How I prepare for my sessions
I've been having some problems with session preparation, particularly because I do not really have actual play sessions often. I play via play-by-post predominantly, which is not discretized into sessions. As much as I'd like to have proper online sessions, it would be difficult for me to find players because of scheduling and the type of game I'm hosting. But when I did have sessions, here's what I did:
1. Create a text file with a list of major characters and their problems/motivations/potential quests. I have to note that while I do think about the possible solutions for some of the problems that might come up in the session, I leave some of them open-ended. It often happens that my players come up with a solution by themselves, and often a better one that I had in mind. They are smart, and there are more of them, after all.
2. If combat is expected with some of the actors (or if I have an encounter prepared), write up short statblocks. Just the attacks, defenses, attributes, gear, maybe important traits, nothing more. Since I have a lot of prewritten monsters, if I am using those as is, I just put their names on the list.
3. If a dungeon is planned, then draw a dungeon map and generate the treasure.
4. Create a map for random encounters. For example, if the session is expected to take place mostly in a forest, then just create a map with some trees and bushes.
5. Prepare the tokens!
And that's it. You cannot really expect the players to read your mind and follow whatever plan you came up with, so I find that this kind of prep is enough - everything else is improvisation.
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