Time-Saving Game Prep Tips for Busy Dungeon Masters

Comments · 652

• DU

  @DungeonDudes · 6 years ago · pinned

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• SV

  @svankatwyk · 6 years ago

  &quot;Time that could have been spent working on your PhD.&quot; Didn&apos;t need the explicit call out, guys. I know I should be writing.

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• JE

  @jennifermk4059 · 6 years ago

  One of my DMs had note for an in-game festival that was just, &quot;Bears??&quot; Partway through the session, she remembered the note and began describing a carnival game called Beat The Bear, Win An Egg. It was literally an NPC at a booth with a caged brown bear and a ridiculous amount of illegally-owned owlbear eggs. If you could keep the bear pinned down for a given amount of time, he would give you an egg. That vague note turned into one of the most memorable encounters ever.

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• CH

  @CheezMonsterCrazy · 6 years ago

  Just like Batman, a DM can do anything with prep time.<br><br><br>Also like Batman, the DM doesn&apos;t often get that prep time.

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• JO

  @johnsmith3085 · 6 years ago

  <b>Spends hours prepping</b> Players: (20 minutes into the game) &quot;Let&apos;s go the other way.&quot;

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• CH

  @chadledgerwood8818 · 6 years ago

  Most of my npcs are reskinned castaways from Gilligan’s Island. No one has noticed yet.

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• ER

  @erinb7630 · 6 years ago

  Out of context quote: &quot;There&apos;s no harm in stealing things.&quot; Thanks Kelly! <b>packs up her thieves tools and runs to the nearest jewelry store.</b>

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• PL

  @plucas1 · 6 years ago (edited)

  My best advice is to accumulate &apos;Drop Anywhere&apos; Encounters and Mini Adventures you can literally put anywhere in a campaign if you&apos;re in a bind for prepping for the main storyline. &nbsp;They take maybe a typewritten page of bullet points to write out, and I did a bunch before I even started my campaign., and adding more as I went along and had time.<br><br>For example, in my most recent campaign, I had a &apos;Ghost Girl&apos; encounter that I sat on for nearly 13 game sessions before I was stuck and ended up using it. &nbsp;The party&apos;s cleric (and only him) kept seeing this crying little girl wherever he went, and it turned out she was the ghost of a little girl of his sect who was murdered. &nbsp;His deity allowed him to see her spirit as a test of his mettle/faith. &nbsp;It turns out she was killed by her mother, who had been turned into a vampire. &nbsp;But her mother had just enough control that she had to make a terrible choice, either succumb and feed on her daughter and turn her, or kill her before it happened. &nbsp;She chose the latter. &nbsp;That led the party to the girl&apos;s abandoned home, that the mother still mournfully visited, where they investigate, get the story, and end up fighting the mother. &nbsp;That in turn led them to the head vampire that turned her, and a big &nbsp;battle with him and his minions.<br><br>Vampires are easily scalable monsters, so it was an encounter I could keep at the ready until at least they turned 10th level or so. &nbsp;I try to have at least 3-4 Drop Anywhere Encounters ready to go at any one time.

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• WO

  @WoollyLuke · 6 years ago

  “I did read the module book, front cover to back cover, five times.”<br>- spoke like a classically trainer actor/theatre person!

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• CH

  @chrishousenick6105 · 6 years ago

  I&apos;m doing game prep for my Friday night game while watching a video on game prep.

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• MI

  @migrn · 6 years ago

  One thing I always try and keep in mind is that your players will (9 times out of 10) react in ways I didn’t predict. As a DM, you’ve got to be open to unexpected possibilities

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• TU

  @Tulenhenki · 6 years ago

  I&apos;ve solved this problem by simply not prepping at all.

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