I always front-load my campaigns. I try to keep them confined to one large locale (one planet usually), with a large scale storyline that has large events and a decent sized cast that the players can react to. This can take a good long time, but is often well worth the effort. Because then I can do a solid, memorable campaign with only an hour or so prep work for each session. Often, I just have several pages of stats for 'things I might need', and a list of generic names (with a character trait each) that I can use for very minor characters as needed.

See, this is much more sensible than what I did, which was give me players a campaign that has sent them tearing across the galaxy!

I don't think that matters. Setting and actions don't lessen or increase prep time. I've done sessions where the PC's stick around a while and ones they visit different places and both have the same amount of prep. You might have less research to do because you already know your setting.

I also tend towards a more local setting. This lets me flesh out local NPCs and have them interact in a more meaningful way with the PCs. If the PCs are flying around the galaxy, everybody is always new, and it's harder for the players to know why they should care about (or trust) this new bunch. It also means that the only names they might hear in common are the big players in the galaxy which, just MHO, makes everything feel more remote.

So as far as combat encounters might go, I'd agree it's about the same setup time whether the campaign is local or galactic; but the social encounters could take a lot more time and effort.

I also tend towards a more local setting. This lets me flesh out local NPCs and have them interact in a more meaningful way with the PCs. If the PCs are flying around the galaxy, everybody is always new, and it's harder for the players to know why they should care about (or trust) this new bunch. It also means that the only names they might hear in common are the big players in the galaxy which, just MHO, makes everything feel more remote.

So as far as combat encounters might go, I'd agree it's about the same setup time whether the campaign is local or galactic; but the social encounters could take a lot more time and effort.

I went for a middle ground. The group's jobs can take them anywhere. But, they have a home base, of sorts, (which has them beholden to do occasional jobs for the local Rebel cell) where there are recurring NPC's for them to get to know and work with, as well as a series of contacts on some of their more frequently-visited worlds.

I over prepare to under prepare.

What that means is I spend time working on set pieces and NPCs but keep them as generic as possible. That way when it comes time for a session I can adapt to what my players want to do. Each set piece averages about 2 hours per. I'm sure to roll Obligation/Duty/Morality at the end of the previous session so I have time to think of how to incorporate it into the game, and let it inform what is going to be happening besides the over all plot.

I probably spend less than in an hour prepping for each individual session.

And an hour a day just working on things so I have more tools in my tool chest.

It differs... quite a lot... I play nearly every weekend, eather with the full group (3 Players + myself) or a little solo game with just one of them when ever the other two have to cancel for some reason.

For the groupplay I use to take 2 evenings of preparation (3 if I use Roll20 for Maps...).

since the solo games are mostly on short notice... well those are most likly entirely non-prp sessions (except for a basic layout like "Today the character will have to get with the death star plans to bothawui... Hmm I'll need a massive empireal assault...because a lot of bothans died for these information! What special NPC will I let appear... hey Borsk Fey'lya would work for a little bit of intrigue.." the rest is on the Fly)

You can find a related discussion here . My short answer is: I spend too much time prepping. But I'm working toward shortening it.

I spend a lot of time with my nose in Wookieepedia.

So, I'm going to post this in more detail on your thread as well, but I just wanted to say thanks for this - used a lot of the advice for a session last night and ran probably the best session I've done so far.

Too much and not enough. Being new I am really trying to figure out the story as well as it's past, present and future connotations, and figuring out all the key people and how they are all tied together. But most of my plans don't survive first contact with the players.

I usually spend a lot of planning the over arching plot points for our missions, even making a few maps that can work in multiple situations, but once we are rolling its just creating characters here and there. I have honestly spent a lot more time reading up on the legends materials to come up with new ideas of things to bring into my campaign.

Between 6-7 hours per session. About 4-5 hours of writing/narrative design, and two hours of map design, setting and gameplay mechanics, and setting up combat scenarios.

EDIT: I would never recommend using my prep methods as a positive example. I spend overly long building characters, backstories, plot hooks, alternative scenarios, and contingencies. Sometimes this pays off, but mostly it gets unused. If I didn't enjoy writing/prep so much, I could probably shave the whole thing down to 3 hours. But for me, I couldn't do it in less: I'm too much of a planner by outlook to not approach my games in this fashion.

Between 6-7 hours per session. About 4-5 hours of writing/narrative design, and two hours of map design, setting and gameplay mechanics, and setting up combat scenarios.

EDIT: I would never recommend using my prep methods as a positive example. I spend overly long building characters, backstories, plot hooks, alternative scenarios, and contingencies. Sometimes this pays off, but mostly it gets unused. If I didn't enjoy writing/prep so much, I could probably shave the whole thing down to 3 hours. But for me, I couldn't do it in less: I'm too much of a planner by outlook to not approach my games in this fashion.

Why don't you uh, share all of the unused material with us?

Between 6-7 hours per session. About 4-5 hours of writing/narrative design, and two hours of map design, setting and gameplay mechanics, and setting up combat scenarios.

EDIT: I would never recommend using my prep methods as a positive example. I spend overly long building characters, backstories, plot hooks, alternative scenarios, and contingencies. Sometimes this pays off, but mostly it gets unused. If I didn't enjoy writing/prep so much, I could probably shave the whole thing down to 3 hours. But for me, I couldn't do it in less: I'm too much of a planner by outlook to not approach my games in this fashion.

Do you file away unused bits for future use? Seems like you could leverage all that awesome prep for later.

Have to agree with Whafrog on the "zero prep" sessions, my players always say that they never realised I'd winged an entire session but I generally find I'm disappointed with myself when I end up doing it that way, and feel like I could've given them so much more!

My players thought Beyond The Rim was a LOT longer for similar reasons, they didn't realize we'd transitioned out of the module until maybe 3 sessions later. The cat's out of the bag now, so now it feels like they're intentionally trying to see just how far we can go at times.

I have only recently started Running EOE adventures. Ive run Beyond the Rim, a couple of the free ones on the FFG website and am now running JOY. I put in about 20-30 minutes for every hour of gameplay. I feel if I do anything more than that I am over doing it and probably micro managing the adventure (I don't do anything slick like maps and artwork so I can easily see how that would increase the time tremendously). I really like to "wing" things so I try to be as loose as possible. I generally outline what the module wants to cover and work on covering that.

Have to agree with Whafrog on the "zero prep" sessions, my players always say that they never realised I'd winged an entire session but I generally find I'm disappointed with myself when I end up doing it that way, and feel like I could've given them so much more!

Have to admit it's always a relief when they end up having some kind of in character argument/discussion in those sessions, gives me the chance to sit back & think about what I can throw at them next I also write notes (lots of notes) on what they're saying so I can bring it back in future sessions... Have had so many good ideas just given to me by my players that way

What I feel when I end up winging entire sessions is that i leave the session with little to no idea of what has happened and I rely on one other player's notes and the recordings we've been taking

I usually spend a lot of planning the over arching plot points for our missions, even making a few maps that can work in multiple situations, but once we are rolling its just creating characters here and there. I have honestly spent a lot more time reading up on the legends materials to come up with new ideas of things to bring into my campaign.

I forgot to add, my players make it their personal goal to derail anything and everything I plan, so I really have to leave the stories and my plans relatively loose and flexible. Lately I've been attempting to anticipate their shenanigans beforehand and come up with a number of bullet points to branch off of them. I'm almost always wrong and still have to make stuff up on the fly.

Between 6-7 hours per session. About 4-5 hours of writing/narrative design, and two hours of map design, setting and gameplay mechanics, and setting up combat scenarios.

EDIT: I would never recommend using my prep methods as a positive example. I spend overly long building characters, backstories, plot hooks, alternative scenarios, and contingencies. Sometimes this pays off, but mostly it gets unused. If I didn't enjoy writing/prep so much, I could probably shave the whole thing down to 3 hours. But for me, I couldn't do it in less: I'm too much of a planner by outlook to not approach my games in this fashion.

Do you file away unused bits for future use? Seems like you could leverage all that awesome prep for later.

Everything's on Evernote, so yes, it's all theoretically reusable and modular for future sessions. For example, I had an entire Slave Ship Subplot featuring a Corrupt Guard Captain in our current campaign that never got triggered, and I've adapted it for use in a Prostitution Ring featuring a Corrupt Pimp. A few reskins and name changes and we're ready to go.

Why don't you uh, share all of the unused material with us?

Heh, well, after the next few sessions, I'll be posting session recaps on a thread here, along with a metagame discussion and resources. I have a full Obsidian Portal site up which is being used as an adventure log, so it will link to that.

Everything's on Evernote, so yes, it's all theoretically reusable and modular for future sessions. For example, I had an entire Slave Ship Subplot featuring a Corrupt Guard Captain in our current campaign that never got triggered, and I've adapted it for use in a Prostitution Ring featuring a Corrupt Pimp. A few reskins and name changes and we're ready to go.

Nice! Do you have a standard format? I also keep my GM Holocron partially in Evernote.

Everything's on Evernote, so yes, it's all theoretically reusable and modular for future sessions. For example, I had an entire Slave Ship Subplot featuring a Corrupt Guard Captain in our current campaign that never got triggered, and I've adapted it for use in a Prostitution Ring featuring a Corrupt Pimp. A few reskins and name changes and we're ready to go.

Nice! Do you have a standard format? I also keep my GM Holocron partially in Evernote.

I too would be interested to know the answer to this. I use Evernote for most of my life, but I've found that Excel and Word have actually been more useful for holocron-ing. Would love to know what you've found to be the best way of doing things.

I too would be interested to know the answer to this. I use Evernote for most of my life, but I've found that Excel and Word have actually been more useful for holocron-ing. Would love to know what you've found to be the best way of doing things.

I do something very similar - I do use the heck out of Evernote for, well, everything. I even started my Holocron there with NPCs and notes, and I still use is for NPCs because of the checkboxes, but I am better serves by Scrivener and Scapple for this now, it just works better for me. Since I do all my writing in Scrivener it's easy for me to link back and forth. Sure, it can link externally too, and I do that.. It just has this certain je ne sais quoi .

I usually spend a lot of planning the over arching plot points for our missions, even making a few maps that can work in multiple situations, but once we are rolling its just creating characters here and there. I have honestly spent a lot more time reading up on the legends materials to come up with new ideas of things to bring into my campaign.

I forgot to add, my players make it their personal goal to derail anything and everything I plan, so I really have to leave the stories and my plans relatively loose and flexible. Lately I've been attempting to anticipate their shenanigans beforehand and come up with a number of bullet points to branch off of them. I'm almost always wrong and still have to make stuff up on the fly.

But the point is when you let your players set the intended direction they may be less inclined to "go off the rails." Which may be why I don't have much trouble predicting what they will do.

I usually spend a lot of planning the over arching plot points for our missions, even making a few maps that can work in multiple situations, but once we are rolling its just creating characters here and there. I have honestly spent a lot more time reading up on the legends materials to come up with new ideas of things to bring into my campaign.

I forgot to add, my players make it their personal goal to derail anything and everything I plan, so I really have to leave the stories and my plans relatively loose and flexible. Lately I've been attempting to anticipate their shenanigans beforehand and come up with a number of bullet points to branch off of them. I'm almost always wrong and still have to make stuff up on the fly.

I work at Sandia National Labs, and all but one of my players do too, we're all a bit more intellectually inclined than the average gamer and think in vaguely similar ways... so while occasionally they do something I hadn't anticipated, usually they don't go very far off of what I've planned for. Part of that may be because I ask my players about their goals for their characters and try to work in at least two characters' side stories every session, "side stories" are basically obligation on steroids made more narrative/less random. I first noticed the star trek the next generation TV show doing this, there tended to be a main plot (which could be episodic in nature) plus 2 or 3 subplots each episode where the subplots were about character development/growth.

But the point is when you let your players set the intended direction they may be less inclined to "go off the rails." Which may be why I don't have much trouble predicting what they will do.

It could be that we don't have a robust morality/duty/obligation thing going in our campaign, and thus the players just sort of do whatever they want. One of my guys does a good job of playing his character's personality and making choices based off that, but everyone else doesn't care about the consequences of their actions.

I have the added disadvantage that these guys are people I've known for the last 15 years or so, grew up with, all were in my wedding party, so just as well as I know them, and how they might want to proceed, they know me just as well and, unfortunately, I'm outnumbered haha

As has been mentioned, there is prep and then there is prep...

I spend hours and hours mulling over campaign prep, usually when I'm driving long distances (which I do for a living) or when I'm lounging in the bath.

This allows me to weave plot lines for each character into a cohesive story that flows together rather than looking like an obvious plot hook that stands out like a sore thumb. I dream up interesting situations, locations, events, NPCs and practice their voices and mannerisms of speech, I love voice acting.

As far as session planning goes, I fall firmly into the zero planning school of thought, I know where the story needs to go and I have the details already from my campaign notes, if it is something very specific or detailed then it might need looking into, but generally I have my broad notes and GM cribb sheets. This allows me to act on the fly to anything that my players throw at me.

Thirdly there is the rule 'be prepared for anything'. Before I even begin session one, I will have as much preparation done as possible for everything that I may need. Printouts of common equipment and goods, cribb sheets for vehicles and ships , cards for NPCs and notes on combat etc. This takes a lot of set up time but once it's done it never has to be done again and with a bit of book-keeping during play , it stays up to date without too much work. Then you can sit back and do minimal prep for the actual session.

I can spend upwards of weeks depending on my motivation but I've also gotten campaigns done in a matter of hours. I can be very retentive and pedantic about it too. Like some people just have random tokens for their npcs but I always try to find a decent picture or something.

I've even scrapped whole storylines before they were introduced because I couldn't find exactly the picture or map I wanted.

When scripting out encounters, does anyone have a template that they use?

When scripting out encounters, does anyone have a template that they use?

I like the template that Peter uses in his modules here