How to Minimize Prep
I’m running multiple games per week on top of a full-time job, writing this blog and taking time to spend with friends and family. There isn’t much room for prep in that kind of schedule! I’ve come to realize that you totally can run emotionally satisfying games without sinking hours of prep into it - it’s just a question of using all the tools at your disposal.
Picking the Right Game
If you’re not set on a specific game, it’s easy to minimize prep by choosing the game that fits your needs. There are many fantastic games that barely need any prep, both for one-shots and campaign play!
The line for no- and low-prep games often blurs a little for me. Many no-prep games still need some amounts of prep in campaign-play, but still considerably less than “traditional” games. My personal favourites for no and/or low-prep games are currently “Brindlewood Bay” and “Paint the Town Red”, both of them for different reasons.
“Brindlewood Bay” is no-prep in the sense that there is no set outcome - players decide and shape the narrative as much as (or even more than) the GM. This means you’ll only have to prep a rough outline or use one of the many prewritten modules for no prep at all.
In “Paint the Town Red” you’ll play sad gay vampires and the game plays very much like a drunken night out. The players decide what to do on the go and the rules are simple enough to let you as the GM improv your way through, along with the dozens of NPCs at your disposal from whichever module you decide to run. My prep for one-shots is non-existent and even for campaigns it’s rarely more than 15 words on a piece of paper. Making your own setting will require prep, though.
There are many more games that require little prep, some more of my personal picks being: The Between, Blades in the Dark, CBR+PNK, Eat the Reich, For the Queen, Lady Blackbird, Mörk Borg or Pirate Borg. Probably any other Borg or Forged in the Dark game. I also found The One Ring 2e to be surprisingly low on prep.
Optimizing the Game You Have
Stuck with the game you’re already playing? No problem!
Prioritize What’s Important
What do you really need for your session? It all boils down to “something to have fun with for 2-4 hours”. That’s a good initial hook to get the session started (best case this ties into whatever the table is excited about exploring, like their backstory or a certain theme), some places filled with some NPCs, puzzles and/or other mysteries and some things you can throw at them when the pace slows down.
And this doesn’t have to be pages upon pages of prep. A few good bullet points can be all you need! I’d much rather have a list of really intriguing bullet points about a location and a few NPCs, than long written out conversations or location descriptions.
Maps, miniatures, and music can enhance a session, but they’re not essential.
Sly Flourish’s Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master is a fantastic resource to learn how to prioritize your prep.
Use Existing Resources
Can’t play without maps? There are dozens, if not hundreds, of creators out there that make fantasy and/or sci-fi maps. Use them! Hop on Patreon (or the search engine of your choice) and for a few bucks (or even free) you can get some amazing stuff that can easily be made to fit your ideas. They might not have the exact layout or features you need, but as long as people aren’t paying high sums of money for your games, I doubt anyone will care if you just scribble that boulder to hide behind into an existing map.
Lean on your Players
And not only you can use those existing resources, so can your players! Send them on Tabletop Audio or the Music Platform of your choice to privide some ambiant music, if it’s important to them. You can also involve your players by asking them to bring snacks. To handle scheduling. To handle miniature placement on the map. To make notes and do session summaries. Especially in prep-heavy games, it’s not too much to ask the players to share the load a little.
And it doesn’t even have to be the organization stuff only - let them create the world with you. Ask them what the tavern looks like and what makes it different to any other tavern they’ve been to. Ask them whom they already know in the village. Ask them which rumours they’ve heard about the location they’re going to. Let them be co-creators in the story you’re telling, instead of just participants. Tables used to more traditional games like D&D may find this approach unfamiliar at first, but I urge everyone to try it out at least.
Use Idle Time
The one thing I can’t optimize away is actually reading the things I want to run or base my games on. I often use my commute to read and take notes on my phone (that automatically sync to my PC). I couldn’t believe how much free time I actually gained by cutting out social media and using the time for books (RPGs as well as “regular” ones) instead!
Conclusion
Scaling down on prep may seem daunting - I’ve totally been the person who preps 2-4 hours for every hour of session. It took me a while to gain the confidence in myself, and to train my improv muscles a little, to be able to step into a session without prep. In the past, I thought that no prep meant feeding my players meaningless random encounters and letting shopping encounters eat away session time, so I avoided it. But running a game without prep can be much more: it’s about letting the game take its own direction and “playing to find out” (as “Blades in the Dark” puts it), telling a story together, rather than serving it to an audience. It’s about trusting your table and yourself to create something worthwhile together.
It’s also about exploring what works for you and what doesn’t. Some games just need certain amounts of prep, even if it’s just searching for a few fitting stat blocks. Some things might be hard to improv. Finding a balance that works for you is something everyone has to find out for themselves. But time is precious, so I can only urge anyone to rethink their prep from time to time.
