preparations

Some weeks I prepare several pages of notes on possible NPCs or areas that my players may come across (more often than not, they don’t). Other weeks I’m throwing together last minute ideas and looking up basic info or creature stats to have anything for the evening’s session. This is true even though we are streaming. When I say we do not prepare ahead of time, I mean it. We come to this very raw, every week I read the summary from the previous week for my players. One of us does keep notes for the group (the big green binder), but the rest of us…

Unfortunately, this sometimes includes me. I get stuck in my everyday life, or other hobbies I’m involved in, and just don’t have the time. I still want to give my players a fun experience, and sometimes it works. Those times I generally feed off my players. What are they doing or talking about? Do they seem worried about anything in particular? Are they going someplace new?

Now, I’ve been doing this long enough, and am comfortable enough with the system and my group, that I can pull something out pretty quick. That GM tool box sitting in my notebook or on my computer is a true treasure trove at this point. I’ve got old one-shots that I could incorporate within the story, NPCs I’ve been dying for my players to meet, or interesting monster ideas to try. Any of these things could make for a wonderful session.

All those times I had pages of notes prepared, I will pull something from there to run the session. Like I’ve said before, don’t throw away unused material, it will be useful in the future. Keep those things in your own tool box so you can continue to game each week, despite not having prepared much.