Writing and prepping to run a game

I usually only post here when I have something to say, but I think that’s the wrong way to go about it. If I only do things when I have something good, I might miss out on something good that’s stuck. Trust the process and all that.

On the topic on doing things, I have another thing I’m pretty bad at doing, which relates to this post about running modules. I usually prepare for games by thinking a lot about preparing for the game. This is then followed by a couple of intense hours of actually prepping, usually the evening before the game. This is true for most things I do in life, not just prepping for games, I guess I should take care of that at some point.

But anyway. I usually manage to prep enough that everyone has fun, while my stress levels stay pretty high as I talk and read and roll dice at the same time to see if I missed something. This of course leads to the lack of flexibility as doing three things and thinking creatively on your feet at the same time is hard even for the best of us.

Key takeaway here I guess is that I should prep better, because if I know what’s going to happen, then I’m prepared to just throw that out and move in whatever direction the story takes us.

One would be forgiven if they thought that I had internalized easy stuff like this after some 25 years of GMing to different groups of different ages in different settings, but I really don’t learn.