As seen on http://www.fudgefactor.org.

Little Is Enough

by Nikodemus Siivola (tsiivola @ niksula.hut.fi)

Ten years ago it was acceptable for me to spend ten hours planning an RPG session. Today it is barely acceptable for me to spend ten hours planning a campaign -- I just don't have the time for more than that.

When I first realized this, I almost stopped gamemastering, but I didn't want to. Ever since I have been looking for ways to run games with nonexistential preparation.

Know Yourself

"Don't waste time on what you don't need." Nice bit of advice that is repeated in probably every single article on gamemastering ever written. What is far more seldom noted, is that "what you don't need" depends not only the game and the players, but the person running the game.

You need to take note of your personal weaknesses and strengths and spend your time covering up your weaknesses. There are things I am fairly good at improvising, so writing them down would be a waste of time. Likewise, there are things I stink at, and they are the things I try to work on between games.

Also, different kinds of preparations have a different effect too. In my case sometimes preparations are conductive to improvisation, but not always.

For example, if I write down three words about an NPC with secrets I can easily spin more, but the more detail I write down, the harder it is for me to improvise. I also try to avoid maps if I can -- they tend to bog my games down as I get fussy about distances and everything. On the other hand, jotting down a few TV episodes or movies which have something in common with the session I am going to run seems to be a tremendous help.

One of the most important things for me is to visualize the various ways the session could play out: trying to understand the general directions the player could steer the events towards. Once I think I have a clue to what might happen I try to pinpoint two to three likeliest resolutions.

During play I will then try to gently steer the action to keep it in the charted waters, but if all goes to hell I will let it go. In that case, my next planning session will mainly consist of reconciling what happened with what has happened before, in order to retroactively create the appearance of a slowly unfolding master plan...

Not Art

Besides spending time where it counts, in order to run games where everyone enjoys themselves with non-existent preparations, you need to make certain everyone knows what's going on:

• You can't spend very much time between games on working stuff out.
• The objective is to just run a game, not create art, or run a great game.

The conscious acknowledgement of these factors has two effects.

1. The players are a bit more prepared to suspend their disbelief when you screw something up due to your lack of preparation. Did you forget that an NPC was dead already? Did the town map suddenly redraw itself? Did a characters brother suddenly age 30 years and marry? Ooops... Work around it if you can (the dead NPC becomes a case of mistaken identity), but admit it if you can't. (the town map is arbitrary and unimportant, and the players are big enough to be told so)
2. Once you lower your expectations, it's a lot easier to run a good game! If everyone agrees that an ok-not-so-great session is a fine way to spend an evening with your friends, there is a sudden lack of pressure to perform. Not everyone responds to this the same way, but you may be surprised how easy it is to run a good game if you don't try to make it perfect.