Quote from: Ian AbsentiaUsing NPCs as a primary example, in my experience, I've found that players often respond with disinterest to finely-crafted NPCs over which I've slaved.  One of the cool things about just sketching NPCs off the cuff is that, once you've found an NPC your players really seem to like (or whom they love to hate), you can fill in the details later, tailoring the character to meet the abilities and aspirations of the player characters.

!i!

Generally I throw a bunch of NPCs at the party, I've long since stopped trying to guess which they'll take to and which not, it's utterly unpredictable.

So yes, this is what I do.

Quote from: Abyssal MawI still say this is one of the benefits of a long term campaign; All preparation is incremental and addititive.

I think this is true also, over time detail accretes and you get a very rich and living gameworld.

Quote from: BalbinusGenerally I throw a bunch of NPCs at the party, I've long since stopped trying to guess which they'll take to and which not, it's utterly unpredictable.

So yes, this is what I do.

I have had that happen as well, I introduce a potential love interest--it flops, I introduce an NPC support cast who grabs the eye of a PC, and becomes a love interest, its all cool. I'm glad for my players not to take the bait I set out, or take it with gusto. For me Its the ride I'm after, not my specific "train" of thought.

Quote from: SilverlionFor me Its the ride I'm after, not my specific "train" of thought.

Instant mantra's gonna get yoooooooo...!

Nice one, Silverlion!

I prefer running games this way but the prepwork for me as a GM comes imagining scenarios that can be used on the fly.  For my upcoming campaign, I'm using the player's character sheets as a way to generate adventure ideas.  I'll have a notebook full of ideas that center around the capabilities of each character along with notes to remind me how some of their abilities work.  After that, I'll write out a quick skeleton for the basis of the adventure and generate a list of evocative names that I can draw from.  I also like to write little reminders to myself how things work in the system (traps, combat, magic, etc...).  If I was running a more familiar system, I can do this much easier.  I'm running Warhammer when I'd prefer to be running Rules Cyclopedia.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!Does anyone else do this?

Yeah. I stat only the major players, then chill with a list of names and generic NPC stats.

Seanchai

I like to do some prep. But its mostly free form. Like in the tramp steamer campaign I'm running. I knew the charcters whre going to encounter pygmys and gorillas. So I quick stated them out. I drew up a couple maps of so places I knew they would be. Like the bar they start the senario in, and the pygmy village. One of the prep items for this game I really like is the rifles. Which is something I put some time into. None of the characters have firearms. But when they when to the Ape island. They were issued rifles from the ship gun locker. I handed each player a small peice of paper with the rifles stats, picture, and a little fluff text about the rifle. So it was like each character was really issued a rifle. Then when they return to the ship. They will give these peices of paper back. As the rifles are put back into the ships gun locker.

Quote from: RoninI handed each player a small peice of paper with the rifles stats, picture, and a little fluff text about the rifle. So it was like each character was really issued a rifle.

I did something similarfor a space pirate game: I made up thedse little cards with illos, stats and text, then laid them out in front of the players.  "You all have x many shares in the ship's treasure," I said. "How many shares are these worth to you?" And the bidding commenced.

I used to write pages of notes for a game.  But over time I noticed that the majority of the notes I made never got used.  Wouldn't you know it?  Those rascally PCs like to wander off on their own, rendering carefully planned notes useless.  In addition, I noticed that the free-wheeling I did during those sessions were more interesting and less railroad-y than anything I came up with.

So now I just jot down a few things I'd like to happen during the game and roll with it.  I also vastly prefer rules-light systems since they tend to have less shit to remember and lend themselves more to that style of GMing.

Let me also say that 3x5 cards are perfect for generic PC stat blocks.  Also, try putting monster stats onto 3x5 cards and shuffle them up and draw your own random encounters, table-free!!

Ya know, we do this thing in software, sometimes. We write what I call (as many do, I believe) throw-away code.  That is, you know you're writing something that you will throw away at some point. Likely it will not make it into production, or will only see limited time in production.

Why?

Usually it's to plug a gap.  Client A needs something.  Quick and Dirty gets into their hands while, in the mean time, people figure out the long-term best practice solution. Oft times, the writing teaches you something about the issue you're addressing. Sometimes it's even liberating, letting you pull some experimental shit you might not try in code you knew was going into production.

I wonder - how would that fit into the equation? Is it relevant?

In RPG terms, do you mean -- create details you're not gonna need, KNOWING you won't need them, just for the fun of it and/or potential future use?  If that's what you mean, then...yeah, actually, that's something I do.  Hell, in my D6 Space game, I've introduced a plot hook based on a movie trailer I dreamed up over 10 years ago.  

Ta-daaaah!

This is an interesting issue: "Throwaway code" in RPGs would seem to apply to prep done to "cover all the bases," to provide some fleshed-out detail for every direction the PCs might go. SO they start in Town A and you don't know where they're gonna go next, so you sketch up Towns B, C and D. You don't know where in town you'll go, so you've got three shopkeepers, four interesting pub patrons, a couple of street encounters, and the two most influential folks in town plus their henchmen and family. If nobody goes to the creepy backalley shop in the slums, you'll never use Shopkeeper C and his unusual wares, but he's there if you need him.

A lot of folks of course will get enjoyment to varying degrees from the act of prep itself--from coming up with ideas, mapping areas and statting NPCs, whether it gets used or not. Though I'd think the person would be pretty rare who wouldn't want to use their ideas (even just to share them with others, quite apart from getting a payoff from the work involved). Generally speaking, I'd say most folks want to make use of their hard work, so the issue of "throwaway code" becomes a balance between the work involved in prep and the probability of using that prep. Working out a dozen NPCs and only using four of them isn't bad when we're just talking about a name, a personal tic, and a couple of dice-rated traits. When it's a full stat block with character levels, skill ranks, and equipment lists, it starts to be a more daunting chore.

I've personally found this "throwaway code" factor to play heavily in my Over the Edge prep. To facilitate the experience of exploring an open-ended, bizarre and colorful city environment, I had to come up with (whether culed from the OtE bok and supplements or invented myself) a pletheora of people and places the PCs could encounter, only some of which would get used and even then, only some of which would become impprtant to the players. It was a matter of throwing a whole bunch of NPCs at the wall and seeing which ones "stuck." if they really engaged the players then great; they're now ain important part of the plot. If not, then hey, they're just aprt of the local "color." Fortunately statting in OtE was a breeze, so this kind of prep was pretty painless. The hardest work for the GM becomes keeping track of al the characters.

Peace,
-Joel

Quote from: MelinglorFortunately statting in OtE was a breeze, so this kind of prep was pretty painless. The hardest work for the GM becomes keeping track of al the characters.

Precisely.  Now that I've admitted to myself that I'm not actually going to spend appreciately more time prepping "next time" (and that if I did I'd probably spend it on stats no one cares about!), I try to stick to systems that allow to stat NPCs on the fly: Over The Edge, Truth & Justice, Castle Falkenstein, etc.  So when my PCs decide they're going to go talk to Old Whatsisname, I can just create him as needed, even if it never occurred to me before the game that they might talk to him.