Planning, prep, motivation and you?

Committed Hero said:

I don't think any rpg material has ever promised this in the 50 years of the hobby. But plenty of materials have bits and pieces that can be used for your campaign. I would look towards things that are geared towards sandbox or even improvisational play.

For my part, I prep situations, and if there are dynamic NPCs present, their responses towards things the PCs might do. And a lot of it can be done walking.

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Yeah, published adventures are at best character-neutral, and a skilled GM can sometimes frame them in, in ways that might matter (though that's a matter of GM skill, more than anything about the adventures). I think it's maybe arguable that some of the longer published adventures/adventure paths can be about the PCs, if the players bought into the thing at (or more likely before) chargen--though I think less about the adventure/s than about the players' attitude/s.

Your approach to prep doesn't sound all that different from mine, though I tend to focus less in prep on possible NPC actions than you seem to (which is a difference, not a right/wrong thing).

payn said:

Im not looking for methods of doing things, Im looking for methods of staying motivated to finish what I started.

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Have you tried AI?

When making game content there are parts I like more, and parts I like less. But all of it needs to be done. I need to at least describe the surrounding lands of the campaign starting point. The characters would know something about the next town just a couple of miles away across the river. But I can sit for days on "it's a town on a river" and not get much done.

Well....enter AI. Even just a vague prompt of 'make a riverside town' can get me started. The text is not always the best, but at least it is something to go off of. Or AI can fill in the gaps. I can't really think of a legend of the river, well AI can. It's not always great, but again it's a start.

bloodtide said:

Have you tried AI?

When making game content there are parts I like more, and parts I like less. But all of it needs to be done. I need to at least describe the surrounding lands of the campaign starting point. The characters would know something about the next town just a couple of miles away across the river. But I can sit for days on "it's a town on a river" and not get much done.

Well....enter AI. Even just a vague prompt of 'make a riverside town' can get me started. The text is not always the best, but at least it is something to go off of. Or AI can fill in the gaps. I can't really think of a legend of the river, well AI can. It's not always great, but again it's a start.

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For material? I want to write that, but maybe artwork. Since this is my own consumption I’m not worried about the details of A.I. but I’d I ever went in a publishing direction it would be all me and probably an actual artist.

payn said:

For material? I want to write that, but maybe artwork. Since this is my own consumption I’m not worried about the details of A.I. but I’d I ever went in a publishing direction it would be all me and probably an actual artist.

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Well, I'm just talking about inspiration.

My trick is to ask for something like "a dragon living by a lake" then get like 20 responses. A lot will be the same. But with a bunch to look at, one or two words can spark some idea or inspiration.

Sometimes, asking for a mini story works....as you read it and say "woah, I can write a better story then this.....and then you do".

bloodtide said:

Well, I'm just talking about inspiration.

My trick is to ask for something like "a dragon living by a lake" then get like 20 responses. A lot will be the same. But with a bunch to look at, one or two words can spark some idea or inspiration.

Sometimes, asking for a mini story works....as you read it and say "woah, I can write a better story then this.....and then you do".

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Oh ok yeah I bet ai could be a good source of inspiration.

Umbran said:

Broadly, I do it by realizing how little of it I actually need to do. I manage the work by limiting the overall scope I need.

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This is the key thing I've also found.

The reality is you usually don't need to do that much prep, and for me, if an RPG does require me to do a ton of prep (as Shadowrun 5th did, for example), then what I need to realize is that I am not interested in running that RPG unless the prep drastically increases how fun the game is to run (which it very much did not for Shadowrun 5th).

Re: background/setting, I feel like it can sometimes be fun to draw up more elaborate background and so on, rather than just bullet points etc., but it should always be something you want to do, rather than something you feel like you have to do. If this sort of thing becomes a chore, I think questions need to be asked of oneself.

Sometimes I've seen really sneery attitudes to people writing detailed background stuff (particularly 5-10 years ago), even calling it masturbatory and the like, but I don't hold with that. Sneering at that is like sneering at a person who likes to draw or write even if they don't really show most of it to others (which is to say, most drawing and writing, honestly). It's a creative act and should be respected in the same way as other creativity (I say that as someone who doesn't do a whole lot of it, to be clear!). The problem comes when people think detailed background/setting writing is absolutely necessary to run RPGs. I feel like that's a far less common issue in 2024 than it was in say, 2004, though.

Snarf Zagyg said:

I know that I might sound like a broken record on this .... but I really recommend occasionally playing a rules-lite game. A fun one-shot. As a palate cleanser.

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100% agree. This is straight-up good advice imo.

Ruin Explorer said:

This is the key thing I've also found.

The reality is you usually don't need to do that much prep, and for me, if an RPG does require me to do a ton of prep (as Shadowrun 5th did, for example), then what I need to realize is that I am not interested in running that RPG unless the prep drastically increases how fun the game is to run (which it very much did not for Shadowrun 5th).

Re: background/setting, I feel like it can sometimes be fun to draw up more elaborate background and so on, rather than just bullet points etc., but it should always be something you want to do, rather than something you feel like you have to do. If this sort of thing becomes a chore, I think questions need to be asked of oneself.

Sometimes I've seen really sneery attitudes to people writing detailed background stuff (particularly 5-10 years ago), even calling it masturbatory and the like, but I don't hold with that. Sneering at that is like sneering at a person who likes to draw or write even if they don't really show most of it to others (which is to say, most drawing and writing, honestly). It's a creative act and should be respected in the same way as other creativity (I say that as someone who doesn't do a whole lot of it, to be clear!). The problem comes when people think detailed background/setting writing is absolutely necessary to run RPGs. I feel like that's a far less common issue in 2024 than it was in say, 2004, though.


100% agree. This is straight-up good advice imo.

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Yeah, my actual prep time, for most sessions, is less than an hour of actual sit-down work, after something like two weeks of thinking about the situation and at least inclining toward some decisions about some things. Also, even if you're very comfortable running that way, I've found that it helps immensely to write down whatever ideas you have about what comes next at the end of the session. Clarifies some things if/when you have to come back to write up the next session.

prabe said:

I've found that it helps immensely to write down whatever ideas you have about what comes next at the end of the session.

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Yes also that way you don't forget vital stuff that happened and then get embarrassed when the players remember it!

Ruin Explorer said:

Yes also that way you don't forget vital stuff that happened and then get embarrassed when the players remember it!

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Fortunately, I also have at least one player who takes good notes and shares them with the table. Occasionally someone remembers something not in the shared notes, and I flail a little bit, but the players haven't given me too much grief about that, yet.

prabe said:

Fortunately, I also have at least one player who takes good notes and shares them with the table. Occasionally someone remembers something not in the shared notes, and I flail a little bit, but the players haven't given me too much grief about that, yet.

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Sounds like a good Prablem to have