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Showing posts from February, 2023

Five Minute Prep Sessions

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Preparing for playing roleplaying games is a is known burden for Game Masters. Ginny Di recently featured a video explaining her problems with GM burnout, and I’ve personally experienced similar things. As have my friends who run campaigns. I don't really have a solution for this, but I can explain what I do more of these days. And that is “five minute prep” games. I have two skills that I use for running games on five minutes of prep, which are using random generation and improvising. Random generation is maybe as expected, using encounter tables and adventure tables (such as those found in the 2400 micro games). What I typically do is create a pitch for a 2 hour session, which are typically simple jobs made complicated. This only takes a minute to roll up, usually, which sets the basis for the session. Following that, I set up a location that most importantly must feel real. Improvisation comes in when the game is running. Typically I describe locations in a grounded manner that ...