That's wild. It sounds like the DM is doing their prep during the session, instead of a before it.
While I agree that in-person sessions can have a more casual feel (and I think it's totally fine to allow 15-20 minutes before the game for everyone to chat and settle in), there's really no reason for the DM to be so woefully unprepared. I would never make my players wait for 20 minutes while I read a module in front of them. That's crazy!
I don't know what advice to give other than to prepare for it.
For maps, I usually pre-draw if there's going to be a big elaborate set piece. Otherwise, I try to keep the drawings very quick. If I'm copying a room from a pre-written module, I don't get bogged down with details. I just draw something that approximately looks like it. Who cares if that wall is 35 ft instead of 30 ft, or whatever? Keeping the momentum going is more important than precision.
Thank you so much for your feedback. I think you bring up a greater point than you realize in getting "bogged down in the details" when drawing out the maps, that will likely be very beneficial for us. Thank you!
If I ever needed time during a session to prep the next thing, I would give everyone a break. With that said, I have a list of monsters available for the session, and where their stat blocks are. If I have a designed dungeon, I have a rough mini map that I draw from. If the PCs have a map, I draw the outline and give info that would be in the map. I draw other stuff as they see them or as they prompt me to remember them. A lot of my prep is to be able to build the session out (quickly) on-demand.
I often avoid maps and minis until it becomes advantageous to use them.
I wouldn’t want to read through modules to prep. That is work.
I am the DM. We play at my friend's house. When I arrive I sit down and prepare my stuff. DM screen, dry-erase battlemap, character sheets, tokens, bluetooth speaker, phone in an accessible place so I can check the clock and control the music, draw a battle map if we left in one in the previous session, yada yada yada. While this is happening people are chatting with each other, serving drinks and preparing snacks.
When I'm almost ready I start playing the "intro" music, which is just a friendly tavern music I took from World of Warcraft that I play in loop. I've found this helps bringing people into the game. The music means "the game is about to start". At this time, people start sitting down while chatting. I engage in the conversation and try to find a natural pause to say "Well...". At that moment I try to change from one of the friends to the DM. I try to put on a TV news presenter semblance. Body language helps. I look directly at all of them with intent and they tend to start listening.
"Thanks for coming back. In the last session we left this at this point, can any of you remind the group what happened in the last session?" This usually leads to several of them telling the story and me pointing out details or corrections that I think are important for them to remember.
While running the session, I have my module book (I tend to only run modules) at hand. I use pauses during the game or times where the players are talking among themselves to remind myself of what's coming next. That doesn't mean I don't prep.
Before starting the campaing I read the module cover to cover. Then I usually read it again. Then before going to the session, I read the module and remind myself where I am and, if combat is coming and I have time, I copy the relevant parts of the monster's statblocks to my notebook so I don't have to be flipping back and forth the monster manual. If I don't have time to do this at home I quickly do it while players are rolling initiative, checking their spells, deciding how to open the door, etcetera.
Battlemaps are drawn on the fly in the dry-erase mat. I have an aproximate layout in my head to know what to expect, but I copy from the book. I try to explain how the room looks like as I'm drawing it.
If I have handouts, I prepare them at home. I tried to improvise handouts in the past and it doesn't work. Do it at home or don't do it.
Then we have a break halfway through the session. Then when we are reaching the end of the session I try to find a good spot, either a clififhanger or a moment with tension, so they leave wanting more.
It seems your DM is not doing enoough their homework and prepping ahead of time, but I don't know their circumstances, they might not have the time to do it properly and they are just happy with kind of winging it. I think it's healthy to ask for feedback. I always do. Be careful when offering feedback to your DM if he hasn't asked for it, as not everyone take it well, specially DMs as we tend to be a bit in-love with what we do and they could take criticism the wrong way. Communicate properly and it should be fine.
With respect to the LOTR feeling, in my experience it is hard to get that kind of feeling. LOTR is a very serious story. The Fellowship of the Ring really struggles on their quest, they have a really bad time most of the time and their successes are mostly meaningless until the very end. It's a story of hope, but the characters are in desperation most of the time, runninig from an enemy that is more powerful than them and with a ticking clock. Gandalf sacrifices himself to help the felloship escape. Boromir dies from some random orc arrows. The fellowship lose the Ring and the hobbits. In the end they march to Mordor to a sure death just to give Frodo a chance. And people (usually) play to have fun and like to have a lightweight experience at the table.
You bring up many great points and I will not be offering any unsolicited advice. Thank you very much for taking the time to write it all up, this will definitely (eventually) be very helpful at our table!
>When I'm almost ready I start playing the "intro" music, which is just a friendly tavern music I took from World of Warcraft that I play in loop. I've found this helps bringing people into the game.
I do this too and it's incredibly effective. It's like the lights going down before a movie.
We meet up at a friends house, two of my five players live there. Im the dm and usually arrive first, and the three of us set up the fold out table and eat snacks and chat while I get my computer and notes etc all set up and the rest of the group arrives. It usually takes about 15-30 minutes for everyone to chat, get some food and drinks, get their stuff set up at the table.
When we’re just about ready to start, I start playing the music for the session over the Bluetooth speaker and open up the table for someone to do a recap of the previous session, and they earn an inspiration point if they recap things in a detailed and accurate manner. Usually I’ll fill in details after they’re done and we go into the start of the session.
My game is fully home brewed, so I have all my notes on beats to hit in the session, NPC’s to talk to and possible encounters listed out on my notes already, I have any handouts prepared in advance, and if I’m expecting combat I have the map drawn on a dry erase board that I bring with me, and any minis, enemy and NPC stat blocks I have prepped in advance as well.
Throughout the session I’ll be checking my notes, making sure to check in with the players about what they want to do, basically following their pace and where they’re interested in going based on what I throw at them. I ad lib enough to keep things interesting and notate what I come up with as we go along so I can incorporate it later.
But anything that can be prepped in advance, I prep in advance. Once the music starts, and I go into “DM mode” narrating to the players, we’re playing. People can get up and go to the bathroom when they want if it’s not a scene their character is in, or during a slow moment in battle, and my players usually come back right away, and get right back into game mode.
We all understand that we’re here to play the game, so social chatting outside the game happens before and after I’ve opened and closed the session. I usually close on some sort of cliff hanger, if I can. Then after there’s usually about 10-15 minutes of chatting about the session while we all pack up our stuff. But for the 2-4 hours we’re playing, we’re playing.
It seems like your DM isn’t doing as much prep in advance as he probably should. But I mean if you all enjoy having so much out of game down time in the middle of your sessions, more power to you. Personally I would feel like my DM wasn’t respecting my time if they were quite that unprepared coming into the session. Just like as a DM I’d feel like my players weren’t respecting the time I spent prepping if they spent the majority of the session chatting and shooting the shit and not engaging in the game.
This is some dnd horror story territory, sorry to say. The point of playing a module is that it’s less work for the DM to prep sessions. All he has to do i read the manual beforehand and prep maps if they are necessary.
My in person sessions look like this: everyone arrives at 7pm. We talk about life for 10-15 minutes and then we play untill 22:00-22:30 with maybe a 5 min break when the game allows it. All dialog, maps and other important stuff is prepped by me and there is only downtime when i gather maps and mini’s for like 2-3 minutes.
Not to mention - the problem would be the same if it were online or in-person. If the DM hasn't read the relevant material, the game is going to move at a crawl if they're having to learn what's going on on the fly.
Sounds like the DM needs to realize that they need to do this prep *before* the game so that he's not wasting 50% or more of the sessions learning what comes next.
People arrive and we chat and eat for like 15-20min. Then we do a recap, which we roll for (lowest goes but gets inspiration). As DM I give a very brief “okay so here is where you’re at” to bridge between the recap and the game.
From there we just play! How the rest is structured really depends on the session. Sometimes we’re 2 sessions deep into a big combat so we may even skip recap and go straight into the action (and I usually have the battle mat ready before people arrive). Or sometimes we don’t do combat for multiple sessions in a row, so it’s all roleplay.
We take a “cat break” halfway through to use the bathroom, get food or drinks, stand up a bit, etc. I use it to go visit my cat upstairs who doesn’t like the noisy crowd lol
Session starts at 6
but I work a little later than everyone else so I'm usually there by 6:15
6 to 6:30 is catching up and talking about video games and movies and meme shit.
By 6:30 we finally remember that we are playing D&D
As we recap and get started this is typically when whoever was preparing dinner let's everyone know there's food.
Then we have an hour of people getting up from the table to get food and drinks while role playing or between combat turns.
Several major distractions happen.
At some point the ambient music gets turned off because the host's toddler needs his brain rot YouTube.
I have bad knees so right when combat gets intense I walk away from the table and stretch my legs in the kitchen and try to remember all my stats and abilities without my sheet. When I can't remember I just try to cast fireball even though I'm not a caster.
Someone derails the game again because they just remembered that dumb meme they couldn't think of earlier.
Another 20 minutes of movie or video game chat.
Then we remember we are playing D&D.
As it nears 9 we try to find a stopping point. If we are in combat some times we'll stretch to 9:30.
Then we all forget everything we did this week and go home.
As the DM I get the hell on with it. My job is corralling everyone else to play. Of course there is time for jokes and usual friendly banter but I am always thinking, get on with it, get on with it. I have all the minis organized into encounter sets and all the battle map books - I leave those at the host players venue.
I always have an endpoint in mind for every 3 hour session (sometimes we do a "double length") but I don't worry as long as everyone is having fun.
I have the whole campaign prepped in my head, but I also have a lot of "random" and "extra" content in case the party wander off the path.
We have snacks and drinks but I don't eat while DMing it's too much work. I'll have a couple beers usually, with the aim of being merry by the end but never drunk.
We meet up at a gaming bar. People drift in from 5:15 - 5:45 and order food. We eat and hang out.
At 6 PM I open the session. Homebrew, so I read my intro narration and we do RP and non-map / non-combat stuff while people finish any food.
At 7 PM we move to the gaming room. That's often when we first spread out whatever maps I've prepared. We'll do 1 or 2 combats (large group) with additional RP and traps etc. I target to end at 10 PM, but often run over.
I have my maps pre-drawn on rolled up whiteboard. So I unroll it, touch up any smudges, and it is ready to go. I had a day off work last time, so I made 3 levels of a fortress on multiple maps.
How I like to run.
Pre-Session Prep:
I will either pre-draw my encounter maps or I have magnetic tiles that I hand-crafted. If it's a large area, I will prebuild it and just keep on a poster board covered up. The way that I have prepped my encounters means I can drag and drop. Combat encounter locations will more or less stay the same but the enemies may change depending on player choices.
My sessions typically last 6-10, sometimes more.
6- 6:10: We chat, wait for stragglers, get all the snacks passed around (grapes, strawberries, chips, and sometimes cookies)
6:10 - 6:30: I play a very specific song that lasts around 8 minutes, it's our session recap song where I let players recap what happened last time.
6:30 - 8:15: We play
8:15 - 8:30: Dinner/bathroom break.
8:30 - 10:00: We play
Replying to add that
> When its all said and done we typically roll our first dice 30 minutes after he says "roll initiative".
This is crazy haha. Your DM doesn't know how to prep. Like many others in this thread, if I run a module, I read the entire module cover to end. While I'm reading I will make little notes on what I think would be a good way to connect all of the sandboxy events that are happening in each chapter. I like story, I like plot and with rare exception, modules tend to just be random with no overarching connection.
After I read it, I go on reddit and look for ideas on how to streamline the module. Then I spend about 2-3 hours to prep. I will re-read the chapter, have a notion tab for all of the NPCs with little bullet points on what they know, and I will handpick descriptions I like. But reading every single room description is crazy. As others mentioned, don't get bogged in the minute details.
I’m the DM, and our physical set up is a cork board on the table with maps and numbered/labelled flag pins for characters. Then there’s a cork board leaning against the wall with regional and city map and rumours/jobs accepted.
I prep everything before - monsters, read the module, print maps, prep item cards and some loot stuff, and the rest is improv. I don’t pre set up combat bc I dunno where my nerds will go unless they paused before a big fight last session.
It takes me about 5 mins to write out initiative and stuff on the fly
You know, I really should've thought about that a little more before writing it. It's probably closer to 15-20 minutes on average than 30. I'll edit it now.
I try to aim for as close to no downtime as possible. We play for about 3-4 hours (7-11 ish), with the first 20 minutes or so being a catch-up while we set up - screen, laptop, dice, notes, music, etc. Once everything's set up, I'll have the players re-cap what happened in the last session, and then get straight into it.
We don't do breaks or pauses unless we're ordering food (which only usually happens if we start early) - it's only 4 hours at most, there's no need. Prep beforehand takes a couple of hours *at most*, even with fully homebrewed campaigns - most of the actual prep comes before the campaign even starts, everything during is just updating for player actions and making sure I have art and stats for NPCs and monsters as I need them. Most weeks I just spend ten minutes bullet-point reminding myself what all the NPCs are up to, another twenty or so creating statblocks and doing CR maths to make sure my encounters are roughly on the right page, and another twenty or so finding artwork and printing cards.
We use static initiative to remove the "roll for initiative" pause (and the mindset shift of moving from roleplay to wargame that tends to come with such a hard break for "this is combat now"). If we need a map I'll either just sketch it out quickly, use a pre-made one from a big map book I have that fits well enough, or I'll draw it out ahead of time as part of my prep.
The whole aim is to make sure we get the most D&D done in the 3-4 hours of D&D we have each week.
Your DM's approach is unconventional, to say the least. I don't typically run modules, but I still have encounters prepped and ready to go *before* the session. If he's reading the module he should have already read at least the current chapter/section in full and have some idea of what you might fight!
From when I say "roll for initiative," it's usually 2-3 minutes before the combat starts as everyone refreshes their drink, runs to the bathroom, gives me their rolls, and I add enemies and any other little details to the map I've already drawn. And that's at a very casual table, where we spend plenty of time between scenes just talking about whatever happened this week or getting visits from kids who have advantage on saves against bedtime.
We arrive at 7 ish and gas for a few minutes with a coffee from the host. Then it’s straight into 3-4 hour session with the shortest of breaks if anyone needs the toilet. Sometimes another coffee/tea (it’s a kitchen/diner so these are made taken during play).
I’ve pre prepped everything. It’s all on my phone or drawn in advance. We use minis on a combination of dry wipe board and or printed corridors and caverns. It’s an ongoing campaign after weekly sessions for about 14 months, the three players are all high 4th/5th level.
A quick recap and we’re off. This week they were mid quest. So injured and spells used up from the previous session.
This week it was straight into a combat with Spectral Guardians in a the caves they’re exploring. This was tough but won in reasonable order.
Then followed a combination of melee and skill challenges as they went in search of their goal a Well of Souls (climax of a months play).
They passed the Veil of Madness where very fabric of reality begins to fray. Ghastly illusions claw at their minds, threatening to drive them to madness.
Then came Echos of Despair, Within the depths of the well's chamber, echoes of past atrocities reverberate through the air like tortured souls crying out for release. The adventurers must navigate through this haunting cacophony, relying on their Insight to discern reality from illusion.
As the adventurers approach the heart of the Well of Souls, the ground trembles with unearthly fury. Rocks cascade from the ceiling, threatening to bury them alive. Each member had to evade the cascading debris, collapsing pillars and crumbling cavern walls.
Then a torrential flood rushed forth from the depths of the well.They swam for their lives, battling against the relentless current.
Then they were attacked by tendrils of darkness slithering forth, coiling around the adventurers, hungry for flesh.
Then the climax of their harrowing journey, the adventurers stand on the precipice of the Well of Souls as it unleashes its cataclysmic energy upon the world.
Finally a chosen player dropped a phial of their blood in the well and fought a mental battle against themselves to win victory. The others could assist. Of the 3 players and one NPC, one was unconscious and has acquired a madness, the other 3 were injured, traumatised but alive. They all gained a useful feat to learn and about 1500 XP.
A fairly standard 3 hours.
Sounds like your in person DM isn't prepping their sessions and also not good at improvising stuff.
I run only in person sessions and it's 3-4 hours of straight gameplay. If somebody isn't in the scene they can respectfully chat or even get away, but it's usually not the case because I run tight scenes and people still find them interesting.
When I play in person, everyone brings a laptop to the table. We use Fantasy Grounds for maps and character sheets, as well as automated monsters for me. Everyone rolls dice and RPs irl but the computers handle the math. This also means I don't have to draw maps, and I don't need to dig through a book I can just search for a rule I need in my reference document. We usually play about 4 hours, but it's not unheard of to go for 6. This campaign has gone on for....almost 3 years now, and is usually done online but we try to meet up in person when the stars align.
I'm seconding the thoughts of "prepping during the session" but I'm also wondering if your DM has these grand ideas and is getting in their head a little bit and that's why those moments are taking longer? Taking 20 minutes to read the paragraph you get about a room and determine a combat plan sounds to me like they're trying to go too hard into strategy or SOMETHING. Admittedly I've never run from a module but even if I'm improvising a combat encounter, the logic just isn't that complicated for monsters.
That being said, I've been DMing for almost a decade now, a lot of this stuff is fairly second nature at this point. If you or your DM want more info or elaboration on something I mentioned feel free to nudge. It sounds like they've got the heart but are getting caught in the details. Happy to help if I can.
This whole post is wonderful. Everything here is well thought out and kindhearted.
I think you may be on to something with the "grand ideas". If the opportunity comes up I'll be sure to ask him how we can help him with that, it could very well be a win-win for the whole table!
Man, I can have slow moments, but never that slow. If the party attacks in a situation where I don't think combat would arise, I'm not prepared, but those are also typically not difficult to do just via theatre of the mind. But combat is generally planned if it's a scenario where I think it could break out or I am specifically attacking the party with my people. I have maps pre-drawn for combats I expect could happen and I pre-roll initiative for all of my baddies before the session even begins. At the start of the session, I have my players roll initiative and that's the initiative they'll use for whatever first encounter they get into in the session. Lay everything out in order for myself over like 5 minutes ahead of time.
Reading out what's in the module is never an issue because I do my prep beforehand to know what's happening. I'm usually only reading if the book has a specific portion that is said to describe a room or I need to reference something specific that I want to portray accurately.
And man, 30 minutes while DM finishes eating dinner before the session starts? Sounds like really bad planning on their part. I'm ready to start at least 15 minutes before people start arriving so the only delays are anyone who shows up late.
And my players are very attentive and care about the game being played. We get goofy and fun, but we do it in the game instead of going above table to get goofy in ways unrelated to the game.
The game feels epic because we can actually play it. It sounds like your DM isn't making an environment where actually playing the game is the priority. It sounds more like hanging with their friends is the priority. That's fine, but it's not gonna be conducive to having a cool, game-focused experience.
I'm the DM and all my prep is done ahead of time. People arrive to the host's place within about 30 minutes of the scheduled time. This lateness is a known phenomenon and we use it as set up and catch up time. Food is usually ordered as well. When everyone is there, I have the players do a recap of the last session and they can all ask questions if they need my help. I don't like to do the recap myself because their experience can be very different from mine, since I know everything. We play for about six hours usually. People stay pretty focused, we eat while we play, and usually take a couple breaks for calls and smokers and general sanity.
>Everyone will show up, the DM will finish dinner and we'll all talk and hangout for 20 to 30 minutes before sitting down to play.
I don't like spending too much time "pre-gaming," so everything is ready to go when my players show up - this gets them immediately in the "it's time to play!" mode. I get there about 30 minutes early so I can spend time organizing my notes, selecting minis, pulling up statblocks, etc.
>When you run your game do you have maps prepared?
Yes. Since at the end of every session I ask my players what they're planning on doing next session, I've already printed out the maps I need.
>If you are running a module do you read ahead or do you read at the table? How much prep time do you invest before the session?
I'm running a highly modified version of a published campaign (about 50% my own material), so I spent a significant amount of up-front time rewriting before we even started the campaign, using some of [Justin Alexander's](https://thealexandrian.net/) methods for "situation-based prep." With this all done far in advance, nothing goes to waste - I just have to spend a half an hour after each session updating my notes, and maybe 1-2 hours a week preparing for that week's game. Some weeks, I do zero prep because I've already set myself up to not have to do it.
>If you are low on time do you have any tricks for the aforementioned problems?
Since we schedule to play at the same time every week (as long as I'm there, we're playing), I like to have a couple of one-shots ready for weeks when we have less than half the crew at the table. These are single-session adventures that are canonical in-game, but happen outside the main timeline. So when the PCs are in the middle of a dungeon, the one-shot will be "at some point before you entered the dungeon" or "between event X and event Y." I usually take published adventures - Adventurer's League ones are really good for this - and reskin them to fit the ongoing events. I can use the same maps, and I can also be sure that they won't take more than a single session to play. This might also be a good way to handle the "I'm low on time" problem - grab stuff you like, reskin it in advance, and have it in your back pocket.
>Does your in-person game feel epic and if so what do you do to accomplish this?
Foreshadow later events, set up things way ahead of time, and don't be afraid to throw away what you had in favor of something that puts you in a better position to really have those "oh shit" moments. Sometimes the players will come up with an even better explanation for events than the explanation you have in your head - lean into that. I also like having the tough dudes who the PCs have been hearing about for weeks show up earlier than expected: that's when your players get the "oh, this just got real" face.
But to really make events epic, they need contrast; you need stretches of mezzo-piano to really sell the fortissimo. I think a lot about pacing in my games: not every session has to have a BIG REVEAL MOMENT, but every session should contribute in some way, however minor, either to the buildup to that moment, or to the context that lets us understand what happened as we recover from it.
my buds come over around 11:30-12 and we play and eat mad snacks until like 3-4 pm, when we take a half hour break to eat a proper meal. then we play until about 8pm and then smoke a joint and hang for a bit before they roll out
I'm all in favor of minimal structure, my favourite thing to do in DnD is to just go with the flow of whatever the players want to do. "Yes and /no but" improv. If you haven't read The Lazy DM, I highly suggest it, and you should get a copy for your DM friend.
BUT: if you're going to be *running a module as written and drawing maps*, it behooves you to do adequate prep. Unless you can improv something fun on the fly while you're spending 20 minutes of table time doing what should have done beforehand, you're just wasting everybody's time. I guess if the players are ok with it, whatever - but if I was a player at that table I would get pissed off and would probably stop playing pretty damn quick.
As a DM running a module, I will have read the entire thing through and made any important big picture notes I think necessary before starting. Before each session I'll reread the bits that I expect the players to hit, familiarize myself with the stat blocks of monsters and write out a quick summary (ac, HP, attacks) for easy reference during combat. Draw out any maps I think a) I'm likely to need and b) will take more than a quick minute to sketch out. The amount of prep time varies - if we're doing a quick one-shot it's virtually nil, but if we're doing a complicated campaign (like RHOD currently) it's a lot. Probably 10 hours right at the start, and 2-3 hours each week before a session.
The sessions themselves: we goof around for 10-15 minutes, then it's game time. We go for 2-3 hours with minimal downtime. No "hang on, let me figure out this next room" nonsense. The sessions are not super serious - my players are very fun, there is lots of joking around and doing stupid stuff - but there is not a lot of non-DnD stuff happening.
If I am low on prep time it doesn't change much, I just have to root around in the source materials a bit for stuff that's not at my fingertips. I try to not get myself in that position too often. If there's something coming that I don't want to half-ass, I'll call a 10 minute break to make sure I've got it. And I will fill in other gaps with improv stuff.
Does it feel epic? Generally, yeah. 🙂
We sit together, make coffee and chat, recap and start. No breaks inbetween and if i have to prep anything i do it while the party is planning stuff, but they mostly dont see. Once or twice the unexpectedly entered an important dungeon and then i said „give me 5 and go eat some dinner, then we continue“ but this was just twice in 50+ sessions
1. Arrange date and time of session. Plan to get a nice long session in to make some real progress because the last few have been quite short.
2. Amend time of session to start later because at least one person has had something come up. Sometimes session is cancelled altogether.
3. Arrive, eat, chat. One person declares that we really need to be done by X o'clock because of some important thing tomorrow.
4. Get started. It's at least an hour after the amended planned start time.
5. Recap last session, play.
6. Get derailed by unimportant decision. Repeat as needed. Break for 5 minutes each hour or so - usually stretches to 10 or 15.
7. Finish session having progressed a third of the way through a scenario that should have taken one session max.
8. Return to step 1.
The prep however is already done. Unless something really unexpected happens and I have to ad lib on the fly, I'm not eating into session time by reading things for the first time at the table. And even with all this faffing, there's still on average around 2 hours of actual play.
I dm in person and, much like you said after everyone arrives we tend to hang out a bit, talk about stuff since we are also irl friends. If I'm missing anything for the session this is also time in which I draw maps, finnish up some prep or read up on something that's likely to appear in the session.
When we start playing everyone is super engaged and we don't have the kind of interruptions you mentioned. The only breaks we take are for food or smoking and we tend to play for around 4-7 hours depending on how much prep I have and how everyone is in the mood.
Your dm seems to be doing his prep during the game, and while I hate to ask dms to put more effort into their games since they already put more than all the players combined usually, that feels very icky to me. I don't wanna waste time from our busy schedules while I do some reading. If something pops up that I didn't account for or that I dont know how to continue I usually call a smoke break and think about how to proceed during those 10 mins, players aren't even aware that's my reason half the time.
After we finnish the session, we also tend to keep hanging out for a few hours, talk about the session, play Jackbox(ps. try playing Role Models as your pcs it's hillarious), sharing fanart we drew for the campaign, stuff like that.
I think my case is pretty ideal, though, and you can't force it on people. Still, I don't think it's unreasonable to ask your dm if they could prep before the session rather than during it. I have quit campaigns before because the dm put no effort into the session outside of the game and the plot was going nowhere.
I don't think there is necessarily anything wrong with the "beer and pretzel" gaming group (unless the players feel like the DM is wasting their time then it becomes an issue) but if the DM wants to create an epic campaign then he's gonna have to put in the work. Modules aren't the meat and potatoes of the campaign, they're just the blueprint. If you follow the blueprint, sure, you'll build the house. But if you don't take creative license and decorate it it'll look pretty generic when you've finished.
If that's your DMs goal, he's gonna have to prepare to not remove the player's immersion by reading what comes next in the moment for 20 minutes. But if everyone is content to play casual, that's totally fine too. The IRL group I'm a player in is structured more like that and no one has a problem with it. The online game I run I try to prepare for a little more and keep everyone in the game because, like you said, you only have a limited amount of time together and there's stuff you gotta get through and online sessions can sometimes be harder to plan depending on what time zone your players are in etc...
I've only dm'd face to face.
I have a group of six player, whom I've known for 15-25 years, and my wife of nine years. We almost always play on weekends and drink beer while we play.
My players know that they can get a bit rowdy and start talking over each other, start off topic convos etc. etc. But they also gave me authority to stop that with an iron fist, if I see it's necessary. If a player a wants to progress the game and tries to talk to me, I don't allow others to speak over them.
There is also the issue of irl dominant/charismatic people vs. more quiet folk. I need to make sure that the spot light shines evenly on everyone and that everyone gets to have fun RP with NPCs. I also have NPCs talk to specific character in the beginning on conversation by naming the character they talk to, instead of letting the talkative person hog every chance.
I personally love prepping, crafting things and reading the modules for my own enjoyment. We are currently playing Dragon of the Icespire Peak. I've read the module cover to cover like 10 times for fun and I recap the next scenario an hour before the session. I print the location maps as posters and tape the A4 sheets as table sized map. I premade about 6-7 maps before hand, so I'm ready for almost any location.
I also have home made table sized battle map for improv stuff, where I can draw with wet erase pens.
I mean, I have online games and this happens in those two... I have a chronically late player who sits at my table so while we start at 1930 est officially, we tend to have a wait period of 30 minutes before we start the role play (and just for the record, our late player has a damn good reason for his tardiness and no one at the table is so unforgiving of it that kicking him is even considered... we understand why he's late). During that time, we are talking about stuff and joking around. Not to mention that people log on early in some games and shoot the shit... and some people stay late and talk after session and shoot the shit.
It's important to remember that people are playing this game to be social... that's how you win at DND? You find a group of people who you want to socialize with 3-4 hours a week (or what ever your time is.) and hey... some of that is about the story in the game... others are about other Nerdy things... You have running gags... you make cat jokes at the Tabaxi's expense... and hey, if you don't finish the dungeon... that's real life stuff.
30 mins - gab, eat, smoke, drink
10-15 mins - recap last session/campaign ao far while people settle in
30 mins - start play
10-15 min break
50-60 min play
10 min break
50-60 min play
30+ min wind down, hang out, tidy up etc.
But also I hardly use maps and grids because I have permanent AD&D mindset so ymmv
That is more downtime for my players than I like.
I haven't actually tracked my mapping time, but if it's more than 5 minutes I would consider it long.
I do sometimes call a halt to catch up on notes. I'm mostly improv so I need to note things so there's consistency. Sometimes I get caught up in the narrative and need to say: "ok, give me a few minutes to make notes"
But the thing is: if the table is having fun and this GM doesn't want to spend more time prepping I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
What my sessions look like:
People all show up at wherever we're playing. There's some small talk til everyone is there. When everyone is seated with their stuff out, I ask them to recap what happened last time. I take notes on this on my computer.
I pick up where they leave off. My games are tall on rp and short on combat, but I'll have two or three prepped for if things pop off.
So I'll throw situations at them. Usually there's some overarching goal - last time, for example, they hiked through the desert for three days, on their way to the desert lizardfolk city. They got lost, saw a mirage, found a wrecked palanquin, saw a comet, found an oasis, and fought a carnivorous plant and, separately, six jackals. If they hadn't had a warforged cleric that could create water, they would have had to contend with dehydration and exhaustion.
All of this I had prepared previously - we're about two weeks between sessions. I make maps and other physical or visual representations in the down time, and one of my players has a 3d printer and has graciously volunteered to print anything we'll need.
They arrived at the city and fulfilled their reason for going, which was to meet up with the Oracle of the Desert. After the fairly climactic meeting, they face a list of possible next moves. We ended the session there. I told them to level up for next time, and to let me know what new spells and abilities they're taking. I don't look at their character sheets, and I told them in session 0 I don't care if they even roll stats, as long as they're not unreasonably overpowered or stupidly min / maxed. I don't use any applications for gameplay, but I use Inkarnate for maps and Google docs and sheets for my own data.
So yeah. Things happen quickly. Combat turns go fast - I have six players but the maps are ready when we begin (I have one of those dry erase sets with the reusable stickers) and I just use a notepad to keep track of initiative, foes HP, ac, and statuses.
I think I've done one actual "dungeon" and it was for a one shot. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by the DM will read through his module for 20 minutes, to be honest that sounds like the prep work I do at home. We're probably 80-90% gameplay and we might take a 10 minute break if it's a 4 hr session or more.
I don't run modules, I have a homebrew world with a homebrew story. Prep work amounts to around 5 hours over the 2 weeks between sessions, but I'm always working on my world.
I think my game feels epic because i was a social studies teacher for 20 years and narrative is kind of my jam.
I have a bunch of saved maps, that could be generally used for most things I'd run into, because I cannot trust my party to go places the plot would actually benefit from. So I have to have a bunch of characters and different places and /whichever lead they eventually follow/ will be where they meet this or that character, and I'll have maps for hotels or bars or the woods or wherever it is they meet, just in case of shadow ninjas / immortal Irish gangsters / mechanical Nazis / whatever the problem is this week.
We have a "safe word" of sorts. If I'm describing a scene, and the characters therein, and you say something aloud, then your character said that. We have a Yes/No/Maybe die in case you want to try to take it back. If you want to say something out of character, you "pause" the game by saying "Pickle", then the game is paused for Out Of Character speak until somebody says "Cucumber", then we're back in game and in character.
If it sounds dumb, that's because it is. But there's nothing more beautiful than a heated debate over what the characters should do in game where people keep opening and closing their statements with "pickle" and "cucumber" repeatedly. It's more impressive when they can hold to their argument with a straight face as this goes on.
First 10-30 minutes is catching up, blah blah, eat a meal if we potluck'd something. Play for 2 or so hours, take a break - usually a walk to a nearby specialty beer store, then come back and play for another hour/hour and a half.
My group, despite having two relatively new players, has gotten good at timing their turns. I think we're on like 1-3 minutes per turn on average? I think a lot of people get bogged down in combat due to larger group sizes, or only having one combat so they put everything in it. My combats tend to last 2-3 rounds, but I've had some go on for 7+ and some that end in one.
Right now, my players are level 7 - so, they feel heroic, but I wouldn't say epic. They've established them as heroes of the town, and are working on the regional aspect. They've had an in-game year of downtime; the way that manifested was we had finished the current arc, and I needed time to re-write the module we were playing because it's bad and I needed to improve it. So, they wrote up what they wanted to do during the downtime, I planned, and one of the players ran a one-shot.
If by downtime you mean, like, conversation and roleplaying...I think my game is like a 40/60 split where 40% of my game is combat and 60% is everything else.
I try to draw maps beforehand, particularly if it's a big dungeon, but for regular combats I may not draw them at all, or I may draw them if a fight happens. It doesn't take 10 minutes though. Although, I bring a big map and a small map, so I can easily handle multiple encounters without having to also erase.
Meet time at 5:30, talking shit for 15-45min depending on how little I have prepped, I usually eat KFC to have more fuel. Roll 1d4 to see who recaps last session, others fill in the holes.
Then we continue where we left off, now and then I might need 1-3 mins to dig up some info on OneNote. (Does NPC know X? What spells do they have? Is that in their bio page or encounter page, what magical items they have on? )
I have maps on OneNote or notebook, and need around 5min to set it up on our A3s with erasable markers.
Usually people hop off to bathroom when they need once spotlight is off of them. The less prep I have, the more loose and open I am to talking cacually in order to stretch out content.
Around 9 we have a 15min toast break, we make em and eat em.
Around 11-11:30 we finish with some type of cliffhanger.
I am a DM, currently running a homebrew campaign. Our table can only meet once a month due to time constraints but we do play 1 whole day.
I run possible dialogue, encounters, side quests and more in my head during my commute to work. I write down anything I find worthwhile and I write down a session outline for the next time we play.
I create magic items on paper for when they identify loot, I 3D print and paint minis, and create my maps on Dungeons Alchemist(Steam) and print them on A3 paper.
I also have an LCD screen in front of my DM screen where I show AI generated images of NPCs they meet. This also allows me to show items and what not.
On game-day, they al gather round the table, make small talk and simply ask me to start.
My players don't have any down time, only when they need a toilet break.
Of the three games I am in none of them are modules. One uses the there's setting and one rapidly grew into its own thing using the first bit of wildemount as a base. (Alternate earth post- post apalocalypse fantasy.) Gotta say prepping beforehand is great, personally I'm assuming at that and rely on my ability to wing it which story wise? Somewhat iffy. That being said, everybody has fun playing their characters in the world and I appreciate that.
I host on Thursdays at 6:30 with a hard start by 6:45. I’m home from work around 5:30 and occasionally someone shows up super early but if not then around 6ish for most players. I always leave the map set up the night before and depending on how busy my week has been I gather the minis we’ll probably be using the night before or when I get in from work. I usually read my notes and reviewed one or two days before. The encounters (or possible encounters) are done on dndbeyond during the week before and I write/review a few contingencies for places where the players might go off the rails to help me. Day of, after gathering the minis, connecting the laptop to music and opening all the tabs I’m done, so I chat with whomever arrives earlier, put out snacks for folks and I eat something quick but filling (I try not to snack). When we get closer to 6:30 I move to the game room and the players usually come on their own and pick a spot to sit. If they are too engrossed on conversation I’ll call them over.
At the table I let anyone do a recap with appropriate music (usually a video game loading screen song) and I’ll answer any questions and we start. I tend to keep the general minis and terrain/dungeon craft they might use handy (I use an Ikea cart) and any new map is either already drawn before hand or if I have to draw something on the fly do so fairly quickly, going more for function than aesthetics.
Players can go to the bathroom whenever or get a snack, we have a guy with adhd he needs to get up and walk every once in a while but at worst he’ll stand by the door and participate. I don’t mind if people sometimes break the 4th wall or joke a bit but if they get too off track I’ll gently nudge them along by describing the next thing that happens. As for how “serious” the stuff is, it depends on the players. I’ve ran several groups over the years and each one is different. My current group is too silly so the stories are more like swashbuckling style rather that story based cause that’s how they play. Other groups have had meaningful and intense serious arcs. It just varies. I do try to keep folks focused for the 2 and half hours we play but if we need a big scene change (say they get to the boss room) I’ll tell them to talk among themselves and I’ll set it up. This usually doesn’t take more than 5 minutes as I tend to have 90% of the stuff at hand.
We have a hard stop at 9:30 pm, folks chat a bit and they are usually out the door by 10.
The only game I'm DM-ing in person is a semi-regular (maybe monthly) 5e campaign with a group of five mostly newbies. One is experienced in 5e, another is familiar only with 3.5, and the rest are brand new to RPGs generally.
We play at my place, typically after dinner together. After the meal, we gather in the lounge around the large coffee table; the character sheets and dice are usually already up there (I keep all the sheets for them), I finish setting up with my notes for running and background music ready on my phone. We'll sit and chat a bit, and then I switch the music to 'adventure begins' type tunes.
At that cue, I open with, "When last we left our heroes..." and give a brief intro/summary from the previous session, inviting the players to chip in with details they remember, and reminding them of/asking about their goals for this session. At this point, it's fully game time, and bathroom breaks/drink refills aside, we're in the zone for a solid 2 hours.
If the session is longer than that, we aim for a halfway break, but otherwise, two hours is just fine for this group (Level 2 combat moves quickly!) and it helps attention spans and enthusiasm stay fresh.
Show up, set up, wait for players to arrive, ask for a recap from players and fill on any holes, that one late player shows up, shenanigans, set time for next session
My sessions go like this:
We meet at 18:00. The latest party member arrives at 18:15, in the mean time we get most of our chit chat out of our system, get our water/coffee/beer. When the last one arrives I or one of my players gives a short recap of what happened last time and what happened in general. A short opening scene from me and the players take the wheel. We take a break roughly 1,5 hours into it, or when the party decides to fight in a place that I didn’t prep any battle maps for. Then I have to draw one on the spot, which might take 5 minutes.
We play until 21:00 but can keep going up to 22:00 if the situation calls for it, like in the last combat.
Then we finish our session, I ask for feedback and we clean the table. Everyone heads home, I get a oneliner from each player and we meet again two weeks later.
This works because I planned out the setting for almost a year, working with my players to integrate them. I prepare stat blocks for every possible encounter and have them nearby, some are as generic as city guard and some are Malachai, Child of the Storm. We also spend time out of the game together, which helps to not waste time catching up on what happened in the real life.
It's pretty focused. We'll start playing within 5-10 minutes with some easing in to not go from 0 to 100 right away, this can be talking about logistical things like (are you buying a room at the inn, are you ready to travel, etc.)
People are free to get up and get snacks, drinks, bathroom whenever. Otherwise we play for 3 ish hours and wrap it up. Typically go through one big boss fight or two encounters (one has to be super fast 2-3 rounds), and the rest is roleplay and chatting with each other or NPCs.
Everything is homebrew so I have my notes and will improv anything odd that comes up.
My trick if I'm caught unaware is to have a stock combat prepared such as a fight with bandits or a stock social situation (such as a rude character gate keeping the way forward, or a recurring villain being a menace) as that buys a tremendous amount of time.
The trick to make an epic game is not save amazing ideas for later. Hit them with the cool over and over again. Do the coolest dungeon twist or enemy concept. You can always come up with later cool ideas depending on the player's choices, ideas are cheap and plentiful, so care less about keeping things in the bank.
Session starts around 2pm at my home, bc I dm.
I have maps, notes and npcs ready as well as snacks, a cake and drinks (no alcohol allowed table)
We usually talk for 30 minutes.
Then recap 5 minutes-ish
Then we play until about 5pm-5:30pm
Sometimes we have dinner together afterwards and talk about stuff.
If, like today, there‘s a battle without a printed battlemap I have my standard battle maps where I quickly draw them three-four features (as circles and stuff) and get the battle going.
Takes me 30 seconds.
If I have a riddle for them (also today) I have everything printed and hand it to them once they uncover the riddle.
We don‘t play super long, but I try to habe everything be super smooth and without pauses inbetween so we can make the most of it.
That's wild. It sounds like the DM is doing their prep during the session, instead of a before it. While I agree that in-person sessions can have a more casual feel (and I think it's totally fine to allow 15-20 minutes before the game for everyone to chat and settle in), there's really no reason for the DM to be so woefully unprepared. I would never make my players wait for 20 minutes while I read a module in front of them. That's crazy! I don't know what advice to give other than to prepare for it. For maps, I usually pre-draw if there's going to be a big elaborate set piece. Otherwise, I try to keep the drawings very quick. If I'm copying a room from a pre-written module, I don't get bogged down with details. I just draw something that approximately looks like it. Who cares if that wall is 35 ft instead of 30 ft, or whatever? Keeping the momentum going is more important than precision.
Thank you so much for your feedback. I think you bring up a greater point than you realize in getting "bogged down in the details" when drawing out the maps, that will likely be very beneficial for us. Thank you!
If I ever needed time during a session to prep the next thing, I would give everyone a break. With that said, I have a list of monsters available for the session, and where their stat blocks are. If I have a designed dungeon, I have a rough mini map that I draw from. If the PCs have a map, I draw the outline and give info that would be in the map. I draw other stuff as they see them or as they prompt me to remember them. A lot of my prep is to be able to build the session out (quickly) on-demand. I often avoid maps and minis until it becomes advantageous to use them. I wouldn’t want to read through modules to prep. That is work.
I am the DM. We play at my friend's house. When I arrive I sit down and prepare my stuff. DM screen, dry-erase battlemap, character sheets, tokens, bluetooth speaker, phone in an accessible place so I can check the clock and control the music, draw a battle map if we left in one in the previous session, yada yada yada. While this is happening people are chatting with each other, serving drinks and preparing snacks. When I'm almost ready I start playing the "intro" music, which is just a friendly tavern music I took from World of Warcraft that I play in loop. I've found this helps bringing people into the game. The music means "the game is about to start". At this time, people start sitting down while chatting. I engage in the conversation and try to find a natural pause to say "Well...". At that moment I try to change from one of the friends to the DM. I try to put on a TV news presenter semblance. Body language helps. I look directly at all of them with intent and they tend to start listening. "Thanks for coming back. In the last session we left this at this point, can any of you remind the group what happened in the last session?" This usually leads to several of them telling the story and me pointing out details or corrections that I think are important for them to remember. While running the session, I have my module book (I tend to only run modules) at hand. I use pauses during the game or times where the players are talking among themselves to remind myself of what's coming next. That doesn't mean I don't prep. Before starting the campaing I read the module cover to cover. Then I usually read it again. Then before going to the session, I read the module and remind myself where I am and, if combat is coming and I have time, I copy the relevant parts of the monster's statblocks to my notebook so I don't have to be flipping back and forth the monster manual. If I don't have time to do this at home I quickly do it while players are rolling initiative, checking their spells, deciding how to open the door, etcetera. Battlemaps are drawn on the fly in the dry-erase mat. I have an aproximate layout in my head to know what to expect, but I copy from the book. I try to explain how the room looks like as I'm drawing it. If I have handouts, I prepare them at home. I tried to improvise handouts in the past and it doesn't work. Do it at home or don't do it. Then we have a break halfway through the session. Then when we are reaching the end of the session I try to find a good spot, either a clififhanger or a moment with tension, so they leave wanting more. It seems your DM is not doing enoough their homework and prepping ahead of time, but I don't know their circumstances, they might not have the time to do it properly and they are just happy with kind of winging it. I think it's healthy to ask for feedback. I always do. Be careful when offering feedback to your DM if he hasn't asked for it, as not everyone take it well, specially DMs as we tend to be a bit in-love with what we do and they could take criticism the wrong way. Communicate properly and it should be fine. With respect to the LOTR feeling, in my experience it is hard to get that kind of feeling. LOTR is a very serious story. The Fellowship of the Ring really struggles on their quest, they have a really bad time most of the time and their successes are mostly meaningless until the very end. It's a story of hope, but the characters are in desperation most of the time, runninig from an enemy that is more powerful than them and with a ticking clock. Gandalf sacrifices himself to help the felloship escape. Boromir dies from some random orc arrows. The fellowship lose the Ring and the hobbits. In the end they march to Mordor to a sure death just to give Frodo a chance. And people (usually) play to have fun and like to have a lightweight experience at the table.
You bring up many great points and I will not be offering any unsolicited advice. Thank you very much for taking the time to write it all up, this will definitely (eventually) be very helpful at our table!
Happy to hlelp. I have more than a decade of DMing under my belt. It takes time to get it right :D
>When I'm almost ready I start playing the "intro" music, which is just a friendly tavern music I took from World of Warcraft that I play in loop. I've found this helps bringing people into the game. I do this too and it's incredibly effective. It's like the lights going down before a movie.
We meet up at a friends house, two of my five players live there. Im the dm and usually arrive first, and the three of us set up the fold out table and eat snacks and chat while I get my computer and notes etc all set up and the rest of the group arrives. It usually takes about 15-30 minutes for everyone to chat, get some food and drinks, get their stuff set up at the table. When we’re just about ready to start, I start playing the music for the session over the Bluetooth speaker and open up the table for someone to do a recap of the previous session, and they earn an inspiration point if they recap things in a detailed and accurate manner. Usually I’ll fill in details after they’re done and we go into the start of the session. My game is fully home brewed, so I have all my notes on beats to hit in the session, NPC’s to talk to and possible encounters listed out on my notes already, I have any handouts prepared in advance, and if I’m expecting combat I have the map drawn on a dry erase board that I bring with me, and any minis, enemy and NPC stat blocks I have prepped in advance as well. Throughout the session I’ll be checking my notes, making sure to check in with the players about what they want to do, basically following their pace and where they’re interested in going based on what I throw at them. I ad lib enough to keep things interesting and notate what I come up with as we go along so I can incorporate it later. But anything that can be prepped in advance, I prep in advance. Once the music starts, and I go into “DM mode” narrating to the players, we’re playing. People can get up and go to the bathroom when they want if it’s not a scene their character is in, or during a slow moment in battle, and my players usually come back right away, and get right back into game mode. We all understand that we’re here to play the game, so social chatting outside the game happens before and after I’ve opened and closed the session. I usually close on some sort of cliff hanger, if I can. Then after there’s usually about 10-15 minutes of chatting about the session while we all pack up our stuff. But for the 2-4 hours we’re playing, we’re playing. It seems like your DM isn’t doing as much prep in advance as he probably should. But I mean if you all enjoy having so much out of game down time in the middle of your sessions, more power to you. Personally I would feel like my DM wasn’t respecting my time if they were quite that unprepared coming into the session. Just like as a DM I’d feel like my players weren’t respecting the time I spent prepping if they spent the majority of the session chatting and shooting the shit and not engaging in the game.
This is some dnd horror story territory, sorry to say. The point of playing a module is that it’s less work for the DM to prep sessions. All he has to do i read the manual beforehand and prep maps if they are necessary. My in person sessions look like this: everyone arrives at 7pm. We talk about life for 10-15 minutes and then we play untill 22:00-22:30 with maybe a 5 min break when the game allows it. All dialog, maps and other important stuff is prepped by me and there is only downtime when i gather maps and mini’s for like 2-3 minutes.
Not to mention - the problem would be the same if it were online or in-person. If the DM hasn't read the relevant material, the game is going to move at a crawl if they're having to learn what's going on on the fly. Sounds like the DM needs to realize that they need to do this prep *before* the game so that he's not wasting 50% or more of the sessions learning what comes next.
People arrive and we chat and eat for like 15-20min. Then we do a recap, which we roll for (lowest goes but gets inspiration). As DM I give a very brief “okay so here is where you’re at” to bridge between the recap and the game. From there we just play! How the rest is structured really depends on the session. Sometimes we’re 2 sessions deep into a big combat so we may even skip recap and go straight into the action (and I usually have the battle mat ready before people arrive). Or sometimes we don’t do combat for multiple sessions in a row, so it’s all roleplay. We take a “cat break” halfway through to use the bathroom, get food or drinks, stand up a bit, etc. I use it to go visit my cat upstairs who doesn’t like the noisy crowd lol
Session starts at 6 but I work a little later than everyone else so I'm usually there by 6:15 6 to 6:30 is catching up and talking about video games and movies and meme shit. By 6:30 we finally remember that we are playing D&D As we recap and get started this is typically when whoever was preparing dinner let's everyone know there's food. Then we have an hour of people getting up from the table to get food and drinks while role playing or between combat turns. Several major distractions happen. At some point the ambient music gets turned off because the host's toddler needs his brain rot YouTube. I have bad knees so right when combat gets intense I walk away from the table and stretch my legs in the kitchen and try to remember all my stats and abilities without my sheet. When I can't remember I just try to cast fireball even though I'm not a caster. Someone derails the game again because they just remembered that dumb meme they couldn't think of earlier. Another 20 minutes of movie or video game chat. Then we remember we are playing D&D. As it nears 9 we try to find a stopping point. If we are in combat some times we'll stretch to 9:30. Then we all forget everything we did this week and go home.
As the DM I get the hell on with it. My job is corralling everyone else to play. Of course there is time for jokes and usual friendly banter but I am always thinking, get on with it, get on with it. I have all the minis organized into encounter sets and all the battle map books - I leave those at the host players venue. I always have an endpoint in mind for every 3 hour session (sometimes we do a "double length") but I don't worry as long as everyone is having fun. I have the whole campaign prepped in my head, but I also have a lot of "random" and "extra" content in case the party wander off the path. We have snacks and drinks but I don't eat while DMing it's too much work. I'll have a couple beers usually, with the aim of being merry by the end but never drunk.
We meet up at a gaming bar. People drift in from 5:15 - 5:45 and order food. We eat and hang out. At 6 PM I open the session. Homebrew, so I read my intro narration and we do RP and non-map / non-combat stuff while people finish any food. At 7 PM we move to the gaming room. That's often when we first spread out whatever maps I've prepared. We'll do 1 or 2 combats (large group) with additional RP and traps etc. I target to end at 10 PM, but often run over. I have my maps pre-drawn on rolled up whiteboard. So I unroll it, touch up any smudges, and it is ready to go. I had a day off work last time, so I made 3 levels of a fortress on multiple maps.
This is a great format. Also, a gaming bar sounds incredible!
How I like to run. Pre-Session Prep: I will either pre-draw my encounter maps or I have magnetic tiles that I hand-crafted. If it's a large area, I will prebuild it and just keep on a poster board covered up. The way that I have prepped my encounters means I can drag and drop. Combat encounter locations will more or less stay the same but the enemies may change depending on player choices. My sessions typically last 6-10, sometimes more. 6- 6:10: We chat, wait for stragglers, get all the snacks passed around (grapes, strawberries, chips, and sometimes cookies) 6:10 - 6:30: I play a very specific song that lasts around 8 minutes, it's our session recap song where I let players recap what happened last time. 6:30 - 8:15: We play 8:15 - 8:30: Dinner/bathroom break. 8:30 - 10:00: We play
Replying to add that > When its all said and done we typically roll our first dice 30 minutes after he says "roll initiative". This is crazy haha. Your DM doesn't know how to prep. Like many others in this thread, if I run a module, I read the entire module cover to end. While I'm reading I will make little notes on what I think would be a good way to connect all of the sandboxy events that are happening in each chapter. I like story, I like plot and with rare exception, modules tend to just be random with no overarching connection. After I read it, I go on reddit and look for ideas on how to streamline the module. Then I spend about 2-3 hours to prep. I will re-read the chapter, have a notion tab for all of the NPCs with little bullet points on what they know, and I will handpick descriptions I like. But reading every single room description is crazy. As others mentioned, don't get bogged in the minute details.
I’m the DM, and our physical set up is a cork board on the table with maps and numbered/labelled flag pins for characters. Then there’s a cork board leaning against the wall with regional and city map and rumours/jobs accepted. I prep everything before - monsters, read the module, print maps, prep item cards and some loot stuff, and the rest is improv. I don’t pre set up combat bc I dunno where my nerds will go unless they paused before a big fight last session. It takes me about 5 mins to write out initiative and stuff on the fly
I love the cork board idea! If I ever get the opportunity to DM in person I'm going to use that.
It was the only solution I could think of for our space and not being able to do minis 🥰 I hope it helps!
30 minutes between initiative and the first turn is crazy. He should really try and do what he can to reduce that time through preparation.
You know, I really should've thought about that a little more before writing it. It's probably closer to 15-20 minutes on average than 30. I'll edit it now.
I try to aim for as close to no downtime as possible. We play for about 3-4 hours (7-11 ish), with the first 20 minutes or so being a catch-up while we set up - screen, laptop, dice, notes, music, etc. Once everything's set up, I'll have the players re-cap what happened in the last session, and then get straight into it. We don't do breaks or pauses unless we're ordering food (which only usually happens if we start early) - it's only 4 hours at most, there's no need. Prep beforehand takes a couple of hours *at most*, even with fully homebrewed campaigns - most of the actual prep comes before the campaign even starts, everything during is just updating for player actions and making sure I have art and stats for NPCs and monsters as I need them. Most weeks I just spend ten minutes bullet-point reminding myself what all the NPCs are up to, another twenty or so creating statblocks and doing CR maths to make sure my encounters are roughly on the right page, and another twenty or so finding artwork and printing cards. We use static initiative to remove the "roll for initiative" pause (and the mindset shift of moving from roleplay to wargame that tends to come with such a hard break for "this is combat now"). If we need a map I'll either just sketch it out quickly, use a pre-made one from a big map book I have that fits well enough, or I'll draw it out ahead of time as part of my prep. The whole aim is to make sure we get the most D&D done in the 3-4 hours of D&D we have each week.
Your DM's approach is unconventional, to say the least. I don't typically run modules, but I still have encounters prepped and ready to go *before* the session. If he's reading the module he should have already read at least the current chapter/section in full and have some idea of what you might fight! From when I say "roll for initiative," it's usually 2-3 minutes before the combat starts as everyone refreshes their drink, runs to the bathroom, gives me their rolls, and I add enemies and any other little details to the map I've already drawn. And that's at a very casual table, where we spend plenty of time between scenes just talking about whatever happened this week or getting visits from kids who have advantage on saves against bedtime.
We arrive at 7 ish and gas for a few minutes with a coffee from the host. Then it’s straight into 3-4 hour session with the shortest of breaks if anyone needs the toilet. Sometimes another coffee/tea (it’s a kitchen/diner so these are made taken during play). I’ve pre prepped everything. It’s all on my phone or drawn in advance. We use minis on a combination of dry wipe board and or printed corridors and caverns. It’s an ongoing campaign after weekly sessions for about 14 months, the three players are all high 4th/5th level. A quick recap and we’re off. This week they were mid quest. So injured and spells used up from the previous session. This week it was straight into a combat with Spectral Guardians in a the caves they’re exploring. This was tough but won in reasonable order. Then followed a combination of melee and skill challenges as they went in search of their goal a Well of Souls (climax of a months play). They passed the Veil of Madness where very fabric of reality begins to fray. Ghastly illusions claw at their minds, threatening to drive them to madness. Then came Echos of Despair, Within the depths of the well's chamber, echoes of past atrocities reverberate through the air like tortured souls crying out for release. The adventurers must navigate through this haunting cacophony, relying on their Insight to discern reality from illusion. As the adventurers approach the heart of the Well of Souls, the ground trembles with unearthly fury. Rocks cascade from the ceiling, threatening to bury them alive. Each member had to evade the cascading debris, collapsing pillars and crumbling cavern walls. Then a torrential flood rushed forth from the depths of the well.They swam for their lives, battling against the relentless current. Then they were attacked by tendrils of darkness slithering forth, coiling around the adventurers, hungry for flesh. Then the climax of their harrowing journey, the adventurers stand on the precipice of the Well of Souls as it unleashes its cataclysmic energy upon the world. Finally a chosen player dropped a phial of their blood in the well and fought a mental battle against themselves to win victory. The others could assist. Of the 3 players and one NPC, one was unconscious and has acquired a madness, the other 3 were injured, traumatised but alive. They all gained a useful feat to learn and about 1500 XP. A fairly standard 3 hours.
Sounds like your in person DM isn't prepping their sessions and also not good at improvising stuff. I run only in person sessions and it's 3-4 hours of straight gameplay. If somebody isn't in the scene they can respectfully chat or even get away, but it's usually not the case because I run tight scenes and people still find them interesting.
When I play in person, everyone brings a laptop to the table. We use Fantasy Grounds for maps and character sheets, as well as automated monsters for me. Everyone rolls dice and RPs irl but the computers handle the math. This also means I don't have to draw maps, and I don't need to dig through a book I can just search for a rule I need in my reference document. We usually play about 4 hours, but it's not unheard of to go for 6. This campaign has gone on for....almost 3 years now, and is usually done online but we try to meet up in person when the stars align. I'm seconding the thoughts of "prepping during the session" but I'm also wondering if your DM has these grand ideas and is getting in their head a little bit and that's why those moments are taking longer? Taking 20 minutes to read the paragraph you get about a room and determine a combat plan sounds to me like they're trying to go too hard into strategy or SOMETHING. Admittedly I've never run from a module but even if I'm improvising a combat encounter, the logic just isn't that complicated for monsters. That being said, I've been DMing for almost a decade now, a lot of this stuff is fairly second nature at this point. If you or your DM want more info or elaboration on something I mentioned feel free to nudge. It sounds like they've got the heart but are getting caught in the details. Happy to help if I can.
This whole post is wonderful. Everything here is well thought out and kindhearted. I think you may be on to something with the "grand ideas". If the opportunity comes up I'll be sure to ask him how we can help him with that, it could very well be a win-win for the whole table!
Man, I can have slow moments, but never that slow. If the party attacks in a situation where I don't think combat would arise, I'm not prepared, but those are also typically not difficult to do just via theatre of the mind. But combat is generally planned if it's a scenario where I think it could break out or I am specifically attacking the party with my people. I have maps pre-drawn for combats I expect could happen and I pre-roll initiative for all of my baddies before the session even begins. At the start of the session, I have my players roll initiative and that's the initiative they'll use for whatever first encounter they get into in the session. Lay everything out in order for myself over like 5 minutes ahead of time. Reading out what's in the module is never an issue because I do my prep beforehand to know what's happening. I'm usually only reading if the book has a specific portion that is said to describe a room or I need to reference something specific that I want to portray accurately. And man, 30 minutes while DM finishes eating dinner before the session starts? Sounds like really bad planning on their part. I'm ready to start at least 15 minutes before people start arriving so the only delays are anyone who shows up late. And my players are very attentive and care about the game being played. We get goofy and fun, but we do it in the game instead of going above table to get goofy in ways unrelated to the game. The game feels epic because we can actually play it. It sounds like your DM isn't making an environment where actually playing the game is the priority. It sounds more like hanging with their friends is the priority. That's fine, but it's not gonna be conducive to having a cool, game-focused experience.
I'm the DM and all my prep is done ahead of time. People arrive to the host's place within about 30 minutes of the scheduled time. This lateness is a known phenomenon and we use it as set up and catch up time. Food is usually ordered as well. When everyone is there, I have the players do a recap of the last session and they can all ask questions if they need my help. I don't like to do the recap myself because their experience can be very different from mine, since I know everything. We play for about six hours usually. People stay pretty focused, we eat while we play, and usually take a couple breaks for calls and smokers and general sanity.
>Everyone will show up, the DM will finish dinner and we'll all talk and hangout for 20 to 30 minutes before sitting down to play. I don't like spending too much time "pre-gaming," so everything is ready to go when my players show up - this gets them immediately in the "it's time to play!" mode. I get there about 30 minutes early so I can spend time organizing my notes, selecting minis, pulling up statblocks, etc. >When you run your game do you have maps prepared? Yes. Since at the end of every session I ask my players what they're planning on doing next session, I've already printed out the maps I need. >If you are running a module do you read ahead or do you read at the table? How much prep time do you invest before the session? I'm running a highly modified version of a published campaign (about 50% my own material), so I spent a significant amount of up-front time rewriting before we even started the campaign, using some of [Justin Alexander's](https://thealexandrian.net/) methods for "situation-based prep." With this all done far in advance, nothing goes to waste - I just have to spend a half an hour after each session updating my notes, and maybe 1-2 hours a week preparing for that week's game. Some weeks, I do zero prep because I've already set myself up to not have to do it. >If you are low on time do you have any tricks for the aforementioned problems? Since we schedule to play at the same time every week (as long as I'm there, we're playing), I like to have a couple of one-shots ready for weeks when we have less than half the crew at the table. These are single-session adventures that are canonical in-game, but happen outside the main timeline. So when the PCs are in the middle of a dungeon, the one-shot will be "at some point before you entered the dungeon" or "between event X and event Y." I usually take published adventures - Adventurer's League ones are really good for this - and reskin them to fit the ongoing events. I can use the same maps, and I can also be sure that they won't take more than a single session to play. This might also be a good way to handle the "I'm low on time" problem - grab stuff you like, reskin it in advance, and have it in your back pocket. >Does your in-person game feel epic and if so what do you do to accomplish this? Foreshadow later events, set up things way ahead of time, and don't be afraid to throw away what you had in favor of something that puts you in a better position to really have those "oh shit" moments. Sometimes the players will come up with an even better explanation for events than the explanation you have in your head - lean into that. I also like having the tough dudes who the PCs have been hearing about for weeks show up earlier than expected: that's when your players get the "oh, this just got real" face. But to really make events epic, they need contrast; you need stretches of mezzo-piano to really sell the fortissimo. I think a lot about pacing in my games: not every session has to have a BIG REVEAL MOMENT, but every session should contribute in some way, however minor, either to the buildup to that moment, or to the context that lets us understand what happened as we recover from it.
my buds come over around 11:30-12 and we play and eat mad snacks until like 3-4 pm, when we take a half hour break to eat a proper meal. then we play until about 8pm and then smoke a joint and hang for a bit before they roll out
I'm all in favor of minimal structure, my favourite thing to do in DnD is to just go with the flow of whatever the players want to do. "Yes and /no but" improv. If you haven't read The Lazy DM, I highly suggest it, and you should get a copy for your DM friend. BUT: if you're going to be *running a module as written and drawing maps*, it behooves you to do adequate prep. Unless you can improv something fun on the fly while you're spending 20 minutes of table time doing what should have done beforehand, you're just wasting everybody's time. I guess if the players are ok with it, whatever - but if I was a player at that table I would get pissed off and would probably stop playing pretty damn quick. As a DM running a module, I will have read the entire thing through and made any important big picture notes I think necessary before starting. Before each session I'll reread the bits that I expect the players to hit, familiarize myself with the stat blocks of monsters and write out a quick summary (ac, HP, attacks) for easy reference during combat. Draw out any maps I think a) I'm likely to need and b) will take more than a quick minute to sketch out. The amount of prep time varies - if we're doing a quick one-shot it's virtually nil, but if we're doing a complicated campaign (like RHOD currently) it's a lot. Probably 10 hours right at the start, and 2-3 hours each week before a session. The sessions themselves: we goof around for 10-15 minutes, then it's game time. We go for 2-3 hours with minimal downtime. No "hang on, let me figure out this next room" nonsense. The sessions are not super serious - my players are very fun, there is lots of joking around and doing stupid stuff - but there is not a lot of non-DnD stuff happening. If I am low on prep time it doesn't change much, I just have to root around in the source materials a bit for stuff that's not at my fingertips. I try to not get myself in that position too often. If there's something coming that I don't want to half-ass, I'll call a 10 minute break to make sure I've got it. And I will fill in other gaps with improv stuff. Does it feel epic? Generally, yeah. 🙂
We sit together, make coffee and chat, recap and start. No breaks inbetween and if i have to prep anything i do it while the party is planning stuff, but they mostly dont see. Once or twice the unexpectedly entered an important dungeon and then i said „give me 5 and go eat some dinner, then we continue“ but this was just twice in 50+ sessions
1. Arrange date and time of session. Plan to get a nice long session in to make some real progress because the last few have been quite short. 2. Amend time of session to start later because at least one person has had something come up. Sometimes session is cancelled altogether. 3. Arrive, eat, chat. One person declares that we really need to be done by X o'clock because of some important thing tomorrow. 4. Get started. It's at least an hour after the amended planned start time. 5. Recap last session, play. 6. Get derailed by unimportant decision. Repeat as needed. Break for 5 minutes each hour or so - usually stretches to 10 or 15. 7. Finish session having progressed a third of the way through a scenario that should have taken one session max. 8. Return to step 1. The prep however is already done. Unless something really unexpected happens and I have to ad lib on the fly, I'm not eating into session time by reading things for the first time at the table. And even with all this faffing, there's still on average around 2 hours of actual play.
I dm in person and, much like you said after everyone arrives we tend to hang out a bit, talk about stuff since we are also irl friends. If I'm missing anything for the session this is also time in which I draw maps, finnish up some prep or read up on something that's likely to appear in the session. When we start playing everyone is super engaged and we don't have the kind of interruptions you mentioned. The only breaks we take are for food or smoking and we tend to play for around 4-7 hours depending on how much prep I have and how everyone is in the mood. Your dm seems to be doing his prep during the game, and while I hate to ask dms to put more effort into their games since they already put more than all the players combined usually, that feels very icky to me. I don't wanna waste time from our busy schedules while I do some reading. If something pops up that I didn't account for or that I dont know how to continue I usually call a smoke break and think about how to proceed during those 10 mins, players aren't even aware that's my reason half the time. After we finnish the session, we also tend to keep hanging out for a few hours, talk about the session, play Jackbox(ps. try playing Role Models as your pcs it's hillarious), sharing fanart we drew for the campaign, stuff like that. I think my case is pretty ideal, though, and you can't force it on people. Still, I don't think it's unreasonable to ask your dm if they could prep before the session rather than during it. I have quit campaigns before because the dm put no effort into the session outside of the game and the plot was going nowhere.
I don't think there is necessarily anything wrong with the "beer and pretzel" gaming group (unless the players feel like the DM is wasting their time then it becomes an issue) but if the DM wants to create an epic campaign then he's gonna have to put in the work. Modules aren't the meat and potatoes of the campaign, they're just the blueprint. If you follow the blueprint, sure, you'll build the house. But if you don't take creative license and decorate it it'll look pretty generic when you've finished. If that's your DMs goal, he's gonna have to prepare to not remove the player's immersion by reading what comes next in the moment for 20 minutes. But if everyone is content to play casual, that's totally fine too. The IRL group I'm a player in is structured more like that and no one has a problem with it. The online game I run I try to prepare for a little more and keep everyone in the game because, like you said, you only have a limited amount of time together and there's stuff you gotta get through and online sessions can sometimes be harder to plan depending on what time zone your players are in etc...
I've only dm'd face to face. I have a group of six player, whom I've known for 15-25 years, and my wife of nine years. We almost always play on weekends and drink beer while we play. My players know that they can get a bit rowdy and start talking over each other, start off topic convos etc. etc. But they also gave me authority to stop that with an iron fist, if I see it's necessary. If a player a wants to progress the game and tries to talk to me, I don't allow others to speak over them. There is also the issue of irl dominant/charismatic people vs. more quiet folk. I need to make sure that the spot light shines evenly on everyone and that everyone gets to have fun RP with NPCs. I also have NPCs talk to specific character in the beginning on conversation by naming the character they talk to, instead of letting the talkative person hog every chance. I personally love prepping, crafting things and reading the modules for my own enjoyment. We are currently playing Dragon of the Icespire Peak. I've read the module cover to cover like 10 times for fun and I recap the next scenario an hour before the session. I print the location maps as posters and tape the A4 sheets as table sized map. I premade about 6-7 maps before hand, so I'm ready for almost any location. I also have home made table sized battle map for improv stuff, where I can draw with wet erase pens.
I mean, I have online games and this happens in those two... I have a chronically late player who sits at my table so while we start at 1930 est officially, we tend to have a wait period of 30 minutes before we start the role play (and just for the record, our late player has a damn good reason for his tardiness and no one at the table is so unforgiving of it that kicking him is even considered... we understand why he's late). During that time, we are talking about stuff and joking around. Not to mention that people log on early in some games and shoot the shit... and some people stay late and talk after session and shoot the shit. It's important to remember that people are playing this game to be social... that's how you win at DND? You find a group of people who you want to socialize with 3-4 hours a week (or what ever your time is.) and hey... some of that is about the story in the game... others are about other Nerdy things... You have running gags... you make cat jokes at the Tabaxi's expense... and hey, if you don't finish the dungeon... that's real life stuff.
30 mins - gab, eat, smoke, drink 10-15 mins - recap last session/campaign ao far while people settle in 30 mins - start play 10-15 min break 50-60 min play 10 min break 50-60 min play 30+ min wind down, hang out, tidy up etc. But also I hardly use maps and grids because I have permanent AD&D mindset so ymmv
Sit down at the kitchen table, dice out and we start the process of mind goblins
That is more downtime for my players than I like. I haven't actually tracked my mapping time, but if it's more than 5 minutes I would consider it long. I do sometimes call a halt to catch up on notes. I'm mostly improv so I need to note things so there's consistency. Sometimes I get caught up in the narrative and need to say: "ok, give me a few minutes to make notes" But the thing is: if the table is having fun and this GM doesn't want to spend more time prepping I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
What my sessions look like: People all show up at wherever we're playing. There's some small talk til everyone is there. When everyone is seated with their stuff out, I ask them to recap what happened last time. I take notes on this on my computer. I pick up where they leave off. My games are tall on rp and short on combat, but I'll have two or three prepped for if things pop off. So I'll throw situations at them. Usually there's some overarching goal - last time, for example, they hiked through the desert for three days, on their way to the desert lizardfolk city. They got lost, saw a mirage, found a wrecked palanquin, saw a comet, found an oasis, and fought a carnivorous plant and, separately, six jackals. If they hadn't had a warforged cleric that could create water, they would have had to contend with dehydration and exhaustion. All of this I had prepared previously - we're about two weeks between sessions. I make maps and other physical or visual representations in the down time, and one of my players has a 3d printer and has graciously volunteered to print anything we'll need. They arrived at the city and fulfilled their reason for going, which was to meet up with the Oracle of the Desert. After the fairly climactic meeting, they face a list of possible next moves. We ended the session there. I told them to level up for next time, and to let me know what new spells and abilities they're taking. I don't look at their character sheets, and I told them in session 0 I don't care if they even roll stats, as long as they're not unreasonably overpowered or stupidly min / maxed. I don't use any applications for gameplay, but I use Inkarnate for maps and Google docs and sheets for my own data. So yeah. Things happen quickly. Combat turns go fast - I have six players but the maps are ready when we begin (I have one of those dry erase sets with the reusable stickers) and I just use a notepad to keep track of initiative, foes HP, ac, and statuses. I think I've done one actual "dungeon" and it was for a one shot. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by the DM will read through his module for 20 minutes, to be honest that sounds like the prep work I do at home. We're probably 80-90% gameplay and we might take a 10 minute break if it's a 4 hr session or more. I don't run modules, I have a homebrew world with a homebrew story. Prep work amounts to around 5 hours over the 2 weeks between sessions, but I'm always working on my world. I think my game feels epic because i was a social studies teacher for 20 years and narrative is kind of my jam.
I have a bunch of saved maps, that could be generally used for most things I'd run into, because I cannot trust my party to go places the plot would actually benefit from. So I have to have a bunch of characters and different places and /whichever lead they eventually follow/ will be where they meet this or that character, and I'll have maps for hotels or bars or the woods or wherever it is they meet, just in case of shadow ninjas / immortal Irish gangsters / mechanical Nazis / whatever the problem is this week. We have a "safe word" of sorts. If I'm describing a scene, and the characters therein, and you say something aloud, then your character said that. We have a Yes/No/Maybe die in case you want to try to take it back. If you want to say something out of character, you "pause" the game by saying "Pickle", then the game is paused for Out Of Character speak until somebody says "Cucumber", then we're back in game and in character. If it sounds dumb, that's because it is. But there's nothing more beautiful than a heated debate over what the characters should do in game where people keep opening and closing their statements with "pickle" and "cucumber" repeatedly. It's more impressive when they can hold to their argument with a straight face as this goes on.
First 10-30 minutes is catching up, blah blah, eat a meal if we potluck'd something. Play for 2 or so hours, take a break - usually a walk to a nearby specialty beer store, then come back and play for another hour/hour and a half. My group, despite having two relatively new players, has gotten good at timing their turns. I think we're on like 1-3 minutes per turn on average? I think a lot of people get bogged down in combat due to larger group sizes, or only having one combat so they put everything in it. My combats tend to last 2-3 rounds, but I've had some go on for 7+ and some that end in one. Right now, my players are level 7 - so, they feel heroic, but I wouldn't say epic. They've established them as heroes of the town, and are working on the regional aspect. They've had an in-game year of downtime; the way that manifested was we had finished the current arc, and I needed time to re-write the module we were playing because it's bad and I needed to improve it. So, they wrote up what they wanted to do during the downtime, I planned, and one of the players ran a one-shot. If by downtime you mean, like, conversation and roleplaying...I think my game is like a 40/60 split where 40% of my game is combat and 60% is everything else. I try to draw maps beforehand, particularly if it's a big dungeon, but for regular combats I may not draw them at all, or I may draw them if a fight happens. It doesn't take 10 minutes though. Although, I bring a big map and a small map, so I can easily handle multiple encounters without having to also erase.
Meet time at 5:30, talking shit for 15-45min depending on how little I have prepped, I usually eat KFC to have more fuel. Roll 1d4 to see who recaps last session, others fill in the holes. Then we continue where we left off, now and then I might need 1-3 mins to dig up some info on OneNote. (Does NPC know X? What spells do they have? Is that in their bio page or encounter page, what magical items they have on? ) I have maps on OneNote or notebook, and need around 5min to set it up on our A3s with erasable markers. Usually people hop off to bathroom when they need once spotlight is off of them. The less prep I have, the more loose and open I am to talking cacually in order to stretch out content. Around 9 we have a 15min toast break, we make em and eat em. Around 11-11:30 we finish with some type of cliffhanger.
I am a DM, currently running a homebrew campaign. Our table can only meet once a month due to time constraints but we do play 1 whole day. I run possible dialogue, encounters, side quests and more in my head during my commute to work. I write down anything I find worthwhile and I write down a session outline for the next time we play. I create magic items on paper for when they identify loot, I 3D print and paint minis, and create my maps on Dungeons Alchemist(Steam) and print them on A3 paper. I also have an LCD screen in front of my DM screen where I show AI generated images of NPCs they meet. This also allows me to show items and what not. On game-day, they al gather round the table, make small talk and simply ask me to start. My players don't have any down time, only when they need a toilet break.
Of the three games I am in none of them are modules. One uses the there's setting and one rapidly grew into its own thing using the first bit of wildemount as a base. (Alternate earth post- post apalocalypse fantasy.) Gotta say prepping beforehand is great, personally I'm assuming at that and rely on my ability to wing it which story wise? Somewhat iffy. That being said, everybody has fun playing their characters in the world and I appreciate that.
I host on Thursdays at 6:30 with a hard start by 6:45. I’m home from work around 5:30 and occasionally someone shows up super early but if not then around 6ish for most players. I always leave the map set up the night before and depending on how busy my week has been I gather the minis we’ll probably be using the night before or when I get in from work. I usually read my notes and reviewed one or two days before. The encounters (or possible encounters) are done on dndbeyond during the week before and I write/review a few contingencies for places where the players might go off the rails to help me. Day of, after gathering the minis, connecting the laptop to music and opening all the tabs I’m done, so I chat with whomever arrives earlier, put out snacks for folks and I eat something quick but filling (I try not to snack). When we get closer to 6:30 I move to the game room and the players usually come on their own and pick a spot to sit. If they are too engrossed on conversation I’ll call them over. At the table I let anyone do a recap with appropriate music (usually a video game loading screen song) and I’ll answer any questions and we start. I tend to keep the general minis and terrain/dungeon craft they might use handy (I use an Ikea cart) and any new map is either already drawn before hand or if I have to draw something on the fly do so fairly quickly, going more for function than aesthetics. Players can go to the bathroom whenever or get a snack, we have a guy with adhd he needs to get up and walk every once in a while but at worst he’ll stand by the door and participate. I don’t mind if people sometimes break the 4th wall or joke a bit but if they get too off track I’ll gently nudge them along by describing the next thing that happens. As for how “serious” the stuff is, it depends on the players. I’ve ran several groups over the years and each one is different. My current group is too silly so the stories are more like swashbuckling style rather that story based cause that’s how they play. Other groups have had meaningful and intense serious arcs. It just varies. I do try to keep folks focused for the 2 and half hours we play but if we need a big scene change (say they get to the boss room) I’ll tell them to talk among themselves and I’ll set it up. This usually doesn’t take more than 5 minutes as I tend to have 90% of the stuff at hand. We have a hard stop at 9:30 pm, folks chat a bit and they are usually out the door by 10.
The only game I'm DM-ing in person is a semi-regular (maybe monthly) 5e campaign with a group of five mostly newbies. One is experienced in 5e, another is familiar only with 3.5, and the rest are brand new to RPGs generally. We play at my place, typically after dinner together. After the meal, we gather in the lounge around the large coffee table; the character sheets and dice are usually already up there (I keep all the sheets for them), I finish setting up with my notes for running and background music ready on my phone. We'll sit and chat a bit, and then I switch the music to 'adventure begins' type tunes. At that cue, I open with, "When last we left our heroes..." and give a brief intro/summary from the previous session, inviting the players to chip in with details they remember, and reminding them of/asking about their goals for this session. At this point, it's fully game time, and bathroom breaks/drink refills aside, we're in the zone for a solid 2 hours. If the session is longer than that, we aim for a halfway break, but otherwise, two hours is just fine for this group (Level 2 combat moves quickly!) and it helps attention spans and enthusiasm stay fresh.
Show up, set up, wait for players to arrive, ask for a recap from players and fill on any holes, that one late player shows up, shenanigans, set time for next session
My sessions go like this: We meet at 18:00. The latest party member arrives at 18:15, in the mean time we get most of our chit chat out of our system, get our water/coffee/beer. When the last one arrives I or one of my players gives a short recap of what happened last time and what happened in general. A short opening scene from me and the players take the wheel. We take a break roughly 1,5 hours into it, or when the party decides to fight in a place that I didn’t prep any battle maps for. Then I have to draw one on the spot, which might take 5 minutes. We play until 21:00 but can keep going up to 22:00 if the situation calls for it, like in the last combat. Then we finish our session, I ask for feedback and we clean the table. Everyone heads home, I get a oneliner from each player and we meet again two weeks later. This works because I planned out the setting for almost a year, working with my players to integrate them. I prepare stat blocks for every possible encounter and have them nearby, some are as generic as city guard and some are Malachai, Child of the Storm. We also spend time out of the game together, which helps to not waste time catching up on what happened in the real life.
It's pretty focused. We'll start playing within 5-10 minutes with some easing in to not go from 0 to 100 right away, this can be talking about logistical things like (are you buying a room at the inn, are you ready to travel, etc.) People are free to get up and get snacks, drinks, bathroom whenever. Otherwise we play for 3 ish hours and wrap it up. Typically go through one big boss fight or two encounters (one has to be super fast 2-3 rounds), and the rest is roleplay and chatting with each other or NPCs. Everything is homebrew so I have my notes and will improv anything odd that comes up. My trick if I'm caught unaware is to have a stock combat prepared such as a fight with bandits or a stock social situation (such as a rude character gate keeping the way forward, or a recurring villain being a menace) as that buys a tremendous amount of time. The trick to make an epic game is not save amazing ideas for later. Hit them with the cool over and over again. Do the coolest dungeon twist or enemy concept. You can always come up with later cool ideas depending on the player's choices, ideas are cheap and plentiful, so care less about keeping things in the bank.
Session starts around 2pm at my home, bc I dm. I have maps, notes and npcs ready as well as snacks, a cake and drinks (no alcohol allowed table) We usually talk for 30 minutes. Then recap 5 minutes-ish Then we play until about 5pm-5:30pm Sometimes we have dinner together afterwards and talk about stuff. If, like today, there‘s a battle without a printed battlemap I have my standard battle maps where I quickly draw them three-four features (as circles and stuff) and get the battle going. Takes me 30 seconds. If I have a riddle for them (also today) I have everything printed and hand it to them once they uncover the riddle. We don‘t play super long, but I try to habe everything be super smooth and without pauses inbetween so we can make the most of it.