Quote from: Benoist;419410As I run the game of Ptolus here on the RPG Site, I can't help but think about all the things I love about GMing. Like the prep, the drawing of the maps, the moments where you wonder if this or that idea is going to be too tough on the players, or not enough. Wondering how that is all going to come together in the game.

I love all this stuff. I just love it. I understand people get busy in their lives and don't have as much time to devote to their prep as they did when they were university students, but at the same time, whenever I see people talking about their prep time as some kind of homework they'd rather not do at all, I can't help but think that something might be wrong there. Maybe enjoying the game itself isn't enough. Maybe enjoying the prep is a good thing too.

Also, just watching the players deal with the setting, the information, the clues is just AWESOME. I of course know what's going on, and seeing players come up with all sorts of ideas, some of them surprising, unexpected, or downright outlandish, makes it all worthwhile for me. They're getting intrigued, excited, want to step up to the challenge, and that makes the game so much better for me.

I love this stuff.

Interesting. I dislike prep. And I dislike the sort of gaming that comes with prep. For me, the fun is in the interaction between me and my players, when our creativity "mingles" to create something nobody of us would have been able to come up with alone.
But then, I also dislike maps and what people usually call sandboxes, because in my eyes, having a map and knowing what's there is the beginning of a railroad.

Quote from: DominikSchwager;419468Interesting. I dislike prep. And I dislike the sort of gaming that comes with prep. For me, the fun is in the interaction between me and my players, when our creativity "mingles" to create something nobody of us would have been able to come up with alone.
But then, I also dislike maps and what people usually call sandboxes, because in my eyes, having a map and knowing what's there is the beginning of a railroad.

What games do you play?

Grimjesta is right that Call of Cthulhu requires detailed prep to be fully satisfying.

I run a lot of mystery/investigation games - a lot. And most of them are as heavily prepared as a typical CoC game. However, it is easier to prep what you might call more obviously pulpy detective games, with a lighter hand. In these sorts of games, which tend to feature more action than in a typical CoC game, you can make the clues more straightforward and then it's not so much the case of who did it but, "How do we get the bastartds?"

Lately I've become a bit burned out on deep mysteries. As I don't run fantasy games anymore, Atomic Highway has been a godsend. Put together a simple sandbox with minimal detail and make it up as you go along, riffing off the players.

I've enjoyed it so much that I've actually started running a modern day cop show game using Atomic Highway's V6 mechanics (with just a few changes). So yes, I'm running a mystery game again!

I still think that prep is fun - up to a point (I dislike statting up the opposition) - but lately I've really enjoyed the light prep approach.

Quote from: CRKrueger;419482What games do you play?

At the moment I run a Burning Wheel campaign and 2 Dresden Files RPG campaigns. But I have run everything from AD&D to Mage the Awakening this way.

I love doing prep, but my current lifestyle isn't compatible with long, laborious, loving prep like I used to do back in the day. More and more I turn to published adventures, and to games which allow for minimal preparation (like Savage Worlds, and TSR-era D&D).

I've always been good at improvisation, and this is a talent I've been sorely putting to the test for the last 8 years.

I still hold out for the hope that one day things will slow down, and I will once again find the time to buy myself a huge sheet of graph paper, and draw a huge effin' dungeon with ruler and compass, and seed it with monsters, and traps, and treasure rolled item by item under the D&D RC tables.

(whine, whine, whine)

Intertsting the way threads go.  Or, at least, where we decide to take them.

Answering the original OP, One of my greatest pleasures is when the PCs 'get it'.  Which leads into my feeling onto prep, and one canot imagine a better dovetail as to where this thread has gone.

I tend towards long games with many levels of interconnected plots and events that the players can involve themselves in.  And one of my greeatest rewards is when they untangle one of these things, especially when it is all based on setting -specific logic.
And I echo those who mention that certain types of games really need prep to make them succesful.

Obviously, this also defines my prep game preferences.  I did a lot of improv GMing back in college, but i learned that the better the framework, the more consistent and coherent the improved GMing.  
I have come to love the feeling of the players moving into a main adventure area where every little item and motivation is well know to me, because I took the time to work it out.  I enjoy creating a feeling of layered history, and siometimes this takes some serious record keeping.

Oh, yeah, current and similar thread here.

Quote from: Gruntfuttock;419488(I dislike statting up the opposition)

That's why I'm a statblock junky - I look for and save every statblock I can find for 3e and 4e, so that if I need a particular NPC or monster, I can simply look through the vault and see if there is already something close to what I want to do. Sometimes they take a little tweaking, sometimes they're good as-is.

That's one of the reasons I like prep-work so much. A little work now can mean no work later.

Quote from: ColonelHardisson;419537That's why I'm a statblock junky - I look for and save every statblock I can find for 3e and 4e

That is tremendously useful in a game like 3e, to me. I used to save all the statblocks I could find. There was never enough statblocks, to me, because once I got them, I didn't have to bother with statting NPCs from scratch and could just look into this or that book, select a guy, change a couple of feats or equipment items or what-have-you, and be done with it.

It's all about when the players have those 'Hell yeah' moments.  When they are asking and surmising and thinking about events that have happened or may happen.

The secondary joy is that being the GM gives me more to do.  I find that being a player most of the time I get bored or am constantly thinking how I could have done something better.

Quote from: ColonelHardisson;419537That's why I'm a statblock junky

...

That's one of the reasons I like prep-work so much. A little work now can mean no work later.

Word.  Not just stat blocks for me.  I generate hordes sometimes and stash them away.  Actually, it's something I decided to start doing to fill in those last 10 minutes waiting for my girlfriends to finish "getting ready" before you can leave for [social function].  I collect small dungeons or chop up larger ones to use as lairs; I'm not really into "reskinning" them, so I might dump the keys if they'll never fit, but even having the maps and layouts are big time savers.  This level of of prep is actually just enjoyable, like keeping a scrapbook of sorts.  Like Hardisson said and I agree, it does pay off.  I don't actually have to spend much time "designing adventures" if I know my major villains' motivations or landmarks or McGuffins for the day.

Speaking of villains: Before going back to TSR D&D I sometimes employed this trick to save time on prep for middling NPCs in 3.x games (If I posted this before, I apologize): I recruited my more crunch-minded players to twink out my NPCs.  I would give them the shell of the idea, changing one or two vital details like the gender, race, alignment, signature weapons or spells such that, come game time, they never recognized them until it was too late.

For all the shortcuts I do enjoy, I also like to bask in surprises at the table.  So I guess its worth mentioning that I like a good amount of random at the table too: the wandering monster rolls, weather (if I use it), some of the hoards, some reaction rolls.

Quote from: GrimJesta;419462I sure as heck do, amigo:

This is one for the Arkham Advertiser; Cthulhu specific, but could also be used for Gotham or something.

This one is for clippings. You can make any newspaper and story and all that jazz.

In case you want one, here's one for telegrams, too.

-=G=-

Great resources!  Thanks, G. :cool:

Quote from: The Butcher;419504I love doing prep, but my current lifestyle isn't compatible with long, laborious, loving prep like I used to do back in the day.

I'm the same. When I used to run a regular D&D game, I loved making maps and NPCs and monsters, and I loved when that prep paid off in a game.

Unfortunately, I rarely have time to do that kind of thing anymore. (Which is why I mostly prefer low-prep games.)

Quote from: DominikSchwager;419497At the moment I run a Burning Wheel campaign and 2 Dresden Files RPG campaigns. But I have run everything from AD&D to Mage the Awakening this way.

Please move this thread to Other Games.

I used to do a lot of prep. Nowadays I don't. I'm the opposite of grimjesta in this regards: find my best games are off the cuff, rolling with the surprises the players throw my way. The biggest successes I've had GMing are just winging it over trying to plan things out. The more planning I do, the worse the game gets.

I think about the game between sessions, of course, and I may think up an idea for a scene or a battle or what the Big Bad is Really up to... But I never really write it down or anything. I just come with my vague ideas and my creative juices flowing and then throW stuff at the players and watch them react.

One of the joys of GMing for me is when I sit down at the table I have no idea what events will transpire in the game today. I don't know what the PCs will do. But I do know they will surprise me and surprising me will keep me on my toes.

I really like the part of preparation that's the invention of locations, characters, things to be found there. I don't at all like doing a lot of MECHANICAL preparation, so I prefer GMing games where the preparation of stats is very lightweight, or may be reasonably filled in as necessary.

Quote from: DominikSchwager;419468Interesting. I dislike prep. And I dislike the sort of gaming that comes with prep. For me, the fun is in the interaction between me and my players, when our creativity "mingles" to create something nobody of us would have been able to come up with alone.

I think much of the fun is there too, but I think having some material ready can help this creative mix form. Things that exist already can imply things the GM another player hadn't anticipated. A GM places a stone statue - to him it signifies that the place is a temple to the god depicted by the statue. But to another player it's a place to hide behind, or the statue's head might be broken off to act as a counterweight, or any of a million things. While in another kind of game, theoretically the player might 'invent' the statue to hide behind, maybe he wouldn't have without the inspiration - the creative event, hiding behind the statue, came from the mixture of the gm's and player's contributions.

QuoteBut then, I also dislike maps and what people usually call sandboxes, because in my eyes, having a map and knowing what's there is the beginning of a railroad.

Is anything set on modern day earth the beginning of a railroad?

I think I do see what you mean, and I think it's valid to say having certain things (such as even the map) fixed as causing you in particular as a player or GM to start trending toward a preconceived idea of the action. But I hope you would accept someone saying that the effect isn't universal.

For example having some degree of who the PCs are when the game starts might set certain theoretical constraints on the action - at the same time it can help instigate creativity. At the most basic, if your character is some kind of warrior, in a sense you might say the action may be biased toward fighting as a solution to things, but you might say "well, he could try to fight ANYTHING!" or try other things.

To me, a map says "you can go ANYWHERE on the map - and you can go off it!"

Quote from: Doctor Jest;419677One of the joys of GMing for me is when I sit down at the table I have no idea what events will transpire in the game today. I don't know what the PCs will do. But I do know they will surprise me and surprising me will keep me on my toes.

In other words, juggling chainsaws...

-clash