From 'The Lazy Dungeon Master's Checklist'
1 Review the characters
How players fit within the campaign?
Build the prep around the characters
Review characters: NPC met previously by the character, locations that can touch on a player's background, foes that the party is good at fighting with, secrets and clues tied up to the characters as well, choosing treasure to tie in directly to the characters
Keep track of characters on paper: names, background, motivations, desires of the character then review them
Summary (for Session prep 1)
1 Write down the names, backgrounds, and motivations of all the characters.
2 Review these character notes to prime your mind before the rest of your preparation.
3 Use the character review to help you tie the characters to the rest of the game.
4 Test yourself to see if you can remember the names of the characters etc.
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2 Create a strong start
Write down a strong (descriptive) single sentence that clarifies where your session will begin
paint a picture for the players (but not too long): what's happening, what's the point, where's the action?
frame the start of your session with an event of some kind: storm hammering the ship, stumbling across a group of moon worshippers, wandering into town on the day of the prince's wedding
10 examples of a memorable way to start a session: local town folk celebrating, wedding day between members of rival hostile families, lending house just been robbed, a mercenary army rolls into town, unnatural storm, rituals being prepared by locals, 'boxing day' and the lord is serving drinks to locals, magistrate just outlawed alcohol, kind is dead, raining for a solid month
clear point and purpose for the start of your session - main seed, main hook for the next state of adventure
Each starting scene contains the hook required to pull the characters in: might find a clue or a McGuffin, witness to harassment, unusual events or threats (suits or armor wondering the town demanding to battle a long-dead queen)
In media res start - purse being stolen from one of the characters etc.
start with combat (a battle always comes with its own narrative: who, why etc.) When in doubt, start with combat.
10 examples of strong start (see p.16)
Summary
1 What's happening? What event will frame the start of this section of the adventure?
2 What's the point? What seed, hook will lead the characters further into the adventure?
3 Where's the action? Start as close to the action as you can?
4 When in doubt, start with combat.
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3 Outline potential scenes
guess at the potential scenes, make a list (keep it loose)
outline: just a few words per line, just enough to remind us what's going on in the scene
sometimes the outline will be sequential or in any order
Summary
1 Write down a short list of scenes that might occur in your game
2 Remember the goal of writing down scenes is primarily to help you feel prepared
3 Scenes can occur in or out of sequence
4 Write only as much as you need to remind yourself of what might happen
5 Don't fall in love with your scenes. Be prepared to throw them away.
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4 Define secrets and clues
secrets and clues are the anchors of the game
secrets bind the players to the world
write down a solid list of secrets and clues: a single sentence that matters to the characters, pieces of history that give the characters a better view of why things are happening, clues and leads to discovering special locations or powerful items
Doesn't come from one particular NPC's mouth, you don't know where the character might find them, improvise the discovery of the clue while you run the game.
Write down 10 secrets per session but secrets aren't always revealed
Summary
1 Write down 10 secrets and clues that the characters might discover in the next game session
2 Secrets and clues are the connective tissue of a campaign.
3 Each secret or clue reveals a piece of the story or history of the world and its inhabitants
4 Keep secrets and clues abstract from how they might be revealed. Improvise the discovery of secrets during the game
5 Throw away secrets? (Hmm not sure about that, it would not make for a consistent arch or story if done so)
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5 Develop fantastic locations
to avoid stereotypical locations, spend time developing unique locations
dungeons are a series of fantastic locations
pick an evocative name (to fire up the imagination (The Hill of the Great Skull, the Bridge of Teeth, The Path of Screams)
write details or aspects, short descriptive tags for your location - generally you want three aspects, each describing an important, notable or useful feature of the location
Aspects are features the characters can interact with and that will matter to them (Example: The Path of Screams: icy path winding around a sheer mountainous drop, faces frozen screaming in the icy walls, continuous small avalanches)
Fantastic: Size, scale, very old (often does the trick)
Shoot for one or two fantastic locations per hour of gameplay (five locations for a three-hour game)
-Each fantastic location is the backdrop for a single scene (not the city or the whole dungeon)
Examples of 10 Fantastic Locations (see p 25): Emerald Waterfall, Crashed Planar Vessel, Fant of the First Wyrm, Floating Geode, Bones of the Behemoth, Pit of the Otherworldly Stone, Crucified Titan, Ruined Tower, Carapace of the World Walker, Exposed Tomb.
build a location of relevance to a specific character's background
update read-made dungeon with your own fantastic locations
Summary
- Write an evocative name for the location
- Write down three fantastic aspects of the location
- Plan on using one or two locations per hour of play
- Make locations fantastic using age and size
- Tie some locations to the background of the characters
- Draw stick figure dungeon maps with names connected by lines
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6 Outline important NPCs
focus on primary NPCs: major points of contact, primary quest givers, notable villains, and other NPCs critical to the story
keep description brief (name, connection to the story, character archetype + relationship to characters)
fill out details of NPC: appearance, mannerisms, way they interact with players - easy to base them on popular fictions archetypes and famous characters, switch genders if too close, avoid stereotypes, use reversals
be prepared to throw them away
Summary
1 You're likely to prepare some NPCs ahead of time and improvise others during the game
2 NPCs you prepare will primarily be those that drive the game session and the adventure
3 Keep your NPC outline brief: a name, a connection to the adventure, and a character archetype from popular fiction is often enough
4 As will all the other parts of your preparation, you need to be ready to throw your NPCs away if the story moves in an unexpected direction.
5 Switch genders and avoid stereotypes to make your NPCs unique and interesting.
6 You might be able to skip this step if NPCs have already been covered in your strong start, the outline of potential scenes or your secrets and clues.
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7 Choose relevant Monsters (encounters)
Choose monsters that make sense for the scene, the situation, and the location
Read up on your monsters (get inspired by new ideas, know the ecology of the monster, prime your mind for improv)
Think of challenge ratings as a loose gauge as it helps to understand the relationship between a monster's challenge rating and a character's level
Prepare to improvise combat encounters
Sometimes you might tie monsters directly to a fantastic location
Prepare boss fights - a longtime villain, maintain a high level of challenge without robbing the characters of agency: understand the capabilities of players, you want the characters to show off (not counteract them), on the other hand, the boss not to get killed first round. Consider test fights.
Make boss fights memorable: use fantastic terrain, protect the boss with guardians, boss don't fight alone.
How to run boss fights: add more monsters to the fight, drain characters' resources before the fight, use the environment, focus on story-based challenges, improve boss tactics, understand the capabilities of the characters, increase the boss hit points
The number of foes can be increased or reduced based on specific situations during the game.
Summary
1 Choose monsters that make sense for the story, situation, and location.
2 Read monster books to prime your brain with new ideas and information for improvisation.
3 Keep a loose gauge of monster difficulty and character levels in mind
4 Improvise the encounters based on the story and situation during the game
5 Spend time building boss fights that account for character capabilities without negating those capabilities - or instead, let boss fights play out like any other encounters.
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8 Select magic item reward
The Loose Wish List: ask players what type of items they would fancy (at the start of the campaign, every 6 weeks), write it down with the character's information so you can review the list as your first prep step
Spot a good place where to drop in an item for one of the characters but make sure if it makes sense in the story and it has been a while since the character received a magic item.
As a rule, nice to drop one magic item into each session of play.
You can use random lists and roll for it, or roll ahead of time and curate the results to avoid useless or inappropriate items.
ty magic items to the story: can become the purpose of a quest, act as a vehicle for secrets and clues
Summary
1 Players love magical items. It is worth your time to consider magic items during prep.
2 At the beginning of a campaign, and every six sessions thereafter, ask the players what sort of items they'd like for their characters.
3 Write down their answers, then review those answers when you're reviewing the characters during step one.
4 When it fits the story, select an interesting item for one of the characters and plan to drop it into the game
5 You might also randomly select magic items to drop into the game
6 Tie magic items to the story, either by using them as the focus of a quest, or as a connection to a secret or clue
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