Thread by @mathayles

Okay so I spent most of the last 5 years as a 90% improv story gamer, and this year I set out to run a prep-heavy, old school game using #DCCRPG.

How I do it is: one piece at a time.

🧵

https://twitter.com/losthavenart/status/1551563621708210176

I had >10 modules I wanted to run. The very first thing I did was look at all the region maps from those modules and find a way to smush them together. That gave me a world map.

Some of the remaining modules I plunked into specific hexes, others I left freefloating.

Next I looked at the names in those modules. Names are a setting element: there’s a Duke Magnussen in one module, which suggest a pseudo-Swedish culture, so now there’s a pseudo-Swedish culture in the world.

Do this enough times and you have a diverse, interesting world.

Next I stripped all the modules for character parts. Some locations, like cities, have multiple modules placed in them. Together, they give me a full set of characters to populate each city with (concerned innkeeper, wicked merchant, etc.). I also get a faction list this way!

Next I stripped the modules for rumour parts. I literally copy-pasted lore, hooks and other statements about the world out of the modules and dropped them into a persistent rumour table. That’s connective tissue between the modules.

Because I’m running modules, most if not all of my prep is directed at the space between modules. When my players are in the middle of a module the entirety of my prep is like 3-6 handwritten bullets in my small Judge’s notebook.

I’m very much a “prep one session ahead of the players” kind of Judge, even when I’m running a prep-heavy game. I didn’t finish the rumour table until the players were headed back to town to carouse, and even now it’s only complete for level 1 heroes.

Some other specifics: I offload some prep onto the players as well. For example, while the heroes were on their first adventure I asked some questions about their families back home. Then I used their answers as shortcuts in my prep of the hometown itself.

When I need a new town map I Google up a black-and-white, OSR-looking map and then populate it with stuff. I can usually just make stuff up and write it down for a smaller location, but for anything that’s a bigger lift I use procedures.

Specifics! Several years back I wrote up a die-drop system for generating towns, so I use that. I built random tables for creating nobles with history and goals. There’s a randomized town map generator on Itch. @ManticoreTale wrote a cool system called Pendulum. I use all this!

For generating characters, I stripped a bunch of things for parts and throw them into Excel: races, occupations, pronouns, character traits (from lists in writer blogs), ethnically-keyed names (which I pull from “List of XX royalty” on Wikipedia). Then randomize and sort. Done!

At a certain point in the campaign I had to start tracking days and weeks. Luckily a few years back I’d built a simple fantasy calendar with tables to generate events, feast days, holy days, etc. So I started using that, but again, it’s only one session ahead of the players.

I’m prepping a capital city that I’ll need in ~2 sessions. This is actually a bunch of different things the players are going to hit at once, because some of them have inroads with the duke’s court, and the rest are simple peasants (I love a split party).

I’m pretty deep in it, and I know more or less what everything I need to prep is:

1. The city itself (~10 locations and ~20 chars)
2. The court of the Duke (37 chars, this is done!)
3. A knightly tournament (8 mini games)
4. A public faire (8 more mini games)
5. Two adventures

That’s, like, a lot? And it is a lot, but I’m just taking it one step at a time and basically brute forcing my way through. I have my procedures for generating towns, people and nobles. So I just roll those dice and then put together the results in new and interesting ways.

The mini-games are each 1-2 paragraphs of game design I get to do. Half of that is done, and outlines for the other half need to be finalized. And the adventures will be tight mini-mysteries that will each fit on 1-2 pages and use the characters and places I’ve already prepped!

So yah, that’s basically it for me. I do a little bit of prep every week and it’s slowly adding up to a high-prep campaign setting. I reuse a lot of things I already have, or strip modules for parts, or google up material or maps I can use. Oh and I make props now too.

https://twitter.com/mathayles/status/1546537315329351680

Using procedures and random tables helps preserve my creative juices, and also shakes things up by introducing combinations of things I never would have come up with on my own. I think if I had to spin all of this out of thin air I’d be miserable. But instead it’s lonely fun!

I don’t really have a reason for doing it this way other than “I wanted to and it’s fun for me.” Like I said at the top, I’ve run lo- or no-prep games for years and loved them too. Right now I’m just in the mood for some open-world, player-driven, prep-heavy old school gaming 🤷‍♂️

Okay so in review:
1. One step at a time
2. One session ahead of the players
3. Use tables and procedures to reduce your cognitive load
4. Strip everything (modules, blogs, maps, etc.) for parts
5. Keep plugging away at small things and eventually you’ll build a big shiny thing

Anyway that’s all from me! I hope this was helpful, or at least not too boring 😅 If I forgot anything or if you have any questions feel free to reply and I’ll try to get back to you.