How do you prepare for a new game?

[Drifter]

I've been a GM, starting years ago with AD&D, Traveller, then GURPS of various sorts. I recently read a history of the Medici, and thanks to streaming services I have started watching Borgia. Knowing that there is a Florence setting book out there settled it; I'm going to run a campaign in 1492 Florence.

I know how I work, and I can really work up a lot of setting detail. For example, I've used wikipedia to set up the web of relationships between the various families, politicians, thinkers and artists of the period/area. I know I want hidden magic and some Leonardian clockpunk, maybe even some horror.

What I want to know is; how do other GMs prepare for a game? I know how I usually go about it, but I want to know specifics of how others do it.

Do you have a table of fully generated 'thugs' ready when a fight comes up? Or do you just have the basics needed for combat and a general note on who knows what ready for when the PCs trounce them? Do you have a complete profile of major NPCs? Do you have a profile of all their major henchmen?

What preparations make it easy on you to be a GM? What preparations do you find usually aren't needed? What works and what doesn't? I'm trying to figure out how to do it better :)

Note that I haven't written up any actual adventure, just having gotten the Hot Spots book. I just have a vague idea of political intrugues, secret groups and societies and an image of an ornithopter flapping over the heads of terrified guards at night.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by Drifter

some Leonardian clockpunk

Not to be self-serving, but do you have GURPS Fantasy-Tech 1? It's got write-ups for a number of "inventions" by Leonardo da Vinci and his contemporaries. Might be useful to you.

[johndallman]

I tend to concentrate far more on how the setting works and the reasons behind that than on details of opponents and places. I can improvise those things reasonably well, if I understand the essential how and why of the setting.

[gilbertocarlos]

For most thugs I use the same sheet:

ST 11, DX10, IQ10, HT11
Combat Reflexes
One combat skill with 8 points(Skill 12 or 13)
One combat skill with 4 points(Skill 11 or 12)

When preparing, I think about the basic theme, and then one detail, for example:
The basic theme is: The city is on siege.
Detail 1: The king of the rival army is not the only one who claims the throne, so, if they find the other guy, who has a small army, they might combine efforts to keep the city.
Of course, he has another idea, he wants to wait to see what happens and only then attack, also, if anyone start asking about him around, he attacks first and ask questions later.

[Drifter]

Considering you are the proverbial horse's mouth, I guess I will pick up that Fantasy Tech 1 book. I'm looking for anything that will make my life as a GM easier.

I agree that knowing the setting makes GMing so much easier. I always end up improvings since no matter what group of players I have, they do something totally unplanned for. Thats why I"m going through all these wiki articles. For example, I never realized what a great villian the Regent/Duke of Milan was, not to mention he was Leonardo's boss. He probably won't take the stage directly, maybe, but if I need villanious thugs I know who sent them.

[DangerousThing]

I'm just starting my newest campaign, and the first face-to-face one in years.

This is a science fantasy campaign, so I had to decide on magic and tech levels and how FTL travel works and alien races and such. I create a map and a quick writeup of each system. I write the history in quick detail.

I wanted to play in the same setting as my last game, but later, and I wanted a frontier environment. So I had the success of the previous party (the destruction - for a time - of The Ancient Ones) lead to a galaxy wide disaster which killed the majority of sapient beings and destroyed anything to do with micro-electronics and artificial information storage (the first was caused by the party, the second was Hastur's revenge) but nobody on this side if the galaxy knows much about what caused the Shattering.

I also created some major NPCs that the party will meet, and in this case the ship the party will use. Because of the ship, they have a part time duty, which will involve espionage of varying sorts, though most of their time will be spent doing trade exploration.

I even create things that they will not meet for quite some time - for instance, in this game the Mi-Go are the major villains and have equipped the rival interstellar empire with a powerful navy.

I created the framework of the first adventure, which is built on The Seven Samurai on a planet where they cannot bring most of their high tech toys, though they'll be able to smuggle some simple things in. Hopefully they'll be able to get guns from the pirates they're there to wipe out. I also had to build the basic society of this planet and why the Confederation had to send In the characters (2 of whom work for the Office of Special Circumstances) rather than the Navy or the Rangers (I used the old saw: diplomatic reasons).

Unfortunately I lost the frigging star maps because a laptop died on me. I have to figure out how to get them off or to recreate them.

That's what I do to start a campaign.

[Drifter]

Nice suggestions, I like the generic thug idea especially. Normally I'd craft up a few different generic thugs but the fact that one is dumb and strong while one is fast but weak is too much detail in the wrong place.

I'm not a big SF/Magic combined type of guy, but I loves me some sworld and ray gun action. And lap tops generally must be cursed evil magic items - they tend to eat things like important maps and documents just when you need them.

So reading Florence and Fantasy Tech I got some great ideas. Those air-rifles are excellent for assassinations. I know there is a game map of the city floating around but I found a very detailed map online. At this point I'm just going to stat out the big NPCs and find or make some floor plans, and use that map to draft out areas as well. I have a hardcopy of Swashbucklers, so that might come in handy as well.

[Stormcrow]

There's a whole book about this.

[simply Nathan]

I go onto this forum and start making threads about specific things I want help with and to make sure I've got things statted right (or statted in the wrong way that feels right to me).

[whswhs]

Well, assuming I've come up with the theme and the setting, picked the engine, and gotten the players to buy in . . .

* I go through the rules and look for any ideas peculiar to the setting that demand either new rules, new interpretations of existing rules, or choice of particular options. I write up the rules adjustments.

* I come up with designs for any nonhuman races and any important artifacts.

* I play around with designing a couple of possible PCs, figure their point totals, and use them to set specifications for point totals and required traits.

* I figure out the important powers in the world and the immediate setting, and write up character sheets for significant figures the PCs have some chance of meeting.

* I write up generic character sheets for spear carriers—orcs, barbarians, mafiosi, asteroid pirates, whatever.

* I get the players together, describe the campaign setting, have them agree on important common ground, and have them discuss the characters they each want to play.

* As the characters develop, I look at their sheets for NPCs and subplots.

Bill Stoddard