You have an hour to prep your next session! What do you include?

inspiration
question
brainstorm
#1

I’m curious as to what each of you views as the bare bones for a successful session. Thoughts around prep for ongoing, new and one-shot sessions, as well as further discussion is welcome!

I want to try challenging myself with 30 minute prep to avoid going overboard and getting burned out so fast. That way I can also learn to keep it short and sweet and easy to plug-in on any day that fits.

Here’s hoping this can also be a fun little thread for others to gather inspiration :smile:

I’ll start with my own, rookie thoughts to get this thing started:

For a short one-shot, I’d have to plan enough content for my 5 players; I’ve learned it takes a lot more time around the table in comparison to 3 or even 4 so I’d multiply my expected time by 2. I’d likely create 2 rooms:

The first room would build up towards the second room, relying on NPC interaction and short, 1hp fights (but many enemies just slog things down so I’d try making it timed and cinematic, maybe as a theatre of the mind sequence?). I’d also want to try including one sentence long side-quests to add treats and threats to the game. If they progress faster than expected, I could add these to increase both time and depth of the session.

The second room would include a tough boss/challenge, avoiding heavy backstory and just focus on the experience. I’d keep the rest of the time open for an aftermath of the adventure, hopefully giving it enough time to turn into this memorable moment.

For planning the details, I’d apply the LOGS method - Location, Obstacle, Goal, as well as Stakes (borrowed from @Andreas), both on the whole adventure as well as each room because I have no idea what I’m doing and I need any inspiration I can get :joy:

The boss would be created by reskinning and tweaking an existing enemy to my liking. For a challenge room, I’d try adding room heart and some traps/timers to make it tough.

Then if I still had time left, I’d draw the boss token, and try sketching the general mood of the area and any key NPCs. But I think at this point I’d have ran out of time so I’d end up having to use a simple NPC placeholder instead.

Now I’d love to hear from you guys! How would you cram your active planning into a limited amount of time?

#2

Review of pc’s and npc’s first and foremost.

If there is time I’ll typically prep an environmental hazard or two.

#3

Don’t forget that Core has roll tables in the back for creating scenarios, NPCs, and custom Monsters. Also, Eyes of Sett and Doomvault, the included adventures, can be easily scaled as well.
Roll several One Shots ahead of time, including Timers, Threats and Treats, so then you can just grab one on the fly. I like to include a detail that leaves the possibility of fitting the One Shot into something larger at the end.
A cool idea I’ve seen used for Treats is to count how many Loot tables you have access to and have the player roll that number first, then the D100. So in Core you have Shabby, Epic, Ancient and Bizarre - roll 1D4, then 1D100. That gives the possibility of 400 vastly different items. And have the option for the players to trade.

#4

I’d start with a branch point, then plan the combat aspect of a set-piece, then names, then add new nodes and repeat until I run out of time.

#5

Keep it simple:

L-cave room with a Fountain
O-Fountain (hehe, you’ll see)
G-Get the orb from the statue’s hand

Pick some mook monster. (could be slimes from fountain)

Give them 2 types of attacks

Pick an ‘uh oh’ monster (statue comes to life?)

Give them multiple attacks
give them 1 special power (orb?)

3 Ts:

Timer- every d4 rnds the fountain surges to life spraying the entire room with…acid/poison/ichor
Treat-brightly polished shield at the far end of the room (protects 1 pc from fountain)
Threat—aforementioned monsters/fountain

Short intro to scene…

and away we go!

#6

I always start with Peril, because nothing brings a group together faster than danger. So, I’ll throw a three room evening together like this:

Room 1: the road
Timer: the blacksmith and his family will be torn to shreds by possessed wolves
Threat: wolves
Treat: none, but if the family survives, the blacksmith gives them cold iron

Players learn the blacksmith left camp to flee evil things

Room 2: the wagon camp
Timer: the misshapen things show up in waves
Threat: small demons; demon fire will destroy the wagons
Treat: cold iron does double damage; camp refugees can be marshaled to help

Players learn they’re all coming from the weird clearing to the north.

Room 3: the cursed clearing
Timer: The portal to hell will open
Threat: demons and the mega-demon
Treat: if players destroy the Infinity-stone, the ritual stops.

The mega-demon is especially nasty. Players become physically weak and nauseous the closer they get to the infinity stone. Both it and the mega-demon can corrupt minds.

I banged this out in about 10 minutes, and these notes are exactly what my journal would look like, plus some doodles to give me a sense of the maps and some quick hearts and bonuses for the monsters.

#7

A one-shot with 30–actually 60–minutes prep:
Let’s packet info in sets of three…

1. Setting, Genre & Tone, Hook

  • Outskirts of Atlanta, Modern Day
  • Black Light (by @Shadymutha)
  • Assignment: An artifact has gone missing. A desk agent has identified a pattern of it and other missing artifacts having been sold at some point by a particular auction house.

2. Places and Areas Within

  • Crispin Brothers Auction House
    —Auction Room
    —Offices
    —Warehouse

  • Deserted Stretch of Rural Highway
    —Creaking One-Lane Wooden Bridge
    —Hairpin Turn with Ledge and River
    —Fire Road into Woodlands

  • Private Hunting Property
    —Woodlands thick with bramble
    —Stodgy, Pretentious Hunting Lodge
    —Ramshackle Well House with New Door and Lock

3. Problems

  • Threats
    —Earl & Trace Crispin, +4 smooth, smart, demon possessed. 4 Hearts total. Want to expose people to evil artifacts and then take back.
    —Good Ol Boy Network, +2 secrets, violence, trucks. 2 Hearts per appearance. Want to protect local business.
    —Collector Spirit, +3 possess and instill greed, paranoia with Sanity Loss. 2 Hearts, IMMUNE TO CONVENTIONAL ATTACKS. EASY to tempt with Arcana.

  • Complications
    —A Distraught Mother Looking for Missing Adult Son who “no longer works here”
    —Something is locked or blocked such that it requires 1 Heart to proceed
    — Distraught Mother Or Son found dead, Media attention on Agents

  • Escalations
    —Critical Vehicle or Gear Fails, tampering suspected
    —Agents exposed to a horrific sight, a Heart of HARD EFFORT to turn this into Progress; fails lose 1 Sanity
    —Raise Target, The Collector Spirit gets free attempt on everyone NEAR a likely focus

4. Progress

  • Advances
    —Map or other reference to Hunting Lodge
    —Voice Mail or other indication that Son was abducted
    —Nameless Cults tome, (Check Sanity) highlighted references to Collector Spirit as not a true cult, but many overlaps.

  • Helpful
    —lost dog, skittish but tame. Lead to something, defend an Agent who befriends it
    —Fry cook & diner waitress “into crystals and stuff” will tell all kinds of rumors, mostly false, but restore +3 total Health & Sanity after a positive encounter.
    —The Agent first to go off alone in dangerous situation will smell something alluring and out of place, the search for the source will allow viewing a clandestine meeting of some kind.

  • Stuff
    —moonshine (& still), explosive/flammable d12
    —gun and armor cache… but it’s all paintball gear
    —Dirt-covered old Gameboy, still works.

That’s an hour’s worth of prep. Pretty sure I could run with it easy and figure out the rest as we played. Could have done it in a half hour by doing less than three sub-entries if I was in a real hurry.

#8

Here’s different approach to game prep that truly focuses on no-prep: image One Prep Campaign DMing, what I've learned

#9

Pacing: upbeats & downbeats. About 6 of them.
Downbeats are to be dilemmas, so make them count with two paths each.

A map of the surrounding region that the players will go through (if needed, or the dungeon).

A list of vocabulary for the region or dungeon (from a concept word and armosphere) as well as a list of potential timers, threats & treats.

And an additional list of random details that come to mind, specific NPCs and ideas.

I’ve been through this one week ago because two players cancelled on me. So, I had to rewrite the session in-extremis because I did not want only two players to go into the extra deadly dungeon I had planned for a group of 4. XP