one so I will just start a new thought. 100% improvised is really hard to do.
However, in my last campaign one of the PC's would say or do something that completely alters the course of the adventure. This is why I don't plan to far ahead. Also I try to remember and incorporate the funny, heroic, or downright stupid things people have done. The PC's get a kick out of it coming back.