How do you prepare for a new game?

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Engurrand

11) Around session 5 a player will have a personal or work crisis or move away. Put the campaign on "hiatus" and start over from 0.

Why not just have the character leave, retire, become injured or die?

[Engurrand]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Why not just have the character leave, retire, become injured or die?

I jest, of course, but only mostly. When this actually comes up we vote, and while sometimes we've done as you suggest, as often as not my players would rather put a game on hold. Maybe that's a quirk of my group, but if I had to guess as to why, I'd say it stems from how I dislike meta-motivation more than I dislike campaign prep. Of course, if a campaign's been running for more then a handful of sessions, that changes the equation.

[Gotha]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I don't think that my approach would necessarily suit everyone, and still less that it's inherently the best or the only good one. But I mention it on the chance that you might not have thought of it, both because you might want to try it out and because it might give you a new perspective on your own approach. Comparing approaches is what this thread is all about, after all.

Well, perhaps I wrote that bit too fast.

To be more precise, your approach reminds me of what character-centric games like Burning Wheel recommend: brainstorming with the players to define the setting. From what I've read and heard from GMs going that route, this really helps players feeling more involved and on the GM side, avoids all work that doesn't explicitly deal with the PCs.

This is a different kind of preparation and, to me, this also brings a different kind of gameplay.

[namada]

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Drifter

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.

I decide on the thing-to-be-doing, where-it-will-be-done and what-will-be-doing-it. I write out some drafts, including a dozen~ pregen PC-candidates, physiology/psychology/cultural/professional/"everyman" templates, broad and narrow stroke setting details and NPC "types" to various degrees of detail. I then sit down and chatter with my players about the above drafts and brainstorm for more ideas and details to fill in.

I constantly generate new campaigns up to the "submit draft" stage. Most of them never hit play for assorted reasons (like an already running campaign!). They go into the filing cabinet for later use as idea and inspiration mines. Occasionally they get pulled out to be played.

Originally Posted by Drifter

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?

Most of my NPCs read like: "David", "Thug", "A young man from the wrong side of town who has the hots for a local witch; black t-shirt, jeans and sneakers, concealed pistol, old faded-brown bomber jacket", "Average Attributes, +2 Per, +2 Will", "Ganger! 12-, Everyman! 9-, Path Dabbler, Magery 0", "Competent (50 ~ 75 points)".

Major NPCs get more of a write-up, usually.

Originally Posted by Drifter

What preparations make it easy on you to be a GM?

Music and art and stories. A visual/sound theme. Stuff that I like and stuff that excites me.

Originally Posted by Drifter

What preparations do you find usually aren't needed?

Most of them; funnily enough. I improv easily while still managing to stay consistent with the setting and previous play. Lots of practice at it. ;)

[Drifter]

Again thanks for all the input. And that map is excellent! Not sure if the article is what I'm aiming at but it is certainly very helpful.

I too do not have the luxury of a pool of players to bounce ideas off of. I'm sure it is obvious to get their input, when you have them and the time, but my reality is it is like pulling teeth to just get everyone in a room together, let alone agreeing to something. Personally I'd rather do SF, Traveller or something like Tschai, but fantasy usually carries the day. A little laying down of the law gets the action going, but too much and what should be a social game turns into an obligation.

And that is the problem when someone 'leaves' the group. Because its never "I'll be away for a while so go on without me"; its more like "I'm sure I"ll be free next weekend". So you don't do much, or do a side adventure, or watch a movie. One weekend turns into a month, and then someone else can't show. It is probably a good idea to just copy the PCs character sheet, then run him/her as an NPC while the player is away. Never tried that though.

Using music, art and stories is certainly easy with this campaign. Well, maybe not the music so much - I love Classical but ren-faire music gets on my nerves pretty quick :)

Most of them; funnily enough.

Thats what I was afraid of. Oh well, its half the fun.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Drifter

And that is the problem when someone 'leaves' the group. Because its never "I'll be away for a while so go on without me"; its more like "I'm sure I"ll be free next weekend". So you don't do much, or do a side adventure, or watch a movie. One weekend turns into a month, and then someone else can't show. It is probably a good idea to just copy the PCs character sheet, then run him/her as an NPC while the player is away. Never tried that though.

My normal custom is that the GM holds onto the character sheets between games, in a binder for that campaign. Players have no need for them, ordinarily; they don't get to add new traits or spend eeps until the start of the next session. And that way only one person's memory needs to be reliable.

Given that, if a player is away, but their character's participation is required, I can do my best to run their character. Of course I will try to avoid major changes and keep them in the background!

My view is that if one person can't make it, and they give me advance notice, I can try to reschedule to a different weekend of the month. No advance notice, and I play without them. If two people can't make it, I usually cancel and everyone gets a free afternoon. The one thing I won't do is move from a weekend when A can't make it to a weekend when B can't make it; that's just playing favorites, and can't be fair.

Bill Stoddard

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Drifter

I too do not have the luxury of a pool of players to bounce ideas off of.

I have a fairly fixed group of players. When I'm looking to devise a new campaign, I will ask their opinions of a few concepts, but it's less formal than Bill's process.

And that is the problem when someone 'leaves' the group. Because its never "I'll be away for a while so go on without me"; its more like "I'm sure I"ll be free next weekend".

Having a hard-wired schedule helps a lot with that. It's always Wednesday night, every week. That makes it clear up-front that commitment is required.

[Gef]

Originally Posted by Drifter

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?

I build sample characters, several of them, for iconic roles in the campaign, to get a feel for what's possible with points and predict what the PCs can do. Then I have a "reference" knight, priest, etc. Need a knight commander or high priest? Take the reference version, add some rank, some skill bumps and a level of IQ to justify it, and a personality trait. Second appearance of same, add a second character trait that contrasts with the first.

[mehrkat]

I have a regular gaming group that meets every Friday we play 2 alternate games switching every other week.

When a game gets close to an end point I put out a call for other people to submit a game. I take submissions (including gm information) I then flesh out the submissions to make sure there are between 5 and 7 submissions total with different genre's and feels (dropping and adding games from my list)

We then have a game vote where each person assigns points to the game from highest to lowest. I give each player a veto vote to take out a game they truly hate. I take some pride in the fact I've never had a veto so far.

I often recycle game ideas that didn't win the vote so that games that do fairly well seem to eventually come to the top.

After the votes are in I create a longer document that outlines the specific guidelines for creating characters and a little more information about the world. There is often a little room for changes in the world based on the players and the characters. Sometimes from the players sometimes from me because of inspiration from the players.

While this is going on I create the world in more depth and get a firm idea about the general flow of the story. Brief outline that often changes a bit due to character actions and just the way the world flows in my head.

For instance I had this "great idea" for the supers game I was going to be running -- The idea was pretty simple. Everyone started as normal people (we had a bit of negotiation about the guidelines for the normal) and they would draw their powers from a hat. The original idea was that the powers were going to get shifted around during specific points in the storyline. I had been giggling to myself about the power switches for weeks and how much enjoyment they were going to get out of the final change.
Then as the time for the first power switch approached I realized that the players would all hate it. They had just started to really think their powers were cool and own them. It would knock a lot of the joy of the game out of them.
Even though the original plan was that they would do that for a few weeks then be able to "trade powers" between themselves. But the several months of not understanding what was going on was going to be "unfun" for them the cardinal sin.