Anyone else finding game preparation really hard work?

By UniversalHead, in WFRP Gamemasters

UniversalHead said:

I'll take a photo of it next session, but basically I scanned the map, blew it up in Photoshop and put it on a background, and printed it in tiled A4 sections. Then I made lots of 'standee' graphics for the locations using pictures of buildings from all over the place (that took quite a while), printed them and stuck them on cardboard. Yes, it was a bit effort, but when I saw the players automatically clustering their miniatures around the location they were at, it was worth it! Also gives them a sense of discovery as they find new locations.

Sounds great ....if a lot of prep .... I used to play quite a bit of mordheim moving individual figures around peeking around corners etc so Im probably a bit biased ...

UniversalHead said:

I'll take a photo of it next session, but basically I scanned the map, blew it up in Photoshop and put it on a background, and printed it in tiled A4 sections. Then I made lots of 'standee' graphics for the locations using pictures of buildings from all over the place (that took quite a while), printed them and stuck them on cardboard. Yes, it was a bit effort, but when I saw the players automatically clustering their miniatures around the location they were at, it was worth it! Also gives them a sense of discovery as they find new locations.

Beautiful! I love and am totally stealing the standees idea. It sounds like it makes adding new locations to the map much easier than having to edit/draw on the map every time the PCs stumble into a new shop or tavern.

In my experience, a successful city adventure requires at least 3-5 locations and 5-6 NPCs for color. "Just another tavern" is the feeling that I get with a lot of city situations.

Man, I wish I could get my hands on all those old Living City games I ran back in the 90's..although they werent' awesome, they gave basic structure and feel to advneturing in a city.

jh

I've run several commercial adventures and I dislike the format they are presented in the books - I basically always have to break them down to sequences with key details to which I've found the easiest way of putting them into powerpoint slides. I never open the book during the session or spend any time to reference their contents.

I too feel that the best moments are the ones that have been made up during the session. They are by nature highly dependent on the player actions and highlight the fact that the player characters are the stars of the show. This is what I try to emphasize even more in the future.

The format I current use to prepare my own adventures is pretty much like this:

  • Write synopsis of the overall adventure on how it could go with a few alternative paths
  • Flesh out the main characters focusing on their motivation and interaction with other characters
  • Add some minor characters that have some sort of connection to the main characters or the plot
  • Define the list of locations, their description and potential special rules related to them
  • Write key events in which players are likely to find themselves that also act as the main story drivers and decisions points
  • Add flavor to all of them in iterative manner making sure they are connected and logical so that the world seems believable.

And that's it. This is probably 4-5 A4 pages allowing to run an adventure.

I collect the pile of cards relevant to the story for quick reference.

I've run several commercial adventures and I dislike the format they are presented in the books - I basically always have to break them down to sequences with key details to which I've found the easiest way of putting them into powerpoint slides. I never open the book during the session or spend any time to reference their contents.

I too feel that the best moments are the ones that have been made up during the session. They are by nature highly dependent on the player actions and highlight the fact that the player characters are the stars of the show. This is what I try to emphasize even more in the future.

The format I current use to prepare my own adventures is pretty much like this:

  • Write synopsis of the overall adventure on how it could go with a few alternative paths
  • Flesh out the main characters focusing on their motivation and interaction with other characters
  • Add some minor characters that have some sort of connection to the main characters or the plot
  • Define the list of locations, their description and potential special rules related to them
  • Write key events in which players are likely to find themselves that also act as the main story drivers and decisions points
  • Add flavor to all of them in iterative manner making sure they are connected and logical so that the world seems believable.

And that's it. This is probably 4-5 A4 pages allowing to run an adventure.

I collect the pile of cards relevant to the story for quick reference.

UniversalHead said:

I'll take a photo of it next session, but basically I scanned the map, blew it up in Photoshop and put it on a background, and printed it in tiled A4 sections.

Did Photoshop have an option for it, as I really find it hard to increase the size of pictures or pdf-files to print them then in A4 size and glue them together for a big A0 map.

Are there any advice for that, or maybe a tool which helps there putting the picture into A4 parts?

Glorian Underhill said:

UniversalHead said:

I'll take a photo of it next session, but basically I scanned the map, blew it up in Photoshop and put it on a background, and printed it in tiled A4 sections.

Did Photoshop have an option for it, as I really find it hard to increase the size of pictures or pdf-files to print them then in A4 size and glue them together for a big A0 map.

Are there any advice for that, or maybe a tool which helps there putting the picture into A4 parts?

send me the files and I can see if I can do it for you ... Im starting to be kinda handy with photoshopping ... (in a purely amateur kinda a way...)

PM if you are interested ...

Actually I haven't found the PM Option in the FFg Forums, or do you need to be a friend to receive messages?

and I think I have even found in Paint of Windows 7 the option to stretch the picture on more sites. Depends on a succesfull test.

Glorian Underhill said:

Actually I haven't found the PM Option in the FFg Forums, or do you need to be a friend to receive messages?

and I think I have even found in Paint of Windows 7 the option to stretch the picture on more sites. Depends on a succesfull test.

If you just want to stretch the picture to become bigger, it's really easy in paint. Just keep in mind that the resolution of the picture may be a problem.

yes just resizing will look pretty bad if blown up to a large size - if its a uniform looking picture its much better to just merge several copies together ...