(Un)prepared

Originally published September 17, 2014

This week I find myself in the unenviable position of not being prepared. Not for my game, not yet, but for today's blog. My actual play The Climbers is taking quite a bit more time than I expected and so I am writing this with a narrower margin than I typically like.

Which brings me to the topic of this week's article: game preparation.

If you really want to learn about the subject, I recommend Never Unprepared which contains plenty of good advice. Today I want to relay my own experiences and how I keep prepared for my games.

Types of Preparation

When preparing a game the first thing to know is how much preparation you actually need. Some of this is based on your chosen game system, some of it to the particle campaign you are running, and some it is down to your personal weaknesses or insecurities.

System matters since some games simply need more preparation. Depending on your campaign, you might need more monsters and combat stats or a better hang on the magic system or the plot structure. As for the personal bit, it is one part preparing for the areas where you feel weak and where you need the confidence a well prepared game gives.

I tend to break down preparation into a few distinct types:

• Mechanical: monster stats, scene specific rules, treasure, maps, and the like.
• Plot: the connective tissue of the game, how the player characters get from A to B as well as informing what the antagonists are up to and how they will react.
• NPC personalities & world history: further deepening the game and helping to determine why things are the way they are and how NPCs will react.
• Handouts & other ambiance enhancers: adding that extra little bit to the immersive experience.
• Logs, websites, and nicely written notes: the simple act of recording things might seem like an afterthought but it becomes increasingly valuable the longer the game runs.

Know Your Game: Mechanics

Different games require different amounts of work to cover the mechanical side of things. Some of this is the system, some of it is the particulars of your campaign.

So personally on the mechanical end, what do I need for my games? And which games need more preparation?

For me D&D is the most intensive game That I've run. I tend to need stats for NPCs, especially any spellcasters, and possibly some customized monsters. There are dungeon maps to prepare, treasures to layout, possibly wandering monster charts, and more. I generally find it a lot of work without much enjoyment in the process which is one reason I don't run that system anymore.

Further down the list are less crunchy games. World of Darkness doesn't use Vancian-style sorcery so the number of powers to categorize is fewer. Fate games almost write themselves once you have the premise worked out.

At the very low-end are the games that thrive on improvisation like Apocalypse World. Here it is a matter of documenting existing NPCs and their connections and working up a couple of fronts and perhaps a few custom moves. That's it mechanically.

I've noticed that with time, I've become less and less enthralled with the process of building all of the mechanical bits of my game. It's not where I find the most joy, or perhaps more accurately there is a rapid rate of diminishing returns.

I've saved time in the past by using modules but I love to customize things so the time savings is limited. This also limits the value of pregenerated foes and similar time savings. So it's not the game per se, it's me.

And...

Okay that's enough for now. Hopefully next week I can on top of my preparation and not have to write this in such a rush.