Prepping Should Be Fun, Too

     This blog post started, like so many do, as me getting mad at a YouTuber. This YouTuber shall remain nameless, because they are dumb and I have devoted enough of my time and energy to their dumbness, but allow me to set the scene. After discussing how D&D Beyond was going to suffer because Gemini was perfectly capable of generating character sheets (which is one of the saddest things I've ever heard), they discussed how Gemini could also create dungeon maps. They then said the following:

"The challenge with Dungeons and Dragons, and the reason roleplaying games aren't more popular, is because it's like doing a bunch of homework. And then your players come over, screw up your game, and tell you you didn't do your homework correctly. But with [AI generation], it makes gamemastering easier than ever-at least the dungeon design portion of it."

    I...have a lot of thoughts about this. There are plenty of discussions of how mainline D&D has a DM shortage, how it suffers from massive amounts of DM burnout due to putting work on the DM in place of more structured rules, etc. etc. I'm going to do my best not to wade into that, so let's start with a quick introduction to what I like to call-

The Crawford Principle

    Kevin Crawford has designed a lot of games of varying genres and settings, mostly with what I would term "OSR adjacent" sensibilities (that's a taxonomical argument I'm not here to make). They're perhaps best known for their random charts (because there are some really fucking good charts in those games), but one of the actual bits of design text is a tiny bit of GM advice that goes something like this:

If you don't need it for next session, and you're not having fun, stop your prep work.

    Crawford is speaking in terms of the sprawling sandboxes his games help to create, warning the would-be GM of the dangers of overprepping, but I also think it's a good and broadly-applicable way to check yourself. It's not anything new or groundbreaking-these kinds of tools and tricks are everywhere once you see them, but it's where I first encountered it so I'm naming it after him. 

    With that in mind, I would like to add what I'm calling The Magnolia Corollary, which goes like this:

If you need it for next session, and you're not having fun, you need to stop and figure out why.

    I'm not a fan of how certain subsets of the hobby try to make running a game into some arcane art, or some massively difficult thing; in my opinion, it scares people off who might otherwise enjoy it. GMing is, at its most fundamental level, easy. A child can do it, and like any skill you get better at it with time. But it's also true that GMing is more work than any other participant at the table has to do, on account of preparing for the next session. There are tricks to this, and I've shared some of my processes, but the process should on some level be enjoyable, either in the moment or in retrospect. So let's take a look at some reasons why a GM might not be having fun doing prep, and some possible solutions. 

Generally speaking, we're hoping to keep it to Fun Types I and II

Are You Prepping Too Much Stuff?

    Overpreparation is the safe haven of the new and the insecure. I don't mean that as a pejorative-I was the new and the insecure at some point, as were most if not all of you reading this blog. When you're making your own stuff for the first time, and your reference material isn't another GM's notes but prepublished adventures-which have a different list of priorities because of their mass market nature-it is incredibly tempting to go for the same kind of incredibly detailed settings and stories that they do. I'm not really tuned into the world of major Actual Play, but I gather that those whose first exposure to roleplaying was via performances can have similar anxieties.

    

    In those cases, the solution is to give yourself permission to breathe. In a lot of ways, the tabletop space (with the exception of certain design circles) is like a film set-if you don't see it, it doesn't exist. Sure, you should still be thinking about the offscreen space to help make everything feel more real, but it is also of a secondary and lower priority. You're allowed to have your notes inside your own head, make stuff up, and roll with the punches, depending on what you're trying to do. No one is asking you to have a detailed campaign outline right at the start. It's gonna be okay. I promise.

Are You Prepping The Right Stuff?

    In the summer of 2021, I ran a game of Sentinel Comics over the internet. Using roll20, I constructed from the generic asset search crude facsimiles of the grand areas I envisioned-an opera house, the top of a skyscraper, a dock, a collapsing bridge. They took a long time to make, were very stressful to do, and, frankly, sucked ass. Forged from the game I played in this year had way better maps with just some circles, arrows, and texts. I burnt myself out running City of Mist the same way, trying to find a stock image of every bit of relevant evidence I could think of for the players to put on their corkboard, when text would have worked just as well.

    This isn't specifically a rant against things like asset packs and map-building software (I still use Inkarnate from time to time), but a question about where your priorities are in prep. Do you need to know the names of the other magical academies if the players will never go there? If you're using a random name generator to name an area, it probably wasn't important enough to be put on the map in the first place. NPCs don't need custom-generated portraits if players will barely encounter them.

    In a similar vein...do you enjoy where things have been going? If you're sick of dungeons, talk to your players and get out of the dungeon. If combat is dragging for you, move to a game where you find more fun in beating the bejeezus of out people! If the designed structure of a game is chafing on you, maybe you need a vacation from it.

    Be willing to leave things on the cutting room floor. Spectacle is nice, but ultimately make sure you've got whatever your vegetables are before getting onto desert, and like any good chef, be sure to vary up your menu a bit. And if you do need something you don't like making (say, a flashy map) there are countless people either selling them or giving them away for free! So you get to both support an artist and have saved yourself some time and effort.

Do You Need a Creative Partner?

    When I was ripping on the quote I put at the top of the article, someone asked "Are there any creative parts you struggle with where you’d have AI help?" mentioning that they struggled coming up with fantasy names. My response was simply "That's what I have my mom for."

    Two heads are better than one, and while I'm big on inviting players to be authorial voices for the world, that does ultimately still have its limits-in most cases, you can't tell them everything. Having a collaborative partner or partners can help you get out of ruts, see things you wouldn't have seen, make new connections, etc. 

    For my home Stonetop game, that's Mama Magnolia. Even when she and I disagree (she thinks I mix sex and death too much in my adventures for some reason), I still get good ideas from her and benefit from having her as a sounding board. One particular treasure she came up with-a jade tree sculpture with golden leaves that flowed in the breeze-was something my players really loved, and something I couldn't have come up with on my own, because I'm terrible at making up treasure! Even in the case of making up names, she came up with the name and description of the giant flaming tarantula Firefloss, now a PC-favorite NPC. 

    Whether it's a friend, a family member, or even something like the Sly Flourish discord's workshop channel, find a way to discuss the craft with other people. You'll learn a lot, and maybe meet some cool people along the way. 

Are You Just Burnt Out?

    Finally, are you just straight up not having a good time? Sometimes you're just tired, or having a bad month, or whatever, or your players aren't giving you the kind of energy you need. In those cases and more, its okay to take a break. Ask someone else to step up, or just accept that there's not gonna be a game for a little while. Go do something (or someone) you love instead, read a new book, watch a cool documentary, pet a dog. We're all playing pretend, and at the end of the process you're supposed to enjoy it on some level. And if you aren't...it's okay to stop. I certainly won't judge you.

    At some point in the future, I'm going to do a whole blog post with my favorite bits of GM and player advice from lots of different RPG books, but I'm going to spoil it right now by showing you my absolute favorite. It comes from 7th Sea 2E, it's at the tail end of the GM advice section, the very last bit of non-appendix text in the entire book:

    Take care, and remember to have fun out there. You're gonna do fine.