>love thinking of all the cool ideas for my campaign>when it comes time to actually prep them it feels like tortureHow do I fix this?
Maybe you're doing too much prep.
>>97308566FPBP. I'd call that /thread, but let's go for a little while longer anyways.Overplanning locks you into trying to make those ideas work and when you convince yourself that A, then B, then C will happen, but you what do you do if you can't get through A without plans changing? It feels frustrating. What are you going to do with all that B and C material that you wasted all that time on, right? So what you do instead is keep all those cool ideas and put them to the side. Keep them in a little mental box for later. Your plans should be very loose. Get some stat blocks for NPCs and monsters that might show up. General outline of where the players are, where they might go, things that might happen, etc. Nice and loose. See where the game goes, and if the opportunity presents itself, you reach into your box of cool ideas and use them. Might not be smooth and effortless, but you just need to take a breath, tell your players you need just a minute to ready something, and then you keep running the game.
are your cool ideas vacuous conceptual shit like >"what if I ran a game where it was a giant megastructure space station and all the players were identical clones"or are they concrete, actionable shit like >"what if there was a room in the dungeon that tumbled like a washing machine and was full of rolling boulders"
>>97308547I do any kind of game prep and dense reading during quiet times at work. There's just something about the fact that I'm getting paid to do it and rebelling against the bosses that makes things so much more interesting to do.
Sounds like ADHD.
>>97308855>Ninja
>>97308849whats the difference?
>>97308849This. Worldbuilding is not prep.
>>97308970Not him, but the difference is that if it's the former, the issue is probably lack of focus and ability to sit your ass down to analise and think your ideas through in depth and break them down/organise them into something more tangible instead of just vibing and daydreaming (which can stem from things like dopamine addiction, ADHD, overal lack of discipline, too many distractions etc.)Meanwhile if it's the latter, OP is clearly able to come up with well thought out and polished ideas, but has issues fitting them into a larger conceptual framework of narrative, quests, locations, lore etc., in which case he could probably just use more inspiration, some examples to rip off and learn from or some overall theory of story/world construction
>>97308547For me it's>create the most wretched but functional word docs with ideas cascading using bullet points, charts/dice tables, etc>the moment I try to make it look good to share online I get design paralysis because I can't make a good looking product
>>97308960Kinda wild that was 19 years ago. I remember people making porn of him on /b/. Mostly memory-holed at this point despite the insane number of frags.
>>97308970the actual work a GM must do involves preparing maps, monsters, NPCs, traps, challenges, and stuff like that - the actual things that players see and do. Worldbuilding and "wouldn't it be cool if"-s don't actually help a GM when it comes to preparing and running games.
>>97309121Well I’ve found that typically the latter comes after the former. At least when making characters. I’m able to focus down one idea and build towards it with concrete character traits and life events into what made him that idea of a character. It’s a lot of fun. For building a setting its different for me somehow. I build around concepts and gossamer daydream ideas the same way and the end product sucks. I know cause my group hates my settings where in contrast they really like my characters. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong with building creative ideas as a dm I thought I could just show up and make something but it’s a lot harder than that, which I can appreciate now.
Too much prep for a DM is a game killer. Its okay not everything has to be prepared.
>>97310213The people who insist that they write pages and pages of game prep notes are railroading idiots, anyways
>>97308547Literally what game? Because I feel that is a problem mostly of dndrones: generally RPGs require less prep than that monster.
My experience is that as you get more experienced as a GM, you start preparing less and less for individual sessions but more for campaigns as a whole.It ultimately somewhat depends on the setting and convention, but if you have your locations, characters, factions, agendas, broad plotlines and whatnot well thought out and prepared, you can pretty much just go with the flow and improvise based on these foundations, just making the world respond to actions and decisions of the players. Much less railroady this way as well
>>97308855Nah man Stephen Paddock was some kind of Illusionist. Multiple reported shooters, people hearing bullets from all angles, breaking windows and blasting huge amounts of guns without anyone hearing, getting said guns inside a high security hotel without being noticed
Good books for prepping for a complete beginner? Read Lazy DM, reading Robin's Laws.
>>973109053.5e's DMG 2
>>97308547stop running WotC D&D. Run some other system.
>>97308547being an ideas guy isn't something that can be cured
>>97308547i do researchwhen it comes time to commit my work to the page, that's when i discover gaps in my knowledge and understandingactually going through the effort of organizing your thoughts and forming a story means you can't deceive yourself into thinking your idea isn't half-baked
>>97310075Might work to start with a small part of a setting like an adventure location or town and treat it like a character. Give it stats, build it and fill in the ideas. Then do that with a different location until you have a few, then link them together.
>>97308547Contrary to what other anons have said, vibes and aesthetics are 80% of what makes a good next session for me, since that's what I actually use to improv. That's the fun part. For the remaining 20% I try to apply the Alexandrian's smart prep principles, so stuff that>is time-consuming to create>requires special tools>benefits from considered thought>is difficult to improviseso maps, lists of names, NPC goals, timelines & resources, etc.
>>97310905Listen up you primitive screwheads, but it's ironic because now Mike has troll referee's remorse and just thinks you should pamper players. Rip Mike 'I just killed your PC' Pondsmith.
>>97308547I feel similarly but for me Ithink it's because I have great lofty ideas for games but don't prep or make notes, I just wing it and while it tends to work good enough I feel like such a fraud
>>97312332
>>97316156In the end, the only important thing is that both you and the players enjoyed it anon
>>97316156Nope that's legitimately the ideal solution. If you can wing it and run a game off the cuff that good you should be proud.
