Anything BUT whatever dumb ass 💩 WotC has recently done or is currently doing, literally ANYTHING

Everything is getting smaller thanks to shrinkflation.

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QotD: When you DM, how do you spend your pre-session prep time?

I’m sure it’s been asked many times before, but I’m still curious.

Quote from Nothic2SeeHere2 >>

Page 2? Disappointing.

QotD: When you DM, how do you spend your pre-session prep time?

 Well, since I'm using a newbie DM using a preset adventure I just take like 5-10 minutes to put my DM screen, adventure book, dice, etc. etc. then I wait for my group to arrive. The part where I have to wait tends to be one of the more boring parts of the day, I kinda just sit around, sometimes on and off both our group chat and these forums.

Quote from Nothic2SeeHere2 >>

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QotD: When you DM, how do you spend your pre-session prep time?

 Going over my notes and thinking about how I expect the adventure to go. Also reviewing what I know about the characters and how they’re likely to interact with the adventure.

Quote from Nothic2SeeHere2 >>

QotD: When you DM, how do you spend your pre-session prep time?

 
All of my notes for each session (and the world) are on my website. So I typically re-read the notes (my main two games I run are bi-weekly on Tuesday, rotating between what I call the "Work Game" {which in of itself is ironic, as there's less co-workers on there now than when it started}, and the Off Week Game). So I review my notes of the last session - make notes as to what is going to tie over into this session. Write down NPCs they may encounter. In total, I probably spend an hour. If it's a new session (everything was resolved last session), I tend t flip through all the monster book resources and see what I've not used and how I can potentially use them in the next session. I like to use new monsters when I can so it doesn't get stale ("Oh. It's goblins. Again?") and keep the players on their toes (so they're not familiar with what the monsters can do). Naturally, sometimes the same monsters come up (just based on what I consider the population) - like Drow came up a lot for awhile (and now where they are now, the Drow have appeared again). When I do that (where I am looking for monsters to use, it's probably another hour of time as I write down a long list and see what I can tie together). Usually I do it the day before (or during my lunch, the day of) the game. lol

Quote from Nothic2SeeHere2 >>

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QotD: When you DM, how do you spend your pre-session prep time?

 Try to remember what happened the last time.

Quote from Nothic2SeeHere_ >>

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QotD: When you DM, how do you spend your pre-session prep time?

 Eating, sleeping, painting and playing/reading warhammer 40k rules/lore🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️(I’m not very good at focusing)

Quote from Nothic2SeeHere_ >>

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QotD: When you DM, how do you spend your pre-session prep time?

 step one: set up stuff

step two: sit, fidget, & wait for people to arrive

step three: as soon as the game starts, realise I forgot something important (like dice. or a notebook. or pencils. or anything else) then rush to get it

And that is Spider's steps to prepare for games

Quote from Nothic2SeeHere_ >>

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QotD: When you DM, how do you spend your pre-session prep time?

 
So, we are obvs not talking about n-person games for me because pretty sure everyone already knows that's going to involve two days of cooking for me, lol.

But the online games...

For Primary:  Review the NPCs, check notes from last session, make a few regarding likely events in the new session. Select playlist. Check dates in game, compare to schedule of external events. set up reminders of anything I have to mention in rumors or exchanges. Look at any possible subplots that might be going on.

For Secondary: See above.

For Newbies: answer all the questions I didn't answer last session. Review the notes of the dungeon, make changes that seem to fit with what they are still learning. ***** about how I need to write this out instead of just have a bunch of C/P notes in a word doc. Check to make sure I have my maps for the game ready. Make a pitcher of tea, and that my snacks and after tea beverages are ready. Maybe do a playlist, but definitely make sure I have the sound effects ready.

For Tertiary: Not there yet. Still have to figure out how imma deal with the damn regular classes and my custom world, lol. THinking about making it an open game as well, so may just say screw it and do a "small world" variant and keep it simple.

IN short, my basic prep is just making sure that I have the stuff available to me that I will need during the session. SInce my game is reactive to the players, unless they are in a randomly rolled ruins or something, most of what I do is on the fly based on my notes that I set up when I created the stuff n the first place.

But that's all because my deal is create things in blocks and parts and then assemble them as needed, or do all the hard work ahead of time before anything starts (like I am doing now with the next campaign for Primary and secondary, and they've only been in get to know each other mode).

Quote from Nothic2SeeHere_ >>

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QotD: When you DM, how do you spend your pre-session prep time?

"Ok, I have everyone's sheets open, the combat tracker ready, the encounter is here, my plan docs are there... what did I forget... oh what dice should I use? I wonder if they'll talk to this npc. I hope this combat encounter isn't too hard. The map is working on roll20, right? Ok good."

"I FORGOT TO GIVE THE SHOPKEEPER A NAME"

Quote from Thorrison >>

Quote from Nothic2SeeHere_ >>

Page 2? Disappointing.

QotD: When you DM, how do you spend your pre-session prep time?

"Ok, I have everyone's sheets open, the combat tracker ready, the encounter is here, my plan docs are there... what did I forget... oh what dice should I use? I wonder if they'll talk to this npc. I hope this combat encounter isn't too hard. The map is working on roll20, right? Ok good."

"I FORGOT TO GIVE THE SHOPKEEPER A NAME"

 
And this is why I check my NPCs, lol

true story.

I just keep a list of NPC names on the side so that I can pull one off the list in case I forgot to name somebody or if the party wants to talk somebody I didn't expect.

Quote from Thorrison >>

Quote from Nothic2SeeHere_ >>

Page 2? Disappointing.

QotD: When you DM, how do you spend your pre-session prep time?

"Ok, I have everyone's sheets open, the combat tracker ready, the encounter is here, my plan docs are there... what did I forget... oh what dice should I use? I wonder if they'll talk to this npc. I hope this combat encounter isn't too hard. The map is working on roll20, right? Ok good."

"I FORGOT TO GIVE THE SHOPKEEPER A NAME"

 
It's difficult to always be ready, too - with names.

Last session the party rolled back into a town they'd been working out of - when one of the players asked, "Can I see if there's a tattoo shop here?"

I could have said there wasn't one. Instead, I said, "You know what. Give me a perception check to see if you find a tattoo shop."

As they gathered their dice and rolled - the result wouldn't have mattered.

I used that time to come up with an NPC name and the result just ended up how long it took them to find the shop.

So never forget to improvise as needed.

Improvisation is my world's motto!

It has to be. I don't have any towns or cities or villages mapped out out. I don't have any shopkeepers named. All of it has to come u as we play, lol. Which is why I have to check on NPCs from last session -- hellifiknow what I named the stall merchant or the Cartwright in that last session, lol.

I created the world as a start -- from that point, everything else comes along as we play.

Quote from AEDorsay >>

Improvisation is my world's motto!

It has to be. I don't have any towns or cities or villages mapped out out. I don't have any shopkeepers named. All of it has to come u as we play, lol. Which is why I have to check on NPCs from last session -- hellifiknow what I named the stall merchant or the Cartwright in that last session, lol.

I created the world as a start -- from that point, everything else comes along as we play.

 I improvise a lot too. But I’m really impressed at how detailed your Wyrlde is. You’ve clearly spent a lot of time designing it. I just use the basic Forgotten Realms and change a few things.

Oh I always have a list or name generator on hand but sometimes I completely forget to flesh out someone important because I did it all in my head but never wrote anything down. Love my brain!

Quote from Thorrison >>

Oh I always have a list or name generator on hand but sometimes I completely forget to flesh out someone important because I did it all in my head but never wrote anything down. Love my brain!

 I do this a lot too.

Quote from WoodsGirl0402 >>

Quote from AEDorsay >>

Improvisation is my world's motto!

It has to be. I don't have any towns or cities or villages mapped out out. I don't have any shopkeepers named. All of it has to come u as we play, lol. Which is why I have to check on NPCs from last session -- hellifiknow what I named the stall merchant or the Cartwright in that last session, lol.

I created the world as a start -- from that point, everything else comes along as we play.

 I improvise a lot too. But I’m really impressed at how detailed your Wyrlde is. You’ve clearly spent a lot of time designing it. I just use the basic Forgotten Realms and change a few things.

There is nothing wrong with using an existing setting and changing a few things. You're homebrewing - and if you keep DMing - you will keep homebrewing - and in time, when you look back - it won't resemble Forgotten Realms anymore. It will be your own world. Forgotten Realms was just the spark to ignite the fire of creativity.

Quote from WoodsGirl0402 >>

Quote from AEDorsay >>

Improvisation is my world's motto!

It has to be. I don't have any towns or cities or villages mapped out out. I don't have any shopkeepers named. All of it has to come u as we play, lol. Which is why I have to check on NPCs from last session -- hellifiknow what I named the stall merchant or the Cartwright in that last session, lol.

I created the world as a start -- from that point, everything else comes along as we play.

 I improvise a lot too. But I’m really impressed at how detailed your Wyrlde is. You’ve clearly spent a lot of time designing it. I just use the basic Forgotten Realms and change a few things.

 
I shall squee a moment, first...

squee

Then I shall say thank you very much for the compliment.

Thank you very much for the compliment on Wyrlde.

and then i will go thus:

FR is a world that was intentionally designed to work with D&D.  It's whole purpose is to be as easy as possible to use so that folks can do exactly that, and it is totally and utterly fine to do exactly that (and a LOT easier, lol).

If I wasn't such a dang nabbit contrarian, I'd likely do that myself.

But that said, one of the benefits to all that work I did on Wyrlde is that I can improvise a lot more readily and still maintain a high degree of cohesiveness and consistency. I know Towns exist (but would have to look up their names), but I literally make up villages off the top of my head (and don't even have a list of all of the ones I describe in the lore itself). It is very much designed so that one can do exactly that kind of improvisation -- the stuff I answered is all the stuff I've learned to answer over the years, so that there is a sense of consistency -- and from this point, about half the new stuff (or more) will come from players making crap up.

Hence the website -- it gives me a way to add the lore they invent to the website, and so they can see the impact of it on the whole (because I will ripple that shit out, lol).