How much time do you spend to prepare your sessions?

Discussing all things Ravenloft
Post Reply
User avatar
Nox
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 261
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2015 2:28 am

How much time do you spend to prepare your sessions?

Post by Nox »

As the title:
How much time do you spend (daily or weekly) to prepare your next session?

I was trying to figure it out to organize my time in the best possible way.
User avatar
Igor the Henchman
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 789
Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2003 6:50 pm

Re: How much time do you spend to prepare your sessions?

Post by Igor the Henchman »

For a standard D&D game, 6 to 8 hours. If it's a multi-session adventure, I might spend 8 hours the week of the first session, then 4 hours for the next sessions, since having a defined structure in place saves time.

A Ravenloft game takes longer. It sometimes takes me twice as much time. The extra work goes into adding details that add atmosphere, rehearsing NPC interactions, thinking up clues, making sure the adventure is non-linear and can be resolved in different ways, and preparing scary music.

Fortunately for me, my group has a system where we rotate DMs and campaigns every 6 sessions or so, which gives me time to to take a break and plan ahead. Phew! :)

There are probably lots of people who invest less time and find ways to be more efficient than me :lol: but this is how I do it.
User avatar
Hamiclar
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 293
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2012 11:07 pm
Location: Denver CO

Re: How much time do you spend to prepare your sessions?

Post by Hamiclar »

I spend about four to a total of five hours each day morning and before and after work its a hobby I'm restarting I read and get the monster stats to know them. Music wise I usually have a set a week before an adventure I draw from Youtube Ravenloft music i've collected that are noted in from the black box up to most recent Ravenloft DM and player handbook. I have terrain so I set it up matching as close as I can to a tomb or this weekend and Monday the cemetery new and old for my adventure NOTWD. I'll post those the following week if we finish if not the week following. I try to have miniature's to match as close as I can to the encounter to paint Goblyns which when shown and described look scary.
User avatar
Nox
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 261
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2015 2:28 am

Re: How much time do you spend to prepare your sessions?

Post by Nox »

Great!
Infact i was noticing building a ravenloft campaign take me as much as twice the time i used to spend on other setting campaign.
Trying to make everything look coherent costs time!
Personally at the moment i spend 4 to 6 hours a week to prepare the next session.
Hamiclar wrote:I spend about four to a total of five hours each day morning and before and after work its a hobby I'm restarting I read and get the monster stats to know them. Music wise I usually have a set a week before an adventure I draw from Youtube Ravenloft music i've collected that are noted in from the black box up to most recent Ravenloft DM and player handbook. I have terrain so I set it up matching as close as I can to a tomb or this weekend and Monday the cemetery new and old for my adventure NOTWD. I'll post those the following week if we finish if not the week following. I try to have miniature's to match as close as I can to the encounter to paint Goblyns which when shown and described look scary.
we work in a similar way, and play similar campaigns :azalin: .
I just miss terrains, i use a megamat map usually. Sometimes i draw terrain my self and paint them with the help of photoshop or similar programs.
User avatar
Gonzoron of the FoS
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 7555
Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2003 8:02 pm
Gender: Male
Location: New Jersey
Contact:

Re: How much time do you spend to prepare your sessions?

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

Couldn't tell you, it's all a blur... :)

It's definitely less now that I have other responsibilities. Back in my single days I spent way more time on it.

But even now, it's multiple late nights in the week leading up to a session. To the point where my wife says, "I thought you said you were ready." And I'm like, "well, yeah, I'm ready, but I'm not ready. Just one more photoshop picture... just one more tweak to the monster stats.....
"We're realistic heroes. We're not here to save the world, just nudge the world into a better place."
User avatar
Igor the Henchman
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 789
Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2003 6:50 pm

Re: How much time do you spend to prepare your sessions?

Post by Igor the Henchman »

But, y'know, I've also run adventures that I had literally thought out and prepared on the bus trip right before game, even some Ravenloft. But it was rarely my best work, and with time, I found that the games I had spent the most effort preparing were also those I ended up enjoying the most. So these days, I tend to over-prepare.
User avatar
alhoon
Invisible Menace
Invisible Menace
Posts: 8804
Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2003 6:46 pm
Location: Chania or Athens // Greece

Re: How much time do you spend to prepare your sessions?

Post by alhoon »

Usually 3-6 hours per week unless I have to make maps. And a bit more time through the week here and there during "empty" time. I.e. time at which I'm not concentrated on something else and doing light activity. I walk to the university each day, or spend time in the supermarket, or at the shower, or while cooking etc. I may spent a few minutes from those here and there to think about the game.
"You truly see what a person is made of, when you begin to slice into them" - Semirhage
"I am not mad, no matter what you're implying." - Litalia
My DMGuild work!
User avatar
DeepShadow of FoS
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 2916
Joined: Mon Dec 22, 2003 1:43 pm
Location: Heinfroth's Asylum

Re: How much time do you spend to prepare your sessions?

Post by DeepShadow of FoS »

Nox wrote:How much time do you spend (daily or weekly) to prepare your next session?
All of it. >_>

Isn't that normal? *reads replies* Oh....

Seriously, once I start running a game, that game becomes the default setting for my brain. Any time I'm not thinking about anything else, I just automatically go back to thinking about the next session, or the game in general. Gaming fills my consciousness according to Boyle's Law--it expands to fill the given space, but as the deadlines approach I become more frantic until I really cannot force other thoughts into my head.
I was trying to figure it out to organize my time in the best possible way.
Sorry, can't help much with that, ROFL. Although thanks for asking the question, it's interesting to see how strange I am, even compared to other gamers... :roll:

Now if you asked me about how to manage other parts of my life so that gaming doesn't force out important things, I could offer some strategies for that. :lol:
The Avariel has borrowed wings,
The Puppeteer must cut the strings
The Orphan Queen must take the throne
The Queen of Orphans calls them home
User avatar
Joël of the FoS
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 6644
Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2003 1:24 pm
Gender: Male
Location: St-Damien, Québec

Re: How much time do you spend to prepare your sessions?

Post by Joël of the FoS »

About 10 to 20 hours to prepare an adventure (which can last 3-8 sessions), then about 3-5 hours to prepare a specific game session (I make a "game scenario" that includes music and sounds for each part ofthe game, images and plans, atmospherics, stats, battle strategy and surprises, important dialogs or NPC phrases, and how to make sure a PC or two are specifically tied to the adventure).

Attached is an example (it's in French but you'll get the idea).

I travel a lot by car for my work, and often use this time to focus on the current / future adventure.

Joël
Attachments
Clipboard01.jpg
Clipboard01.jpg (214.29 KiB) Viewed 1034 times
"A full set of (game) rules is so massively complicated that the only time they were all bound together in a single volume, they underwent gravitational collapse and became a black hole" (Adams)
User avatar
Nox
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 261
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2015 2:28 am

Re: How much time do you spend to prepare your sessions?

Post by Nox »

Joël of the FoS wrote:About 10 to 20 hours to prepare an adventure (which can last 3-8 sessions), then about 3-5 hours to prepare a specific game session (I amke a "game scenario" that includes music and sounds for each part ofthe game, images and plans, atmospherics, stats, battle strategy and surprises, important dialogs or NPC phrases, and how to make sure a PC or two are specifically tied to the adventure).

Attached is an example (it's in French but you'll get the idea).

I travel a lot by car for my work, and often use this time to focus on the current / future adventure.

Joël
I travel a lot too, same story :D!
User avatar
Hamiclar
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 293
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2012 11:07 pm
Location: Denver CO

Re: How much time do you spend to prepare your sessions?

Post by Hamiclar »

I agree with Evil Genius it envelopes you I think about backgrounds fill in, on the cut scene thing I do hang with the guys outside drinking or blazing so we talk sort of cut scenes. Its real fun talking this at a party of something when people are listening to story and then telling them what it is amazes people and has lead to many trying it out the hobby.
Post Reply