Minimalist D&D game prep

I have a particular attitude towards game prep as a D&D DM: Prepare (only) what you will use in the next session. I try to stick to this mantra as closely as possible when preparing for my games. Why? It lightens the work load for us as DMs, and it lets us react more flexibly to the players’ decisions and actions.

For example, there might be an elvish kingdom 200 miles south of where the party is, and this kingdom might even become relevant in a couple of levels. But until we know the characters are going there next session, we shouldn’t spend a lot of time designing political systems, and making up religious rites, and rumors. These are details we worry about if the players ever decide to go there. They might not, and that’s okay. Because we did not prepare many details, we can more readily let go of the elven kingdom and follow the players’ lead.

This philosophy is the premise of Mike Shea’s Eight Steps for preparing games as a Lazy Dungeon Master. The steps outlined in Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master are built for this attitude towards prep. Each step is designed to be useful at the table, during the next session.

D&D prep: tools for improvisation

But what if we don’t know where the party is going next session? I am running a hexcrawl-based sandbox game, and often have no idea where the party will go before any given session. What do I prep then?

We can prepare tools for improvisation. Prepare the things that will be useful regardless of where the characters choose to go. Here’s some steps from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master which will always be useful, regardless of whether we know where the party is going or not.

• Strong Start. We can prepare an exciting beginning to the session. Perhaps the party is ambushed, or they meet a new NPC, or a town festival happens, or a supernatural event occurs. Regardless of where the session goes from there, at least we know how it starts.
• Secrets & Clues. We can write down a list of ten secrets and clues which the party can discover during the next session. Writing these as short paragraphs of 1-3 sentences allows us to quickly drop them in front of the characters when they explore the world. Don’t tie these to specific locations or NPCs. Instead think about which secrets the characters can discover regardless of where they choose to go. Then we improvise during the session where and how these secrets and clues are discovered.
• Treasure. A list of magic items which we can hand out as reward regardless of where the characters go. We can generate random loot, or customize magic items to the characters. We know the characters will be in the next session, even if we have no idea where they are going.
• NPCs & Monsters. We can prepare friendly or hostile NPCs and/or monsters which are not tied to a specific location. These might be from a local faction, or even agents of a campaign villain—that way they can feasibly appear in any location the characters choose to go to.

Long-term prep: Campaign Villains

There’s one area of D&D campaigns where thinking further into the future pays off: campaign villains. At the beginning of a campaign, we pick three villains or villainous factions. For them, we think broadly about their goals and the steps they need to achieve to get there.

We can also always think about how a villain might come up in the next session: through NPCs, monsters, and secrets and clues. But here it pays off to have a wider understanding of the villains’ actions, even if they don’t manifest during the next session. Think broadly about villainous agendas and about how they might influence the next session.

A prep strategy to put DMs at ease

Preparing what we need for the next session has two major advantages. It lightens the load on DMs and their game prep. And it allows us to become flexible in improvising during a session to follow the characters’ decisions.